Hippocrates (460 BC–380 BC)

Hippocrates was a Greek physician born in 460 BC on the island of Cos, Greece. He became known as the founder of medicine and was regarded as the greatest physician of his time. He based his medical practice on observations and on the study of the human body. He held the belief that illness had a physical and a rational explanation. He rejected the views of his time that considered illness to be caused by superstitions and by possession of evil spirits and disfavor of the gods.

Hippocrates held the belief that the body must be treated as a whole and not just a series of parts. He accurately described disease symptoms and was the first physician to accurately describe the symptoms of pneumonia, as well as epilepsy in children. He believed in the natural healing process of rest, a good diet, fresh air and cleanliness. He noted that there were individual differences in the severity of disease symptoms and that some individuals were better able to cope with their disease and illness than others. He was also the first physician that held the belief that thoughts, ideas, and feelings come from the brain and not the heart as others of him time believed.

The Hippocratic writings introduced patient confidentiality, which is still in use today. This was under the Hippocratic Oath and other treatises, which meant that people were to record their findings and methods used, to be passed down.

Other Hippocratic writings associated personality traits with the relative abundance of the four humours in the body: phlegm, yellow bile, black bile, and blood, and was a major influence on Galen and later on medieval medicine.

Hippocrates postulated that anatomy is the foundation of medicine, but at the same time he believed that one could learn sufficient anatomy by observing wounds and human bones, without the unpleasant task of dissecting corpses. In the Hippocratic Corpus we find a fairly good account of bones, especially of the skull, including the sutures, and of the joints in the body. One should bear in mind that Hippocrates humoral theory, which postulated that various diseases were the result of dyscrasias of four elemental body humors, could by it’s very nature not have stimulated an interest in anatomy.

Hippocrates traveled throughout Greece practicing his medicine. He founded a medical school on the island of Cos, Greece and began teaching his ideas. He soon developed an Oath of Medical Ethics for physicians to follow. This Oath is taken by physicians today as they begin their medical practice. He died in 377 BC. Today Hippocrates is known as the "Father of Medicine".