Hippocrates
(ca.460-ca.377 B.C.E.), a Greek physician, is generally regarded as the father
of medicine. Greek medicine, previous to Hippocrates, was a mixture of religion,
mysticism, and necromancy. Hippocrates established the rational system of
medicine as a science, separating it from religion and philosophy. Diseases
developed from natural causes and natural laws; they were not the "wrath
of the gods." Hippocrates believed that the four elements (earth, air,
fire, and water) were represented in the body by four body fluids (blood,
phlegm, black bile, and yellow bile), or "humors." When they existed
in harmony within the body, the body was in good health. The duty of the
physician was to help nature to restore the body's harmony. Diet, exercise, and
moderation in all things kept the body well, and psychological healing (good
attitude toward recovery), bed rest, and quiet were part of his therapy.
Hippocrates was the first to recognize that different diseases produced
different symptoms; and he described them in such detail that the descriptions
generally would hold today. His descriptions not only included diagnosis but
prognosis. (The Handy Science Answer Book, compiled by the Science and
Technology department of the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh)
Hippocrates
(ca.460-ca.377 B.C.E.), a Greek physician, is generally regarded as the father
of medicine. Greek medicine, previous to Hippocrates, was a mixture of religion,
mysticism, and necromancy. Hippocrates established the rational system of
medicine as a science, separating it from religion and philosophy. Diseases
developed from natural causes and natural laws; they were not the "wrath
of the gods." Hippocrates believed that the four elements (earth, air,
fire, and water) were represented in the body by four body fluids (blood,
phlegm, black bile, and yellow bile), or "humors." When they existed
in harmony within the body, the body was in good health. The duty of the
physician was to help nature to restore the body's harmony. Diet, exercise, and
moderation in all things kept the body well, and psychological healing (good
attitude toward recovery), bed rest, and quiet were part of his therapy.
Hippocrates was the first to recognize that different diseases produced
different symptoms; and he described them in such detail that the descriptions
generally would hold today. His descriptions not only included diagnosis but
prognosis. (The Handy Science Answer Book, compiled by the Science and
Technology department of the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh)