Modern concept of health and disease

GREEK PHYSICIANS - HIPPOCRATES
School of medicine (5-4th centuries BC,
on the island of Kos, age of Pericles
Corpus Hippocraticum – Hippocratic Collection, Hippocratic Oath
Father of scientific medicine: Establishing medicine
as a discipline distinct from religion and philosophy
Summarising the medical knowledge of previous schools
Disease: Not a punishment inflicted by the gods but rather the product of
environmental factors, diet and living habits
Cause of illness: Imbalance of the four humours in the body
Giving prognosis; Therapeutic approach: Based on the healing power of nature; Body has
the power to re-balance the four humours and to heal itself; Therapy: Simply easing this
natural process by prescribing rest and immobilization; Gentle treatment, keeping the
patient clean (clean water or wine being used on wounds)
Importance of observation and documentation: Physicians recorded their findings and
medicinal methods in order to be employed by other physicians
Clinical symptoms and devices named after Hippocrates:
• Hippocratic face: Change produced in the countenance by death;
• Hippocratic fingers: Clubbing, a deformity of the fingers and fingernails
• Hippocratic succussion: Internal splashing noise of hydropneumothorax or pyopneumothorax
• Hippocratic bench: A device which uses tension to aid in setting bones
• Hippocratic bandage: Cap-shaped
bandage