The roots of Western medicine, Hippocrates

Shidonna Raven
Apr 9
2 min read

Photo Source: Unsplash,

Hippocrates

Medical thought had reached this stage and had partially discarded the conceptions based upon magic and religion by 460 bce, the year that Hippocrates is said to have been born. Although he has been called the father of medicine, little is known of his life, and there may in fact have been several men of this name, or Hippocrates may have been the author of only some, or none, of the books that make up the Hippocratic Collection (Corpus Hippocraticum). Ancient writers held that Hippocrates taught and practiced medicine in Cos, the island of his birth, and in other parts of Greece, including Athens, and that he died at an advanced age.

Whether Hippocrates was one man or several, the works attributed to him mark the stage in Western medicine where disease was coming to be regarded as a natural rather than a supernatural phenomenon and doctors were encouraged to look for physical causes of illness. Some of the works, notably the Aphorismi (Aphorisms), were used as textbooks until the 19th century. The first and best-known aphorism is “Life is Short, Art long, Occasion sudden and dangerous, Experience deceitful, and Judgment difficult” (often shortened to the Latin tag “Ars longa, vita brevis”). This is followed by brief comments on diseases and symptoms, many of which remain valid.