From self-heal to family doctors; or, how did medicine come about? -- Onions, pyramids and clay tables: the Egyptian heritage -- The good life; or, the Jewish heritage -- Classical medicine -- Indian routes -- Roman connections -- Spices of life -- God or mandrake? -- A light in the East; or, Islamic medicine -- The medical school of Salerno -- Middle age spread -- New medicines for old -- Simple English -- Trading on ill health -- Ginseng and the Royal Society connection -- Virtues old and new -- Botanical medicine -- Urban sprawl -- Survival, and the unfit -- Iatrogenics and geriatrics -- Serendipity: the Ayurvedic legacy of Sri Lanka -- China syndrome: to recapitulate the essence of this ptisane and to prove that at least in part the problems can be solved -- Hello, Homo sapiens! This is your largest endocrine gland calling
