Anna Runnfeldt June 4, 2013 Core Periods 6 & 7 Hippocrates Hippocrates The Father of Medicine Hello, I am Hippocrates but

some call me the Father of Medicine. I am a doctor and writer on medicine. I personally believe that the gods cannot be held responsible for every ailment that afflicts human beings! I just cannot except that pain and disease are caused by angered deities. Those pieces just do not fit together. For example, when people have severe stomach pains, they say it is a curse from the god Apollo, but really, it is something natural that affects the body. Since I disagree with every doctor that believes that pain and disease are caused by angered deities, I decided to start suggesting my own explanations. I have written about seventy books, known as the Hippocratic Collection. They are all written in Ionic dialect. Included in my collection are sections on anatomy, womans diseases, childhood diseases, predicting the coarse of particular diseases, treatments based on diet and on medication, surgical practices, and medical ethics. I take careful records of every wound that I treat and how they heal. I also note the effectiveness of different medical procedures. I travel throughout Asia Minor and Greece practicing medical skills and teachings. Everywhere I go, I speak with other physicians and compare what they learned, with my own observations. After a while, I learned to recognize the various stages of an infection, as well as the positive and negative effects of different medical practices. One of my passages on surgery from The Hippocrates Collection tell how I operated on a young man who came to me with a swollen area on his lower back. After I carefully examined the infected area, I recognized that the problem was that there was pus in the cavity around the lungs. To determine where to make the cut in the patients skin, I took some wet clay and laid it on the swollen area. I then marked the spot that dried first, because I knew that the infection must be the worst in the area that produced the most heat.

I have had so much practice and experience that I know that superstitions, magic, and evil spirits play no part in my treatments. Even though the Greeks honor Asclepius. Asclepius is a legendary hero and the god of healing. He took sick people to his temples to be cured. Treating involved spending one or more nights in the Asclepeum under the care of special attendants. The Asclepeum is located in my hometown of Cos. The Asclepeum was very well known for its miraculous cures. Many stories were told throughout Greece of how many ill visitors awoke after a sound sleep in the Asclepeum to find their ailments gone. According to Greek legend, Asclepius could cure any ailment brought to him. Some say that once, he even restored a dead man to life. I was born around 460 B.C. on the Greek island of Cos, off the southern coast of Asia Minor. I intend that medical practices could be governed by myths but should be treated as a science. I believe that doctors need to use reason when caring for their patients. I think people are the central to their health. I tell doctors to advise their patients about what to eat. I also believe that strong medications hurt rather than help an illness. My youth and manhood coincided with the Golden Age of Athens. The Golden Age of Athens was a time of great intellectual and artistic activity. Many Greeks, both in Athens and in cities around the Aegean, were beginning to question the order of the world, the power of the gods, and the merits of democracy. I questioned them too, not as a philosopher, but as a scientist. I hope my questions and answers are remembered for the centuries that follow. Hippocrates died around 360 B.C. in Larissa, Thessaly. His oath, known as the Hippocratic oath, is still recited by medical students today.

Bibliography Tyson, Peter. "The Hippocratic Oath Today." PBS. PBS, 27 Mar. 2001. Web. 04 June 2013. Starr, Chester G. "Hippocrates." The Ancient Greeks. New York: Oxford UP, 1971. Hippocrates." Hippocrates. N.p., n.d. Web. 04 June 2013.