370 BC- Hippocrates was a Greek physician of the Age of Pericles contributed to the field of medicine…
If we seem doubtful of the assumption that one is morally upright simply because he or she has a career in medicine, we are struck with a seemingly viable counterargument: all doctors must take the Hippocratic Oath in which they “solemnly” swear to “uphold a number of professional ethical standards” (www.nlm.nih.gov). If we still remain unconvinced as to the universal rectitude of all clinicians, we are belittled and then told that doctors do have our best intentions in mind, as they spent years and countless amounts of money thoroughly studying every aspect of the human body. For why would anyone spend 12 years and half a million dollars for any other reason than to carefully heal and nurture the body of his fellow man? Most of the time, our reliance on “authority heuristics” is rewarded as it is noted that the “majority of physicians” take the words of Hippocrates to heart and refrain from “abus[ing] their patients” (Pesta 4).…
Some of his other ideas are found in separate writings. In Hippocrates’ “Diseases,” he went further into the ideas of how the body worked, but focused more on the treatments of diseases. He delineated specific treatments for specific diseases throughout the majority of this essay, and went into detail about bleeding people or specific treatments. Treatments were suggested depending on what symptoms or signs the patient was showing. For example, Hippocrates had very deliberate instructions for the sign of a fever. Each treatment was interesting because his instructions were very specific about every step. For example, one of his steps included the instruction to “inject warm wine and oil into through a small tube.” The specificity of his writing indicated that the Greek view on health and maintenance of the body was highly regarded. The level of awareness for differing illness and their treatments showed that it was an important…
production of all animals, and to point, as it were, with a finger to His existence in His works. There Harvey studied under a student of Versalius, Fabricius, who had written a treatise on the valves in veins but hadn’t the vaguest idea about what they did other than that they might slow blood flow Since antiquity till the 18th century, the adjective “hereditary” was the one employed when a given trait was found to characterize a family or another genealogical group. When one reads the treatises that bear Hippocrates’ name, for many of these treatises are believed to have been written not by him but by his followers (1), one is impressed by the clinical acumen in the face of a nearly complete ignorance of the relation of disease to the structure and function of the human body. What remains of Hippocrates today is his “oath” (1); the physicians’ “Sermon on the Mount,” intended to initiate them into one of man’s noblest professions. Their attempts at providing coherent physical and metaphysical accounts of the…
We find that the “oldest written sources of western medicine are The Hippocratic writings from the 5th and 4th centuries BC; which covers all aspects of medicine at that time and contain numerous medical terms.”(Wulff) This was the beginning of the Greek era of the language of medicine, which lasted even after the Roman conquest, since the Romans, who had no similar medical tradition, imported Greek medicine. Most of the doctors practicing in the Roman Empire were Greek. The main reason for this is that the Greeks were the founders of rational medicine in the golden age of Greek civilization in the 5th century BC. The Hippocratic School and, later on, Galen formulated the theories which dominated medicine up to the beginning of the 18th century. The Hippocratic were the first to describe diseases based on observation, and the names given by them to many conditions are still used today. A second reason for the large number of Greek medical terms is that the Greek language lends itself easily to the building of compounds. When new terms were needed, with the rapid expansion of medical science during the last century, Greek words or Latin words with Greek endings were used to express the new ideas, conditions, or instruments. The new words follow the older models so closely that it is impossible to distinguish the two by their forms. The fact is that about one-half of our medical terminology is less than a century old. A third reason for using the classical roots is that they form an international language, easily understood by anyone familiar with the…
Before the progression of the 19th century people generally believed that practicing medicine was revolved around the belief in the four humors which consisted of black, yellow, blood and pleam. It was believed that if an imbalance of any of these bile’s were to occur, that diseases were sure to stem from them. Practices like bloodletting and exorcisms were performed to combat these imbalances. Although there was no real proof of these four biles or their connections with diseases, doctors continued their search the fact that doctors could do relatively little to treat disease during that time meant that they were not always…
According to Galen, a later physician, Polybus was Hippocrates' true successor, while Thessalus and Draco each had a son named Hippocrates. Soranus said that Hippocrates learned medicine from his father and grandfather, and studied other subjects with Democritus and Gorgias. Hippocrates was probably trained at the asklepieion of Kos, and took lessons from the Thracian physician Herodicus of Selymbria. The only contemporaneous mention of Hippocrates is in Plato's dialogue Protagoras, where Plato describes Hippocrates as "Hippocrates of Kos, the Asclepiad".Hippocrates taught and practiced medicine throughout his life, traveling at least as far as Thessaly, Thrace, and the Sea of Marmara. He probably died in Larissa at the age of 83 or 90, though some accounts say…
This is known as the Hippocratic Oath. When taking this oath, the participant obligates himself to use his best ability and judgment in treating people and to save lives while rejecting medicine or advice that might lead to death (Green, 1990). Hippocrates also left historical records of pain relief treatments, including the use of powder made from the bark and leaves of the willow tree to help heal headaches, pains and fevers. Today, this powder is called Aspirin. Hippocrates explored the use of many common plants: hellebore, garlic, mercurialis, celery, leek, flax, anise, beet, and cabbage among others.…
Bibliography: Pbs.org,. 'NOVA | The Hippocratic Oath Today '. Last modified 2014. Accessed September 12, 2014. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/body/hippocratic-oath-today.html.…
For a long time, rationalists and doctors gave diverse clarifications for irregular practices. Hippocrates showed that ailments had common causes. His impression of anomalous conduct was as an infection from inward physical issues. He trusted a type of mind pathology was the reason and came about because of a lopsidedness of the four humors, liquids that coursed through the body. The four humors were as per the following: yellow bile, dark bile, blood, and mucus.…
However, with Hippocrates came the Hippocratic method and the Hippocratic oath, which are both still heavily utilized today. Roy Porter described both of these well as “ humoralism which dominated classical medicine and formed its heritage lay in its comprehensive explanatory scheme, which drew upon bold archetypal contrast” (Porter, 30) and “This humane disposition demonstrated the physician's devotion to his art rather than fame or fortune, and consoled anxious patients.” (Porter, 30). These ideas are prevalent because we still use them today. However, today we focus more on “the appropriate behavior that doctors ought to adopt with their patients” (Bynum, 23). When a physician knows the in and outs of a person’s daily habits and health it…
During the Golden age of Greece, which was also known as the “Age of Pericles”(480-408 BCE) Athens flourished as a center of not only education but also, art, culture and democracy. Throughout this time of prosperity, success, and profitability, the Athenians set the foundation for most of the ideologies today, such as democracy, Literature, medicine, and mathematics. Hippocrates was an ancient Greek…
"According to this theory, the human body had four humors: yellow bile, which was hot and dry; blood, which was hot and moist; black bile, which was cold and dry; and phlegm, which was cold and moist." (Corzine 59) These four humors were also linked with the four elements of the earth: fire, air, earth, and water. If someone was deeply ill, physicians believed that the humors in the body were imbalanced. If the humors were balanced, then the person would be perfectly healthy. Certain emotions were also used to distinguish people who had an excess of a certain humor. "An individual's temperament was determined by the predominance of one or more of the humors." (60) For example, for a person who had too much blood, they tended to act happily. If they were dull, they'd have too much phlegm and if they had too much black bile, physicians would "prescribe a hot and wet medicament." (Bruccoli 440) However, physicians often used Phlebotomy to cure these humor imbalances in a person but instead of curing, they were killing them…
These monasteries were the first hospitals, and they used herbs to make medicine. Because medicine was influenced by religious ideas, it was believed that sickness and injuries were healed by faith, leading to many advances in medicine. According to Aristotle and Galen, there were four temperaments in a body. They were blood, phlegm, yellow bile, and black bile.…
During the reign of Henry VIII (1485-1509) in England, the royal confiscation of monastic land s and church properties put a huge crutch on the entire charitable system. Between 1536 and 1544, one would have to search far and wide for medical help, and there was absolutely no help for indigent people in the city of London. In 1569, royal hospitals were finally restored, including Christ's Hospital for Children, St. Mary's of Bethlem for mental cases, and general hospitals such as St. Bartholomew's and St. Thomas'. However, hospitals were not the only options for a sick individual. Queen Elizabeth I's reign (1558-1603) brought the restoration of general charity, and there were many types of professionals and individuals to turn to for seeking medicals attention. As a result of this broad spectrum of medical choices, a mixture of the theory of Humors, the Doctrine of Signatures, astrology, tradition, chemical science, and magic became the basis…