''On the Nature of Man'' is a work in 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 cov ...

. ''On the Nature of Man'' is attributed to Polybus, the son in law and disciple of

Hippocrates Hippocrates of Kos (; ; ), also known as Hippocrates II, was a Greek physician and philosopher of the Classical Greece, classical period who is considered one of the most outstanding figures in the history of medicine. He is traditionally referr ...

, through a testimony from

Aristotle Aristotle (; 384–322 BC) was an Ancient Greek philosophy, Ancient Greek philosopher and polymath. His writings cover a broad range of subjects spanning the natural sciences, philosophy, linguistics, economics, politics, psychology, a ...

's ''

History of Animals ''History of Animals'' (, ''Ton peri ta zoia historion'', "Inquiries on Animals"; , "History of Animals") is one of the major texts on biology by the ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle. It was written in sometime between the mid-fourth centur ...

''. However, as with the many other works of the Hippocratic Corpus, the authorship is regarded as dubious in origin. ''On the Nature of Man'' attempts to explain the human body in its

anatomy Anatomy () is the branch of morphology concerned with the study of the internal 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 scien ...

and composition. The content is based on observation and defended by logical explanations of the causes of each disease in order to readily meet outside criticism. It places emphasis on disease not being of divine origin, but rather an imbalance of the four

humors 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 17th c ...

(collection of blood, phlegm, black bile, and yellow bile) in the body. This was the first introduction of the theory of four humors which was used to explain and diagnose any disease or ailment as an imbalance of these four humors in the body excluding health issues that arose from an outside source.

Summary

''On the Nature of Man'' shares the general Hippocratic interest in

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 17th ce ...

and in such treatments as

bloodletting Bloodletting (or blood-letting) was the deliberate withdrawal of blood from a patient to prevent or cure illness and disease. Bloodletting, whether by a physician or by leeches, was based on an ancient system of medicine in which blood and othe ...

. Bloodletting is the procedure performed in order to regulate the patient's four humors:

"Furthermore, one must know that diseases due to repletion are cured by evacuation, and those due to evacuation are cured by repletion; those due to exercise are cured by rest, and those due to idleness are cured by exercise."

''On the Nature of Man'' gives first hand accounts and explanations of individual medical cases. For example,

dysentery Dysentery ( , ), historically known as the bloody flux, is a type of gastroenteritis that results in bloody diarrhea. Other symptoms may include fever, abdominal pain, and a feeling of incomplete defecation. Complications may include dehyd ...

and nosebleeds occur in the spring and summer because this is when the blood is at its hottest. Hippocrates concludes that the degree of damage a given disease can do to a person depends on its nature. The most serious of illnesses are those that affect the strongest part of the body. If the strongest part of the body is affected, then the weak parts are easily affected and may cause death. However, if a disease starts in a weak area of the body, often it is curable. Each humor had its own temperament and nature: Blood being hot and wet, phlegm being cold and wet, black bile being cold and dry, and yellow bile being hot and dry. These matched up each humor with one of the four seasons that had the same characteristics. It was a practice to change one's routine to keep these humors in balance as the weather and seasons changed. The theory of the four humors was its own theory of science and medicine. Even with clear parallels to the theory of the four elements of air, water, fire, and earth they draw no connections to the theory of the four humors. This theory of the four humors known 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 17th ce ...

was critical in the field of medicine for centuries until it was ultimately replaced by

germ theory The germ theory of disease is the currently accepted scientific theory for many diseases. It states that microorganisms known as pathogens or "germs" can cause disease. These small organisms, which are too small to be seen without magnification, ...

in the late 1800s. The lasting impact of ''On the Nature of Man'' was extremally significant in the field of medicine and was critical to all the teaching in

. Commentaries by

Galen Aelius Galenus or Claudius Galenus (; September 129 – AD), often Anglicization, anglicized as Galen () or Galen of Pergamon, was a Ancient Rome, Roman and Greeks, Greek physician, surgeon, and Philosophy, philosopher. Considered to be one o ...

of ''On the Nature of Man'' years credit it with being the basis of Hippocratic medicine and gave ''On the Nature of'' Man much greater prestige and lasting impact on science and medicine as a whole. It was Galen that added to the theory of the four humors and made it much more fleshed out in his commentary of ''On the Nature of Man'' that made the theory of the four humors so prominent and well known and ''On the Nature Man'' that started all of these ideas and medical theories.

Notes

References

* * *{{cite book , last=Gillispie , first=Charles Coulston , author-link=Charles Coulston Gillispie , title=Dictionary of Scientific Biography , volume=VI , pages=419–427 , year=1972 , publisher=Charles Scribner's Sons , location=New York *Jouanna, Jacques; Allies, Neil (2012), van der Eijk, Philip (ed.), "THE LEGACY OF THE HIPPOCRATIC TREATISE THE NATURE OF MAN: THE THEORY OF THE FOUR HUMOURS", ''Greek Medicine from Hippocrates to Galen'', Selected Papers, Brill, pp. 335–360.

External links

English translation and Greek text
by W.H.S. Jones (

Loeb Classical Library The Loeb Classical Library (LCL; named after James Loeb; , ) is a monographic series of books originally published by Heinemann and since 1934 by Harvard University Press. It has bilingual editions of ancient Greek and Latin literature, ...

, 1931)
Greek text, French translation, and commentary
by Jacques Jouanna (''CMG'', 2nd edition, 2002) Ancient Greek medical works Humorism