The old method of using medicine was basically to jam as much of the stuff into a person as possible. The "medicine" was often shit like mercury, so while it would certainly kill any bacteria or virus that was causing the illness, the medicines had the common side effect of harming or killing the patient as well. Then, one guy sold the idea that, "Hey, maybe we're using too much stuff in our stuff." The ultimate idea basically involved selling glorified water.
Except it worked.
As it happens, drinking plenty of clean water when sick is usually pretty helpful, and is far less strenuous on the body than the medicines of the 1800's. Eventually, doctors started considering that, yeah, they were probably using too much stuff, and started doing more research. In general, medicines began to improve, able to help more conditions more effectively than just water, with far less strain on a body.
>>13081683Also this.
