Hippocrates

Sulfur has long been known for its properties as a pesticide and a curative agent. Homer spoke of the pest-averting sulfur as far back as 800—1000 BC, Hippocrates (400 Bc) considered sulfur sa an antidote against plague, and Dioscorides (100 ad) used sulfur ointment in dermatology (244). In 1803, the use of a lime—sulfur protective treatment for fmit trees was reported, and in 1850 sulfur dust was used to protect foHage (245). In 1891 sulfur dust was used on soil to control onion smut (246). 

The most common NSAID is aspirin, or acctylsalicvlic acid, whose use goes back to the late 1800s. It had been known from before the time of Hippocrates in 400 bc that fevers could be lowered by chewing the bark of willow trees. The active agent in willow bark was found in 1827 to be an aromatic compound called salicin, which could be converted by reaction with water into sal- icy I alcohol and then oxidized to give salicylic acid. Salicylic acid... 

No drugs have been a more faithful companion to man throughout his history than salicylates, the forebears of aspirin. About 3,500 years ago the Ebers Papyrus recommended the application of a decoction of leaves of myrtle to the abdomen and back to get rid of rheumatic pains. Hippocrates championed the juices of the poplar tree and willow bark to treat fever and labor pains. These plants and trees are abimdant in compounds derived from salicylic acid, which gets its name from them (in Latin salix is a willow tree). For thousands of years on all continents they have helped to... 

From his speech against Galen, Avicenna and Hippocrates in Basle on 5 June, 1527, see Sudhoff, Paracelsus. Samtliche Werke (1931) vol. 4, 3—4. 

Rice bran is a storehouse of unique bioactive compounds. The human body is a remarkable self-regenerating system. Hippocrates, the father of medicine, wrote that Disease does not occur unexpectedly. It is the result of constant violation of nature s laws. Accumulation of such violations results in diseases . The possible involvement of all the bioactives of rice bran indicates a holistic approach to helping the body to regenerate to a normal state from a disease state. Holistic or alternative medicine does not treat or cure a disease but fights symptoms, makes the body handle the challenges... 

One of the first and most useful medicinal chemicals is aspirin (CgHgO ), also known as acetylsalicylic acid. This painkiller was first trademarked and manufactured in 1899, but a precursor to the drug had been extracted from the bark of willow trees by Hippocrates as early as the 5th century b.c. The pharmaceutical industry has since developed an array of products to alleviate aches and pains, yet aspirin is still prominent on the shelves of drugstores. In pharmacies that dispense prescription drugs, an even wider array of chemicals is sold to help those with diseases ranging from high blood pressure to cancer. 

Hippocrates mentioned elder as a purgative around 400 B.C. Pliny (circa 2379 A.D.) recorded the use of elder by the Romans. Pedanius Dioscorides, a first-century army surgeon who traveled throughout the Roman Empire, also wrote about the medical value of elder. Elder was widely used in the early Italian medical schools. 

Tachenius, Otto. Otto Tachenius his Hippocrates chymicus discovering the ancient foundation of the late viperine salt with his Clavis thereunto annexed. Translated by J. W. London Printed are to be sold by N. Crouch. .., 1677. lip. 1., 122, [9], [13], 120, [13] p. 

Tachenius, Otto. Otto Tachenivs his Hippocrates chymicus, which discovers the ancient foundations of the late viperine salt, and his Clavis therunto / translated into English by J.W.. .. London Printed for Thomas James, and are to be sold by Nath. 

Arsenic compounds have been used in medicine since the time of Hippocrates, ca. 400 BCE (Woolson 1975). Inorganic arsenicals have been used for centuries, and organoarsenicals for at least a century in the treatment of syphilis, yaws, amoebic dysentery, and trypanosomiasis (NAS... 

Basic toxicity has been identified from careful observation and experimentation in the workplace and in the lab. Over the years, from the time of the ancient Greeks and Romans, and probably long before that, we have learned that exposure to certain substances can cause bodily harm. Hippocrates, the founder of medicine in Ancient Greece, described the occurrence of lead poisoning among lead miners and metal workers as long ago as 400 B.C. The Roman historian, Pliny, described in his encyclopedia in the second half of the first century A.D., the dangers of mercury poison-... 

Mercury has been known since ancient times. As early as in the 7th Century B.C., Assyrian medics applied it to cure skin diseases. Mercury compounds were also used by Arabs in the 6th Century B.C. for therapeutic reasons. Mercury was mentioned by Aristotle and Hippocrates (the 4th Century B.C.) who described cinnabar (HgS) as a dye. Mercury and its compounds have also... 

If these processes produce too much heat, the body attempts to lose heat by vasodilation within the skin (via convection) and sweating (via evaporation of the water in the sweat). Both are well-known characteristics of fever. The patient s experience of alternate shivering and sweating (so well described by Hippocrates) probably represents an impairment of the thermorequlatory centre in the hypothalamus that regulates the balance between heat loss and heat production, resulting in fluctuations in body temperature. 

Hippocrates coined the word karcinos after observing that distended veins radiating from a breast tumour resembled the legs of a crab. 

Paracelsus went on to dismiss the theory on which the orthodox medicine of the day was based. This theory, which had originally been proposed by Hippocrates, held that the body contained four humors blood, phlegm, yellow bile, and black bile. Disease was supposedly a consequence of imbalances in these humors, and it was the physician s job to correct the imbalances. Furthermore, each humor was associated with one of the four elements. For example, a fever was clearly the result of the presence of too much fire. The humor that corresponded to fire was blood, so feverish patients should be bled. All of this was nonsense, Paracelsus said. The body was a kind of chemical laboratory, and a doctor must investigate the properties of chemical compounds to find those that would cure any specific disease. 

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