Hippocrates
Important in Medicine because…
· Sometimes known as the father of modern medicine.
· He was born and later taught on the island of Kos.
· The famous Oath (Hippocratic Oath) is the promise modern Doctors still make to obey certain important rules about treating their patients. It is based on Greek, and especially Hippocrates’ ideas about ethics.
· Hippocrates also saw the healthy body as being in balance. · Illness was therefore caused by an imbalance in the elements (fire, air, earth and water). Doctors looked for environmental causes for diseases. Galen took these ideas and developed them further in a theory which lasted almost 1500 years.
· Developing the Egyptian idea of diagnoses, Hippocrates improved this by suggesting doctors could predict what would happen next using their experience.
· No interfering was allowed in case it affected the doctor’s diagnosis.
· The Greeks at this time were also very keen to stress the importance of hygiene, exercise and healthy eating. Not to mention taking care not to get over-stressed!!