Ancient Medicine
Encyclopedia
On Ancient Medicine or Tradition in Medicine is a treatise in the Hippocratic Corpus
, a collection of ancient Greek
medical texts attributed to Hippocrates
and written probably in the late 5th century BC. As with all works in the Hippocratic Corpus, authorship cannot be confirmed and is regarded as dubious by some historians of medicine
.
As the title suggests, the treatise gives a reconstruction of the development of medicine, assuming that it was an outgrowth of the discovery by ancient people that health could be promoted by the consumption of certain foods prepared properly. Primitive peoples ate raw food and their health suffered greatly. Once they began to grind grain into flour and bake bread, and to boil strong foods, their longevity increased. Some people had more delicate constitutions and required milder foods; and so the art of medicine was born.
The treatise is a rhetorical attack on pre-Hippocratic medicine as it was apparently practiced by many of the author's contemporaries. He (the author was probably male, assuming it was written by a Hippocratic physician) criticized doctors who prescribed a treatment such as "hot" or "cold," "wet" or "dry," categories which sound like the four humors: blood, yellow bile (vomit), black bile (excrement), phlegm (mucus). The author argues that there is no substance in the four humors theory.
The inclusion of this work in the Hippocratic Corpus is surprising, given that it attacks the humor theory
underpinning later Hippocratic and Galen
ic medicine. The contrast is one reason for modern skepticism about its authorship.
Hippocratic Corpus
The Hippocratic Corpus , or Hippocratic Collection, is a collection of around 60 early Ancient Greek medical works strongly associated with the physician Hippocrates and his teachings...
, a collection of ancient Greek
Ancient Greece
Ancient Greece is a civilization belonging to a period of Greek history that lasted from the Archaic period of the 8th to 6th centuries BC to the end of antiquity. Immediately following this period was the beginning of the Early Middle Ages and the Byzantine era. Included in Ancient Greece is the...
medical texts attributed to Hippocrates
Hippocrates
Hippocrates of Cos or Hippokrates of Kos was an ancient Greek physician of the Age of Pericles , and is considered one of the most outstanding figures in the history of medicine...
and written probably in the late 5th century BC. As with all works in the Hippocratic Corpus, authorship cannot be confirmed and is regarded as dubious by some historians of medicine
Medicine
Medicine is the science and art of healing. It encompasses a variety of health care practices evolved to maintain and restore health by the prevention and treatment of illness....
.
As the title suggests, the treatise gives a reconstruction of the development of medicine, assuming that it was an outgrowth of the discovery by ancient people that health could be promoted by the consumption of certain foods prepared properly. Primitive peoples ate raw food and their health suffered greatly. Once they began to grind grain into flour and bake bread, and to boil strong foods, their longevity increased. Some people had more delicate constitutions and required milder foods; and so the art of medicine was born.
The treatise is a rhetorical attack on pre-Hippocratic medicine as it was apparently practiced by many of the author's contemporaries. He (the author was probably male, assuming it was written by a Hippocratic physician) criticized doctors who prescribed a treatment such as "hot" or "cold," "wet" or "dry," categories which sound like the four humors: blood, yellow bile (vomit), black bile (excrement), phlegm (mucus). The author argues that there is no substance in the four humors theory.
The inclusion of this work in the Hippocratic Corpus is surprising, given that it attacks the humor theory
Humorism
Humorism, or humoralism, is a now discredited theory of the makeup and workings of the human body, adopted by Greek and Roman physicians and philosophers, positing that an excess or deficiency of any of four distinct bodily fluids in a person directly influences their temperament and health...
underpinning later Hippocratic and Galen
Galen
Aelius Galenus or Claudius Galenus , better known as Galen of Pergamon , was a prominent Roman physician, surgeon and philosopher...
ic medicine. The contrast is one reason for modern skepticism about its authorship.