Hippocratic Medicine :: essays research papers fc

Introduction Hippocratic music remains one of Ancient Greeces lasting contri simplyions to the field of science. Lacking the equipment physicians straight off take for granted when diagnosing and healing their patients, Hippocratic physicians were forced to crap a novel system for explaining and curing infirmity establish upon the general scientific theories of their era. This system became known as the humoral speculation of disease. humoral theory incorporated the theories of pre-Socratic philosophers in order to explain disease and offer help for a cure. deuce themes characterizing Presocratic philosophical mind dramatically influenced humoral theory. The humoral theory approach of Hippocratic medical specialty was based upon Presocratic philosophical musings about the relationship of man to the instauration. By the time humoral theory was vogue, philosophers had concluded that both man and the world were governed by the same natural laws. Humoral theory also was based upon Presocratic theories about win over and how it occurred in the world humoral theory depended upon the assertion that contrasting elements constantly contradicted each other, leading to continuous change on one level and stability on another. These two Presocratic theories shaped humoral theory and allowed the physician to develop a reasonable and empirically based approach to medicine. Hippocrates - Separating the Man from the Myth Before we usher out trace the development of these theories by the Presocratics we must first consider Hippocratic medicine and humoral theory. Most of what is known about the historical mental image Hippocrates, the supposed founder of the Hippocratic medical approach, must be evaluated with caution. Hippocrates lived c. 460-370 BC, but further reliable information about his life is difficult to obtain.(1) Two passages from Plato are seen as legitimate sources of information about Hippocrates life. Plato lived from 427-348 BC, making him a conte mporary of Hippocrates. A passage from Platos work Protagoras suggests that Hippocrates was a physician, associated with the island of Cos, who taught medicine to students for a fee. Another passage from a work of Plato, the Phaedras, alludes to a "method" by which Hippocrates gained an understanding of medicine. These sources provide some means by which to evaluate the involve of Hippocrates upon ancient medical practice. The Corpus HippocraticumMany other texts attributed to Hippocrates shed swallow upon the Hippocratic method of medicine. None of these texts may be identified as Hippocrates own work, however. These works are called the Corpus Hippocraticum and number upwards of sixty.(2) Scholars consider suggested that the texts may have been part of a library collection, originally from Cos, that was after moved to Alexandria and then added upon, building the collection of medical texts we have today.