Hippocrates - Father of Medicine

Hello everybody. Today's talk is very topically going to be about Hippocrates, the father of medicine. For such an important and influential figure, we actually don't know very much about Hippocrates other than that he came from the island of Kos, famous otherwise for lettuce and also as a clubbing destination, and that he was born around 460 BC. He lived for either 80 years, 83 years, 85 years or over 100 years depending on which source you look at. So let's say for the sake of argument, he lasted about 80 years. He studied under his father and perhaps some other physicians also in what now we call Turkey, and he came to believe most significantly that illnesses were not the visitation of the gods for some wrong thing that had been done, but rather arose from natural causes. Maybe some idiotic preachers nowadays need to take a leaf from two and a half millennia of progress that Hippocrates said illness is not the result of sin, it's the result of illness. However, much of what we associate with Hippocrates comes from the so-called Corpus Hippocraticum. Now this is a collection of writings which were put together in the Great Library of Alexandria, more of which in the video about Alexandria. They might actually be a collection put together by a librarian in Egypt, collecting together all the scripts that he'd got which were to do with medicine. So much in the manner that we have vacuum cleaners which are now called hoovers, maybe all the medical writings from the Library of Alexandria are called Hippocratic writings in the same sort of way. His reputation from earliest days was of a kind and gentle man and he focused very much on patient care, looking after the person rather than engaging in potentially hazardous treatments. It's easy to be critical of this now but he had very little detailed knowledge of how the body actually worked, of the internal organs and anatomy and so on. That was because that was pretty much taboo under Greeks and Romans and it remained so for many, many hundreds of years. For a little more on that perhaps if you look at the video on Galen. Either way, Hippocrates did have some treatments but not perhaps as many as he might have done had he been able to do that sort of surgery. So what did he actually do? He emphasised keeping the patient clean and making things clean and sterile at all times. Sometimes he prescribed fasting as a cure. This sounds rather archaic in the manner of bloodletting that was popular for a while but fasting now has, there is some evidence that periods of fasting may help to reboot the immune system and help the body to restore itself. He also prescribed rest and immobilisation, rest and recuperation and again the idea was to get the body to repair itself. He also interestingly paid attention to family medical history and also the environment of the patient and anybody who's been to the doctor recently will know that those are all very concerns of the modern medical profession. On the other hand, he believed in the four humours which I talked about in the lecture about Galen. So there were some things that he was right about and some things that he was wrong about. One advance that he did make was in the treatment of haemorrhoids. Now there's lots of treatments in the Hippocratic writings but I thought you'd like this one. It's an eye-catching one, perhaps an eye-watering one. He was clearly getting to the bottom of things. The treatment included ligation which is a fancy word for tying things up and also drying out the resulting part of that with a hot iron. He also suggested cauterising, further burning and also excision, the actual cutting out. There was also some treatment that he recommended which involved soothing salves which may be a good deal more soothing and perhaps the two surgical operations. He also, he was a great researcher in pulmonary conditions as well so maybe the current situation with the Covid-19 virus might have something to owe to the investigations of Hippocrates. What he's most famous of all for however is the Hippocratic Oath. Now he might not actually have written this or he may not have written all of it but it's ascribed to him and for many many centuries it was the oath which you were expected to swear as a doctor. So I'm going to give you an extract of most of what the Hippocratic Oath used to say. There are more modern versions of this but I'm just giving you the classic text. I will apply dietetic measures for the benefit of the sick according to my ability and judgment. I will keep them from harm and injustice. I will neither give a deadly drug to anybody who asked for it nor will I make a to this effect. I will not use the knife not even on sufferers from stone, whatever that was, but will withdraw in favour of such men as are engaged in this work. Whatever houses I may visit I will come for the benefit of the sick remaining free of all intentional injustice of all mischief and in particular of sexual relations with both male and female persons be they free or slaves. Whatever I may see or hear in the course of the treatment or even outside of the treatment in regard to the life of men which on no account one must spread abroad I will keep to myself holding such things shameful to be spoken about. If I fulfill this oath and do not violate it, it may be granted to me to enjoy life and art being honoured with fame among all men for all time to come and it has been. If I transgress it and swear falsely may the opposite of all this be my lot. What does this have to say to us today? Well more than any other time certainly in my lifetime we need to honour and respect and give all the support that we can to the medical profession. So to all doctors and nurses NHS workers or carers of all kinds in these difficult times we salute you Hippocrates the father of medicine.