Ancient Greek Medicine Essay

Ancient Greek medicines had a great influence and contributed part of the foundation of medical knowledge in today’s medicine. 1000 years before the birth of Christ, the Greeks were practicing medicine and the importance of physicians had already been recognised. Besides physicians, government, and research at that time also played an important role in development of medication.

Alexander the Great who conquered most of the known world, was Aristotle most illustrious and influential pupil. He helped to develop medicine by spreading Aristotle’s teachings far and wide throughout Greece, India, Persia, the Middle East as well as Egypt. The city of Alexandria was founded by Alexander and it turned into a great centre of Greek medicine, science
and learning. In 330 B.C.E., the school of medicine in Alexandria, Empirical School was founded. It attracted the best medical scholars as well as physicians from Greece and it became instrumental in the transmission of Greek Medicine to Rome after the Roman conquest Egypt. [7]

Development of the art of medicine was continued by ancient Greek physicians using the medical knowledge from the Egyptians.
[1] One of the most well known Greek physicians was Hippocrates of Cos, the “Father of Modern Medicine” who believed that medicine should be separated from the divine which go against most Greeks’ belief that if they pray to the great temples, Aesclepions, and God of Medicine, Asclepius, their ailments could be healed. [1] The Hippocratic Corpus is a collection of 60 early Ancient Greek medical works, written by Hippocrates and his students. [2][3] The Hippocratic Oath is one of the most famous works in the Corpus and it was the first proposed document that set an ethical standard for doctors which is still used by the doctor today.
[1][4]

Besides, Hippocrates also suggested observing the patient in a systemic period and then recording the observations, which is called “clinical observation” today. [1][5] Thought of Hippocratic influenced the Greek doctors to practice two-way interaction between patient and doctor which is to study patients’ history case, find out more about the patients by asking questions before come out with the diagnosis. This has become the foundation of the history of medicine and the modern practitioners are still following it. [1] Clubbing of the fingers means the fingertips become rounder than normal and spread out, is a sign of lung cancer, cyanotic heart disease and chronic suppurative lung disease. It was first described by Hippocrates in details. [3][9] Today, some of the doctors will refer clubbed fingers as “Hippocratic fingers” when making a diagnosis. [3]

He is also known for his theory of humors which were the yellow bile, black bile, blood and phlegm that reflect the balance of human body.
[1][7] The four humors in human body were then linked to four elements such as earth, air, fire and water as well as four seasons which are summer, autumn, winter and spring. It is believed that an imbalance in any of these would cause ailments and illness. However the balance of the humours can be restored by bloodletting because the elements were thought to be present in the blood. [8] Today leeches are also used as bloodletting in surgery for restoration of blood circulation and healing of skin grafts.
[8]

The new way of thinking of the two famous philosophers, Aristotle and Plato had influenced medical practice and research by concluding that afterlife, the human body had no further use. This line of thought spread and influenced the Greek doctors at Alexandria, Egypt. So they started studying dead bodies by dissecting them. Bodies of live criminal were even dissected, granting them a deeper understanding of the many mechanisms involved in a human’s body. [6] Through the teachings of Aristotle and Plato, the Greeks (Herophilus and Erasistratus) were able to discover the human body internally via a systemic approach.
One of the most notable surgeons of that time, Herophilus of Chalcedon practiced dissections on human corpse publicly. He is known as the Father of Anatomy as he brought a great contribution to medical science. He conducted many important anatomical investigations on eyes, brain, vascular and nervous system.[12] Moreover, he also made many anatomical discoveries and introduced scientific terms used to this day such as duodenum, cerebrum, cerebellum, calamus scriptorius, and torcular Herophili which was named after him. [10][11] He also concluded that brain controlled the movement of limbs but not the heart. His contemporary, Erasistratus of Chios viewed the brain as the source of intelligence and found out that the intelligence is depend on the number of convolutions by comparing the brains between human and animals.[13]
In conclusion, the root of the modern history of medicine is lay by the Greeks as the most modern methods of diagnosis, treatment and disease prevention were adapted from the principles as well as the theories of ancient Greek medicine. Even some of the equipment used by the Greeks physician such as scalpels, forceps, tooth-extraction forceps, catheters and syringes were still recognisable today.