Despite all of the Western medical advances in the past couple of years, do not think the West went unaided. Many forget who some of the first pioneers of medicine were. Does Hippocrates sound familiar? Greek physicians were some of the first to set the morals of medicine that are used today. Without those morals or standards, Hippocratic medicine wouldn’t exist and underdeveloped medicine would take its place. Ordinary checkups and lifesaving surgeries would be completely different experiences than the ones many face today. Greek medicine contributed greatly to modern medicine and continues to inspire new physicians each day.
Before Hippocrates, sickness was thought of differently. Instead of being a religious matter, internal diseases were considered a religious matter (Sigerest 23). Many notions about ancient Greek medicine were solely guessed on hints given in some stories like Homer’s epics, the Odyssey and the Iliad. Around the time of Homer in the eighth century B.C., gods were believed to not only cast ailment, but to also heal it (Sigerest 19, 22). In the Iliad, there was a physician and god by the name of Asclepius who was son of Apollo. He is often shown with a snake and staff (Porter 52). This image explains the symbol of medicine, a staff and a snake wrapped around it. The Greek god Asclepius is the source for the medicine symbol that is universally known around the world.
A Milesian philosopher name Anaximander who lived around 560 B.C. believed there were four main elements that formed the world: fire, water, earth, and air (Sigerest 91). Although this theory was wrong, it later helped Hippocrates set up his beliefs about illness. Surgery, surgical tools, and medical schools were introduced in the late sixth ce...
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... find an oath that is very valuable. It states the morals and values that a doctor should have. Many new doctors are stating their beliefs of morally good healthcare through the words of the oath. Without the contribution of Greek medicine, modern medicine would not be the way it is today.
Works Cited
BARBATO, ANTHONY L., and ROGER J. BULGER. "On the Hippocratic Sources of Western Medical Practice." The Hastings Center Report July 2000: S4. Academic OneFile. Web. 14 Apr. 2014.
Clendening, Logan. Source Book of Medical History. New York: Dover Publications, 1960. Print.
"The Impact of Greece and Rome on Medicine." Helicon Encyclopedia of World History.2010. History Study Center. Web. 14 Apr. 2014.
Porter, Roy. The Greatest Benefit to Mankind. New York: Norton, 1997. Print.
Sigerist, Henry E. A History of Medicine. Vol. 2. New York: Oxford Univ., 1951. Print.
In modern medicine when an ailment arises it can be quickly diagnosed, attributed to a precise bacteria, virus, or body system, and treated with medication, surgery or therapy. During the time before rational medical thought, this streamlined system of treatment was unheard of, and all complaints were attributed to the will of the multitude of commonly worshiped Greek gods (Greek Medicine 1). It was during the period of Greek rationalism that a perceptible change in thought was manifested in the attitudes towards treating disease. Ancient Greece is often associated with its many brilliant philosophers, and these great thinkers were some of the first innovators to make major developments in astrology, physics, math and even medicine. Among these academics was Hippocrates, one of the first e...
Hippocrates (c. 460-377 BC) was born on the Aegean island of Cos, Greece. He learned his medical practices from his father, Heracleides, and Ancient Greek physician Herodicos of Selymbria. Like many big Greek names of the time, Hippocrates was thought to have come from the Gods. He was considered a descendent of Asclepios, the God of Medicine. Two major creations of Hippocrates have upheld the biggest influence on medical history. The peak of his career was during the Peloponnesian War (431-404 B.C), where his healing tactics helped Athenian warriors (“Hippocrates”, 1998).
Twenty four centuries ago, Hippocrates created the profession of medicine, for the first time in human history separating and refining the art of healing from primitive superstitions and religious rituals. His famous Oath forged medicine into what the Greeks called a technik, a craft requiring the entire person of the craftsman, an art that, according to Socrates in his dialogue Gorgias, involved virtue in the soul and spirit as well as the hands and brain. Yet Hippocrates made medicine more than a craft; he infused it with an intrinsic moral quality, creating a “union of medical skill and the integrity of the person [physician]” (Cameron, 2001).
He was one of the first doctors to observe his patients, and believed humans should lead simple and stable lives to keep them healthy and their humours balanced. Dissection was still looked down upon, and even forbidden, in these times, and therefore this held back medical studies from progressing further. People trained under these beliefs were recognised as doctors instead of priests. This was a huge development in medical history as beliefs in supernatural causes began to die out, and women who were not slaves were also allowed to train as do...
As a junior in high school, I am considering medicine as a possible career choice. Through my research in this field, I discovered the Hippocratic Oath. The Hippocratic Oath is the most famous of the Hippocratic documents; it has served as an ideal for the professional attitude and ethics of physicians to the present; the historical origin of the oath is so obscure that even the date of its composition is placed from the 6th to the 1st century B.C.
Pfeiffer, Carl J. The Art and Practice of Western Medicine in the Early Nineteenth Century. Jefferson, NC, and London: McFarland, 1985.
Even since ancient times, it was recognized that doctors had power over their patients, and that there must be ethical implications coming with this responsibility. This was first represented in the Hippocratic Oath, which was created by an Ancient Gree...
Smith, Wesley D. "Hippocrates (Greek Physician)." Encyclopedia Britannica Online. Encyclopedia Britannica, n.d. Web. 26 Mar. 2014.
The Roman medical system was also adopted from the Greeks. The concept of roman medicine focused on the teaching of Hippocrates. Hippocrates was known as the father of medicine. He and his followers who were called empiricist believed that disease should be looked at from a natural perspective. He replaced the concept of empedoclean elements with ...
Unlike today, the Ancient Roman doctors received no respect, because they were considered to be fraudilant. This reputation was caused by the doctors magical tricks, and the lack of useful treatments. The job required minimal training, as they only had to apprentice with their senior. Thus, many free slaves and people who had failed at everything else filled this profession. Some did try to find new remedies; however, others used medicine to con people. Public surgeries were done to attract audiences as an advertisement. Doctors would even become beauticians providing perfumes, cosmetics, and even hairdressing. When wives wanted their husbands gone, they would say, ¡§put the patient out of his misery¡¨ and the doctors would be the murderers. However, as wars began to break out, there were improvements bec...
In this chapter Dr. Thomas Percival is introduced. Percival first debuted the term “medical ethics.” Percival himself was an advocate of the classical decorum. He believed in the importance of the truth and emphasized sympathy, equality and patience. Chapters six and seven illustrates medical ethics in America. American doctors in this time were either self-taught or apprenticeship-trained. During these chapters the development of proper schools and education were initiated by the American Medical Association. In addition, the first anesthesia was introduced and debates soon began to spark in the world of medicine. The first concerning the unethical practice of inoculation. Then the discussion of abortion and later the use of anesthesia. Yet, in the very last chapter, Jonsen introduces a series of events which radically transformed the field of
Hippocrates used his knowledge of natural healing to help many people recover from what ails them in an attempt to; also, learn more of people’s sicknesses. Hippocrates once thoroughly examined the king of Macedonia, who was very sick at the time, and aided him in “recovering from tuberculosis”- which he did recover from (World Biography, 4).
Early Greek medicine was more of a divine matter. It was believed that the God Asclepius was the god of medicine. Priests would live at his temples and claimed they knew the ways of healing people. It was not until around 500 B.C., a Greek physician named Alcmaeon began to dissect animals to observe their skeleton, muscles, and brain. This was most probably the first ever to describe a phenomenon through objective observations. Through his observations, he believed that illness was due to an imbalance in the body. This idea prevailed for many centuries in the history of medicine.
As the centuries unrolled and new civilizations appeared, cultural, artistic, and medical developments shifted toward the new centers of power. A reversal of the traditional search for botanical drugs occurred in Greece in the fourth century BC, when Hippocrates (estimated dates, 460-377 BC), the "Father of Medicine," became interested in inorganic salts as medications.
Hippocrates was a Greek physician that left a legacy that existed during his lifetime in Classical Greece and continues today. His moral and ethical standards were the foundation of his teachings, along with his meticulous writings concerning the study of the human body. He firmly believed that poor health and disease were the result of a natural process that could be discovered and cured through careful clinical reasoning and observations. Hippocrates travelled throughout Greece teaching and describing disease symptoms, and taught doctors how to analyze and treat specific illnesses or diseases. Hippocrates’s accomplishments give him the respect from doctors and medical professionals around the world that continues even today.