On Ancient Medicine

ISBN-13: 9781535372558 / Angielski / Miękka / 2016 / 26 str.

Hippocrates; Francis Adams

Opis

On Ancient Medicine - Hippocrates - Translated by Francis Adams - The treatise On Ancient Medicine is perhaps the most intriguing and compelling work of the Hippocratic Corpus. The Corpus itself is a collection of about sixty writings covering all areas of medical thought and practice. Traditionally associated with Hippocrates, (c. 460 BC - c. 370 BC) the father of Western medicine, philological evidence now suggests that it was written over a period of several centuries and stylistically seems to indicate that it was the product of many authors dating from about 450-400 B.C. On the basis of its diverse arguments regarding the nature of medical therapeutics, the Hippocratic Corpus could be divided into four divisions or groups. The origins of the Hippocratic Corpus can be traced in the sixth and fifth centuries B.C. in Italy. There were two seminal schools of Western medical thought; there was Agrigentum on the southern coast of Sicily and Croton on the west coast of the Gulf of Taranto. Agrigentum was the home of Empedocles, while Croton harbored the Pythagorean sect of medical philosophy. The school of Agrigentum and Empedocles placed great emphasis on cure by contraries and thus should be associated with Group III of the Hippocratic Corpus. The school of Croton rejected the notion of cure by contraries while championing the medical philosophy that perceived the human organism consists of an infinite number of humors. The arguments of this group should be identified with Group IV of the Hippocratic Corpus.