Hippocrates : The Father Of Medicine

Hippocrates and his followers were first to describe many diseases and medical conditions. He is given credit for the first description of clubbing of the fingers, an important diagnostic sign in chronic supportive lung disease, lung cancer and cyanotic heart disease. Herophilus of Chalcedon, working at the medical school of Alexandria placed intelligence in the brain, and connected the nervous system to motion and sensation. Herophilus also distinguished between veins and arteries, noting that the latter pulse while the former do not. He and his

Evidence of Schizophrenia can be found as far back as biblical times. For example, in the old testament, when King Saul became mad when he neglected his duties as king. “But the spirit of the Lord departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from the Lord troubled him” 1 Samuel 16:14 In this time period, ‘madness’ was not thought of as a disease, but as a punishment from God, or demonic possession. It wasn’t until the time of the Greek physician Hippocrates (460-377 BC) that madness began to be treated as an illness. Hippocrates believed that madness was caused by an imbalance of four basic bodily fluids, or ‘humors.’ He attempted to treat mental illnesses through means such as forced purging, special diets, and bloodletting. The Greek philosopher Aristotle and the Roman physician Galen both later expanded upon Hippocrates’ theories.

Hippocrates, the first ever epidemiologist, was born into a family of doctors on the island of Cos. He was a Greek physician who has been known as the “Father of Medicine”, for his intelligence and contributions to medicine, which included detailed observations of different diseases and its effects. He had the understanding that the environment in which one is surrounded by can be both positively and negatively affecting to one’s health. Hippocrates discovered the theory of the four humors; blood, phlegm, yellow bile, and black bile. According to him, each humor corresponded with its own season, element, organ, and so on. The deficiency or imbalance of any one of these humors was thought to be the cause of disease and illness. He strongly

The humoral view of the body and the progress it aided in medicine was greatly owed to Hippocrates and Galen. Although Galen agreed with many aspects of Hippocratic medicine, there were several more aspects that Galen practiced and believed that were different. Being that Galen used Hippocratic works as the foundation of his practice of medicine, there should be some similarities towards Hippocrates and Galen’s approaches towards humoralism. These similarities were, influences on a person’s health, preventative healthcare, and factors affecting diagnosis. Using these concepts provided by Hippocrates, Galen then builds on these with his own concepts and beliefs.

The Importance of Hippocrates in Medicine Hippocrates was a Greek doctor. Born in Cos around 460BC, Hippocrates was the most famous of Greek doctors. He wrote medical books which have helped improve medical information and remedies. Hippocrates created the Hippocratic Oath, where doctors promised to treat patients with respect and would always try to cure them of their problems. All of Hippocrates work has helped to forward medical knowledge.

Hippocrates of Cos, a physician in ancient Greece, is considered to be the father of medicine due to his many contributions to the field in his life. Through research and different experiments he was able to conclude many different principles, including on of the most important: the four humors. By observing reactions to different illnesses, sometimes leading the patient to die, he was able to develop the theory. His theory of the four humors was that the human body was filled with four basic substances, or humors, that when in balance indicate the person is healthy. If there was too little or too much of one of the four, a disease or disability would result. The four humors of Hippocratic medicine are black bile, yellow bile, blood, and phlegm. Before the humors were introduced, many people believed that the source of illness was punishment from the Gods. It wasn’t until after Hippocrates’ introduction to medicine that the field stepped away from religion and into science.

The first causes of things are the Material cause: “that from which, <as a constituent> present in it, a thing comes to be. Material cause relates to the corporeal cause of a specific object” (194b,24). The material cause consequently transpires for the reason that the parts constituents as materials. Next, the elucidation of the causes is a direct derivative from its own portions such as elements, components, materials, establishing entire thing. Aristotle refers to bronze and silver as models of material cause; which describes that the elements are the causes of a statue. So having bronze will ultimately lead one to a statue. In referring to change the bronze transforms into the statue. Physically the statue must undergo some process to change its current state into a statue. The material causes of things allow us to function. For example the beds that we sleep on every day and the homes or dorms people walk into are a material cause of some builder or manufactures. Aristotle wrote “That we must acquire knowledge, of the original causes since we say we know a thing whenever we think we know its primary cause” (983a, 24-16). Aristotle draws a discrepancy amongst potential and practicality. This is directly correlated to the process of change and motion. Change can be described as an object taking on a new form. The object has the potential to convert into something different, and change is actually the potential of “one form of matter to become another form of

The Middle ages headed new schools of thought on medicine, greatly influenced by Galen and his four humors theory. Galen taught that the body contained four humors; black bile, phlegm, yellow bile, and blood which coordinated with the four elements ; earth, water, fire, and air, respectively. It was believed that these humors needed to stay in balance just as the elements and that one being out of balance could cause sickness. Thus in order to keep these humors even, practices such as, purging, enemas, and most commonly, blood-letting were used, in order to let excess humor escape. A doctor would know if the humors were in balance through observation, a physical examination, listening to their patient, and most importantly; through the patient’s

Hippocrates, often referred to as the "father of western medicine", promoted wine as part of a healthy diet. He also claimed that wine was good for disinfecting wounds, as well as a liquid in which medications could be mixed and taken more easily by patients” Norquist, (2016). Hippocrates similarly used wine to relieve mothers in childbirth pain and to cure lethargy. The delivery of medicine was being explored during this time period and any medication in liquid form was sought after.

Aristotle’s understanding of the four causes begins with the assumption that is present in all Greek philosophy, the notion of pre-existing matter. He observed the world around him and noticed that it was in a state of constant motion, a movement from potentiality to

Aristotle explains that anything which changes is subject to causes giving it potentiality. Potentiality means that something has a purpose to fulfil when it is enabled to, this potentiality becomes actuality when it achieves that purpose which Aristotle called ‘Telos’. Therefore in order to go from cause to effect an object must change and Aristotle understood this process in four different ways called the four causes. He understood that each of the four causes was necessary to explain the change from potentiality to actuality. The Final cause is a very different cause to the other three. Whereas the Material, Efficient and Formal causes all relate to how something exists, the Final

Manipulation is something that has been practiced since the time of Hippocrates. Hippocrates was a Greek physician who is considered the “Father of Western Medicine”, he was born in 460 BC and died in 375 BC. He was one of the first to have used manipulation during his treatment of his patients. Manipulation also shows up in Egyptian hieroglyphics and in early Chinese medical literature. In the last few decades there has been an increase of use of manipulation

The theory of the Four Causes refers to an influential Aristotelian principle whereby the causes of movement and/or change are categorized allowing us to have knowledge of our existence and everything around us. Aristotle wrote that "we do not have knowledge of a thing until we have grasped its ‘why’, that is to say, its cause." He provided an account of the operation of various individual substances in the universe. Distinctions were made between things of two sorts: those that are contingent on something else’s movement and those that necessary in their own movement. Aristotle not only suggested a proper description of these but also attempted to answer particular questions such as ‘Why does this event happen?’ and ‘Why is this object as

The physics, meaning “lectures on nature” written by Aristotle was a base towards Western science and philosophy genre books. His passion towards the topic of nature had led him to become more curious on general issues such as motion, causation, place and time. In Physics II.3 Aristotle’s provides a general understanding of the four causes, these four causes seem to apply to everything that would require an explanation. He first introduces his theory of the four causes in Book II, Chapter 3 where he states, “knowledge is the object of our inquiry, and men do not think they know a thing till they have gasped the ‘why’ of it (which is to grasp its primary cause).” (Physics, 194b 18-21). Aristotle’s passion towards knowing about the world, the things involved in it, and them to break each of them down individually to understand them completely, comes from the reasoning that he likes to know the reasons as to why they, as they are. Aristotle continues on to say “clearly, then, we must also find the reason why in the case of coming to be, perishing, and every sort of natural change.” (Phys, 196b 21-23). His four causes help him build a complete understanding on the ontology of physical things, which requires to know every aspect of properties these physical objects have. Throughout this essay I will be arguing that Aristotle’s four causes offer a complete system for motion in which all motion fits.

Science is an important part of our every day lives. We wake up each morning because we hear the ringing of our alarm clocks and turn on our faucets to wash our faces with warm water. We turn on the lights in our rooms to see our clothes and get dressed and we put our breakfast in the toaster and sip coffee from our mugs. All these things we do in the short time we are rushing to get ready for work or school, are due to the advancement of science and technology.