The evolution of medical practice in two marginal areas of the Western World, 1750-1830.

The system of beliefs, values and practices known as Western or scientific medicine stands out today as one of the most powerful and symbolic forces in the modern world. In the developed world, its influence reaches beyond the walls of its fortress, the hospital, to affect the general public in a manner duplicated by few modern institutions. It has also spread throughout the Third World and taken root to become one of the most irresistible cultural exports of Western civilization.1 The question of how Western medicine reached this pinnacle of power and influence cannot be addressed without understanding the history of medical practice, for it was through the medical practitioners the "petite troupe" of physicians and lesser healers that modern medicine came to the masses.2