The history of woun care spans from prehistory to modern medicine. As wounds naturally heal by themselves, regardless of whether recovery from the scar or recovery from lost body tissue was a possibility, hunter-gatherers would have noticed several factors and certain herbal remedies would speed up or assist the process, especially if it was grievous. In ancient history, this was followed by the realisation of the necessity of hygiene and the halting of bleeding, where wound dressing techniques and surgery developed. Eventually the germ theory of disease also assisted in improving wound care.