This book includes more than 500 entries describing advances in the treatment of disease and the understanding of human health. The emphasis is on significant advances in diseases, treatments, and health issues. Topics included are: alternative or nonwestern medicine; anesthesia and analgesia; antibiotics; cancer; cell biology and physiology; dentistry; dermatology; diagnosis; drugs; ears and hearing; emergency care; endocrinology; gastroenterology; genetic disease; genetics; health institutions, professions, specialties, and policy; heart and blood vessel anatomy, function, and disease; hematology; imaging; immunology; infection control; infectious disease; men's health; nephrology; neurology; nutrition; obstetrics and gynecology; old-fashioned medicine; ophthalmology; organizations, international; organizations, U.S.; orthopedics; pediatrics; plastic surgery; psychology; public health; surgery; transplants or artificial organs; U.S. government; and women's health. The book provides a subject list, which presents the entry names by broad subject area; a timeline, which lists medical and health milestones chronologically, beginning about 10,000 BC and ending in the year 2000; and a general index to the contents of the entries. Each entry contains a source for additional reading. (SM)