Greek medicine

By: James Ince and Nick Allen.

The history of Greek medicine.

The Greeks were known for there very odd method, the Greeks thought that when a person was ill it was a punishment from the gods and would pray to the gods and ask for a cure, they would pray in the special heeling temples called asclepeia.

Another from of cure for the patients waswhen the priest thought the patient was ready for treatment, he would lead theminto the temple where put to sleep andthe skins of the animal that was sacrificedTo the gods, the cure was that while they Slept, snakes could slide across their body And touch them with their tongues.

The Hippocratic Oath• The Hippocratic oath is where a doctor swears

to treat their patients to the best of their ability and judgment.

• The Hippocratic oath dates back to the 4th century B.C. when the Greek teacher and doctor Hippocrates practiced medicine on the island of Cos. Hippocrates believed that diseases had natural causes and not supernatural ones.

• Today most of the doctors who graduate take a modern version of the Hippocratic oath.

This is the oath, (it is written in Greek).

Modern version of Hippocratic oath

• First 2 parts of the modern oath.

• I swear to fulfill, to the best of my ability and judgment, this covenant:

I will respect the hard-won scientific gains of those physicians in whose steps I walk, and gladly share such knowledge as is mine with those who are to follow.

Biography of Hippocrates

• Hippocrates was born on the Aegean island of Cos, just off the Ionian coast. He came from a wealthy family which allowed him a good educational beginning and after school his father Heracleides took him as his apprentice.

• Hippocrates used his medical knowledge to heal many people like the Macedonian King who had Tuberculosis,

and when there was a plague in Athens for 3 years.

• Hippocrates later founded a school on the island of Cos where he then taught other young people about medicine his 2 sons included.

The theory of the four humors

The four humors were used to try and balance the patients bodies, the four humors were Yellow Bile, Black Bile, Phlegm and Blood, each humor was located with a certain quality; the qualities of each of the humors were: phlegm- cold and moist, blood- hot and moist, black bile- cold and dry and yellow bile- hot and dry.