What Is Ancient Greek Medicine? Modern Medicine What Is Ancient Greek Medicine? As the Egyptian civilization faded, the Greek one emerged around 700 BC. The Greek civilization prevailed until "the end of antiquity" around 600 AD. The Greeks were great philosophers and their physicians lent more towards rational thinking when dealing with medicine, compared to the Egyptians. Ancient Greek medicine is probably the basis of modern scientific medicine. The first schools to develop in Greece were in Sicilly and Calabria, in what today is Italy. The most famous and influential being the Pythagorean school. Pythagoras, the great mathematician, brought his theory of numbers into the natural sciences - at that time medicine was not yet a definable subject. Followers of Pythagoras, Pythagoreans, believed that numbers had precise meanings, especially the numbers 4 and 7. They mentioned that the Bible refers to infinity as 70x7, and that 7x4 is the duration of the lunar month as well as the menstrual cycle (28 days), 7x40 is 280 which is how long a pregnancy is when it reaches full term.

They also believed that a baby would enjoy better health if he/she was born on the seventh month rather than the 8th. The 40-day quarantine period to avoid disease contagion comes from the idea that the number forty is sacred. According to ancient records, another early Greek medical school was set up in Cnidus in 700 BC. Alcmaen worked at this school, where the practice of observing patients began. Alcmaeon (circa 500BC) of Croton is considered as one of the most eminent medical theorists and philosophers in ancient history. Some believe he was a student of Pythagoras. He wrote widely on medicine; however, some historians say he was probably a philosopher of science, and perhaps not a physician. As far as we know, he was the first person to wonder about the possible internal causes of illness. He put forward the idea that illness may be caused by environmental problems, nutrition and lifestyle. Greek civilization was very different form the Egyptian one. The Egyptian empire was ruled by a monarch, while the Greek system involved several city-states which were ruled by local governments. Athens was democratic, its people voted rulers in, while Macedon was a dictatorship and Sparta was under military rule.

Ancient Greece had a variety of systems. Apart from being great traders, the Greeks were relatively wealthy; they promoted and enjoyed culture and adored poetry, public debates, politics, architecture, sculpture, comedy and drama. Their writing was phonetic, meaning it could be read out loud; a much more flexible form of written communication compared to the hieroglyphs the Egyptians used. Their thirst for logic and logically-based discussions meant that mathematics and science could really develop. Aristotle, a mathematician, thrived in the Greek system. Socrates, a teacher, promoted the concept of asking questions into teaching methodologies. From 600 BC onwards, the Greeks became more and more inquisitive about things around them - their discussions on why things exist, why they happen were approached rationally. In 600 BC Anaximander put forward the idea that all matter was made up of earth, water, air and fire - which he called elements. It was not long before Greek physicians wondered whether all illnesses and disorders might not have a natural cause, and if so, would they not better respond to natural cures, rather than incantations and attempts at repelling evil spirits, like the Egyptians did.

Around 300 BC Alexander the Great had turned Greece into a massive empire, which spread all over the Middle East. The city of Alexandria was built in Egypt, and became a vast center for education and learning. Although they still believed in and had their gods, science gradually took over when trying to explain the reason and solution for illness and other things in general. The ancient Greeks believed medicine revolved around the theory of humors. The most famous, and probably the most important medical figure in Ancient Greece was Hippocrates, who is known today as "The Father of Medicine". Hippokrates of Kos, The Father of Western Medicine Hippocrates (460-370 BC) - The Father of Western Medicine Hippocrates of Kos (or Cos) (460 BC - 370 BC) is considered as one of the giants in the history of medicine in recognition for his contributions to the medical field as founder of the Hippocratic School of Medicine. What was taught at his school revolutionized medicine - it was established as a discipline in its own right. Up until then, medicine was linked to philosophy and the practice of rituals, casting off evil spirits and incantations (Theurgy).

It was Hippocrates' and his school's teachings which established medicine as a profession. The Hippocratic Corpus, written by Hippocrates and colleagues at his school, consisted of about 60 early Ancient Greek medical works. Medical historians say it is impossible to tell what was written by him or other people. Hippocrates is credited with creating the Hippocratic Oath, a vow taken by medical students when they become qualified doctors. The oath is also taken today by other healthcare professionals. They swear to practice medicine ethically and honestly. Some classical scholars, such as Ludwig Edelstein, believe that the oath was created by Pythagoreans. Nobody is completely sure who wrote it. It is believed that Hippocrates advanced the systematic study of clinical medicine, i.e. the study of disease by direct examination of the living patient. Medical historians say that Hippocrates and those practicing or having studied at his school were bound by the Hippocratic Oath and its strict ethical code. Students paid a fee to enter the school and were taken under their teacher's wing almost as if they were of the same family. Medical training would have included oral teaching and practical work as a teacher's assistant - the Oath states that a student must interact with patients.

Hippocrates and those from his school where the first people to describe and properly document several diseases and disorders. Hippocrates is thought to be the first to make a detailed description of clubbing of the fingers, a hallmark sign of chronic suppurative lung disease, cyanotic heart disease, and lung cancer. Some doctors today when making a diagnosis, will write "Hippocratic fingers" when referring to clubbed fingers. The Hippocratic Face - this is a description of a face not long before death. It is a prognostic description, made by Hippocrates: "(If the patient's facial) appearance may be described thus: the nose sharp, the eyes sunken, the temples fallen in, the ears cold and drawn in and their lobes distorted, the skin of the face hard, stretched and dry, and the colour of the face pale or dusky....

and if there is no improvement within [a prescribed period of time], it must be realized that this sign portends death." Hippocrates and his school were the first to use the following medical terms for illnesses and patients' conditions: Acute Resolution How Aristotle and Plato influenced medical practice and research Two famous Greek philosophers, Aristotle (384 BC - 322 BC) and Plato (424/423 BC - 348/347 BC) came to the conclusion that the human body had no use in the afterlife. This new way of thinking spread and influenced Greek doctors, who at Alexandria, Egypt, starting dissecting dead bodies and studying them. Sometimes even bodies of live criminals were cut open. It was through this kind of research that the surgeon Herophilus (335-280 BC) came to the conclusion that it was not the heart that controlled the movement of limbs, but the brain. Erasistratus (304 BC - 250 BC) found out that blood moves through the veins - however, he overlooked the fact that it circulates).

Aristotle's and Plato's philosophies, writings and speeches allowed the Greeks to start finding out about the inside of the human body in a systematic way. Thucydides (circa 460 BC - circa 395 BC), a Greek historian, often called the "Father of Scientific History", came to the conclusion that prayers were totally ineffective against illnesses and plagues. He added that epilepsy had a scientific explanation and had nothing to do with angry gods or evil spirits. Thycydides wrote, in his work 'History of the Peloponnesian War': "I shall describe what the plague was like ... At the beginning the doctors were unable to treat the disease because of their ignorance of the right methods. Equally useless were prayers in the temples, consulting the oracles and suchlike." The great minds of the time pushed science forward, so that medical professionals, scientists and researchers could seek out entirely natural theories for the cause of diseases. The Four Humors in the Human Body At that time, everybody thought that natural matter was made of four basic elements - earth, water, air and fire.

It was not long that this theory gave them the idea that the human body consisted of the four humors, and that keeping those humors in balance was essential for good health. This theory survived for nearly 2,000 years (up to 1700 AD). The four humors in the human body were: Blood Yellow bile Black bile According to Hippocrates in his work "The Constitution of Man", these four humors make up a human's body "through them he feels illness or enjoys health. When all the humors are properly balanced and mingled, he feels the most perfect health. Illness occurs when one of the humors is in excess, or is reduced in amount, or is entirely missing from the body." Did the Greeks perform surgery? We know the Greeks dissected dead bodies, and even live ones sometimes to find out what was going on inside. Medical historians doubt whether they performed internal surgical operations. There were always some Greek states at war, which gave doctors vast experience in practical first aid, and they became skilled experts. Greek doctors were good at setting broken bones and fixing dislocated ones. They could even cure a slipped disc.

As in Ancient Egypt, the Greeks had no anesthetics, and only some herbal antiseptic mixes. Without anesthetics it is virtually impossible to perform surgery deep inside the human body. How did Greek doctors diagnose and treat patients? The methods for reaching diagnoses by Greek doctors were not that different from what happens today. Many of their natural remedies are similar to a number of effective home remedies we currently use. Their theory of the four humors though, was mainly an obstacle to medical practice. About two thousand years later, that theory was found to be false. Greek doctors would carry out a clinical observation; they performed a thorough physical examination of their patient. They would refer to their Hippocratic books for guidance on how to carry out the examinations and which diseases they should consider or try to rule out. Over time, magic and appealing to gods gave way to seeking out natural causes for illnesses. This led to researching for natural cures. Greek doctors became expert herbalists and prescribers of natural remedies. They became convinced that the best healer is nature. Hippocratic books mentioned: For chest diseases - barley soup, plus vinegar and honey, which would bring up phlegm. For pain in the side - dip a large soft sponge in water and apply gently.

If the pain has reached the collar bone, then bleeding near the elbow is recommended until the blood flows bright red. For pneumonia - give the patient a bath, it relieves pain and helps him bring up phlegm. The patient must remain completely still in the bath. By trying to balance the four humors when patients were ill, doctors would sometimes get things right, even if it was for the wrong reasons. When attempting to balance the natural heat of a patient, they: kept patients warm when they had a cold kept feverish and sweaty patients dry and cool bled patients to restore the blood balance purged patients to restore the bile balance. This would have been done by giving them laxatives, making them vomit, or giving them diuretics The first two treatments mentioned above make sense in modern medicine, the third one does not, while the fourth depends on the person's illness. If the patient has swallowed something toxic, inducing vomiting might be appropriate. Despite their apparent period of enlightenment, many doctors would still appeal to their Gods if treatments were not effective. Asklepios was the Greek god of healing, and there was a temple in Epidaurus, called Asklepion.

Some doctors would treat their patients and then take them to the abaton to spend the night asleep; the abaton was a holy place in a temple. They believed that Hygeia and Panacea, daughters of Asklepios would arrive with two holy snakes which would cure the patients. From "Hygeia" we have the word hygiene. The snake today is the symbol of pharmacists. Did Ancient Greece have a public health system? Authorities in Greece were not yet aware of the need for public health; the Greek city states did not strive to ensure their people had a good supply of water so they could wash themselves and keep their homes clean. There were no public sewage systems either. However, the people were great believers in staying healthy. Well off and educated Greeks worked at remaining at a constant temperature, cleaning their teeth, washing regularly, keeping fit, and eating healthily. Their aim was to keep the four humors in balance throughout the year. Greek doctors were strong believers in doing things in moderations. Out of every three children born, only two would ever reach the age of two years. The life-expectancy of a healthy Greek adult was about fifty years.

According to Hippocrates, poor people would be too focused on making ends meet to be too concerned about their overall health. Even though religion was slowly making way to logical reasoning, people still called on their gods to heal them at the Asklepion. Eventually, these temples became health spas, gymnasiums, public baths, and sports stadiums. On the next page, we look at ancient roman medicine . Medicine: Ancient Greek Doctors Ancient Greek Doctors Ancient Greek Doctor's Tools The ancient greeks doctors used mainly hands as their tools. The doctors also used knives, needles, clamps,tweezers and saws. The tools they used were not very clean,which was not good because when they are opening the patients body it could cause big infections. Knives cut the skin and saws were used to cut the bones. Hippocrates Hippocrates was known as the father of medicine, because he started the medicine.Hippocrates was born on the island of Kos. Not much of him is known, except that he was expelled from his home. Hippocrates was an outstanding physician and died in Larissa, where there is a monument in memory of him.

Galen Galen was one of the greatest surgeons in the ancient world and preformed many operations including brain and eye surgeries. Galen died at the age 70 in the 11th century in the year 199. Galen wrote a book about hygiene during the Roman period. Galen was born in Pergamum, an old greek city, in the year 130. When Galen was still a boy, his father had a dream in which appeared a god called Asclepius who tell him to let Galen study medicine. Ancient Greek Surgeries Little surgeries were done in ancient Greece.This picture shows an example of their type of plastic surgery. The ancient greek doctors didn’t have anesthesia so it hurted a lot more and that was why the doctors did short surgeries. Ancient Greek Diseases The ancient greek doctors couldn’t cure a single disease. The most common diseases often mentioned at that time were: plague, leprosy and gangrene. The greeks were the experts of their time when it came to understanding the nature of diseases. Ancient Greek Medicines To prepare the ancient medicines, herbs were mainly used, but also much more components.

The ancient greek doctors learned a lot about medicines with Egyptians. The doctors thought that the medicines had some influence on people's health. Medicine was becoming quite advanced in the world. Strangely the flavor of some medicines that were made of honey had a bad tasting. Ancient Greek God's of Health, Medicine and Healing The main gods of Health, Medicine, Healing and Surgeries were: Appolo - god of the sun, healing, medicine, truth, music, poetry and arts. Artemis - god of healing, hunting, killing and childbirth. The Cure Miracle For the ancient greek doctors “the cure miracle” worked like this: the doctors cut the body of the patient into pieces and then they healed what was wrong. When the doctors finished their work they put again everything back to where it belongs, waiting for the cure. Ancient Greek Hygiene Hygiene was very important in ancient Greece but the patients at this time were always dirty. The things that doctors touched with their untidy hands could become immediately infected and that was not good. The microbes that were on the patient’s clothes passed to the patient’s body causing an infection and so the surgery that the ancient greek doctors were doing became infected too.

Ancient Greek Death The ancient greek doctors were against cutting up dead bodies because they were afraid of a superstition that was like this “Leave me not unwept and unburied as thou goest hence, nor turn thy back upon me, lest haply I bring on thee the anger of the gods” and the doctors were afraid that this could happen. The ancient Greek teeth diseases The ancient greeks have less troubles with their teeth because their diet included little sugar and healthy food. They used sticks to clean their teeth. Most of what was done was to pull out teeth that were infected. Ancient Greek Health Ancient greek health was probably the best in the world at their time. Posted by Hippocrates | Greek physician | Britannica.com Greek physician Avicenna Hippocrates, (born c. 460 bc , island of Cos, Greece —died c. 375 , Larissa , Thessaly), ancient Greek physician who lived during Greece’s Classical period and is traditionally regarded as the father of medicine . It is difficult to isolate the facts of Hippocrates’ life from the later tales told about him or to assess his medicine accurately in the face of centuries of reverence for him as the ideal physician.

About 60 medical writings have survived that bear his name, most of which were not written by him. He has been revered for his ethical standards in medical practice, mainly for the Hippocratic Oath , which, it is suspected, he did not write. Hippocrates, undated bust. Hippocrates, Roman bust copied from a Greek original, c. 3rd century bce; in the collection … Courtesy of the Soprintendenza alle Antichità di Ostia, Italy Life and works It is known that while Hippocrates was alive, he was admired as a physician and teacher. His younger contemporary Plato referred to him twice. In the Protagoras Plato called Hippocrates “the Asclepiad of Cos ” who taught students for fees, and he implied that Hippocrates was as well known as a physician as Polyclitus and Phidias were as sculptors. It is now widely accepted that an “Asclepiad” was not a temple priest or a member of a physicians’ guild but instead was a physician belonging to a family that had produced well-known physicians for generations.

Plato’s second reference occurs in the Phaedrus , in which Hippocrates is referred to as a famous Asclepiad who had a philosophical approach to medicine. history of medicine: Hippocrates Meno , a pupil of Aristotle , specifically stated in his history of medicine the views of Hippocrates on the causation of diseases , namely, that undigested residues were produced by unsuitable diet and that these residues excreted vapours, which passed into the body generally and produced diseases. Aristotle said that Hippocrates was called “the Great Physician” but that he was small in stature (Politics). These are the only extant contemporary, or near-contemporary, references to Hippocrates. Five hundred years later, the Greek physician Soranus wrote a life of Hippocrates, but the contents of this and later lives were largely traditional or imaginative. Throughout his life Hippocrates appears to have traveled widely in Greece and Asia Minor practicing his art and teaching his pupils, and he presumably taught at the medical school at Cos quite frequently. His birth and death dates are traditional but may well be approximately accurate. Undoubtedly, Hippocrates was a historical figure, a great physician who exercised a permanent influence on the development of medicine and on the ideals and ethics of the physician.

Britannica Stories Cheetahs Face Extinction Risk Hippocrates’ reputation, and myths about his life and his family, began to grow in the Hellenistic period , about a century after his death. During this period, the Museum of Alexandria in Egypt collected for its library literary material from preceding periods in celebration of the past greatness of Greece. So far as it can be inferred, the medical works that remained from the Classical period (among the earliest prose writings in Greek) were assembled as a group and called the works of Hippocrates ( Corpus Hippocraticum). Linguists and physicians subsequently wrote commentaries on them, and, as a result, all the virtues of the Classical medical works were eventually attributed to Hippocrates and his personality constructed from them. The virtues of the Hippocratic writings are many, and, although they are of varying lengths and literary quality, they are all simple and direct, earnest in their desire to help, and lacking in technical jargon and elaborate argument. The works show such different views and styles that they cannot be by one person, and some were clearly written in later periods.

Yet all the works of the Corpus share basic assumptions about how the body works and what disease is, providing a sense of the substance and appeal of ancient Greek medicine as practiced by Hippocrates and other physicians of his era. Prominent among these attractive works are the Epidemics, which give annual records of weather and associated diseases, along with individual case histories and records of treatment, collected from cities in northern Greece. Diagnosis and prognosis are frequent subjects. Other treatises explain how to set fractures and treat wounds , feed and comfort patients, and take care of the body to avoid illness. Treatises called Diseases deal with serious illnesses, proceeding from the head to the feet, giving symptoms, prognoses, and treatments. There are works on diseases of women, childbirth, and pediatrics. Prescribed medications, other than foods and local salves, are generally purgatives to rid the body of the noxious substances thought to cause disease. Some works argue that medicine is indeed a science , with firm principles and methods, although explicit medical theory is very rare. The medicine depends on a mythology of how the body works and how its inner organs are connected.

The myth is laboriously constructed from experience, but it must be remembered that there was neither systematic research nor dissection of human beings in Hippocrates’ time. Hence, while much of the writing seems wise and correct, there are large areas where much is unknown. Britannica Lists & Quizzes Editor Picks: Exploring 10 Types of Basketball Movies The Embassy, a fictional work that connects Hippocrates’ family with critical events in the history of Cos and Greece, was included in the original collection of Hippocratic works in the Library of Alexandria . Over the next four centuries, The Embassy inspired other imaginative writings, including letters between Hippocrates and the Persian king and also the philosopher Democritus . Though obviously fiction, these works enhanced Hippocrates’ reputation, providing the basis for later biographies and the traditional picture of Hippocrates as the father of medicine. Still other works were added to the Hippocratic Corpus between its first collection and its first scholarly edition around the beginning of the 2nd century ad. Among them were the Hippocratic Oath and other ethical writings that prescribe principles of behaviour for the physician. Influence Human Health: Fact or Fiction? Technical medical science developed in the Hellenistic period and after.

Surgery , pharmacy , and anatomy advanced; physiology became the subject of serious speculation; and philosophic criticism improved the logic of medical theories. Competing schools in medicine (first Empiricism and later Rationalism) claimed Hippocrates as the origin and inspiration of their doctrines. In the 2nd century ad, the physician Galen of Pergamum developed his magnificent medical system, a synthesis of preceding work and his own additions that became the basis of European and Arabic medicine into the Renaissance . Galen was argumentative and long-winded, often abusive of contemporaries and earlier physicians, but at the same time, with exaggerated reverence that ignored five centuries of progress, he claimed that Hippocrates was the source of all that he himself knew and practiced. For later physicians, Hippocrates stood as the inspirational source, while the more difficult Galen offered the substantial details. Connect with Britannica Facebook Twitter YouTube Instagram Pinterest As time went on, reverence for the past had to contend with new notions of scientific method and new discoveries. In the process, Galen’s authority was undone, but Hippocrates’ eminence as father of medicine remained.

Scientific progress in fields such as anatomy, chemistry , microbiology , and microscopy, especially beginning in the 16th and 17th centuries, demanded that Galen’s medicine be criticized and revised part by part. Arguments against Galenic medicine were often more effective when they were presented as returns to true Hippocratic medicine. New scientific methodology argued for a return to observation and study of nature, abandoning bookish authority. The simple and direct writings of the Hippocratic Collection read well as sample empirical texts that eschewed dogma . By the late 19th century, Galen was irrelevant to medical practice, and general knowledge of Hippocratic medical writings was beginning to fade. However, today Hippocrates still continues to represent the humane, ethical aspects of the medical profession. A number of idealized images of Hippocrates have survived from antiquity, but none that seems to derive from a contemporary portrait. Doctors and Medicine in Ancient Greece Doctors and Medicine in Ancient Greece Medicine during the time of the ancient Greeks was limited in its ability to cure diseases. The field of medicine combined science and religious beliefs.

The ancient Greeks believed that sickness was brought on by an imbalance in four substances known as “humors.” The four humors were blood, yellow bile, black bile, and phlegm. Those who practiced medicine drew blood and induced vomiting or sweating to bring the four humors back into balance. Although their methods were primitive, the ancient Greeks did make advancements in the field of medicine, going beyond religious superstitions to a more scientific endeavor. Hippocrates, known as the “father of modern medicine,” brought a more scientific method to the treatment of illnesses. He observed a variety of symptoms to determine the natural causes of diseases. (Doctors today still take a Hippocratic Oath to “do no harm to their patients.”) They were able to set broken bones, amputate limbs, and many other difficult procedures. Surgery was always a last resort, since most people died from shock, blood loss, or infection afterwards. From the limited evidence we have, it has been estimated that only two out of three children survived to see their second birthday. The average age of death for healthy Greek adults during this period was fifty. Hippocrates - History Learning Site Hippocrates Citation: C N Trueman "Hippocrates" historylearningsite.co.uk.

The History Learning Site, 17 Mar 2015. 16 Aug 2016. Hippocrates made such an impression on medical history that his name is still very much associated with medicine today. All newly qualified doctors take what is called the ‘Hippocratic Oath’ and some see Hippocrates as the father of modern medicine even though he did most of his work some 430 years before the birth of Christ. Greek doctors had started to look at the issue of poor health and disease by using a process of reasoning and observation. The most famous of these was Hippocrates. He is thought to have been born in Cos in 460 BC. In fact, we know very little about Hippocrates as a person but his fame was such that Plato and Aristotle wrote about him. While Hippocrates has found fame in medical history, there were other Ancient Greek doctors who were not so lucky. Ancient Greek medical knowledge is demonstrated in what is known as the Hippocratic Collection. This is a collection of sixty medical books of which Hippocrates wrote just some. We do not know who wrote most of them but they cover a time span of 150 years so they could not have all been written by Hippocrates.

Hippocrates and other Greek doctors believed that the work done by a doctor should be kept separate from the work done by a priest. They believed that observation of a patient was a vital aspect of medical care. Ancient Greek doctors did examine their patients but Hippocrates wanted a more systematic period of observation and the recording of what was observed. Today, we would call this ‘clinical observation’. Such ideas have lead to Hippocrates being called the ‘Father of Medicine’. The Hippocratic Collection gave Greek doctors detailed advice on what to do with their patients: “First of all the doctor should look at the patient’s face. If he looks his usual self this is a good sign. If not, however, the following are bad signs – sharp nose, hollow eyes, cold ears, dry skin on the forehead, strange face colour such as green, black, red or lead coloured. If the face is like this at the beginning of the illness, the doctor must ask the patient if he has lost sleep, or had diarrhoea, or not eaten.” From “On forecasting diseases”. In the book “On Epidemics”, doctors were told to note specific symptoms and what was observed on a day to day basis. By doing this they could make a natural history of an illness.

Hippocrates and other doctors believed that by doing this they could forecast the development of the illness in future: “I believe that it is an excellent thing for a physician to practice forecasting. He will carry out the treatment best if he knows beforehand from the present symptoms what will take place later.” From ‘On forecasting diseases’ The ideas of Hippocrates and others spread in the eastern Mediterranean and others took to writing down what they saw with regards to illnesses. These writings have survived and have given historians a vast resource to study. Hippocrates and other doctors worked on the assumption that all diseases had a natural cause rather than a supernatural one. Priests believed that an illness such as epilepsy was caused by the gods. Hippocrates believed that with all other illnesses it had a natural cause. “Men believe only that it is a divine disease because of their ignorance and amazement.” From ‘The Sacred Disease’. Why was Hippocrates called the "father of medicine"? | Reference.com Why was Hippocrates called the "father of medicine"? A: Quick Answer As Greekmedicine.net explains, Hippocrates is known as the father of modern medicine because he was the first doctor who held reason, logic and science to be central in the practice.

Before Hippocrates’ teachings spread throughout the world, the practice of medicine was rife magic, superstitions and supernatural elements. While modern medicine has changed greatly since the time of Hippocrates, his dedication to science changed medicine forever. Full Answer According to Wikipedia, Hippocrates was born in 460 B.C., in the town of Kos, Greece. Hippocrates soon began to view the treatment of the human body differently than his predecessors and contemporaries. His views on medicine, including his assertion that medicine should be considered distinct from philosophy and other disciplines, were revolutionary at the time. This even led to Hippocrates serving a 20 year prison sentence. However, during his incarceration, he wrote many medical manuscripts, including “The Complicated Body.” Because of his significant contribution, many medical terms and principles are named after Hippocrates. The Hippocratic Oath is an important promise taken by those who intend to practice medicine. Those who take the oath promise to do no harm to their patients, among other principles. Wikipedia indicates that the oath has been replaced by similar oaths in recent times.

Additionally, clubbed fingers, first described by Hippocrates, are sometimes called “Hippocratic fingers.” Greek Medicine: Hippocrates Father of Medicine Medical historians generally look to Hippocrates as the founder of medicine as a rational science. It was Hippocrates who finally freed medicine fromthe shackles of magic, superstition, and the supernatural. Hippocrates collected data and conducted experiments to show that disease was a natural process; that the signs and symptoms of a disease were caused by the natural reactions of the body to the disease process; and that the chief role of the physician was to aid the natural resistance of the body to overcome the metabolic imbalance and restore health and harmony to the organism. Hippocrates was born on the island of Cos, off the southwest coast of Asia Minor, or present-day Turkey, around 460 B.C. His father was a physician-priest in the Asclepion at Cos, and his family could trace its lineage back to the legendary Asclepius. Hippocrates lived a very long life and died at a ripe old age in the town of Larissa in Thessaly. The Hippocratic Revolution When Hippocrates began to practicemedicine, the established school of medicine was the Cnidian school.

But this school's approach to medicine had several serious flaws, whichwere already becoming apparent and starting to cause a general dissatisfaction with the art of medicine. The Cnidian school considered the body to be merely a collection of isolated parts, and saw diseases manifesting in a particular organ or body part as affecting that part only, which alone was treated. Their system of diagnosis was also faulty, relying exclusively on the subjective symptoms related by the patient, while totally ignoring the objective signs of the disease. Hippocrates radically disagreed with the Cnidian school, countering that the human body functioned as one unified organism, or physis, and must be treated, in health and disease, as one coherent, integrated whole. In diagnosis, not only the patient's subjective symptoms, but the objective signs of the disease must also be considered to arrive at an accurate assessment of what was going on. As his main unifying theory for the holistic understanding of the human organism and how it functions in health and disease, Hippocrates used the concept of the Four Humors. Although the groundwork of humoral physiology and pathology had already been laid by his predecessors, Hippocrates finally brought the thory of the Four Humors into its classical form.

Health is a harmonious balance of the Four Humors. Disease results from their disharmony and imbalance. The physician's job is to restore health by correcting the imbalance and restoring harmony to the humors. To quote Hippocrates: "The body of man has in itself blood, phlegm, yellow bile, and black bile; these make up the nature of the body, and through these he feels pain or enjoys health. Now, he enjoys the most perfect health when these elements are duly proportioned to one another in respect to compounding, power and bulk, and when they are perfectly mingled. Pain is felt when one of these elements is in defect or excess, or is isolated in the body without being compounded with all the others." - The Nature of Man Hippocrates took his band of renegade physicians with him to the island of Cos. There, they set about to revolutionize the art of medicine and put its theory and practice on a truer, sounder footing. Hippocratic Medicine Physiology and pathology in Hippocratic medicine was based on the Four Humors. A united confluence and sympathy between all four humors working together was necessary for good health.

Pneuma - the Breath or Vital Force, and the Innate Heat, which were suffused into the blood from the lungs via the heart, gave the blood the power to sustain life. Hippocrates saw pepsis, or an orderly, balanced, harmonious digestion and metabolism of the Four Humors as being essential to all good health. In disorders of pepsis Hippocrates saw the origin of most disease. Hippocrates' anatomical knowledge was rather scant, but this is compensated for by his profound insights into human physiology and the soundness of his reasoning. But even so, his surgical techniques for dislocations of the hip and jaw were unsurpassed until the nineteenth century. In therapeutics, Hippocrates saw the physician as the servant and facilitator of Nature. All medical treatment was aimed at enabling the natural resistance of the organism to prevail and overcome the disease, to bring about recovery. In the treatments he prescribed, Hippocrates was very sensible, pragmatic and flexible in his approach, favoring conservatism and moderation over radical or extreme measures. Bloodletting, which was much abused at other times in medicine's history, was used only rarely by Hippocrates, and even then, only applied conservatively.

Hippocrates placed great emphasis on strengthening and building up the body's inherent resistance to disease. For this, he prescribed diet, gymnastics, exercise, massage, hydrotherapy and sea bathing. Hippocrates was a great believer in dietary measures in the treatment of disease. He prescribed a very slender, light diet during the crisis stage of an acute illness, and a liquid diet during the treatment of fevers and wounds. Hippocratic medicine was constitutionally based, so its approach to diagnosis and treatment was quite flexible. As a holistic healing system, Hippocratic medicine treated the patient, and not just the disease. Hippocrates was the first physician to systematically classify diseases based on points of similarity and contrast between them. He virtually originated the disciplines of etiology and pathology. By systematically classifying diseases, Hippocrates placed their diagnosis and treatment on a sounder footing. The Hippocratic Corpus The Hippocratic Corpus is a collection of over 60 works. Although all of them are attributed to Hippocrates, the Corpus is of a heterogenous character, and many, if not most, of its works may actually have been written by his students.

Still, we can be fairly certain that Hippocrates actually did author many books in the Corpus, including many original, groundbreaking works. These include: Airs, Waters and Places - the first major work on medical meteorology, climatology, geography and anthropology. Aphorisms - a collection of wise, pithy sayings giving advice on practical matters of diet, prognosis and therapeutics. Ancient Medicine - a defense of the empirical study of medicine against one biased by preliminary axioms and assumptions. Also deals with the Four Humors. The Legacy of Hippocrates Hippocrates was the personification of the ideal physician - wise, caring, compassionate and honest. He is most remembered today for his famous Oath, which set high ethical standards for the practice of medicine. His exemplary life has been a constant and enduring source of inspiration for doctors and healers down through the ages. Greek Medicine: Galen GALEN Greatest Physician of the Roman Empire Galen was the greatest physician of ancient Rome. Whereas Hippocrates laid the foundation of Greek Medicine, Galen further developed its theory and practice, and carried Greco-Roman medicine to its zenith.

Claudius Galenus, or Galen, was born in Pergamum, an old Greek city on the Aegean coast of Asia Minor, or present day Turkey, in the year 130 A.D. Pergamum was an ancient center of learning and medicine, having an Asclepion and a famous library that second only to the one in Alexandria. Galen was born into the lap of luxury, which afforded him ample time to study. His father Nicon, a wealthy architect, quickly recognized his son's brilliant mind and took a keen interest in his education, hiring the best tutors in all the arts and sciences. When Galen was just a boy, his father had a dream in which Asclepius appeared to him and told him to let his son study medicine. And so, the young Galen went to the local Asclepion to be trained by its elder physician-priests. Galen remained a lifelong devotee of Asclepius. When Galen was 19, his father died, which sent him on the journeyman phase of his medical education. He first studied in Smyrna, or present day Izmir, Turkey, and then traveled to Alexandria, where he finished his studies.

His medical training in Alexandria made him an empiricist. Galen's first post was as a physician and surgeon to the gladiators in Pergamum, which gave him considerable skill and knowledge in the fields of anatomy and surgery. From there, he went to Rome, where his great skill and ability quickly attracted the attention of the influential and elite. Galen became the personal physician to the emperor Marcus Aurelius. Galen was a master of medical philosophy, and considered the study of philosophy to be essential to a physician's training. Philosophy enables the physician to discern between truth and illusion, or between reality and mere surface appearances, which is so important in diagnosis. It's also necessary for putting treatment on a sound ethical foundation. Although he wasn't a Christian, Galen was a monotheist; he believed that the body was the physical vehicle for the indwelling soul. Galen's monotheism greatly enhanced the acceptance of his medical theories and teachings by later generations of Muslim and Christian scholars and physicians. Galen's chief contributions to the theory of Greek Medicine were his theories of the three varieties of pneuma, or vital energy, and the Four Faculties of the organism.

He also developed and expanded the humoral physiology and pathology of Hippocrates. Proper organ function was very important to Galen's views on anatomy and physiology. He tended to view health as the balanced, harmonious, optimal functioning of all the organs and systems of the body. Galen believed in the Aristotelian doctrine that, in Nature, form follows function. If we want to understand the function of an organ, tissue or body part, we must first study its form. That's why Galen considered anatomy to be so important. Galen was fanatical in his pursuit of anatomical knowledge. He conducted dissections and vivisections on animals, chiefly apes, to figure out by inference and experiment how the human body was structured, and how it worked. By clamping the ureters of living apes and watching the kidneys swell, Galen concluded that the kidneys produce urine. By cutting or stimulating various spinal nerve roots, he figured out which organs and muscles they controlled. Galen is most admired by modern medicine for being a brilliant anatomist who was way ahead of his time. Living so long ago, with so little previous knowledge to go on, it's amazing what Galen figured out; in fact, he almost got it all right.

In pharmacology, Galen developed a system of Galenic degrees, which enabled physicians and pharmacists to gauge more precisely the effects of a medicinal substance. In the preparation of medicines, Galen considered increased quantity to be a poor substitute for poor quality of the ingredients. Galen personally visited the exotic locales where many key ingredients of his medicinal formulas were produced to better understand matters of quality. Galen's most famous medicinal formula was Theriac, an herbal jam or electuary with some 64 differnt ingredients that was a virtual panacea or cure-all for many diseases, and an antidote to many poisons. Theriac's use and manufacture continued until the late 19th century. Since Venice was a key center for its manufacture, it is sometimes called Theriac Venezian, or Venice Treacle. Today, Theriac Venezian is a key ingredient in Swedish Bitters, an herbal elixir popularized by the Austrian herbalist Maria Treben. Galen was also an expert on the pulse; many consider him to be the originator of pulse diagnosis. He wrote a treatise on the subject, entitled De Pulsibus.

Being a lifelong devotee of Asclepius, Galen was a firm believer in the healing and diagnostic power of dreams. He even wrote a treatise on the medical interpretation of dreams. Galen was a prodigious author, and wrote some 80 different medical treatises. Today, many of them have been lost. Galen is often criticized for being egotistical, but perhaps in his case it was well-deserved. His writings are full of long-winded refutations of his rivals and critics, whose partial knowledge and fallacious reasoning he despised. Galen considered the profit motive and the love of money to be the worst reasons for becoming a physician. Being independently wealthy, money mattered little to him. He was only after two things: dedication to relieving the suffering of humanity and the pursuit of medical excellence. For over a thousand years after his death, Galen, with his prodigious accomplishments, was considered to be the gospel truth, the ultimate authority on all matters medical. Medieval medical authorities dogmatically agreed: If Galen figured it all out, why look any further? This was indeed to prove a mixed blessing for the history of medicine. It wasn't until the Renaissance that Galen was finally questioned and his errors uncovered.

Garden of Praise: Hippocrates Biography Father of Medicine Born in 460 B.C. - Died in 377 B.C. Hippocrates (hih POK ruh teez) lived 400 years before the birth of Christ. He is known as the father of medicine because many of the things he discovered are still practiced today. During the time when Hippocrates lived, people were very superstitious.* They believed there were four fluids in the body which matched four elements; earth, air, fire and water. They would carry sick people to the temple because they thought the god of medicine, Aesculapius (es kyoo LAY pe us) could heal them. They would say magic words over the patient to try and heal them. Hippocrates taught that diseases came from natural causes. He had observed many patients and carefully recorded their symptoms and the way their illnesses developed. He would look at the color of the skin, and how the eyes looked. He would look for fevers and chills. He described many illnesses including pneumonia,* tetanus,* tuberculosis,* arthritis,* mumps,* and malaria.* He told his students to carefully observe their patients and to learn from the things they had observed.

He said the human body could heal itself and could return itself to good health. The patient was given something to relieve pain, but nothing else was done. He told his patients they should eat a moderate amount of food; not too much and not too little. A moderate amount of exercise was recommended. Patients were encouraged to walk for exercise. Doctors were told to make sure their hands were clean before they treated patients. He said the operating room should be well lighted and look cheerful. He thought patients in good spirits would heal faster. Ancient Greek surgical instruments Doctors were told to make sure their hands were clean before they treated patients. He said the operating room should be well lighted and look cheerful. He thought patients in good spirits would heal faster. Physicians should be men of honor, according to Hippocrates. He encouraged them to work as hard as possible for the good of the sick. The Hippocratic (hip uh CRAT ick) Oath was named for him. It included rules of conducts for doctors and even today doctors still honor a form of the oath. This biography by Patsy Stevens, a retired teacher, was written in 2001.

Question: Which ancient Greek is known as ‘The Father of Medicine’?
Answer: Hippocrates