Island of Cos, v. 460 - Larissa, Thessalie, 380 av. J. - C.
In Hippokratês Greek. Greek doctor. Hippocrates was the first, in Occident, to give to the medical art a scientific character independent of his traditional religious context.
Born in an small island from the Aegean Sea, it belonged to a very former brotherhood medico--nun, that of Asclépiades - whose tradition made descendants of Asclépios (Esculape), god of Medicine. After having learned with his father the rudiments from therapeutic, it made its studies in Athens, then supplemented them - during the many voyages which it accomplished throughout his life - in Thrace, in Délos and in Thessalie, where it died.
The medical science of Hippocrates
During its displacements, it gave courses and its many disciples contributed to diffuse his teaching. Its knowledge was encyclopedic. The medical doctrines of Hippocrates rest on the existence of a vital principle which it names natural and which governs the functions of the organization, attracting what is appropriate for each one, rejecting what is harmful for him. This power fights the morbid forces in the event of disease and the result is the cure if nature overcomes, death in the contrary case. The doctor has as a role to assist nature and not to block his action: primum not nocere (“above all, not to harm”).
Knowledge of Hippocrates was pushed little in anatomy, except in osteology. He did not know circulation: for him, certain vessels contained air. It confused muscular nerves and tendons. According to him, the body was composed of four principal moods: the blood (which come from the heart), the bile (which comes from the liver), the atrabile (which comes from spleen) and the pituite, or phlegme (which comes from the brain). It is the balance between these four elements which determines health, imbalance causing the disease.
Writings of Hippocrates “The life is short, art is long, the fugitive occasion, the misleading experiment, the difficult judgment. It is not only necessary to do oneself what is appropriate, but still to make that the patient, the assistants and the things contribute to it” (aphorism I).
He also wrote, in connection with the epilepsy, called “disease crowned” by the doctors of the time: “No disease is divine nor more human than another; they have a whole a natural cause without which no disease can occur”.
Hippocrates distinguished two principal types from body structures, named habitus: the phthisical structure and the apoplectic structure. The first was predisposed to die of tuberculosis, the second of an apoplectic ictus.
The writings of Hippocrates are composed of about sixty works. The authenticity of a certain number of between them is doubtful but, being the work of its pupils or having received his approval, they are regarded as faithful to the precepts of the Master.
One can divide them into four groups: the first relates to the professional duties of the doctor. It understands celebrates it Serment, which, hardly modified, is still lent by the doctors the day of the defense of their thesis. The second contains the general and philosophical treaties (the Nature of the man). The third, treaties of hygiene (Of the winds; Places; Water). The fourth, treaties of medicine (Of the fractures; Luxations; Epidemics, etc). Translations of these works were made in all the languages, among which most remarkable is undoubtedly that of Littré (Hippocratique Collection), which carries the Greek text in glance.