Hippocrates

The ancient GREEK DOCTOR who applied science to sickness

At a time when people believed diseases came from angry gods and evil spirits, Hippocrates used scientific treatments instead of superstitious traditions.

Doctor’s orders

Legend goes that Hippocrates was descended from the legendary Greek hero Hercules. Born in about 460 bce on the island of Kos in Greece, Hippocrates enjoyed an excellent education. His father was a DOCTOR and Hippocates learned medicine from him. When Hippocrates himself became a doctor, he established a school of medicine on Kos and taught students everything he knew.

What came after…

By the way… I successfully treated the king of Macedonia who was suffering with tuberculosis, a bacterial disease of the lungs.

Hippocrates challenged primitive medical ideas and replaced them with his scientific approach.

Flemish physician Andreas Vesalius wrote one of the most important books on human anatomy – De Humani Corporis Laënnec’s stethoscope was a simple tube, which helped to magnify sound.

FabriCa – in 1543. It featured detailed anatomical illustrations. In 1816, French physician René Laënnec invented the stethoscope. Replacing earlier paper versions, the LaënneC stetHosCope was made from wood with a single earpiece for doctors to listen to the heart and lungs.

The Rod of Asclepius is a Greek symbol featuring a serpent wrapped around a rod. It represents healing and medicine. The world’s OLDEST set of medical books is the Hippocratic Corpus. This collection of about 70 documents describes the symptoms and treatments of disease. Although Hippocrates worked on these books, he did not write them all. Many Greek physicians taught themselves using these books.

Allbutt’s thermometer was only about 15 cm (6 in) long. This 11th-century illustration depicts the work of Hippocrates. This is a medieval Greek copy of the Hippocratic Oath.

Hippocratic Oath

Little is known of Hippocrates’s death in about 370 bce, but his influence impacts on medicine even today. The Hippocratic Oath is a PROMISE written in Greek times and attributed to Hippocrates, although he was not the author. It includes important ideas from Hippocrates, including patient confidentiality and administering the best treatments. This oath is still taken when new doctors start work.

Did you know? Hippocrates made careful note of his patients’ symptoms in diagnosing diseases.

How he changed the world

Hippocrates advanced medicine by suggesting diseases had natural causes that could be diagnosed and treated by science. This revolutionary idea was welcomed by other leading philosophers and physicians throughout Greece.

British doctor Thomas Allbutt invented a pocket-sized thermometer in 1866. His device was convenient to carry around and took very little time to read a person’s temperature.

The first human heart transplant was carried out by South African surgeon Dr Christiaan Barnard. He successfully operated on Louis Washkansky in 1967.