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It was common practice between the 16th and the 18th c. to submit a clinical case to a physician whose renown and prestige were generally acknowledged even outside academic circles. Patients could normally gain access to Antonio Vallisneri, who was then a famous physician, through their own physician. Vallisneri was regularly engaged in writing consultations and sending them by post, an activity which gave way to a peculiar kind of writing both in style and language level. The patient and his illness are the object of minute descriptions in order to secure an effective therapy. One of the best therapies, nevertheless, seems to be the written communication itself, written by the physician for the patient, which possibly reassured the patient that the best possible therapeutic measures were being taken in order help to retrieve his or her health.

Throughout the Ancient Near East, supernatural forces were considered the cause of illness, and treatments were based on a collaboration between seers, doctors and exorcists. On the other hand, the health care system reflected in the Old Testament is remarkable different - replacing the various mystics with a single doctor, often a Levitical singer who also prayed for the sick. This development is rooted in the fundamental monotheism postulated in Deuteronomy, and the prohibition of every kind of mantic or magic practice other than Jahwistic prophecy. The Old Testament reflects a change in the basic conceptualization of illness: rather than an expression of divine wrath, it is seen as the outcome of human sin. Certain theological problems arose from this ideology, including the need to explain the infant and child mortality that was so common during this period. Such questions were partly answered centuries later, by the Hellenistic belief in an after-life. Yet the Greek period brought with it another set of questions, such as whether a patient should consult a doctor or only pray to the Lord. In the early part of the second century, Ben Sira offered an answer which has been normative for religious people up to the present day - to consult the one without neglecting the other.

An important element in recent science studies has been the analysis of the social rhetoric involved in the construction of disciplines and knowledge. An explicit use of rhetorical and semiotic frames of reference would illuminate many aspects of the history of medicine and could provide a unifying framework for the field. Medical theories were always intended for use and therefore had to be plausible in the eyes of patients. The interpretation of signs and the construction of explanations lie at the heart of diagnosis, therapy and prognosis. These are usually interactive processes and the efficacy of medical interventions therefore depends upon meaning, narrative and persuasion. Since mental processes are not rigidly separated from bodily functions, trust and expectation have physiological effects that are required for successful healing in all cultures at all times. The conduct of patients and practitioners always turns on the expectation of cure and the establishment of confidence. The efficacy of rhetoric was more readily recognized by practitioners in the past than it has been by social historians of medicine. Once mind-body dualism has been discarded, it can be seen that historians are not studying the context of healing but its very heart.

The systems of diagnosis and treatment of exopathogenic diseases has a long history. The six channel pattern identification and the defense - qi- construction - blood and triple - jiao pattern identifications are the most famous but not complete. The exterior, interior, excess and heat pattern identification and the six channel qi transformation pattern identification, founded by Liu Hejian, Yang Lishan, Yu Shiyu and Yu Genchu et al. during the Jin and Qing dynasties, should be considered the other two important systems, which can be used as supplements to schools of Shanghan (cold damage) and Wenbing (warm disease). Moreover, it should be pointed out that treatment according to the pattern identification is not the only way to treat exopathogenic disease. Rather, treatment according to the disease, which chiefly are the experience of folk doctors recorded in formulary books during the Jin and Tang dynasties, supplied many effective formulas for various systems of the treatment according to the pattern identification in later ages. One of them lays emphasis on the technics of thinking, the other on the accumulation of personal experience. The combination of the two is the right way to promote the therapeutic effect of exopathogenic disease.