Hippocrates of Kos (; grc-gre, Ἱπποκράτης ὁ Κῷος, Hippokrátēs ho Kôios; ), also known as Hippocrates II, was a Greek
physician
A physician (American English), medical practitioner (Commonwealth English), medical doctor, or simply doctor, is a health professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through th ...
of the
classical period who is considered one of the most outstanding figures in the
history of medicine
The history of medicine is both a study of medicine throughout history as well as a multidisciplinary field of study that seeks to explore and understand medical practices, both past and present, throughout human societies.
More than just histo ...
. He is traditionally referred to as the "Father of Medicine" in recognition of his lasting contributions to the field, such as the use of
prognosis
Prognosis (Greek: πρόγνωσις "fore-knowing, foreseeing") is a medical term for predicting the likely or expected development of a disease, including whether the signs and symptoms will improve or worsen (and how quickly) or remain stabl ...
and clinical observation, the systematic categorization of diseases, or the formulation of
humoral theory
Humorism, the humoral theory, or humoralism, was a system of medicine detailing a supposed makeup and workings of the human body, adopted by Ancient Greek and Roman physicians and philosophers.
Humorism began to fall out of favor in the 1850s ...
. The Hippocratic school of medicine revolutionized
ancient Greek medicine
Ancient Greek medicine was a compilation of theories and practices that were constantly expanding through new ideologies and trials. Many components were considered in ancient Greek medicine, intertwining the spiritual with the physical. Specifi ...
, establishing it as a discipline distinct from other fields with which it had traditionally been associated (
theurgy
Theurgy (; ) describes the practice of rituals, sometimes seen as magical in nature, performed with the intention of invoking the action or evoking the presence of one or more deities, especially with the goal of achieving henosis (uniting wi ...
and
philosophy
Philosophy (from , ) is the systematized study of general and fundamental questions, such as those about existence, reason, knowledge, values, mind, and language. Such questions are often posed as problems to be studied or resolved. Some ...
), thus establishing medicine as a profession.
However, the achievements of the writers of the
Hippocratic Corpus
The Hippocratic Corpus (Latin: ''Corpus Hippocraticum''), or Hippocratic Collection, is a collection of around 60 early Ancient Greek medical works strongly associated with the physician Hippocrates and his teachings. The Hippocratic Corpus cove ...
, the practitioners of Hippocratic medicine, and the actions of Hippocrates himself were often conflated; thus very little is known about what Hippocrates actually thought, wrote, and did. Hippocrates is commonly portrayed as the
paragon
Paragon may refer to:
Places
*Paragon, Indiana, a town in the United States
*Paragon, Nebraska, former community in the United States
*The Paragon, Bath, a Georgian street in the Walcot area of Bath
* The Paragon, Blackheath, London, built by Mic ...
of the ancient physician and credited with coining the
Hippocratic Oath
The Hippocratic Oath is an oath of ethics historically taken by physicians. It is one of the most widely known of Greek medical texts. In its original form, it requires a new physician to swear, by a number of healing gods, to uphold specific e ...
, which is still relevant and in use today. He is also credited with greatly advancing the systematic study of
clinical medicine
Medicine is the science and practice of caring for a patient, managing the diagnosis, prognosis, prevention, treatment, palliation of their injury or disease, and promoting their health. Medicine encompasses a variety of health care practice ...
, summing up the medical knowledge of previous schools, and prescribing practices for physicians through the Hippocratic Corpus and other works.
Biography
Historians agree that Hippocrates was born around the year 460 BC on the Greek island of
Kos
Kos or Cos (; el, Κως ) is a Greek island, part of the Dodecanese island chain in the southeastern Aegean Sea. Kos is the third largest island of the Dodecanese by area, after Rhodes and Karpathos; it has a population of 36,986 (2021 census), ...
; other biographical information, however, is likely to be untrue.
Soranus of Ephesus
Soranus of Ephesus ( grc-gre, Σωρανός ὁ Ἑφέσιος; 1st/2nd century AD) was a Greek physician. He was born in Ephesus but practiced in Alexandria and subsequently in Rome, and was one of the chief representatives of the Methodic s ...
, a 2nd-century Greek
physician
A physician (American English), medical practitioner (Commonwealth English), medical doctor, or simply doctor, is a health professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through th ...
,
was Hippocrates' first biographer and is the source of most personal information about him. Later biographies are in the ''
Suda
The ''Suda'' or ''Souda'' (; grc-x-medieval, Σοῦδα, Soûda; la, Suidae Lexicon) is a large 10th-century Byzantine encyclopedia of the ancient Mediterranean world, formerly attributed to an author called Soudas (Σούδας) or Souidas ...
'' of the 10th century AD, and in the works of
John Tzetzes
John Tzetzes ( grc-gre, Ἰωάννης Τζέτζης, Iōánnēs Tzétzēs; c. 1110, Constantinople – 1180, Constantinople) was a Byzantine poet and grammarian who is known to have lived at Constantinople in the 12th century.
He was able to p ...
, which date from the 12th century AD.
Hippocrates is mentioned in passing in the writings of two contemporaries: Plato, in ''
Protagoras
Protagoras (; el, Πρωταγόρας; )Guthrie, p. 262–263. was a pre-Socratic Greek philosopher and rhetorical theorist. He is numbered as one of the sophists by Plato. In his dialogue '' Protagoras'', Plato credits him with inventing the r ...
'' and ''
Phaedrus Phaedrus may refer to:
People
* Phaedrus (Athenian) (c. 444 BC – 393 BC), an Athenian aristocrat depicted in Plato's dialogues
* Phaedrus (fabulist) (c. 15 BC – c. AD 50), a Roman fabulist
* Phaedrus the Epicurean (138 BC – c. 70 BC), an Epic ...
'', and
Aristotle
Aristotle (; grc-gre, Ἀριστοτέλης ''Aristotélēs'', ; 384–322 BC) was a Greek philosopher and polymath during the Classical period in Ancient Greece. Taught by Plato, he was the founder of the Peripatetic school of phil ...
's ''
Politics
Politics (from , ) is the set of activities that are associated with making decisions in groups, or other forms of power relations among individuals, such as the distribution of resources or status. The branch of social science that studies ...
'', which date from the 4th century BC.
Soranus wrote that Hippocrates' father was
Heraclides, a physician, and his mother was Praxitela, daughter of Tizane. The two sons of Hippocrates,
Thessalus
In Greek mythology, the name Thessalus is attributed to the following individuals, all of whom were considered possible eponyms of Thessaly.
*Thessalus, son of Haemon,Strabo, 9.5.23 son of Chlorus, son of Pelasgus.
*Thessalus, son of Poseidon and ...
and
Draco
Draco is the Latin word for serpent or dragon.
Draco or Drako may also refer to:
People
* Draco (lawgiver) (from Greek: Δράκων; 7th century BC), the first lawgiver of ancient Athens, Greece, from whom the term ''draconian'' is derived
* D ...
, and his son-in-law,
Polybus, were his students. According to
Galen
Aelius Galenus or Claudius Galenus ( el, Κλαύδιος Γαληνός; September 129 – c. AD 216), often Anglicized as Galen () or Galen of Pergamon, was a Greek physician, surgeon and philosopher in the Roman Empire. Considered to be one of ...
, a later physician, Polybus, was Hippocrates' true successor, while Thessalus and Draco each had a son named
Hippocrates
Hippocrates of Kos (; grc-gre, Ἱπποκράτης ὁ Κῷος, Hippokrátēs ho Kôios; ), also known as Hippocrates II, was a Greek physician of the classical period who is considered one of the most outstanding figures in the history of ...
(Hippocrates III and IV).
Soranus said that Hippocrates learned medicine from his father and grandfather (
Hippocrates I), and studied other subjects with
Democritus
Democritus (; el, Δημόκριτος, ''Dēmókritos'', meaning "chosen of the people"; – ) was an Ancient Greek pre-Socratic philosopher from Abdera, primarily remembered today for his formulation of an atomic theory of the universe. No ...
and
Gorgias
Gorgias (; grc-gre, Γοργίας; 483–375 BC) was an ancient Greek sophist, pre-Socratic philosopher, and rhetorician who was a native of Leontinoi in Sicily. Along with Protagoras, he forms the first generation of Sophists. Several doxogr ...
. Hippocrates was probably trained at the
asklepieion
Asclepieia ( grc, Ἀσκληπιεῖον ''Asklepieion''; Ἀσκλαπιεῖον in Doric dialect; Latin ''aesculapīum'') were healing temples located in ancient Greece (and in the wider Hellenistic and Roman world), dedicated to Asclepius ...
of Kos, and took lessons from the
Thracian
The Thracians (; grc, Θρᾷκες ''Thrāikes''; la, Thraci) were an Indo-European speaking people who inhabited large parts of Eastern and Southeastern Europe in ancient history.. "The Thracians were an Indo-European people who occupied t ...
physician
Herodicus of Selymbria.
Plato
Plato ( ; grc-gre, Πλάτων ; 428/427 or 424/423 – 348/347 BC) was a Greek philosopher born in Athens during the Classical period in Ancient Greece. He founded the Platonist school of thought and the Academy, the first institution ...
mentions Hippocrates in two of his dialogues: in ''
Protagoras
Protagoras (; el, Πρωταγόρας; )Guthrie, p. 262–263. was a pre-Socratic Greek philosopher and rhetorical theorist. He is numbered as one of the sophists by Plato. In his dialogue '' Protagoras'', Plato credits him with inventing the r ...
'', Plato describes Hippocrates as "Hippocrates of Kos, the
Asclepiad";
while in ''
Phaedrus Phaedrus may refer to:
People
* Phaedrus (Athenian) (c. 444 BC – 393 BC), an Athenian aristocrat depicted in Plato's dialogues
* Phaedrus (fabulist) (c. 15 BC – c. AD 50), a Roman fabulist
* Phaedrus the Epicurean (138 BC – c. 70 BC), an Epic ...
'', Plato suggests that "Hippocrates the Asclepiad" thought that a complete knowledge of the nature of the body was necessary for medicine. Hippocrates taught and practiced medicine throughout his life, traveling at least as far as
Thessaly
Thessaly ( el, Θεσσαλία, translit=Thessalía, ; ancient Thessalian: , ) is a traditional geographic and modern administrative region of Greece, comprising most of the ancient region of the same name. Before the Greek Dark Ages, Thes ...
,
Thrace
Thrace (; el, Θράκη, Thráki; bg, Тракия, Trakiya; tr, Trakya) or Thrake is a geographical and historical region in Southeast Europe, now split among Bulgaria, Greece, and Turkey, which is bounded by the Balkan Mountains to t ...
, and the
Sea of Marmara
The Sea of Marmara,; grc, Προποντίς, Προποντίδα, Propontís, Propontída also known as the Marmara Sea, is an inland sea located entirely within the borders of Turkey. It connects the Black Sea to the Aegean Sea via the ...
. Several different accounts of his death exist. He died, probably in
Larissa
Larissa (; el, Λάρισα, , ) is the capital and largest city of the Thessaly region in Greece. It is the fifth-most populous city in Greece with a population of 144,651 according to the 2011 census. It is also capital of the Larissa regiona ...
, at the age of 83, 85 or 90, though some say he lived to be well over 100.
Hippocratic theory
Hippocrates is credited with being the first person to believe that diseases were caused naturally, not because of superstition and gods.
Hippocrates was credited by the disciples of
Pythagoras
Pythagoras of Samos ( grc, Πυθαγόρας ὁ Σάμιος, Pythagóras ho Sámios, Pythagoras the Samos, Samian, or simply ; in Ionian Greek; ) was an ancient Ionians, Ionian Ancient Greek philosophy, Greek philosopher and the eponymou ...
of allying philosophy and medicine.
He separated the discipline of medicine from religion, believing and arguing that disease was not a punishment inflicted by the
gods
A deity or god is a supernatural being who is considered divine or sacred. The ''Oxford Dictionary of English'' defines deity as a god or goddess, or anything revered as divine. C. Scott Littleton defines a deity as "a being with powers greater ...
but rather the product of environmental factors, diet, and living habits. Indeed there is not a single mention of a mystical illness in the entirety of the Hippocratic Corpus. However, Hippocrates did work with many convictions that were based on what is now known to be incorrect
anatomy
Anatomy () is the branch of biology concerned with the study of the structure of organisms and their parts. Anatomy is a branch of natural science that deals with the structural organization of living things. It is an old science, having its ...
and
physiology
Physiology (; ) is the scientific study of functions and mechanisms in a living system. As a sub-discipline of biology, physiology focuses on how organisms, organ systems, individual organs, cells, and biomolecules carry out the chemical ...
, such as
Humorism
Humorism, the humoral theory, or humoralism, was a system of medicine detailing a supposed makeup and workings of the human body, adopted by Ancient Greek and Roman physicians and philosophers.
Humorism began to fall out of favor in the 1850s ...
.
Ancient Greek schools of medicine were split (into the Knidian and Koan) on how to deal with disease. The
Knidian school of medicine focused on diagnosis. Medicine at the time of Hippocrates knew almost nothing of human anatomy and physiology because of the Greek
taboo
A taboo or tabu is a social group's ban, prohibition, or avoidance of something (usually an utterance or behavior) based on the group's sense that it is excessively repulsive, sacred, or allowed only for certain persons.''Encyclopædia Britannica ...
forbidding the dissection of humans. The Knidian school consequently failed to distinguish when one disease caused many possible series of symptoms.
The Hippocratic school or
Koan
A (; , ; ko, 화두, ; vi, công án) is a story, dialogue, question, or statement which is used in Zen practice to provoke the "great doubt" and to practice or test a student's progress in Zen.
Etymology
The Japanese term is the Sino-Jap ...
school achieved greater success by applying general
diagnoses
Diagnosis is the identification of the nature and cause of a certain phenomenon. Diagnosis is used in many different disciplines, with variations in the use of logic, analytics, and experience, to determine " cause and effect". In systems engin ...
and passive treatments. Its focus was on patient care and
prognosis
Prognosis (Greek: πρόγνωσις "fore-knowing, foreseeing") is a medical term for predicting the likely or expected development of a disease, including whether the signs and symptoms will improve or worsen (and how quickly) or remain stabl ...
, not diagnosis. It could effectively treat diseases and allowed for a great development in clinical practice.
Hippocratic medicine and its philosophy are far removed from that of modern medicine. Now, the physician focuses on specific diagnosis and specialized treatment, both of which were espoused by the Knidian school. This shift in medical thought since Hippocrates' day has caused serious criticism over their denunciations; for example, the
French
French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to France
** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents
** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...
doctor M. S. Houdart called the Hippocratic treatment a "meditation upon death".
Analogies have been drawn between Thucydides' historical method and the Hippocratic method, in particular the notion of "human nature" as a way of explaining foreseeable repetitions for future usefulness, for other times or for other cases.
Crisis
An important concept in Hippocratic medicine was that of a ''crisis'', a point in the progression of disease at which either the illness would begin to triumph and the patient would succumb to death, or the opposite would occur and natural processes would make the patient recover. After a crisis, a relapse might follow, and then another deciding crisis. According to this doctrine, crises tend to occur on ''critical days'', which were supposed to be a fixed time after the contraction of a disease. If a crisis occurred on a day far from a ''critical day'', a relapse might be expected. Galen believed that this idea originated with Hippocrates, though it is possible that it predated him.
Hippocratic medicine was humble and passive. The therapeutic approach was based on "the healing power of nature" ("''
vis medicatrix naturae
''Vis medicatrix naturae'' (literally "the healing power of nature", and also known as ''natura medica'') is the Latin rendering of the Greek ''Νόσων φύσεις ἰητροί'' ("Nature is the physician(s) of diseases"), a phrase attributed ...
''" in
Latin
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...
). According to this doctrine, the body contains within itself the power to re-balance the
four humours
Humorism, the humoral theory, or humoralism, was a system of medicine detailing a supposed makeup and workings of the human body, adopted by Ancient Greek and Roman physicians and philosophers.
Humorism began to fall out of favor in the 1850s ...
and heal itself (''physis'').
Hippocratic therapy focused on simply easing this natural process. To this end, Hippocrates believed "rest and immobilization
ereof capital importance".
In general, the Hippocratic medicine was very kind to the patient; treatment was gentle, and emphasized keeping the patient clean and sterile. For example, only clean water or wine were ever used on wounds, though "dry" treatment was preferable. Soothing
balms were sometimes employed.
Hippocrates was reluctant to administer drugs and engage in specialized treatment that might prove to be wrongly chosen; generalized therapy followed a generalized diagnosis.
Generalized treatments he prescribed include fasting and the consumption of a mix of honey and vinegar. Hippocrates once said that "to eat when you are sick, is to feed your sickness". However, potent drugs were used on certain occasions.
This passive approach was very successful in treating relatively simple ailments such as broken bones which required
traction to stretch the skeletal system and relieve pressure on the injured area. The
Hippocratic bench and other devices were used to this end.
One of the strengths of Hippocratic medicine was its emphasis on
prognosis
Prognosis (Greek: πρόγνωσις "fore-knowing, foreseeing") is a medical term for predicting the likely or expected development of a disease, including whether the signs and symptoms will improve or worsen (and how quickly) or remain stabl ...
. At Hippocrates' time, medicinal therapy was quite immature, and often the best thing that physicians could do was to evaluate an illness and predict its likely progression based upon data collected in detailed case histories.
Professionalism
Hippocratic medicine was notable for its strict professionalism, discipline, and rigorous practice.
The Hippocratic work ''On the Physician'' recommends that physicians always be well-kempt, honest, calm, understanding, and serious. The Hippocratic physician paid careful attention to all aspects of his practice: he followed detailed specifications for, "lighting, personnel, instruments, positioning of the patient, and techniques of bandaging and splinting" in the ancient
operating room
Operation or Operations may refer to:
Arts, entertainment and media
* ''Operation'' (game), a battery-operated board game that challenges dexterity
* Operation (music), a term used in musical set theory
* ''Operations'' (magazine), Multi-Man ...
.
He even kept his
fingernail
A nail is a claw-like plate found at the tip of the fingers and toes on most primates. Nails correspond to the claws found in other animals. Fingernails and toenails are made of a tough protective protein called alpha-keratin, which is a polymer. ...
s to a precise length.
The Hippocratic School gave importance to the clinical doctrines of observation and documentation. These doctrines dictate that physicians record their findings and their medicinal methods in a very clear and objective manner, so that these records may be passed down and employed by other physicians.
Hippocrates made careful, regular note of many symptoms including complexion, pulse, fever, pains, movement, and excretions.
He is said to have measured a patient's pulse when taking a case history to discover whether the patient was lying.
Hippocrates extended clinical observations into family history and environment.
"To him medicine owes the art of clinical inspection and observation."
Direct contributions to medicine
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
Lung cancer, also known as lung carcinoma (since about 98–99% of all lung cancers are carcinomas), is a malignant lung tumor characterized by uncontrolled cell growth in tissue (biology), tissues of the lung. Lung carcinomas derive from tran ...
and
cyanotic heart disease
A cyanotic heart defect is any congenital heart defect (CHD) that occurs due to deoxygenated blood bypassing the lungs and entering the systemic circulation, or a mixture of oxygenated and unoxygenated blood entering the systemic circulation. It is ...
. For this reason, clubbed fingers are sometimes referred to as "Hippocratic fingers".
Hippocrates was also the first physician to describe
Hippocratic face
The Hippocratic facies ( la, facies Hippocratica, links=no) is the change produced in the face recognisable as a medical sign known as facies and prognostic of death. It may also be seen as due to long illness, excessive defecation, or excessive ...
in ''Prognosis''.
Shakespeare
William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...
famously alludes to this description when writing of
Falstaff
Sir John Falstaff is a fictional character who appears in three plays by William Shakespeare and is eulogised in a fourth. His significance as a fully developed character is primarily formed in the plays '' Henry IV, Part 1'' and '' Part 2'', w ...
's death in Act II, Scene iii. of ''
Henry V Henry V may refer to:
People
* Henry V, Duke of Bavaria (died 1026)
* Henry V, Holy Roman Emperor (1081/86–1125)
* Henry V, Duke of Carinthia (died 1161)
* Henry V, Count Palatine of the Rhine (c. 1173–1227)
* Henry V, Count of Luxembourg (121 ...
''.
Hippocrates began to categorize illnesses as
acute
Acute may refer to:
Science and technology
* Acute angle
** Acute triangle
** Acute, a leaf shape in the glossary of leaf morphology
* Acute (medicine), a disease that it is of short duration and of recent onset.
** Acute toxicity, the adverse eff ...
,
chronic,
endemic
Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsew ...
and
epidemic
An epidemic (from Ancient Greek, Greek ἐπί ''epi'' "upon or above" and δῆμος ''demos'' "people") is the rapid spread of disease to a large number of patients among a given population within an area in a short period of time.
Epidemics ...
, and use terms such as, "exacerbation,
relapse
In internal medicine, relapse or recidivism is a recurrence of a past (typically medical) condition. For example, multiple sclerosis and malaria often exhibit peaks of activity and sometimes very long periods of dormancy, followed by relapse or r ...
, resolution, crisis,
paroxysm
Paroxysmal attacks or paroxysms (from Greek παροξυσμός) are a sudden recurrence or intensification of symptoms, such as a spasm or seizure. These short, frequent symptoms can be observed in various clinical conditions. They are usually ...
, peak, and
convalescence
Convalescence is the gradual recovery of health and strength after illness or injury. It refers to the later stage of an infectious disease or illness when the patient recovers and returns to previous health, but may continue to be a source of ...
."
Another of Hippocrates' major contributions may be found in his descriptions of the symptomatology, physical findings, surgical treatment and prognosis of
thoracic empyema, i.e.
suppuration
Pus is an exudate, typically white-yellow, yellow, or yellow-brown, formed at the site of inflammation during bacterial or fungal infection. An accumulation of pus in an enclosed tissue space is known as an abscess, whereas a visible collection ...
of the lining of the chest cavity. His teachings remain relevant to present-day students of
pulmonary medicine
Pulmonology (, , from Latin ''pulmō, -ōnis'' "lung" and the Greek suffix "study of"), pneumology (, built on Greek πνεύμων "lung") or pneumonology () is a medical specialty that deals with diseases involving the respiratory tract. and surgery.
Hippocrates was the first documented
chest surgeon and his findings and techniques, while crude, such as the use of lead pipes to drain chest wall abscess, are still valid.
The Hippocratic school of medicine described well the ailments of the human
rectum
The rectum is the final straight portion of the large intestine in humans and some other mammals, and the Gastrointestinal tract, gut in others. The adult human rectum is about long, and begins at the rectosigmoid junction (the end of the s ...
and the treatment thereof, despite the school's poor theory of medicine.
Hemorrhoids
Hemorrhoids (or haemorrhoids), also known as piles, are vascular structures in the anal canal. In their normal state, they are cushions that help with stool control. They become a disease when swollen or inflamed; the unqualified term ''hemo ...
, for instance, though believed to be caused by an excess of bile and phlegm, were treated by Hippocratic physicians in relatively advanced ways.
Cautery
Cauterization (or cauterisation, or cautery) is a medical practice or technique of burning a part of a body to remove or close off a part of it. It destroys some tissue in an attempt to mitigate bleeding and damage, remove an undesired growth, or ...
and
excision are described in the Hippocratic Corpus, in addition to the preferred methods:
ligating the hemorrhoids and drying them with a hot iron. Other treatments such as applying various salves are suggested as well.
Today, "treatment
or hemorrhoids
Or or OR may refer to:
Arts and entertainment Film and television
* "O.R.", a 1974 episode of M*A*S*H
* Or (My Treasure), a 2004 movie from Israel (''Or'' means "light" in Hebrew)
Music
* ''Or'' (album), a 2002 album by Golden Boy with Miss ...
still includes burning, strangling, and excising."
Also, some of the fundamental concepts of
proctoscopy
Proctoscopy is a common medical procedure in which an instrument called a proctoscope (also known as a rectoscope, although the latter may be a bit longer) is used to examine the anal cavity, rectum, or sigmoid colon. A proctoscope is a short, stra ...
outlined in the Corpus are still in use.
For example, the uses of the rectal
speculum, a common medical device, are discussed in the Hippocratic Corpus.
This constitutes the earliest recorded reference to
endoscopy
An endoscopy is a procedure used in medicine to look inside the body. The endoscopy procedure uses an endoscope to examine the interior of a hollow organ or cavity of the body. Unlike many other medical imaging techniques, endoscopes are insert ...
. Hippocrates often used lifestyle modifications such as
diet
Diet may refer to:
Food
* Diet (nutrition), the sum of the food consumed by an organism or group
* Dieting, the deliberate selection of food to control body weight or nutrient intake
** Diet food, foods that aid in creating a diet for weight loss ...
and
exercise
Exercise is a body activity that enhances or maintains physical fitness and overall health and wellness.
It is performed for various reasons, to aid growth and improve strength, develop muscles and the cardiovascular system, hone athletic ...
to treat diseases such as
diabetes
Diabetes, also known as diabetes mellitus, is a group of metabolic disorders characterized by a high blood sugar level ( hyperglycemia) over a prolonged period of time. Symptoms often include frequent urination, increased thirst and increased ap ...
, what is today called
lifestyle medicine
Lifestyle medicine is a branch of medicine focused on preventive healthcare and self-care dealing with research, prevention, and treatment of disorders caused by lifestyle factors and preventable causes of death such as nutrition, physical inacti ...
.
Two popular but likely misquoted attributions to Hippocrates are "Let food be your medicine, and medicine be your food" and "Walking is man's best medicine". Both appear to be misquotations, and their exact origins remain unknown.
In 2017, researchers claimed that, while conducting restorations on the
Saint Catherine's Monastery
Saint Catherine's Monastery ( ar, دير القدّيسة كاترين; grc-gre, Μονὴ τῆς Ἁγίας Αἰκατερίνης), officially the Sacred Autonomous Royal Monastery of Saint Katherine of the Holy and God-Trodden Mount Sinai, ...
in
South Sinai
South Sinai Governorate ( ar, محافظة جنوب سيناء ') is the least populated governorate of Egypt. It is located in the east of the country, encompassing the southern half of the Sinai Peninsula. Saint Catherine's Monastery, an Easte ...
, they found a manuscript which contains a medical recipe of Hippocrates. The manuscript also contains three recipes with pictures of herbs that were created by an anonymous scribe.
Hippocratic Corpus
The Hippocratic Corpus (Latin: ''Corpus Hippocraticum'') is a collection of around seventy early medical works collected in
Alexandrian Greece.
It is written in
Ionic Greek
Ionic Greek ( grc, Ἑλληνικὴ Ἰωνική, Hellēnikē Iōnikē) was a subdialect of the Attic–Ionic or Eastern dialect group of Ancient Greek.
History
The Ionic dialect appears to have originally spread from the Greek mainland ac ...
. The question of whether Hippocrates himself was the author of any of the treatises in the corpus has not been conclusively answered,
but current debate revolves around only a few of the treatises seen as potentially authored by him. Because of the variety of subjects, writing styles and apparent date of construction, the Hippocratic Corpus could not have been written by one person (Ermerins numbers the authors at nineteen).
The corpus came to be known by his name because of his fame, possibly all medical works were classified under 'Hippocrates' by a librarian in
Alexandria
Alexandria ( or ; ar, ٱلْإِسْكَنْدَرِيَّةُ ; grc-gre, Αλεξάνδρεια, Alexándria) is the second largest city in Egypt, and the largest city on the Mediterranean coast. Founded in by Alexander the Great, Alexandria ...
.
The volumes were probably produced by his students and followers.
The Hippocratic Corpus contains textbooks, lectures, research, notes and philosophical essays on various subjects in medicine, in no particular order.
These works were written for different audiences, both specialists and laymen, and were sometimes written from opposing viewpoints; significant contradictions can be found between works in the Corpus.
Notable among the treatises of the Corpus are ''
The Hippocratic Oath
The Hippocratic Oath is an oath of ethics historically taken by physicians. It is one of the most widely known of Greek medical texts. In its original form, it requires a new physician to swear, by a number of healing gods, to uphold specific e ...
''; ''The Book of Prognostics''; ''On Regimen in Acute Diseases''; ''
Aphorisms
An aphorism (from Ancient Greek, Greek ἀφορισμός: ''aphorismos'', denoting 'delimitation', 'distinction', and 'definition') is a concise, terse, laconic, or memorable expression of a general truth or principle. Aphorisms are often hand ...
''; ''On Airs, Waters and Places''; ''Instruments of Reduction''; ''On The Sacred Disease''; etc.
Hippocratic Oath
The
Hippocratic Oath
The Hippocratic Oath is an oath of ethics historically taken by physicians. It is one of the most widely known of Greek medical texts. In its original form, it requires a new physician to swear, by a number of healing gods, to uphold specific e ...
, a seminal document on the
ethics
Ethics or moral philosophy is a branch of philosophy that "involves systematizing, defending, and recommending concepts of right and wrong behavior".''Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy'' The field of ethics, along with aesthetics, concerns m ...
of medical practice, was attributed to Hippocrates in antiquity although new information shows it may have been written after his death. This is probably the most famous document of the Hippocratic Corpus. Recently the authenticity of the document's author has come under scrutiny. While the Oath is rarely used in its original form today, it serves as a foundation for other, similar
oath
Traditionally an oath (from Anglo-Saxon ', also called plight) is either a statement of fact or a promise taken by a sacrality as a sign of verity. A common legal substitute for those who conscientiously object to making sacred oaths is to ...
s and laws that define good medical practice and morals.
Such derivatives are regularly taken today by medical graduates about to enter medical practice.
Legacy
Although Hippocrates neither founded the school of medicine named after him, nor wrote most of the treatises attributed to him, he is traditionally regarded as the "Father of Medicine". His contributions revolutionized the practice of medicine; but after his death the advancement stalled.
So revered was Hippocrates that his teachings were largely taken as too great to be improved upon and no significant advancements of his methods were made for a long time.
The centuries after Hippocrates' death were marked as much by retrograde movement as by further advancement. For instance, "after the Hippocratic period, the practice of taking clinical case-histories died out," according to
Fielding Garrison
Colonel Fielding Hudson Garrison, MD (November 5, 1870 – April 18, 1935) was an acclaimed medical historian, bibliographer, and librarian of medicine. Garrison's '' An Introduction to the History of Medicine'' (1913) is a landmark text in ...
.
After Hippocrates, another significant physician was
Galen
Aelius Galenus or Claudius Galenus ( el, Κλαύδιος Γαληνός; September 129 – c. AD 216), often Anglicized as Galen () or Galen of Pergamon, was a Greek physician, surgeon and philosopher in the Roman Empire. Considered to be one of ...
, a
Greek
Greek may refer to:
Greece
Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe:
*Greeks, an ethnic group.
*Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family.
**Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...
who lived from AD 129 to AD 200. Galen perpetuated the tradition of Hippocratic medicine, making some advancements, but also some regressions.
In the
Middle Ages
In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire a ...
, the Islamic world adopted Hippocratic methods and developed new medical technologies. After the
European Renaissance
The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history marking the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and covering the 15th and 16th centuries, characterized by an effort to revive and surpass ideas ...
, Hippocratic methods were revived in western Europe and even further expanded in the 19th century. Notable among those who employed Hippocrates' rigorous clinical techniques were
Thomas Sydenham
Thomas Sydenham (10 September 1624 – 29 December 1689) was an English physician. He was the author of ''Observationes Medicae'' which became a standard textbook of medicine for two centuries so that he became known as 'The English Hippocrate ...
,
William Heberden
William Heberden FRS (13 August 171017 May 1801) was an English physician.
Life
He was born in London, where he received the early part of his education at St Saviour's Grammar School. Full text at Internet Archive (archive.org) At the end of ...
,
Jean-Martin Charcot
Jean-Martin Charcot (; 29 November 1825 – 16 August 1893) was a French neurology, neurologist and professor of anatomical pathology. He worked on hypnosis and hysteria, in particular with his hysteria patient Louise Augustine Gleizes. Charcot ...
and
William Osler
Sir William Osler, 1st Baronet, (; July 12, 1849 – December 29, 1919) was a Canadian physician and one of the "Big Four" founding professors of Johns Hopkins Hospital. Osler created the first Residency (medicine), residency program for spec ...
.
Henri Huchard
Henri Huchard (4 April 1844 – 1 December 1910) was a French neurologist and cardiologist born in Auxon, Aube.
He studied medicine at the University of Paris, later being appointed ''médecin des hôpitaux''. During his career he was associate ...
, a French physician, said that these revivals make up "the whole history of internal medicine."
Image
According to
Aristotle
Aristotle (; grc-gre, Ἀριστοτέλης ''Aristotélēs'', ; 384–322 BC) was a Greek philosopher and polymath during the Classical period in Ancient Greece. Taught by Plato, he was the founder of the Peripatetic school of phil ...
's testimony, Hippocrates was known as "The Great Hippocrates".
Concerning his disposition, Hippocrates was first portrayed as a "kind, dignified, old country doctor" and later as "stern and forbidding".
He is certainly considered wise, of very great intellect and especially as very practical.
Francis Adams describes him as "strictly the physician of experience and common sense."
His image as the wise, old doctor is reinforced by busts of him, which wear large beards on a wrinkled face. Many physicians of the time wore their hair in the style of
Jove
Jupiter ( la, Iūpiter or , from Proto-Italic "day, sky" + "father", thus " sky father" Greek: Δίας or Ζεύς), also known as Jove ( gen. ''Iovis'' ), is the god of the sky and thunder, and king of the gods in ancient Roman religio ...
and
Asklepius
Asclepius (; grc-gre, Ἀσκληπιός ''Asklēpiós'' ; la, Aesculapius) is a hero and god of medicine in ancient Greek religion and mythology. He is the son of Apollo and Coronis, or Arsinoe, or of Apollo alone. Asclepius represen ...
. Accordingly, the busts of Hippocrates that have been found could be only altered versions of portraits of these deities.
Hippocrates and the beliefs that he embodied are considered medical ideals.
Fielding Garrison
Colonel Fielding Hudson Garrison, MD (November 5, 1870 – April 18, 1935) was an acclaimed medical historian, bibliographer, and librarian of medicine. Garrison's '' An Introduction to the History of Medicine'' (1913) is a landmark text in ...
, an authority on medical history, stated, "He is, above all, the exemplar of that flexible, critical, well-poised attitude of mind, ever on the lookout for sources of error, which is the very essence of the scientific spirit."
"His figure... stands for all time as that of the ideal physician," according to ''A Short History of Medicine'', inspiring the medical profession since his death.
Legends
''
The Travels of Sir John Mandeville
Sir John Mandeville is the supposed author of ''The Travels of Sir John Mandeville'', a travel memoir which first circulated between 1357 and 1371. The earliest-surviving text is in French.
By aid of translations into many other languages, the ...
'' reports (incorrectly) that Hippocrates was the ruler of the islands of "Kos and Lango"
ic and recounts a legend about Hippocrates' daughter. She was transformed into a hundred-foot long
dragon
A dragon is a reptilian legendary creature that appears in the folklore of many cultures worldwide. Beliefs about dragons vary considerably through regions, but dragons in western cultures since the High Middle Ages have often been depicted as ...
by the goddess
Diana, and is the "lady of the manor" of an old castle. She emerges three times a year, and will be turned back into a woman if a knight kisses her, making the knight into her consort and ruler of the islands. Various knights try, but flee when they see the hideous dragon; they die soon thereafter. This is a version of the legend of
Melusine
Mélusine () or Melusina is a figure of European folklore, a female spirit of fresh water in a holy well or river. She is usually depicted as a woman who is a serpent or fish from the waist down (much like a lamia or a mermaid). She is also s ...
.
Namesakes
Some clinical symptoms and signs have been named after Hippocrates as he is believed to be the first person to describe those.
Hippocratic face
The Hippocratic facies ( la, facies Hippocratica, links=no) is the change produced in the face recognisable as a medical sign known as facies and prognostic of death. It may also be seen as due to long illness, excessive defecation, or excessive ...
is the change produced in the countenance by death, or long sickness, excessive evacuations, excessive hunger, and the like.
Clubbing, a deformity of the fingers and fingernails, is also known as Hippocratic fingers.
Hippocratic succussion is the internal splashing noise of
hydropneumothorax
Hydropneumothorax is defined as the presence of both air and fluid within the pleural space. An upright chest x-ray will show air fluid levels. The horizontal fluid level is usually well defined and extends across the whole length of one of the he ...
or
pyopneumothorax.
Hippocratic bench (a device which uses tension to aid in setting bones) and
Hippocratic cap-shaped bandage are two devices named after Hippocrates.
Hippocratic Corpus
The Hippocratic Corpus (Latin: ''Corpus Hippocraticum''), or Hippocratic Collection, is a collection of around 60 early Ancient Greek medical works strongly associated with the physician Hippocrates and his teachings. The Hippocratic Corpus cove ...
and
Hippocratic Oath
The Hippocratic Oath is an oath of ethics historically taken by physicians. It is one of the most widely known of Greek medical texts. In its original form, it requires a new physician to swear, by a number of healing gods, to uphold specific e ...
are also his namesakes.
Risus sardonicus
''Risus sardonicus'' or rictus grin is a highly characteristic, abnormal, sustained spasm of the facial muscles that appears to produce grinning. It may be caused by tetanus, strychnine poisoning, or Wilson's disease, and has been reported after j ...
, a sustained spasming of the face muscles may also be termed the Hippocratic Smile. The most severe form of hair loss and baldness is called the Hippocratic form.
[ ]
In the modern age, a lunar crater has been named
Hippocrates
Hippocrates of Kos (; grc-gre, Ἱπποκράτης ὁ Κῷος, Hippokrátēs ho Kôios; ), also known as Hippocrates II, was a Greek physician of the classical period who is considered one of the most outstanding figures in the history of ...
. The
Hippocratic Museum
The Hippocratic Museum is a museum, on the Greek island of Kos. Its exhibits display the history of the Hippocratic Foundation of Kos, which is dedicated to transmitting knowledge about Hippocrates, as well as founding hospitals and institutes. Th ...
, a
museum
A museum ( ; plural museums or, rarely, musea) is a building or institution that cares for and displays a collection of artifacts and other objects of artistic, cultural, historical, or scientific importance. Many public museums make these ...
on the Greek island of Kos is dedicated to him.
The Hippocrates Project is a program of the
New York University
New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then-Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin.
In 1832, the ...
Medical Center to enhance education through use of technology.
Project Hippocrates (an acronym of "HIgh PerfOrmance Computing for Robot-AssisTEd Surgery") is an effort of the
Carnegie Mellon School of Computer Science
The School of Computer Science (SCS) at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, US is a school for computer science established in 1988. It has been consistently ranked among the top computer science programs over the decades. A ...
and
Shadyside Medical Center, "to develop advanced planning, simulation, and execution technologies for the next generation of computer-assisted surgical robots."
Both th
Canadian Hippocratic Registryand
American Hippocratic Registry
American(s) may refer to:
* American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America"
** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America
** American ancestry, pe ...
are organizations of physicians who uphold the principles of the original Hippocratic Oath as inviolable through changing social times.
Genealogy
Hippocrates' legendary genealogy traces his paternal heritage directly to Asklepius and his maternal ancestry to
Heracles
Heracles ( ; grc-gre, Ἡρακλῆς, , glory/fame of Hera), born Alcaeus (, ''Alkaios'') or Alcides (, ''Alkeidēs''), was a divine hero in Greek mythology, the son of Zeus and Alcmene, and the foster son of Amphitryon.By his adoptive ...
.
According to Tzetzes's ''
Chiliades
John Tzetzes ( grc-gre, Ἰωάννης Τζέτζης, Iōánnēs Tzétzēs; c. 1110, Constantinople – 1180, Constantinople) was a Byzantine poet and grammarian who is known to have lived at Constantinople in the 12th century.
He was able to p ...
'', the
ahnentafel
An ''ahnentafel'' (German for "ancestor table"; ) or ''ahnenreihe'' ("ancestor series"; ) is a genealogical numbering system for listing a person's direct ancestors in a fixed sequence of ascent. The subject (or proband) of the ahnentafel is li ...
of Hippocrates II is:
1. Hippocrates II.
2. Heraclides
4. Hippocrates I.
8. Gnosidicus
16.
32. Sostratus III.
64. Theodorus II.
128. Sostratus, II.
256. Thedorus
512. Cleomyttades
1024. Crisamis
2048. Dardanus
4096. Sostratus
8192. Hippolochus
16384.
Podalirius
In Greek mythology, Podalirius or Podaleirius or Podaleirios ( grc, Ποδαλείριος) was a son of Asclepius.
Description
In the account of Dares the Phrygian, Podalirius was illustrated as ". . .sturdy, strong, haughty, and moody."
...
32768.
Asklepius
Asclepius (; grc-gre, Ἀσκληπιός ''Asklēpiós'' ; la, Aesculapius) is a hero and god of medicine in ancient Greek religion and mythology. He is the son of Apollo and Coronis, or Arsinoe, or of Apollo alone. Asclepius represen ...
See also
*
Hippocrates Prize for Poetry and Medicine
The Hippocrates Prize for Poetry and Medicine was founded in 2009 by Donald Singer and Michael Hulse. The founders "wished to draw together national and international perspectives on three major historical and contemporary themes uniting the disc ...
Notes
References
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Further reading
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* Craik, Elizabeth M. (ed., trans., comm.), ''The Hippocratic Treatise'' On glands (Leiden; Boston: Brill, 2009) (Studies in ancient medicine, 36).
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* Enache, Cătălin (2019), ''Ontology and Meteorology in Hippocrates On Regimen, ''Mnemosyne'' 72 (2)
173-96
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Pliny the Elder
Gaius Plinius Secundus (AD 23/2479), called Pliny the Elder (), was a Roman author, naturalist and natural philosopher, and naval and army commander of the early Roman Empire, and a friend of the emperor Vespasian. He wrote the encyclopedic '' ...
, ''
Natural History: Book XXIX.'', translated by
John Bostock
John Joseph Bostock (born 15 January 1992) is an English professional footballer who plays as a midfielder for club Notts County.
Bostock made his professional debut for Crystal Palace at the age of 15. In 2008, he signed for Tottenham Hotsp ...
. See original text i
Perseus program
*
*
*
online free to borrow
External links
*
at th
Corpus Medicorum GraecorumThe Harvard Classics Volume 38 with "The Oath of Hippocrates", project gutenbergHippocrates collection full works in English, a
One More Library*
Hippocratesentry in the
Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy
The ''Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy'' (''IEP'') is a scholarly online encyclopedia, dealing with philosophy, philosophical topics, and philosophers. The IEP combines open access publication with peer reviewed publication of original pape ...
*
First printed editions of the Hippocratic Collectionat the Bibliothèque Interuniversitaire de Médecine of Paris (BIUM) studies and digitized texts by th
BIUM (Bibliothèque interuniversitaire de médecine et d'odontologie, Paris)see its digital librar
with digitized editions, manuscripts and translations.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hippocrates
460s BC births
370s BC deaths
5th-century BC Greek physicians
4th-century BC Greek physicians
Ancient Greek science writers
Ancient Greeks in Thessaly
Ancient Koans
Classical humanists
Ionic Greek writers
Longevity myths
Year of birth uncertain
Year of death uncertain