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Early healers used a "naturalistic system" based on observation of events and "what seems to make sense". Today their advice sounds like bizarre folk remedies, but these physicians were trying to do the same things modern physicians are - reduce suffering by treating symptoms with prescriptions. The illnesses they treated include both "acute disease" (broken bones, abdominal pains, etc.) and chronic conditions, which we would call disabilities ("crippled", "possessed", "feeble minded", etc.). In this section we will take a look at how they thought about and treated illnesses - and what that meant for their patients.

We begin with some ancient Egyptian remedies. The ancient Egyptians were among the first to develop the "systematic medical process" - listen to what the patient says, diagnose the problem, and treat it. The set of prescriptions below is from a papyrus written around 1500 BC, and is probably based on even older remedies the scribes had collected.

The first remedy you will read is for a condition we would call an intestinal blockage, causing a severe abdominal pain. The second and third examples are "interventions" for more generic internal problems that are hard to identify today, but which obviously left the sufferer "laid up".

When thou examinist a person who suffers from an obstruction in his abdomen and thou findest that it goes-and-comes under their fingers like oil-in-a-tube, then say thus: "It all comes from his mouth like slime!" Prepare for him:

• Fruit-of-the-Dompalm
• Dissolve in Man's Semen
• Crush, cook in Oil and Honey

To be eaten by the Patient for four mornings.

Afterwards let him be smeared with dried, crushed, and pressed maqutgrain.

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When thou examinist the obstruction in his abdomen and thou findest that he is not in a condition to leap the Nile, his stomach is swollen and his chest asthmatic, then say thou to him: "It is the Blood that has got itself fixed and does not circulate." Do thou cause an emptying by means of a medicinal remedy. Make him therefore:

• Wormwood 1/8
• Elderberries 1/16
• Sebesten 1/8
• sasa-chips 1/8

Cook in Beer-that-has-been-brewed-from-many-ingredients, strain into one, thoroughly, and let the Patient drink.

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Even though some of these prescriptions seem disgusting, if you look at what the writer says, he always talks about first listening to the patient's description and observing their symptoms. Next he describes a "diagnosis" based on the description, and only after that does he decide what treatment to use. Even though he uses very strange terms and treatments, he is using the same "systematic medical approach" that doctors use today. This is the beginning of medical care for people with disabilities.

Next is a description by a Taoist scholar named Chuang T'zu from around 500 BC, which describes a man with a physical disability and his life integrated in his community. Although later Chinese scholars would be as bad as early European doctors about classifying and stigmatizing people with disabilities, the early Taoists celebrated diversity. Notice Chuang T'zu's lack of pity or superiority - he is simply describing another person in his community, and perhaps even admiring him.

There's Crippled Shu-chin, stuck down in his navel, shoulder up above his head, pigtail pointing at the sky, his five organs on the top, his two thighs pressing his ribs. By sewing and washing, he gets enough to fill his mouth; by handling a winnow and sifting out the good grain, he makes enough to feed ten people. When the authorities call out the troops, he stands in the crowd waving good-by; when they get up a big work party, they pass him over because he's a chronic invalid. And when they are doling out grain to the ailing, he gets three big measures and ten bundles of firewood. With a crippled body, he's still able to look after himself and finish out the years Heaven gave him. How much better, then, if he had crippled virtue!

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