Hippocratic, medicine

Medicine, of course, was never monolithic, and well into our own century renewed challenges to reductive orthodoxy have appeared, even within mainstream conventional medicine constitutionalism, psychosomatic medicine, neo-Hippocratic medicine, neo-humoralism, social medicine, Catholic humanism, and, in Europe, homeopathy and naturopathy (Lawrence... 

In the next step of the story, the oath must find its way to embracing the application of new medical technologies and the insight from a new and almost alien molecular science. But before that stage is reached in our story, Hippocratic medicine will first have to endure a revival of the Asklepios cult, and the subsequent Dark Ages that fell upon the largely Christian Western world. 

Tachenius, Otto. Otto Tachenius his clavis to the ancient hippocratical physick or medicine made by manual experience in the very fountains of nature, whereby through fire and water, in a method unheard of before, the occult mysteries of nature and art are unlocked and clearly explained by a compendious way of operation. London Printed by Tho. Thomas, and are to be sold by Nath. Crouch. .., 1677. [14], 120, [13] p. 

Otto Tachenius his clavis to the ancient Hippocratical physick or medicine" has special t.p. and separate paging with imprint London Printed by Tho. James, and are to be sold by Nath. Crouch. .., 1677. 

The major authority for medicine in the Middle Ages was Galen of Pergamon, who worked in Rome in the second century AD. Galen adopted the humoral theory of Hippocrates, including the classification of mental illnesses, and his therapeutic recommendations were also based on the tradition of the Hippocratic school diet, vomiting, blood-letting and the administration of soporifics. 

The point to be considered in the present context is that with the aim to create personalized medicine, most investigations will be designed to benefit the patient as well as to promote general knowledge. The logical consequence for the formulation of protective laws should be to combine the new rules with the spirit of the Hippocratic Code. It remains to be seen to which extent this will be possible. 

The Hippocratic idea that dyscrasia was the cause of nearly all diseases meant that dietetics (= diaita) was necessary for the restoration to normal of the life order . (s. p. 6) Even in antiquity, special forms of nutrition were of great importance in the treatment of liver diseases. In addition to those dietary prescriptions which were within the reach of everyone (e. g. donkey liver with parsley and honey) (s. pp 7, 844), there were also extremely complicated diets for the treatment of jaundice which only kings could afford (Celsus called jaundice the morbus regius). (s. p. 7) During all historical epochs of medicine, dietetic measures have played an essential role in the treatment of liver diseases - even in the so-called dirty pharmacy of mediaeval times, (s. p. 844) Because dietetics also assumed such an important role in hepatology, nutrition, i.e. enteral intake of special beverages and food, was mainly based on mythological and later also on speculative ideas. 

It is well known that Herman Boerhaave, the eighteenth-century instructor of all of Europe (communis Europaepraeceptor), was an ardent supporter of Hippocrates. While historians have discussed Boerhaave s veneration for Hippocrates as the Father of Medicine before, it is less known that Boerhaave also recommended practicing chemistry after the Hippocratical manner. Boerhaave s advice is remarkable since chemistry is alien to the Hippocratic writings. What, I ask in this paper, did Boerhaave mean when speaking about the Hippocratical manner and why did he make this method central to his chemistry What in the Hippocratic corpus was of particular use in the chemical laboratory that attracted Boerhaave How did Hippocrates function as an essential connection between Boerhaave s chemistry and medicine ... 

In Boerhaave s transformation of chemistry into an accepted academic discipline Hippocrates played a key role. Not only did the Hippocratic Corpus shape Boerhaave s chemistry for medicine, but for Boerhaave, Hippocrates was a perfect role model for chemistry as a discipline. John Powers has argued that Boerhaave chose Hippocrates because in this way he could make chemistry acceptable to a medical faculty oriented towards Hippocratic teaching.4 However this may be, I argue that there was more to it than just political and pragmatic reasons. Like Principe, I maintain that... 

From the beginning of his medical studies in 1691, Boerhaave was convinced of the importance of the Hippocratic corpus for medicine.5 In the Commentariolus, the autobiographical notes found after his death, he wrote ... 

Of all natural philosophers, Hippocrates best incorporated the Calvinist way of doing research. And it was to Hippocrates, in Boerhaave s words, that all the later authors owed everything that was good in their work. 30 Hence Boerhaave recommended that his students practice chemistry after the Hippocratic manner. This means that Hippocrates was Boerhaave s first and foremost role model in his academic pursuits. So even though Boerhaave presented Francis Bacon as a role model for the natural philosophy of his day (Bacon s experimental method, after all, exactly fitted Boerhaave s Hippocratic model), for Boerhaave it was a Calvinist Hippocrates who, before Bacon, made observation central to medicine, thereby establishing the right method for natural philosophy as a whole.31... 

Medicine is an art that has been practiced since time immemorial. The use of herbs and natural medicaments to relieve pain or to aid the sick in coping with their afflictions has been a part of all societies. In the Western world, medicine has developed at least since the time of the Greeks and Romans - the Hippocratic oath reminds us of this nearly 2500-year history. However, the progress of medicine has been very different from that of many other arts within society. It has come of age after an incredibly long maturation period. As a function capable of offering a successful treatment for a human ailment, medicine is very much a development of the last 100-150 years. Indeed, the major advances have come in the last 50-75 years. 

---