Hippocrates (approximately 46 BC - 377 BC) was a famous medical scientist in ancient Greece and the founder of European medicine. He was known as the "Father of Medicine" in history.
Hippocrates was born on the island of Kos in the Aegean Sea. Both his parents are doctors. He was influenced by his family since childhood and fell in love with this noble profession of saving lives and healing the wounded. He has been practicing medicine with his parents since he was a child. After the death of his parents, the young Hippocrates practiced medicine throughout Central Asia and visited many places such as Greece, Asia Minor, the Black Sea coast and North Africa. With his superb medical skills and enthusiastic treatment of patients, he rescued many critically ill patients from the brink of death. Therefore, he was awarded the title of "Miracle Doctor on the Island of Kos" (in the words of the philosopher Plato) and "The Great Doctor" (in the words of the philosopher Aristotle). )'s high reputation.
Hippocrates was not only enthusiastic about treating diseases and saving people, he was also obsessed with scientific research in medicine. During his medical tour, he had extensive contact with folk medicine in various regions and learned a lot of nutrients from it. He once taught at the medical school on Kos Island and trained many disciples. He also asked his sons and sons-in-law to engage in the profession of doctors who treat diseases and save lives. While he was teaching, he summarized and organized his many years of medical experience and folk medicine materials, and wrote a masterpiece of medicine - "Collected Works of Hippocrates". This masterpiece is divided into 70 volumes, 60 of which have been handed down to this day. This work covers many areas of medicine such as anatomy, pathology, gynecology, pediatrics, diagnostics, surgery, diet and drug treatment, disease prognosis and medical ethics. The important volumes include "On Wind, Water and Place", "Plague", "Broken Bones", "Head Trauma", "Emergency Diet", "Joint Reposition", "Prognosis", "Proverbs" and other volumes. In these works, Hippocrates was guided by simple materialism and dialectical thinking, reflected the progressive scientific thinking of the time, and summarized the techniques and practices in diagnosis and treatment.
In ancient Europe, medicine had not yet been born, and religious superstition and witchcraft dominated people's lives. People believe that getting sick is a "condemnation from God", especially epilepsy, which is considered a "divine disease". When people get sick, they go to temples to pray for God's blessings and rely on priests' spells to cure illnesses and save people. Patients were often defrauded of large amounts of money and materials, but their illnesses could not be cured, and many died due to delays. Hippocrates dismissed the old notion of “god-given disease” and challenged it, calling it the work of “magicians, charlatans, and charlatans.” He pointed out: "This disease (referring to epilepsy) is not at all mysterious than other diseases, but has the same nature and similar causes as other diseases." He criticized the fallacy of "god-given diseases" and worked hard to explore people's Characteristics of the body and causes of disease. He proposed the "humor theory" and believed that the complex human body is composed of four body fluids: blood flow, mucus, jaundice and black jaundice, all of which are secretions of glands. Because the mixing ratios of these four humors in the human body are different, people are divided into four temperament types: sanguine, phlegmatic, choleric, melancholic, etc. Although this explanation is not correct, the temperament types and names he proposed are still used today. He also pointed out that the cause of disease is the imbalance of these four fluids, and that the imbalance of body fluids is the result of external factors.
Hippocrates also demonstrated in detail the impact of external factors such as the natural environment on human health. It is believed that natural factors such as direction, soil, climate, wind direction, water quality, water source, eating habits and lifestyle are closely related to human health and disease. This view is also held by the modern medical community. He also recorded the symptoms of many diseases and studied the causes of these diseases. Many of his insights were very insightful. For example, he believed that urinary stones were caused by unclean drinking water, which caused partial coagulation of substances in the urine. The enlargement and hardening of these condensations can cause severe pain and block the urethra, causing anuria. This explanation is very similar to the modern medical explanation of urinary stones.
Hippocrates not only proposed the cause of the disease, but also put forward many unique insights into the treatment of the disease. For example, he regards disease as a developing phenomenon. Doctors cannot ignore the disease and ignore the patient. They should put the patient first, followed by the disease. He attaches great importance to "natural therapy" and believes that during the treatment process, we should first pay attention to the patient's physical constitution, lifestyle, personality and other factors. Do not use drugs easily, and try to make the body recover on its own. He once said such famous sayings: "Place your hope in nature." "Believe in the healing power of nature." He attaches great importance to the patient's diet and believes that a good diet will provide sufficient nutrition to promote the patient's physical recovery. He criticized some quacks who used starving patients as a treatment method, thinking it was very stupid and absurd. Because the body can only defeat diseases if it takes in enough nutrients. Use medication only when necessary. In treatment, doctors, patients, caregivers and the environment need to work closely together.
He also proposed the concept of "prognosis" for the first time in medicine, believing that doctors should not only prescribe the right medicine for the disease, but also predict its development trend, consequences and recovery measures based on the disease. Take therapy to a higher level. In the past, doctors only treated diseases without considering the "prognosis" issue at all.
Hippocrates also made great contributions in the field of surgery. He and his disciples broke through the church's ban and secretly dissected the human body, thereby gaining a lot of perceptual knowledge of the human body's structure and laying the foundation for surgery.
In his book, he described in detail cases of skull injuries and cracks and how to perform surgical treatments. Every detail and specific step of the surgery was described in detail and accurately. Various fracture cases and treatments are also recorded, as well as methods for reducing dislocations.
Hippocrates also recorded many aphorisms about life and medicine in the book "Proverbs", such as "Gluttony harms the body", "Placing hope in nature", "Life "Short-lived, skills last forever", "Sickness requires strong medicine", "Ignorance and drowsiness are the precursors of disease", "A simple but delicious diet is more beneficial than an exquisite but unsatisfactory diet", "Opportunities are rare, experiments are risky, decisiveness More valuable.” These popular aphorisms have been circulated among the people and still have educational significance to this day.
Hippocrates not only had superb medical skills and profound knowledge, but also had noble moral character. It is said that he cared about the suffering of patients and had noble medical ethics. In 431 BC, a terrible plague occurred in Athens, killing a large number of people. Almost everyone in the city died, and the living people also fled to other places. At this time, Hippocrates was working as a physician for the King of Macedonia and was receiving a generous salary. But after he learned that a plague had broken out in Athens, he immediately resigned from his position as imperial physician and rushed back to Athens to organize the rescue of patients. He thought from the fact that blacksmiths were not sick and thought that fire could prevent epidemics, so he lit fires all over the city and finally put out this rare plague.
Hippocrates regarded treating diseases and rescuing people as a doctor’s bounden duty. Not only did he have noble medical ethics, he also comprehensively raised the issue of medical ethics and formulated ethical standards that doctors must abide by. These moral codes must be sworn as an oath by his students when they graduate, and later generations are also called the "Hippocratic Oath." The content is:
"I swear in the name of Apollo and the gods that I will abide by my oath and be unswerving in my determination. I respect my teacher as my parents and I will share it with him if necessary. I will use my money to support him. I will treat my children as my brothers and sisters, and I will teach them enthusiastically without any expectation of reward. I will teach my sons, my teacher's sons, and my sworn disciples with all my heart. I will do my best to take medical measures that I think are beneficial to the patient, and will not cause pain or harm to the patient. I will live and practice medicine in a clean manner, and will not do whatever I want when I enter other people's homes. , I will not take bribes, and I will not seduce the opposite sex. I will never reveal anything I see or hear about my private life, whether it is related to my medical treatment or not, and I will keep it strictly confidential."
Hippocrates. His medical works have had a significant and far-reaching impact on European medicine. It has been widely circulated as a basic medical textbook, and it was not replaced until modern medicine emerged. But many of its contents and methods are still relevant today. Therefore, Europeans call him the "Father of Medicine". At the same time, people all over the world also cherish the memory of this great medical scientist. In 1948, the World Medical Association Congress adopted the Declaration of Geneva, which was modeled on the Hippocratic Oath. In 1949, the World Medical Association Congress passed a resolution making it an international medical ethics rule. Today, Western doctors usually take the "Hippocratic Oath" when they formally practice medicine. Hippocrates has become a role model for doctors and a symbol of the noble profession.