Martha E. Rodríguez-Pérez, Departamento de Historia y Filosofía de la Medicina, Facultad de Medicina, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Ciudad de México, México
Medicine and surgery have not always been in the same professional and social status. In the historical evolution these two disciplines have remained distant from each other, and sometimes, in competition with each other. It came to be thought that medicine was an intellectual science, held in high esteem, while surgery was something handmade, since “they work with their hands” and, therefore, underestimated. Cases from different stages of history are presented, from classical Greece to the beginning of the XIX Century, where the state of one and the other is appreciated, their evolution and finally the positioning of surgery at the same level as medicine.
Keywords: Medicine. Surgery. Professional status.