Hippocrates, Father of Medicine

By Herbert S. Goldberg

First published in 1963, this book by University of Missouri Microbiology Professor Herbert S. Goldberg provides the reader with a picture of the life and times of Hippocrates, the “Father of Medicine.” Hippocrates was born on the island of Cos in 460 B.C., and his works remained for centuries the foundation of medical and biographical knowledge. In addition, it was Hippocrates daring approach to the problems of sickness and disease that drove the opening wedge into the wall of fear that surrounded human ills. Hippocrates scrupulous attention to professional ethics is honored even to this day by the medical oath that bears his name—The Hippocratic Oath.

Goldberg accurately describes the professions and trades during Hippocrates time, as well as the early education of youth in ancient Greece. Medicines were not based on science, but on driving evil spirits from the body. Hippocrates scientific approach to the study and treatment of disease has deservedly earned for him the title of “Father of Medicine.”

• Language: English
• Publisher: Muriwai Books
• Release date: Jan 12, 2017
• ISBN: 9781787208452

Herbert S. Goldberg

Herbert S. Goldberg is a Professor Emeritus and Associate Dean Emeritus of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology at the University of Missouri. Born in New York City, he has long been interested in bringing knowledge of biology and medicine to the public. He has accomplished this by writing on a variety of medical subjects, as well as lecturing on them in this country and abroad. Prof. Goldberg graduated from the University of Missouri with a Master of Science degree in 1950, and received his Ph.D. from Ohio State University in 1953. He joined the University of Missouri’s Molecular Microbiology and Immunology Department in 1952 and was appointed Associate Dean Emeritus in Research and Faculty Affairs for the School of Medicine in 1996. He was on the World Health Organization Advisory Panel for Food Additives and Contaminants from 1972-1982 and received the William Byler Award in 1976. His published titles include Antibiotics: Their Chemistry and Non- Medical Uses, Hippocrates: Father of Medicine and Medical Discoveries, Science Service Science Program (1960). He has advised more than a dozen Microbiology Graduate Students and is the Founder and former Director of the School of Health Professions at the University of Missouri.

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Text originally published in 1963 under the same title.

© Muriwai Books 2017, all rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted by any means, electrical, mechanical or otherwise without the written permission of the copyright holder.

Publisher’s Note

Although in most cases we have retained the Author’s original spelling and grammar to authentically reproduce the work of the Author and the original intent of such material, some additional notes and clarifications have been added for the modern reader’s benefit.

We have also made every effort to include all maps and illustrations of the original edition the limitations of formatting do not allow of including larger maps, we will upload as many of these maps as possible.

HIPPOCRATES

FATHER OF MEDICINE

BY

HERBERT S. GOLDBERG

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Contents

TABLE OF CONTENTS 3

DEDICATION 4

PROLOGUE 5

ONE—Greece. Its Islands and People 6

The Land 6

The Islands 7

The People 8

TWO—Growing Up in Ancient Greece 10

THREE—The Early Education of Hippocrates 13

FOUR—The Learned Professions and the Trades in Hippocrates’ Time 17

Law 17

Publishing 17

Booksellers 17

Art and Sculpture 18

The Medical Profession 18

Labor and Trades 19

Carpenters 20

Barbers 20

FIVE—Medicine Before Hippocrates 21

Early Medical Procedures 21

Egyptian Medicine 21

Chinese Medicine 22

Japanese Medicine 23

Hebrew Medicine 23

The Greek Asclepieia 24

SIX—Medicine Becomes a Science 26

Physiology 26

Physical Diagnosis 26

Pathology 27

Surgery 27

Fever 27

Neurology and Psychiatry 28

Pharmacology 28

SEVEN—Hippocrates as a Physician 30

EIGHT—The Men Who Followed 33

NINE—Hippocrates and a Guide to Modern Health 36

Exercise 36

Diet 36

The Skin 37

The Teeth 37

The Eyes 38

TEN—The Hippocratic Oath and the Modern Physician 39

THE AUTHOR 42

REQUEST FROM THE PUBLISHER 43

DEDICATION

To Jacquelyn Louise

PROLOGUE

The Greek physician Hippocrates, according to the best available records, was born in the year 460 B.C. on the island of Cos, which lies in the south-eastern corner of the Aegean Sea. His is a name that has come down through history as one of the greatest of early times. Yet, because he lived so long ago, few facts about his life are positively known.

We do know, however, that this Greek genius lived to be over ninety years old. Fortunately for the science of medicine, he was able to work and flourish in a peaceful time. This was the period known as the Golden Age of Pericles. Hippocrates was in good company indeed, for some of his contemporaries included such famous men as Herodotus the historian, Socrates the philosopher, Sophocles the playwright, and Democritus the scientist.

While it is true that little information has survived of Hippocrates’ personal life, he did live and work in this Golden Age—about which a surprising amount is known. Moreover, Hippocrates lives on today through his teachings and writings—documents that were assembled almost two hundred years after his death. His fame through the ages rests almost as much on his moral standards as on his scientific genius. His many maxims, for example, reveal a man of wit and wisdom: Art is long, life is short; One man’s meat is another man’s poison; Desperate diseases need desperate remedies.

But it is chiefly as a physician that Hippocrates is remembered today. His introduction of a scientific approach to the study and treatment of disease has deservedly earned for him the title of Father of Medicine. For centuries, his works remained the foundation of practically all medical and biological knowledge. His approach especially to the problems of sickness and disease drove the opening wedge into the wall of fear that cloaked human illnesses.

No one disease is either more divine or more human than another... wrote Hippocrates, ...but all are alike divine, for each has its own nature, and each disease has a natural cause—and without a natural cause none arise.

This conviction helped to stem the tide of early medical ignorance and superstition and belief in the religious causes of disease, and substituted observation and study.

What were the circumstances—historical and geo-graphical—of the nation that gave rise to this remarkable man? What was the world of Hippocrates like? Let us examine first the country and the people of Greece in the Golden Age and before. Perhaps then we shall be better prepared to reconstruct the story of this master physician.

ONE—Greece. Its Islands and People

It is surprising that ancient Greece, which contributed so much to the cultures, religions, and achievements of our modern world, was smaller in size than the state of Ohio. Nevertheless, this tiny area produced some of the greatest works of literature, architecture, and sculpture created in the past two thousand years. By looking into the story of Greece as it existed some four or five hundred years before the birth of Christ, it may be possible to discover what it was that made these people great.