Hippocrates believed that disease resulted from imbalances between four bodily fluids - black bile, yellow bile, phlegm, and blood. Thus, Hippocratic
Hippocratic Corpus
The Hippocratic Corpus, or Hippocratic Collection, is a collection of around 60 early Ancient Greek medical works strongly associated with the physician Hippocrates and his teachings. Even though it is considered as a singular corpus that represents Hippocratic medicine, they vary in co…
What did Hippocrates believe about disease?
He and his followers emphasized natural causes, clinical observation, and brain pathology. Hippocrates, a Greek physician of the 4th and 5th centuries bce, is credited with being the first to adopt the concept that disease is not a visitation of the gods but rather is caused by earthly influences.
What is Hippocratic medicine and how does it work?
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.
Was there a Hippocratic ideal of healthcare in ancient Greece?
Health care practices in ancient Greece: The Hippocratic ideal Christos F. Kleisiaris,1Chrisanthos Sfakianakis,2and Ioanna V. Papathanasiou3 Christos F. Kleisiaris 1Professor, Nursing Department, Technological Educational Institute of Crete, Greece Find articles by Christos F. Kleisiaris Chrisanthos Sfakianakis
What did Hippocrates believe about medicine and health?
Hippocrates developed a new approach to medicine – looking beyond supernatural. This meant that medicine came to be seen as a science rather than a religion. He stressed the importance of observation, diagnosis and treatment. He believed the body had four humours; black bile, yellow bile, phlegm and blood.
What was Hippocrates idea about the cause of illness and disease?
He was the first to regard disease as a natural, rather than a supernatural phenomenon, encouraging doctors to look at physical causes of illness and to use objective observation and critical deductive reasoning. Hippocrates believed that the causes of disease could be understood only through empirical study.
What was Hippocrates main idea?
The central idea of Hippocratic philosophy is the principle of wholeness, summarized by Plato in the sentence "The certain knowledge of nature is solely possible from medicine and only when it is correctly approached as a whole".
Who was Hippocrates and what was his contribution to healthcare?
Therefore, Hippocrates established the basics of clinical medicine as it is practiced today. He introduced numerous medical terms universally used by physicians, including symptom, diagnosis, therapy, trauma and sepsis. In addition, he described a great number of diseases without superstition.
Why Hippocrates is known as father of medicine?
Hippocrates is considered to be the father of modern medicine because in his books, which are more than 70. He described in a scientific manner, many diseases and their treatment after detailed observation. He lived about 2400 years ago.
What did Hippocrates say?
He stated, 'Hippocrates, a famous Greek physician, in the year 440 BC said, “Let food be thy medicine and let thy medicine be food”. We have finally come to fruition with that fact, 2,383 years after his death.
What are 3 facts about Hippocrates?
Hippocrates is famous because:he systematized medicine.he founded antiquity's greatest school of physicians.he invented the famous. Hippocratic Oath. The key medical practice sections of the Hippocratic Oath in Ancient Greece were: ... he and his followers wrote a large body of medical literature.
What diseases did Hippocrates discover?
Hippocrates and his followers were first to describe many diseases and medical conditions. He is given credit for the first description of clubbing of the fingers, an important diagnostic sign in chronic lung disease, lung cancer and cyanotic heart disease.
What did Hippocrates believe caused psychological disorders?
Rejecting the idea of demonic possession, Greek physician, Hippocrates (460-377 B.C.), said that mental disorders were akin to physical disorders and had natural causes. Specifically, he suggested that they arose from brain pathology, or head trauma/brain dysfunction or disease, and were also affected by heredity.
What diseases did Hippocrates discover?
Hippocrates and his followers were first to describe many diseases and medical conditions. He is given credit for the first description of clubbing of the fingers, an important diagnostic sign in chronic lung disease, lung cancer and cyanotic heart disease.
What did Hippocrates say?
He stated, 'Hippocrates, a famous Greek physician, in the year 440 BC said, “Let food be thy medicine and let thy medicine be food”. We have finally come to fruition with that fact, 2,383 years after his death.
How did Hippocrates cure the plague?
he fought the epidemic by building a great fire, which corrected the unhealthy atmosphere that caused the outbreak. Thucydides' silence about this remarkable achievement of Hippocrates and the late date of the sources reporting it are strong witnesses against its historicity.
What did Hippocrates do?
Hippocrates was a much admired physician from the island of Cos who taught students for fees. Throughout his life Hippocrates appears to have trave...
Why is Hippocrates famous?
Hippocrates’ reputation, and myths about his life, began to grow in the Hellenistic period, about a century after his death. The Library of Alexand...
What is Hippocrates remembered for?
Medical practice has advanced significantly since Hippocrates’ day. However, today Hippocrates continues to represent the humane, ethical aspects o...
How did Hippocrates contribute to modern medicine?
Accordingly, Hippocrates greatly contributed to modern medicine by declaring that medicine should depend on detailed observation, reason and experience in order to establish diagnosis, prognosis and treatment. Obviously, after Hippocrates there was no longer a mixture of superstition, magic, religious views and empirical treatments examined by priest-physicians, and medicine became a real science through accumulating experience (34).
What did Hippocrates do to help the Greeks?
Overall, Hippocrates set the stepping stones for the foundations of medicine, developing medical terms and definitions, protocols and guidelines for the classification of diseases, which are considered the gold standards for the diagnosis, management and prevention of diseases.
What did Hippocrates and Asclepius focus on?
Asclepius and Hippocrates focused medical practice on the natural approach and treatment of diseases, highlighting the importance of understanding the patient’s health, independence of mind, and the need for harmony between the individual, social and natural environment , as reflected in the Hippocratic Oath.
What are the components of Hippocratic care?
Three main categories were observed in the Hippocratic provision of care: health promotion, interventions on trauma care, and mental care and art therapy interventions. Health promotion included physical activity as an essential part of physical and mental health, and emphasized the importance of nutrition to improve performance in the Olympic Games. Interventions on trauma care included surgical practices developed by Hippocrates, mainly due to the frequent wars in ancient Greece. Mental care and art therapy interventions were in accordance with the first classification of mental disorders, which was proposed by Hippocrates. In this category music and drama were used as management tools in the treatment of illness and in the improvement of human behavior. The role of Asclepieion of Kos was highlighted which clearly indicates a holistic health care model in care provision. Finally, all practices regarded detailed recordings and evaluation of information within the guidelines.
What was the aim of the study of Hippocratic care provision in ancient Greece?
The aim of this study was to present the philosophy of care provision in ancient Greece and to highlight the influence of the Hippocratic ideal in modern health care practices.
What were the first mental disorders?
The first classification of mental disorders proposed by Hippocrates was: Mania, Melancholy, Phrenitis, Insanity, Disobedience, Paranoia, Panic, Epilepsy and Hysteria. Some of these terms are still used today (22). Psychological and mental illnesses were viewed as the effect of nature on man and were treated like other diseases. Hippocrates argued that the brain is the organ responsible for mental illnesses and that intelligence and sensitivity reach the brain through the mouth by breathing. Hippocrates believed that mental illnesses can be treated more effectively if they are handled in a similar manner to physical medical conditions (23). According to Hippocrates, the diagnosis and treatment of mental and physical diseases is based on observation, consideration of the causes, balance of theory and on the four liquids, blood, phlegm, yellow bile and black bile (22). Interestingly, Plato’s theory mentions that the healing of body and soul may be either true or false, and medicine and gymnastics are classified as true treatments while in true healing of the soul we have the legislative and the judiciary.
What is the key to maintaining health?
Physical Exercise: The Key to Maintain Health
What was Hippocrates' role in medical research?
It was in the 5th century BCE, however, that Hippocrates' name and image began to emerge as a leader in medical research and thought. Hippocrates is generally credited with turning away from divine notions of medicine and using observation of the body as a basis for medical knowledge.
How many works of Hippocrates are there?
The Hippocratic Corpus, or the collected writings attributed to Hippocrates, contains about sixty works on a variety of medical topics, including diagnosis, epidemics, obstetrics, pediatrics, nutrition, and surgery. There are assumed to be several authors, however, probably scattered over several centuries, and different treatises often give ...
When was the Hippocratic Oath written?
As to the Hippocratic Oath, little is known about who wrote it or first used it, but it appears to be more strongly influenced by followers of Pythagoras than Hippocrates and is often estimated to have been written in the 4th century BCE.
Who is the father of medicine?
Hippocrates: (c.460-377BC) Great Greek physician on the Mediterranean island of Cos, who founded a medical school there, and is regarded as the "Father of Medicine.". That is the standard view of Hippocrates.
Who was the first physician?
But, in truth, virtually nothing is known of the first physician named Hippocrates. There are considered to have been several by that name, all of them teachers at the famous medical school on the island of Cos. It was in the 5th century BCE, however, that Hippocrates ' name and image began to emerge as a leader in medical research and thought.
What is Hippocrates' appearance?
Concerning his appearance, there have been many attempts to present to the world a noble face and impressive body to go with the physician’s other attributes. However, very few Greek statues of the period have survived, so our view of Greek sculpture rests principally on Roman copies. Various dignified antique busts have been said to represent Hippocrates at different times, and likenesses painted and drawn from imagination have also perpetuated a belief in his impressive appearance. Aristotle indicated that Hippocrates was of short stature, so there was all the more reason to seek a handsome, outstanding face to portray the greatest physician of all time. Recent studies have yielded coins from Cos with profiles bearing the name of Hippocrates, which a sculpted head found in a cemetery in Ostia seems to resemble. These are now accepted by almost all as the likely appearance of Hippocrates.
Why did Hippocrates ask for help in Abdera?
In Abdera, Hippocrates was asked to cure Democritos of presumed madness —thus illustrating his prowess but also enhancing his image as a philosopher to have communicated with the great Democritos, who introduced the atom into science. Invited to Asia Minor to stop the plague, he chose to remain home and help his own people. His patriotism was similarly shown by the tale of his rejecting a request from King Artaxerxes because the Persians were enemies of Greece. (The wars with Persia occurred just before the decades in which Hippocrates lived.)
Why did Hippocrates burn Avicenna?
Paracelsus, who will appear in the chapters on the Renaissance, burned the works of Avicenna and Galen to symbolize the need to rely on one’s own observations rather than authorities.
What was the purpose of the Ptolemies?
The intention of the Ptolemies was to collect the entire sum of human knowledge in the Library , and the works of Hippocrates were undoubtedly sought out. As his name became increasingly famous it is likely that more and more medical contributions were assigned to his authorship.
How does a traveling physician gain the patient's confidence and make his reputation?
The traveling physician could gain the patient’s confidence and make his reputation by accurately predicting the outcome of an illness. Surgery —Probably the most thorough treatises in the Collection are on surgery. Many conditions are treated by operative, manipulative, and more conservative means.
Where was Hippocrates' collection?
The Collection was assembled in the fourth century B.C. at the great Library in Alexandria, where an extraordinary center of learning had been established by Ptolemy, one of Alexander’s generals, who started a ruling Greek dynasty in Egypt that was ended when the Romans under Octavian overthrew Cleopatra VII in 30 B.C. The intention of the Ptolemies was to collect the entire sum of human knowledge in the Library, and the works of Hippocrates were undoubtedly sought out. As his name became increasingly famous it is likely that more and more medical contributions were assigned to his authorship. Since it is virtually impossible to determine which treatises were genuinely by Hippocrates, the custom has arisen to refer to the entire Collection as writings of the Hippocratists or Hippocratics, thus leaving the authorship undetermined. When we use the name Hippocrates we refer not only to the man but to any others who made important contributions to the Corpus Hippocraticum.
Where does the heat of the body come from?
Physiology —The innate heat of the body necessary for life comes from the pneuma of the air and is taken in by the lungs. Air along with blood fills the arteries. Sight depends on the lens and the vitreous humor (the gel that occupies the eyeball). The retina is not understood as the organ of sight.
Who was Hippocrates?
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. Get a Britannica Premium subscription and gain access to exclusive content. Subscribe Now.
Who wrote the life of Hippocrates?
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.
What is the Embassy of Hippocrates?
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 ce. Among them were the Hippocratic Oath and other ethical writings that prescribe principles of behaviour for the physician.
Where did Hippocrates teach?
Hippocrates was a much admired physician from the island of Cos who taught students for fees. 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.
How many Hippocrates writings have survived?
The Library of Alexandria in Egypt collected medical works from the Classical period, calling them the works of Hippocrates. About 60 of these writings have survived, though most of them were not written by him.
What period did Hippocrates live in?
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.
What is the treatise on the head to the feet?
Treatises called Diseases deal with serious illnesses, proceeding from the head to the feet , giving symptoms, prognoses, and treatments.
What did Hippocrates do to help the body?
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.
What was Hippocrates' approach to medicine?
In the treatments he prescribed, Hippocrates was very sensible, pragmatic and flexible in his approach, favoring conservatism and moderation over radical or extreme measures.
What are the four humors in Hippocrates?
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.#N#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.#N#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.#N#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.#N#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.#N#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.#N#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.#N#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.#N#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.
How many works are in 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.
Which school did Hippocrates disagree with?
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.
What is the job of a physician?
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.
Where was Hippocrates born?
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.
What is Guthrie's law of learning?
Guthrie's one law of learning was the law of contiguity, which he stated as follows: "A combination of stimuli which has accompanied a movement will on its recurrence tend to be followed by that movement. Note that nothing is here said about 'confirmatory waves' or reinforcement or pleasant effects." In other words, according to Guthrie, what you do last in a situation is what you will tend to do if the situation recurs. When a pattern of stimuli and a response occur together they become associated. Furthermore, the association between the two occurs at full strength after just one exposure.
What did Thorndike do to help the evolution of behavior?
Under the influence of evolutionary theory, Thorndike added a behavioral component to associationism. Rather than focusing on the association of one idea to another, he studied the association between the environment and behavioral responses. Although Thorndike's brand of psychology is generally viewed as being within the framework of functionalism (because Thorndike believed that only useful associations are selected and maintained), his insistence that learning occurs without ideation brought him very close to being a behaviorist.
What diseases did Hippocrates describe?
In the experience gained during his life, and his dedication to medicine, Hippocrates was able to describe many diseases (hemorrhoids, diseases located in the chest, lung diseases, heart disease , among others). Although some of his descriptions are not exactly accurate, they were a strong basis for making medicine a science.
What aspects of Hippocrates' life were relevant to the prognosis of diseases?
Hippocrates also had other aspects relevant to the prognosis of diseases, such as diet and Lifestyle Of the patient.
What did Hippocrates study?
He devoted himself to the study of medicine after training in the basic sciences during his adolescence. Portrait of Hippocrates (1787) - Morgado de Setúbal (Museum of Évora) He received his medical studies mainly from his father, Heraclides, who was also a recognized physician at the time. He also learned from other doctors at ...
What are some of the greatest contributions to modern medicine?
Surgery. Another of the great contributions to modern medicine was the possibility of surgery . The data collected about this time, indicate that Hippocrates was one of the first surgeons to record. Despite the time, they are talking about quite adequate methods, taking into account the technological limitations.
What was Hippocrates' contribution to medicine?
The Contributions by Hippocrates To medicine were so important that for many historians he is considered the father of this discipline. Hippocrates was born on the island of Kos, Greece, approximately between the fourth century and the fifth century BC. He devoted himself to the study of medicine after training in the basic sciences ...
What is the corpus hippocratic?
Some of these approaches and descriptions were rescued and as a whole is now known as the Corpus Hippocratic . It is a compilation where you can find the most important findings for medicine during the fourth and fifth century.
Was there any knowledge of the human body?
However, this anatomy was based primarily on animals, so there was no detailed knowledge of the human body. Although the knowledge about the anatomy of the man was scarce, these writings were the first impressions that were related to the human anatomy.
