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Hippocrates & Hellenistic Medicine Hippocratic Medicine c. 450 – 370 BCE Hippocratic Corpus – 60 or so texts attributed to him – Range of subjects – He didn’t write all of them – Written over ~70 years by several individuals – Collected in Alexandria, Egypt around 420 – 350 BCE Hippocrates more of a legend – “malleable cultural artifact” Corpus does provide insights into Greek medicine Hippocratic Oath – Insights into two aspects of Hippocratic medicine Social context Medical science Social context – Plurality of healers – Social status Scientific basis – Not anatomical – Highly speculative Based on humoural theory Disease In an imbalance community: epidemic – Environmental In humans – internal Imbalance humours – Blood – Phlegm – Yellow bile – Black bile related to one of the 4 Social Context 4th century BCE Alexander empire Rise the Great & the Greek of philosophy, reason, science Plato Socrates Aristotle Linkages between 4 elements theory & four humours theory Plato, Aristotle & The Body Plato (427-347 BCE) Brain: Reason Heart: Spirit Liver: Appetite Based on speculation Aristotle (384-322 BCE) Brain: giant cooling system Heart: seat of all vital functions 2 types of blood vessels Based on dissection of animals Alexander the Great (d. 323 BCE) & His Empire Hippocratic Medicine Hippocratic medicine did not believe that it was important to know about anatomy Structure had little to do with theories of health & illness Physiology more important Hellenistic Medicine Hellenistic medicine knew far more about anatomy Rise of Alexandria (in Egypt) as centre of medical and scientific learning Herophilus (ca. 330–260 BCE) Delineation of nerves Realization they were connected to the brain Brain responsible for transmission of information to the body Brain replaced heart as centre of body functioning Distinguished between arteries & veins Arteries originated in heart Distributed blood and pneuma Veins arose from liver Distributed nutrients to the body Responding to anatomical findings on dissection – Liver (large organ) – Connected to heart by inferior vena cava – Heart (large organ) – Aorta leaves heart, all other arteries traceable to it – Brain (large organ) – All nerves traceable to it Continuities from Plato Plato Brain: Reason Heart: Spirit Liver: Appetite Herophilus Brain: Body Reg. Heart: Pneuma Liver: Nutrition Erasistratus (ca. 330-255 BCE) Arteries blood only contained pneuma; no Learned Medicine in the Roman Empire Greek empire fragmented after death of Alexander Coincided with Rome’s rise to power First Greek physicians arrived in Rome around 219 BCE Athens sacked by Roman Army around 80 BCE Roman Empire Roman Attitudes to Greek Medicine Ambivalence Roman culture more pragmatic Some believed doctors were harmful Low social status of the physician Roman citizenship Roman Contributions to Public Health Acquaducts Sewage systems Public baths Architectural knowledge re: healthy locations Development of health care institutions (valetudinaria) Military medicine