- In the late 18 hundreds, our ancestors were in many ways, very much like ourselves.

Today with some minor differences in dress and hairstyle, these people faced many of our basic problems.

They needed to have adequate food, water, shelter, and other basic requirements for survival.

They often had large families, but few would live to what is now called old age.

Our ancestors were unaware of future medical breakthroughs that would make humans healthier and help give them a longer life.

These people still faced polio and other serious diseases or medical problems.

They had few alternatives or much chance for cure.

This was our, our ancestors lived shorter lives on the average of 25 years less than humans.

Today, the cemeteries are filled with epitaphs that tell us of their brief existence.

Prior to 1900, the average expectancy was less than 48 years.

Today, the human community lives longer, and we begin monitoring and caring for humans even earlier than the moment of fertilization.

We are capable of viewing a human egg surrounded by sperm and can even make conception take place in a test tube.

We can watch an early embryo make one of its first divisions.

This will be followed by an incredible period of growth that gives rise to a child.

Even if a child is born prematurely, the young infant may once again come under direct medical care.

Today, the young can be isolated, monitored, and cared for with the help of modern technology.

- What size gloves do you want?

- 100 years ago, some of these children would not have survived through an array of sophisticated equipment.

The young child can be given assistance in feeding or breathing so the infant can continue to grow and develop.

With so many recent medical developments, infants now have a better chance to survive.

- He came to, - These are babies that may weigh only a few pounds or have pneumonia at birth.

Yet they clinging to life while so very small compared to conditions at the turn of the century.

Medical science is performing miracles as they grow.

The young may have their nervous system tested.

In this instance, the connections from the ear to the brain.

Listening to a series of short clicking sounds, the responses of the various nerve pathways go to a computer, which transforms them into an image.

The information on the graph can be compared to normal readings, the use of electrical stimulation that affects the nerve.

Moving the thumb helps us to check out if the nerve pathways from the hand to the brain are working correctly.

Another use of modern technology helps us assess the nerve pathways from the eyes to the brain.

Here the young patient watches movement of rapidly changing leg patterns.

As these are observed, the electrical information transmitted from the eyes to the brain is picked up by the computer, which creates a graph.

For comparison study.

The nervous system can also be checked with a strobe light, which varies the intervals of flashing light.

The internal nervous system information is once again transferred to a graph for careful study.

While there have been many medical diagnostic breakthroughs in recent years, one of the more interesting involved the use of sound to give us pictures of internal organs.

With ultrasound, we can now safely look inside a human.

We can see, for example, the oval shaped kidney.

By moving the sound emitting device slightly, we can trace the blood flow within an artery near the heart, or we can look inside the heart itself.

In cases where more detail of the circulatory system may be needed, the patient may be examined with a form of x-ray.

But today, a computer works with the image to improve the picture.

By adding or subtracting values, giving a slightly different set of pictures with more information for the doctors, the information from the computer enhanced images can be traced into another computer system.

This time, a computer can help pinpoint exact trouble spots such as a tumor and assist in identifying precise doses of radiation to be given.

When the radiation treatment is ready to begin, the patient is carefully positioned.

The final alignment of the patient is determined by a laser beam, and the patient will receive the prescribed amount of radiation to the exact location identified With the help of modern technology when it comes to checking out the heart, even fairly old heart tests have been computerized, bringing the heart rate to a graph faster and more efficiently.

With the help of computers, 19 individual blood tests can be performed on a patient all taking place in approximately 10 minutes.

The tests are conducted on levels of cholesterol, sodium, potassium, blood sugar, and a variety of other chemical substances.

The tests are conducted individually and the bubbles separate each test that will be made as the liquid moves through an array of tubing.

The chemical information obtained is compared to normal chemical levels.

In fact, chemicals of the building blocks of humans, as well as all organisms and DNA strands within a living cell dictate what the organism can physically and chemically become.

Already our research is into gene splicing and areas that enable us to improve.

Genetic possibilities within these chemicals may be the answer to keep humans from aging.

Our distant medical future may involve duplicating the abilities of primitive organisms like the hydra, which can grow another hydra from one part of the original organism.

Today, we too are doing something similar called cloning.

Think of future human applications.

If we can duplicate the remarkable ability of planetaria a small cross-eyed appearing flat worm, we would have incredible medical abilities.

For example, if this small flat worm has its head removed, it does not necessarily die.

Both parts may live its head, may grow back another body, and its body may grow back another head.

If we could understand the chemical involved in this remarkable regeneration of lost parts, perhaps someday we could grow back a lost finger or hand.

Obviously, this is a complex process and a remote possibility at this time, but as we see the parian grow back its head, we are reminded of what may be possible.

Much of our early genetic research involved very small organisms down to the size of small plants, bacteria, and even viruses.

It is at this level that we become introduced to a problem that is caused in part when medical science keeps more individuals alive.

On the microscopic level, overcrowding is obvious.

It means more organisms are alive to compete for the food, water, and space available.

This is happening with humans.

Our population is increasing.

Even though we have smaller families.

Today, more people are being kept alive.

This means more people will be competing for the resources on our planet.

It also means the average age of our human population is growing older with fewer children being born, and an increasing life expectancy that may reach upwards to 75 or longer.

The average age of our population is predicted to only increase in future years.

There will be fewer young people to supply the food and other essentials for this segment of the population.

While medical science can keep people healthy and alive, we will have to come to grips with the future problems associated with curing and aging in the human community.