What's even more puzzling than people figuring out complex processes with multiple non obvious steps to successfully remove increasing amounts of (slow acting) poison from plants in relatively short amounts of time is the contrast to medicine.
It took people literally millenia to figure out pretty obvious things. That blood letting probably wasn't such a hot idea for most ailments. Or that the awesome cadaverous smell of your hands that you took such professional pride in basically meant that your obstetric services massively decreased both mother and child's survival chances compared to no outside help at all.
[Edit: I wonder if the difference can be purely explained by people being much better at figuring out what increases their and their kin's survival chances compared to those of others]
It took people literally millenia to figure out pretty obvious things. That blood letting probably wasn't such a hot idea for most ailments. Or that the awesome cadaverous smell of your hands that you took such professional pride in basically meant that your obstetric services massively decreased both mother and child's survival chances compared to no outside help at all.
[Edit: I wonder if the difference can be purely explained by people being much better at figuring out what increases their and their kin's survival chances compared to those of others]