Hippocrates

Hippocrates of Cos (ca. 370 BC – ca. 460 BC) was an ancient Greek physician of the age of Pericles and is considered one of the most outstanding figures in the history of medicine. His father waqs Heraclides, a physician and his mother was Praxitela and his two asons and his son-in-law, were his students. He is refered as the Western father of medicine in recognition of his lasting contributions to the field as the founder of the Hippocrates school of medicine. This intellectual school revolutionized medicine in ancient Greece, establishing it #### as a discipline distinct from other fields that it had traditionally been associated with notably theurgy and philosophy, thus making medicine a profession. However the achievement of the writers of the Corpus, the practitioners of Hippocratic medicine and the actions of Hippocrates himself are often commingled, thus very little is known about what Hippocrates actually thought, wrote and did. Nevertheless Hippocrates is commonly portrayed as the paragon of the ancient physician. In particualr he is credited with greatly advancing the systematic study of clinical medicine. Hippocrates is credited with being the first physician to reject superstitions, legends and beliefs that credited supernatural or divine forces with causing illness. The Hippocratic medicine was very kind to the patient, traetment was gentle and emphasized keeping the patient calm and sterile. Hippocrates and his followers were the first to describe many diseases and clinical conditions. Hippocrates is given credited for the first description of:
Clubbing of the fingers
An important diagnostic sign in chronic
Suppurative lung diseases
Lung cancer
Heart diseases

Works:
1- Hippocratic oath and other works (seminal document on ethics of medical practise)
2- The book of Prognostics
3- On regimen in acute diseases
4- Aphorisms
5- On airs, waters and places
6- On the sacred diseases, stc.

The Hippocratic Corpus contains: textbooks, lectures, research, notes and philosophical essays on various subjects in medicine, in no particular order.

Sources

Keywords