n.
born 0441; 460 BC, island of Cos, Greece
died 0441; 377, Larissa, Thessaly
Greek physician regarded as the father of medicine.
Plato , his contemporary, referred to him twice and implied that he was famous as a physician. Meno, a pupil of Aristotle , stated that Hippocrates believed that disease was caused by the excreted vapours of undigested food. His philosophy was to see the body as a whole. He apparently traveled widely in Greece and Asia Minor, practicing and teaching. The "Hippocratic Collection" supposedly belonged to the library of a medical school (probably at Cos) and then to the Library of Alexandria . An unknown proportion of the 60 or so surviving manuscripts
the earliest dating from the 10th century AD
are actually by Hippocrates. The collection deals with anatomy, clinical subjects, diseases of women and children, prognosis, treatment, surgery, and medical ethics. The Hippocratic Oath (not actually written by Hippocrates), also part of the Hippocratic Collection, is divided into two major sections, the first setting out the physician's obligations to his students and his pupils' duties to him, the second pledging him to prescribe only beneficial treatments, refrain from causing harm or hurt, and live an exemplary life.
Hippocrates, Roman bust copied from a Greek original, c. 3rd century BC; in the collection ...
By courtesy of the Soprintendenza Alle Antichita Di Ostia, Italy