Hippocrates
(460?-377? BC),
greatest physician of antiquity,
regarded as the father of medicine. Born probably on the island
of Kos, Greece, Hippocrates traveled widely before settling on
Kos to practice and teach medicine.
His teachings, sense of detachment, and ability to make direct
clinical observations had much to do with freeing ancient
medicine from superstition. Among his more significant works
is Airs, Waters, and Places (400s BC), which, instead of
ascribing diseases to divine origin, discusses their environmental
causes. Three other works�Prognostic,Coan Prognosis, and
Aphorisms�advanced the then-revolutionary idea that, by
observing enough cases, a physician can predict the course of a
disease. The idea of preventive medicine, first conceived in
Regimen and Regimen in Acute Diseases, stresses not only diet
but also the patient's general way of living.

Who Wrote it ?
Hippocratic Oath,
oath of which varying versions have been
taken for 2000 years by physicians entering the practice of medicine.
At one time the oath was thought to come from ancient Greek
physician Hippocrates, but modern research has shown that it most
probably originated in a Pythagorean sect of the 300s BC. In its
original form, the oath prohibited participation in surgery or abortions.
At the height of Christianity, most European physicians accepted both
of these prohibitions. Many contemporary medical schools impose a
revised and modernized version of the oath as an admonition and an
affirmation to which their graduating classes assent.

Paramedic Neomi Zvi - Feb 2000

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