On the concept of "One Medicine"

Different non contrasting definitions of "one medicine" may be: 1) the general science of human and animal health and diseases; 2° the contribution which veterinary medicine may give to human health problems; 3) a unique tree, formed by the branches of human and veterinary medicine. The concept that medicine is born "one" is here discussed. The primitive healers cured human and animal diseases. The Babylonian and Egyptian priests take care both humans and animals. The same trend continued with the Greek and Roman civilisations. During the Middle Ages the tendency to separate the two medicines prevailed. The Renaissance witnessed a revival of comparative medicine. The period between the XVIth and the XIXth centuries witnessed the contribution of great physicians as well as scientists as Bassi, Corti, Muratori and Pasteur, with a great revival of comparative medicine. The animal epidemics (e.g. cattle plague), being the existing veterinarians, often farriers, devoted only to the healing of animals, was contrasted by the best physicians and other scientists. The veterinary schools were opened, and the separation between the two medicines produced scientific and practical problems, which emerged strongly after the constitution of Veterinary Public Health in the World Health Organisation (middle XXth century). The holistic approach which brings to (and derives from) the concept of "one medicine" has increased its motivations with the prevailed trend to overspecialisation, and human and veterinary medicine have proved to be a unicum fundamental for health and well-being of humans, animals and the environment.