Hippocrates

• Hippocrates was born around 460BC on the Greek island of Cos.
• He worked as a doctor and then trained future doctors.
• Hippocrates showed the importance of carefully recording the symptoms and developments of an illness.
• He pointed out that if systematic approached to illness were taken, doctors were more likely to find the correct cure.
• Hippocrates stressed that medical records should be kept for future reference.
• He created the Hippocratic Collection which was a compilation of 70 books that contained detailed lists of symptoms and their treatments.
• Hippocrates encouraged doctors to look for natural treatments and explanations through the natural world.
• The Theory of the Four Humours

  It was based on the four elements (water, fire, earth and air) which corresponded to seasons e.g. fire with summer.

  The four human bodily fluids: phlegm, blood, yellow bile and black bile, were thought to cause illness if they were unbalanced.
• The Theory of the Four Humours removed the role of religion and the gods in individual illnesses due to the belief that illness was a form of divine punishment.
• Initially, many Greeks rejected Hippocrates' work and chose to believe in Asclepius, the Greek God of Medicine.
• Hippocrates had a profound impact on the ideas and work of Galen, who emphasised the importance of Hippocratic methods, especially the role of observation in medicine.
• Hippocrates' theory of four humours inspired Galen's theory of opposites.