200 Hippocrates, Galen, and the Greek physicians Torwesten, Hans Vedanta: Heart of Hinduism Trans by John Phillips New York: Grove Press, 1992 John Walsh Hippocrates, Galen, and the Greek physicians Hippocrates (460–377 b.c.e.) has been called the father of Greek medicine The young Hippocrates observed his physician father and his peers practicing the healing art He traveled throughout Greece and possibly as far as Libya and Egypt Ptolemy Soter (323–285 b.c.e.), an Egyptian pharaoh, published a collection of treatises by Hippocrates and his followers for the library at Alexandria Hippocrates is best known for his dictum that if the physician could not take away suffering then he must at A bust of Hippocrates in the Louvre in Paris The values of Hippocrates are still in force in the medical profession today least alleviate it He used observation to document physical symptoms and behavior, in contrast to making offerings and appealing to supernatural forces He took into account the interplay of three variables: the patient, the physician, and the disease He stressed the importance of hygiene and believed that the doctor belonged at the side of the patient rather than in a temple far away Although he did not use the term immune system, he recognized that there were individual differences that affected the severity of any affliction Of the Epidemics offers one of his best writings, describing a mumps epidemic The Corpus Hippocraticum gives an excellent overview of Greek medicine in the fifth century b.c.e The Hippocratic oath is a traditional part of a contemporary physician’s rite of passage from student to doctor The oath begins with a pledge to Apollo, Asclepius his son, and his daughters, Hygeia and Panacea It stresses the mentoring relationships and the lifelong relationship of the physician to the person who taught him the healing arts There is a promise not to help a patient commit suicide There is also a statement about privacy and confidentiality Not all Greek physicians practiced by Hippocratic dictates, but all accepted the humoral theory as the basis for human physiology In this theory air, water, earth, and fire were the four elements that made up the universe and the human body Water was moist, air was dry, fire was hot, and earth was cold The human body was a microcosm of this scheme, and its corresponding fluids, or humors, were in combinations of two Blood was warm and wet; black bile, cold and dry; yellow bile, warm and dry; and phlegm, cold and wet When the fluids were in balance, health abounded When skewed, disease resulted Ancient Greek physicians recognized that discharges from various organs resulted from trauma or sickness The amount of training of Greek physicians varied because no medical schools, standards, or examinations existed A doctor often apprenticed to a more experience practitioner before practicing on his own In addition to sole practitioners there were public physicians, medical officers elected in some cities There were also clinics for the less affluent called jatreia Aristotle (384–322 b.c.e.) contributed much to Greek medicine He was interested in many areas of knowledge, but logic was one of his favorite mental exercises He began to categorize living things into groups with similarities and wrote extensive compendiums on plants and animals This was the basis for biology and anatomy Unfortunately, he did not see the interior of a human body because dissection was not practiced Although Aristotle contributed much to medicine, phi-