Ancient Medicine and Other Treatises In the book, Ancient Medicine and Other Treatises, Hippocrates outlines his theory of medicine. Hippocrates was interested in epidemic diseases and plagues, in the origins of man and embryology. According to his theory, anyone who wishes to investigate medicine correctly always has to consider the seasons of the year, the winds, the rising of the sun, different qualities of water, and much more. Different kinds of bacteria and viruses go around each year in all different types of climates.
Once a person figures out the process, they can track any disease they desire. Most people view ancient medicine as just a superstition with an occasional lucky discovery that actually works. Hippocrates discuses the process by which a disease occurs and then tries to come up with a cure. However, today his cures for these diseases are obsolete. For example, Hippocrates believed that the way to cure a disease was to block inner vessels by a bodily humor.
The four humors in man were identified as phlegm, blood, yellow bile, and black bile, and all had to be in proportion to one another. Balance was seen as a sign of health and imbalance was a haven for disease. Therefore, according to Hippocrates, a base for a treatment would be to evacuate the noxious fluid from vital areas of the body. Excess phlegm needed to be drained gradually from the head so that its sudden decline in his body doesn’t overwhelm his senses.
It was also important for a young girl to sleep with a man as soon as possible to remove the impediment at the mouth of her uterus. Pregnancy would bring her a cure by opening up her body so that excess fluids can move about freely. Hippocratics know how to speak the language of science; they are the first in the western world to write medical science in a form that has survived to our time. They devise questions that the west still continues to ask.
Questions such as, what makes a person sick, and do women get sick in the same way as men? We can object that neither a decent of phlegm from the head as an etiology for epilepsy, nor a membrane at the mouth of the uterus of a young girl as a treatment for disease. Therefore, we dismiss the medical content of their science. However, we still adhere to their medical ethics. Hippocrates book, Ancient Medicine and Other Treatises, contributes to biological science by making a foundation in the early forms of medicine.
Although his cures for diseases are not equivalent to those of our current medical practices, he still contributed to the ethics of medical practices that are still present today. Hippocratics were concerned with the cause of diseases and in turn would create intellectual creative remedies. Hippocrates also practiced medicine as the art of healing, not harming. When a disease is discovered in our medical world, professionals try to discover what causes the disease and then logically work to create a cure.
However, these ideas seem common today but were advancements for his time and are still the basis of medical practices. In reading Ancient Medicine and Other Treatises, I gained the knowledge of how medicine was first thought of. I thought it was very interesting how people viewed medicine back then. I happened to find this book very beneficial. I would only recommend this book to people that were interested in learning about medicine. If your not serious about medicine, then I would not recommend picking up this book.