Hipocrate

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.

Hippocrates of Cos -- about 460 BC - 377 BC. Ancient Greek physician, commonly regarded one of the most outstanding figures in medicine of all times. He is often called "the father of medicine". He was the leader of a medical school of Cos and the author of most of writings of the school. He had a great impact on succeeding generations of practitioners of medicine and some general rules still apply. His work and writings rejected the superstition and magic of primitive "medicine" and laid the foundations of medicine as a branch of science. The whole collection of works of the Hippocratic medical school were gathered as the Hippocratic Corpus. The best known of the Hippocratic writings is the Hippocratic Oath.

Greek physician, recognized as the father of medicine. He is believed to have been born on the island of Cos, to have studied under his father, a physician, to have traveled for some time, perhaps studying in Athens, and to have then returned to practice, teach, and write at Cos. The Hippocratic or Coan school that formed around him was of enormous importance in separating medicine from superstition and philosophic speculation, placing it on a strictly scientific plane based on objective observation and critical deductive reasoning.

Although Hippocrates followed the current belief that disease resulted from an imbalance of the four bodily humors , he maintained that the disturbance was influenced by outside forces and that the humors were glandular secretions. He believed that the goal of medicine should be to build the patient's strength through appropriate diet and hygienic measures, resorting to more drastic treatment only when the symptoms showed this to be necessary. This was in contrast to the contemporary Cnidian school, which stressed detailed diagnosis and classification of diseases to the point of ignoring the patient. Hippocrates probably had an inkling of Mendelian and genomic factors in heredity, because

he noted not only many of the signs of disease but also that symptoms could appear throughout a family or a community, or even over successive generations.

Of the large collection of writings that derived from the Coan school, only a few are generally ascribed to Hippocrates himself, although his influence is felt throughout. Of these, The Aphorisms, summing up his observations and deductions, and Airs, Waters, and Places, which recognized a link between environment and disease, are considered the most important. The collection has appeared in a number of translations, notably that of Littré.

While the Hippocratic oath cannot be directly credited to him either, it undoubtedly represents his ideals and principles. The oath, which still governs the ethical conduct of physicians today, is often recited at the graduation ceremonies of medical schools. Among other things the oath details codes of patients's right to privacy, asks the physician to pledge to lead an honorable personal and professional life, and requires that he or she prescribe treatments only for curative purposes.

During the time when Hippocrates lived, people were very superstitious. * They believed that there were four fluids in the body that matched four elements; earth, air, fire and water. They would carry sick people to the temple so that 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 that 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 that 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.