The ancient Greek physician Hippocrates, whose biography is described below, left a noticeable mark in the history of medicine. Apparently, his fame was significant during his lifetime, about 2.5 thousand years ago. However, exact information about Hippocrates was practically gone. The first biography of the ancient Greek healer was written several centuries after his death. It is also not known for certain which of the surviving works Hippocrates wrote. However, its importance for the development of medicine is difficult to overestimate.
The doctor in the seventeenth knee
There is no exact information about the place where Hippocrates was born. A biography written by Soran of Ephesus 600 years after the death of a doctor indicates the island of Kos. Hippocrates was supposedly born around 460 BC. e. Many of the information provided by Soran clearly indicate that the author used his own imagination to fill in the missing information. Today it is considered true that Hippocrates came from a family of doctors. He was a descendant in the seventeenth tribe of the great Asclepius. The father of the healer was Heraclides, whose family was led from Heracles himself.
Often in literature you can find the name "Hippocrates II." That’s the name of the doctor, because Hippocrates I was his grandfather, who taught the young man medicine. Many knowledge, leaving a house on the Spit, he acquired in the Book. Among the teachers of Hippocrates are Herodicus and sophist Gorgius.
Wandering doctor
Hippocrates did not sit still waiting for patients. He improved his knowledge and skills, passing from city to city. In the process of such wanderings, the glory of the great healer was formed. Some ancient Greek sources claim that Hippocrates left the island of Kos, because there he was accused of arson. Now it is not possible to confirm this information. An indirect evidence of the doctor’s wanderings is that the scene in the treatise “Epidemics” attributed to Hippocrates occurs outside of his native island of Kos, on Thasos and in the city of Abder.
Estimated place and time of death
The ancient Greek physician Hippocrates, as indicated in most sources, lived a long life, even by modern standards. Authors of biographies diverge at the exact age at which he died. The numbers 83, 90 and 104 are called. Perhaps such a respectful age is a testament to the talent that Hippocrates was famous for. His biography most often ends with an indication that the healer spent the last years in the city of Larris. There he died, presumably in the same year as Democritus (approximately 370 BC).
Hippocrates: Contribution to Biology and Medicine
According to historical data, in ancient Greece at different times seven doctors lived with the name of Hippocrates. To determine which of the surviving works on medicine belongs to one or another of them is almost impossible today. In those days, it was not customary to sign scientific treatises. The most famous work on the medicine of Antiquity is called the “Hippocrates Corps,” however it is not an article by one author, but a collection of works by several healers. It was composed in the III century. BC e. in Alexandria. The collection combines 72 texts of medical subjects written in the Ionian dialect of the Greek language and dating from the 5th – 4th centuries. BC e.
Among this collection, only 4 works are attributed to Hippocrates:
- "Aphorisms";
- "Epidemics";
- “Forecasting”;
- "About air, waters, localities."
The first of them is the only one whose authorship with great confidence belongs precisely to Hippocrates. “Aphorisms” is a collection of tips and observations, possibly taken from other works. Here you can find statements of a general philosophical nature and accurate medical conclusions.
"Prognosis" laid the foundation for the diagnosis. The work gives the basics of ancient Greek therapy. Hippocrates, who left a noticeable mark in biology and medicine, was the first to describe the methods of examining the patient and observing him, options for the development of various ailments, their characteristic signs and treatment.
Hippocrates provides a more detailed description of the diseases known at that time in the Epidemics. Among the 42 ailments included in the treatise, there are sexually transmitted diseases, colds and skin, as well as various paralyzes, consumption, and so on.
The Four Temperaments of Hippocrates
The treatise “On Air, Water, Terrain” for the first time in history describes the effect of the environment on the health and predisposition of some people to specific ailments. This work sets forth the teachings of Hippocrates on four bodily juices: bile, mucus, black bile and blood. The predominance of each of them causes certain disturbances in the body, a predisposition to certain diseases. In the Middle Ages, on the basis of this theory, there was an idea of four temperaments:
- sanguine (blood predominates);
- phlegmatic (mucus);
- choleric (bile);
- melancholic (black bile).
This theory is often attributed to Hippocrates himself, which is not true. The physician did not divide people according to their character traits, but according to their predisposition to diseases.
Hippocrates, whose biography is given in the article, laid the foundation for a scientific approach to treatment. His name is on a par with the great Greeks: Aristotle, Socrates, Democritus and Pericles.