Hippocrates was born on the Aegean island of Kos. Both parents are doctors. Influenced by his family since childhood, he fell in love with the noble profession of saving people. He has been practicing medicine with his parents since childhood. After the death of his parents, the young Hippocrates practiced medicine all over Central Asia and visited Greece, Asia Minor, the Black Sea coast and North Africa. His superb medical skills and enthusiastic treatment of patients have saved the lives of many critically ill patients, so he has won the high reputation of "the imperial doctor on Kos Island" (the language of philosopher Plato) and "the great doctor" (the language of philosopher Aristotle).
Hippocrates was not only keen on saving lives, but also fascinated by medical scientific research. In the process of traveling and practicing medicine, he has been in extensive contact with folk medicine in various regions and has drawn a lot of nutrition from it. He used to teach in a medical school in Kos Island and trained many disciples. He also asked his son and son-in-law to engage in the doctor profession of saving lives. During his teaching, he summarized and sorted out many years of medical experience and folk medical materials, and wrote a medical masterpiece, The Collection of Hippocrates. This masterpiece is divided into 70 volumes, of which 60 volumes have been handed down to this day. This book covers anatomy, pathology, gynecology, pediatrics, diagnostics, surgery, diet and drug therapy, disease prognosis and medical ethics and many other medical fields. Among them, the important volumes are about wind, water and place, plague, fracture, head injury, emergency diet, joint reduction, prognosis and proverbs. In these works, Hippocrates, guided by simple materialism and dialectics, reflected the progressive scientific thought at that time and summarized the diagnosis and treatment technology and practice.
In ancient Europe before the birth of medicine, religious superstitions and witchcraft dominated people's lives. People think that illness is "God's condemnation", especially for epilepsy, which is considered as "God's disease". When people get sick, they go to the temple to ask for God's blessing and rely on the priest's spell to get rid of the disease and save people. Patients are often cheated out of a lot of money and goods, but they can't cure the disease, and many people die because of the delay. Hippocrates dismissed this old idea of "God-given disease" and challenged it, calling it "the behavior of wizards, charlatans and liars". He pointed out: "This disease (epilepsy) is not mysterious at all, but has the same nature and similar etiology as other diseases." He criticized the fallacy of "God-given disease" and tried to explore human characteristics and the causes of diseases. He put forward the theory of "body fluid", arguing that a complex human body consists of four kinds of body fluids: blood flow, mucus, jaundice and jaundice, all of which are secretions of glands. Due to the different mixing ratios of these four body fluids in human body, people are divided into four temperament types: sanguine, mucinous, choleric and depressive. Although this explanation is not correct, these temperament types and their names put forward by him have been used to this day. He also pointed out that the cause of the disease is the imbalance of these four body fluids, and the imbalance of body fluids is the result of external factors.
Hippocrates also demonstrated in detail the influence of external factors such as natural environment on human health. It is considered that natural factors such as direction, soil, climate, wind direction, water quality, water source, eating habits and lifestyle are closely related to human health and diseases. Modern medical circles have similar views. He also recorded the symptoms of many diseases and studied the causes of these diseases, and many viewpoints were very incisive. For example, he thinks that urinary calculi are caused by unclean drinking water, which leads to partial condensation of substances in urine. The increase and hardening of these coagulants will cause severe pain, which will block the urethra and lead to urinary incontinence. This explanation is very close to that of modern medicine for urinary calculi.
Hippocrates not only put forward the cause, but also put forward many original opinions on the treatment of diseases. For example, he regards disease as a developing phenomenon, and doctors should put patients first, followed by disease. He pays special attention to "natural therapy", and thinks that in the process of treatment, we should first pay attention to the patient's physique, lifestyle, personality and other factors, don't use drugs easily, and try our best to make the body recover itself. He once famously said, "Hope is in nature." "Believe in the healing power of nature." He attaches great importance to the patient's diet and thinks that a good diet will have enough nutrition to promote the recovery of the patient's body. He criticized some quacks for starving patients as a treatment, which was very stupid and absurd. Because the body can only overcome the disease if it takes in enough nutrition. Use drugs only when necessary. In the treatment, doctors, patients, nursing staff and the environment should cooperate closely.
He also put forward the concept of "prognosis" for the first time in medicine, thinking that doctors should not only prescribe the right medicine, but also predict its development trend, consequences and rehabilitation measures according to symptoms, thus raising the treatment to a higher level. In the past, doctors only treated diseases and did not consider the "prognosis" problem at all.
Hippocrates also made great contributions in the field of surgery. He and his disciples broke through the ban of the church and secretly dissected the human body, thus gaining a lot of perceptual knowledge of the human body structure and laying the foundation for surgery. In his book, he described in detail the cases of skull injuries and cracks, and how to carry out surgical treatment. Every detail and specific steps of the operation are described in detail and accurately in the book. Various fracture cases, treatment methods and dislocation reduction methods are also recorded.
Hippocrates also recorded many aphorisms about life and medicine in Proverbs, such as "Overeating is harmful to health", "The hope of nature", "Life is short, skills will last forever", "Indulgence requires strong medicine", "Ignorance and drowsiness are the precursors of diseases", "A simple and delicious diet is more beneficial than a meticulous but heartless diet" and ". These well-known aphorisms have been circulated among the people and still have educational significance.
Hippocrates is not only superb in medical skills and profound in knowledge, but also noble in moral character. Legend has it that he cares about the sufferings of patients and has high medical ethics. Before 43 1, a terrible plague occurred in Athens, and a large number of people died. Almost all the people in the city died, and all the living people fled to other places. At this time, Hippocrates was working as a doctor for the king of Macedonia, and his salary was very high. However, after learning of the plague in Athens, he immediately resigned as a doctor and rushed back to Athens to organize rescue of patients. He thought that blacksmiths would not get sick and fire could prevent epidemics, so he lit fires all over the city and finally put out this rare plague.
Hippocrates regarded saving lives as a doctor's duty. He not only has noble medical ethics, but also comprehensively puts forward medical ethics issues and formulates ethical norms that doctors must abide by. When his students graduate, they all take an oath, which is also called "Hippocratic oath" by later generations. Its content is:
"I swear in the name of Apollo and the gods that I will keep my oath and be firm. I respect my parents for the teachers who teach. If necessary, I will share my money with him and support him. I regard my children as brothers and sisters and hope to study medicine. I want to teach them enthusiastically, but I don't pay them. I will teach medical knowledge to my son, the teacher's son and the sworn students. I will try my best to take medical measures that I think are beneficial to patients and will not bring pain and harm to patients. Don't poison anyone. I want to live and practice medicine honestly. I go into other people's homes just to see a doctor, not to do whatever I want, not to take bribes, not to seduce the opposite sex. I will never disclose my private life that I should not disclose when I see or hear it, whether it is related to my medical care or not. "
Hippocrates' medical works had a great and far-reaching influence on European medicine. It was once widely circulated as a basic teaching material of medicine, and it was not replaced until modern medicine came into being. But many of its contents and methods still have practical significance today. Therefore, Europeans call him "the father of medicine". At the same time, people all over the world miss this great doctor. 1948, the General Assembly of the World Medical Association adopted the Geneva Declaration, which was based on the Hippocratic oath. 1949, the world medical association congress passed a resolution as an international medical ethics rule. Today, western doctors usually take the Hippocratic oath when they officially practice. Hippocrates has become a model of doctors and a symbol of this lofty profession.