Hippocrates: biography and contribution to the science of biology

Ancient Greek physician Hippocrates, whose biography is described below, left a notable mark in the history of medicine. Apparently, his fame was significant even during his lifetime, about 2,5 thousand years ago. However, there is almost no exact information about Hippocrates. The first biography of the ancient Greek healer was written several centuries after his death. Also it is for certain it is not known, what works from the surviving writers was written by Hippocrates. However, its importance for the development of medicine is difficult to overestimate.

Doctor in the seventeenth knee

There is no exact information about the place where Hippocrates was born. A biography written by Soran of Ephesus 600 years after the death of a doctor, points to the island of Kos. Presumably Hippocrates was born about 460 BC. E. Many of the information given by Soran clearly indicate that the author used his own imagination to fill in the missing information. Today it is considered true that Hippocrates came from a family of doctors. He was a descendant in the seventeenth generation of the great Asclepius. The father of the healer was Heraclides, whose family was led from Hercules himself.

Often in literature you can find the name "Hippocrates II". So the doctor was called, as Hippocrates I was his grandfather, along with his father, trained a youth medicine. Many knowledge, leaving the house on Kos, he acquired in Cnidus. Among the teachers of Hippocrates are Gerodik and Sophist Gorgias.

Traveling Physician

Hippocrates did not sit still waiting for the patients. He improved his knowledge and skills, moving from city to city. In the process of such wanderings, the glory of the great healer also developed. In some ancient Greek sources it is claimed that Hippocrates left the island of Kos, because there he was accused of arson. Now it is not possible to confirm this information. Indirect evidence of the doctor's travels is that the place of action in the treatise "Epidemics", attributed to Hippocrates, occurs outside of his native island of Kos, in Phasos and in the city of Abder.

Estimated location and time of death

Ancient Greek doctor Hippocrates, as indicated in most sources, lived a long life even by modern standards. Authors of biographies diverge at the exact age in which he died. Numbers 83, 90 and 104 are called. Perhaps such a respectful age is a testament to the talent that Hippocrates was famous for. His biography often ends with an indication that the healer spent the last few years in the city of Larris. There he died, presumably in one year with Democritus (about 370 BC).

Hippocrates: Contribution to Biology and Medicine

According to historical data, in ancient Greece, seven doctors with the name Hippocrates lived at different times. Determine which of the surviving works on medicine belongs to one or another of them, today it is almost impossible. In those distant times it was not accepted to sign the scientific treatises. The most famous work on Antiquity medicine is called the "Hippocratic Corps", but it is not a single author's article, but a collection of works by several healers. It was compiled in the III century. BC. E. In Alexandria. The collection combined 72 medical texts, written in the Ionian dialect of the Greek language and dated to the V-IV centuries. BC. E.

Among this collection now only 4 works are attributed to Hippocrates:

• "Aphorisms";
• "Epidemics";
• "Forecasting";
• "On air, waters, localities."

The first of these is the only one whose authorship with great confidence belongs precisely to Hippocrates. "Aphorisms" are a collection of advice and observations, possibly taken from other works. Here one can find utterances of a general philosophical nature and precise medical conclusions.

"Prognostics" started diagnostics. The work contains the foundations of ancient Greek therapy. Hippocrates, in biology and medicine, left a notable trace, first described the methods of examining the patient and monitoring him, the options for the development of various ailments, their characteristics and treatment.

A more detailed description of the diseases known at the time Hippocrates leads in "Epidemics." Among the 42 ailments included in the treatise are venereal, catarrhal and dermal, as well as various paralysis, consumption and so on.

The Four Temperaments of Hippocrates

The treatise "On Air, Water, Locations" for the first time in history describes the impact of the environment on health and the predisposition of certain people to specific ailments. In this work the doctrine of Hippocrates is described about four bodily juices: bile, mucus, black bile and blood. The predominance of each of them causes certain violations in the body, predisposition to certain diseases. In the Middle Ages, on the basis of this theory, there was an idea of four temperaments:

• Sanguine (blood prevails);
• Phlegmatic (slime);
• Choleric (bile);
• Melancholia (black bile).

This theory is often attributed to Hippocrates itself, which is not true. The healer divided people not by the nature of the character, but by the predisposition to illness.

Hippocrates, whose biography is given in the article, laid the foundation of the scientific approach to treatment. His name stands in line with the great Greeks: Aristotle, Socrates, Democritus and Pericles.