The Father Of Medicine

Greece has nurtured us with so many things, we can only count. I have already written articles on Democracy, first established in Greece. On Father of Philososphy and Father of History. What else can you say, even History came from Greece.

And so did medicine.
Don’t get it wrong. Medicine existed way before. The way of healing, or balancing an unhealthy body had been there with us for far too long. However, the history of medicine is not about its discovery but how it got better.

There is something called a Hippocratic oath, which is a vow taken by physicians, even to this day. It is done to uphold specific standards by healers.

Hippocrates

It is named after Hippocrates of Kos, a father figure in Greece history. He is the person known as the Father of Medicine. He was born in Kos Island of Greece and lived from 460 BCE to 370 BCE.

He was well famous for clinical expertise. He followed a procedure of clinical observation, further diagnosis of the disease, and prognosis; what would happen to the person with the disease. He wrote many diseases in his books, which did not survive time.

He had this Theory of four humors. These humors were blood made of air, phlegm made of water, yellow bile made of fire and black bile made of earth. An imbalance in the fluids caused diseases. IF there was buildup of one of the humors, the practice was to let the excess drain off. He believed in living a healthy life and eating a balanced diet to maintain the balance in these humors.

Hippocrates' Legacy

Before him, people explained unknown diseases as a curses of God. Hippocrates told otherwise. Diseases were as natural as human beings. Diet and environment affected health.

During the horrific plague of Greece, he observed that metal workers were unaffected by this unknown disease. He concluded that their environment must have caused some kind of immunity. So he instructed people to throw all the dead and their clothes in the fire. Water should be boiled before drinking and each house should have fire, basically dry surroundings to recreate the environment of Ironworks. And soon the Plague plunged. Hippocrates stopped the plague.

However most of his is lost. He was actually popularized by Galen, a doctor of Roman Empire. Roman Empire came in Greece after the Greek Empire. Galen wrote about Hippocrates’ ideas in his books. The Church rule, or the Medieval period started after Roman Empire and the Church liked Galen because he believed human body is so perfect it must be made by God. It was in accordance to the ideology of the Church that God is prefect. And so Galen became famous. And Hippocrates with him.

Hippocrates was not just a healer; he was a scholar too. He created a school in Kos to teach many healers in his time. He passed on his legacy.

That's all for now, Later!