Hippocrates, V, Affections. Diseases 1. Diseases 2

Hippocrates

Translated by Paul Potter

    Hippocrates, said to have been born in Cos in or before 460 BCE, learned medicine and philosophy; travelled widely as a medical doctor and teacher; was consulted by King Perdiccas of Macedon and Artaxerxes of Persia; and died perhaps at Larissa. Apparently he rejected superstition in favour of inductive reasoning and the study of real medicine as subject to natural laws, in general and in individual people as patients for treatment by medicines and surgery. Of the roughly 70 works in the 'Hippocratic Collection' many are not by Hippocrates; even the famous oath may not be his. But he was undeniably the 'Father of Medicine'.

    The works available in the Loeb Classical Library edition of Hippocrates are the following. Volume I: Ancient Medicine. Airs, Waters, Places. Epidemics 1 and 3. The Oath. Precepts. Nutriment. Volume II: Prognostic. Regimen in Acute Diseases. The Sacred Disease. The Art. Breaths. Law. Decorum. Physician (Ch. 1). Dentition. Volume III: On Wounds in the Head. In the Surgery. On Fractures. On Joints. Mochlicon. Volume IV: Nature of Man. Regimen in Health. Humours. Aphorisms. Regimen 1–3. Dreams. Volume V: Affections. Diseases 1–2. Volume VI: Diseases 3. Internal Affections. Regimen in Acute Diseases. Volume VII: Epidemics 2 and 4–7. Volume VIII: Places in Man. Glands. Fleshes. Prorrhetic I–II. Physician. Use of Liquids. Ulcers. Haemorrhoids and Fistulas. Volume IV also contains the fragments of Heracleitus, On the Universe.

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  • A photo of the author

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Paul Potter's earlier volumes in the Hippocrates edition were widely praised for their "excellent--that is, accurate and readable--translations" (in the words of the Bulletin of the History of Medicine). He is Professor of the History of Medicine, University of Western Ontario.