hemorrhage, and even learned to perform abdominal section. Examples of these accomplishments may be seen today among primitive tribes, and, together with prehistoric remains, testify to the status of medicine before history was written.
It is a mistaken idea to regard primitive people as always savage and cruel. The best studies made of them show that kindliness is common among them, and that children receive affection and tender care, even where infanticide is practised as an economic policy. The old and sick are tended except in times of severe stress or famine—then they must be left to die. Pre-eminent among primitive virtues is hospitality, that entertaining of strangers from which come our words hospital, hospice, and hotel. Hospitality is probably the most ancient expression of man's altruism. The stranger was entitled to food, clothing, shelter, and protection while under the host's roof. The obligation of hospitality was very sacred and binding, and came to be endowed with religious significance and embodied in religious codes. As primitive man evolved ancient civilization he provided a community care for strangers in the inns, which, as we shall see, were also the very earliest hospitals.
