Medicine Through Time - Ancient Greek - The Work of Hippocrates

Hello and welcome back to RevisedGCSEHistory.co.uk This is the fourth video in the topic of Medicine in Ancient Greece and in this video today we're going to be looking at the work of a Greek doctor, a famous Greek doctor and we're going to be looking at why he is so important in the history of medicine So the Greek doctor we're going to be looking at in the video today is Hippocrates Who was Hippocrates? So, just some information to read through Hippocrates is the most famous Greek doctor He is acknowledged as the, this is sort of in speech marks here, as the father of modern medicine He was born on the Greek island of Kos He wrote a number of medical books advising doctors how to treat their patients using natural methods He focused on natural methods rather than explaining disease using gods and stuff like that, supernatural methods We cannot be certain about the details of his life Not much is actually known about Hippocrates We know he wrote books and approved of natural methods and encouraged doctors to use them We know he was born on the island of Kos and he lived, I think he lived on the Greek island of Larissa That's just me remembering that, I'm not entirely sure But we don't actually know much else about him Because this is in the times of ancient Greeks, so it's a very long time ago Even we can see here, this is the bust of Hippocrates He may not have looked like this at all, that's just a guess So we know very little about him But in this video today we're going to focus on what we do know about Hippocrates The most famous Greek doctor So, one thing that Hippocrates is famous for is the Hippocratic Oath Let's just read through this information about it The Hippocratic Oath is a promise made by doctors to obey rules of behaviour in their professional lives So, this is the Hippocratic Oath up here So if we have a read through this very quickly I swear by Apollo, Asclepius and by all the gods that I will carry out this oath I will use treatment to help the sick according to my ability and judgement but never within a view to injury or wrongdoing I will not give poison to anybody, whatever I see or hear professionally or in my private life Which ought not to be told, I will keep secret So that's basically promising that doctors will act professionally and obey certain rules of behaviour So that's a promise made by doctors and it's still taken by doctors today, the Hippocratic Oath Something doctors take today It makes clear that doctors are not magicians, they're not giving poison to anybody It says that doctors should keep high standards of treatment and work for the benefit of patients rather than to make themselves rich So doctors should be professional, not be selfish and always work for the benefit of their patient So that's the Hippocratic Oath The next thing Hippocrates is famous for is the Hippocratic Corpus It's sometimes actually called the Hippocratic Collection Can we call that? I think in the textbook it actually calls it the Hippocratic Collection But the Hippocratic Corpus is fine So the Hippocratic Corpus is a collection of medical books Which were written by Hippocrates and his followers The books were used by doctors for centuries And the Hippocratic Corpus is important because it is the first detailed list of symptoms and treatments in the history of medicine And doctors continue to use the theories of Hippocrates as the basis of their own work for hundreds of years So that's the Hippocratic Corpus Probably the most famous book from the Hippocratic Corpus is the Programme for Health That was written by Hippocrates And that said that people should exercise and eat a diet that changed with the seasons to stay healthy The Programme for Health It might be of health, I'm not entirely sure That's probably the most famous book in the Hippocratic Corpus Another thing that Hippocrates is famous for is the Clinical Method of Observation So Hippocrates came up with the Clinical Method of Observation Which doctors still use today If you go to the doctors today, they still use the Clinical Method of Observation Quite difficult to say It showed how important it is to observe and record carefully the symptoms and development of diseases So Hippocrates encouraged doctors to write what the symptoms of the disease were like at the start of the illness And what symptoms were like as the illness progressed and developed So towards the end of the illness, after the patient was becoming better, what would the symptoms be then? Doing so meant that doctors were more likely to choose the right cure if they took care to find the cause of the problem And it also meant that the notes doctors made could be used to help with the diagnosis and treatment of future patients So there's two advantages First is they're choosing the right cure And second is it's helping with the diagnosis of future patients So we've talked a bit about the Clinical Method of Observation What exactly is it then? Let's have a quick look So it involves these four steps And as I've said, it's still used by doctors today The first step is to diagnose the patient This is to study their symptoms And then the doctor offers a prognosis Which is to consider the symptoms and predict the illness Then the doctor observes the patient So making notes and comparing symptoms And then they treat with confidence So the Clinical Method of Observation has four main steps Diagnosis, Prognosis, Observation and Treatment Another thing Hippocrates is famous for is his beliefs about the cause of disease and natural treatments So let's have a read through this Hippocrates believed in the theory of the four humours So he believed in it, he thought it was right And it explained why people became ill This was a natural treatment Sorry, Hippocrates thought that disease was caused by natural things Rather than gods and evil spirits And he supported the theory of the four humours It's important to say that Hippocrates did not invent or develop the theory of the four humours That was actually invented by Aristotle As we've mentioned in a previous video Lots of candidates for GCSE History often confuse that So it's really important you get that right Hippocrates encouraged doctors to treat patients using natural methods And to look for natural causes of disease Hippocrates also recommended that patients exercise And eat a diet that changes with the seasons to stay healthy So exercise, eat a diet that changes with the seasons This source here, which I've lifted from one of the textbooks Just looks at what Hippocrates recommended in his famous book A Programme for Health, which I've just this minute mentioned From the Hippocratic Collection of Medical Books, or the Hippocratic Corpus So Hippocrates says In winter, people should eat as much as possible and drink as little as possible Unwatered wine, bread, roast meat and a few vegetables This will keep the body hot and dry In summer, they should drink more water and eat less Watered wine, barley cakes and boiled meat So that the body will stay cold and moist Walking should be fast in winter and slow in summer So he talks about how exercise should be different And how the diet that people eat should change with the seasons That's the end of the video today Here's a few quick knowledge recall questions Based on the content of this video today You may wish to pause the video here And jot down some quick answers to these four questions If not, carry on watching and we'll go through the answers together What is the Hippocratic Oath? The Hippocratic Oath is a promise made by doctors To obey certain rules of behaviour in their professional lives Rules of behaviour in their professional lives Not really got space to fit it in though What did Hippocrates think made people ill? When their humours became unbalanced Because he believed in the theory of the four humours What is the collection of medical books written by Hippocrates called? That's called the Hippocratic Corpus Or you may see it as titled the Hippocratic Collection Corpus is fine What is the clinical method of observation? We study a patient's symptoms and record This is the main idea of what it is How the illness develops There you go There are all the answers to the quick four knowledge recall questions That's the end of the video for today Thank you for watching Next up in the series is another video about medicine in Ancient Greece Head over to my website at revisedgcsehistory.co.uk For a complete list of all the videos on GCSE History And to access more revision materials And to look at the possibility of joining the Members Zone Thanks for watching and I'll see you again very soon