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Doctor and Patient in Classical Greece
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 January 2009
Extract
The medical literature of the Greeks from the classical, Hellenistic, and Roman periods is very full and of inexhaustible interest for the history of science, but its public, even among scholars, is small, particularly in Great Britain. On the theoretical and technical side independent study is likely to remain the preoccupation of a few, but on the practical and human side there is abundant material of historical and social interest that deserves to be more widely known. Among that material the present article is concerned only with the evidence from the fifth and fourth centuries B.C., the first age of scientific medicine among the Greeks. Some is to be found in commonly read authors, such as Plato, but for fuller details the only contemporary source of much value is the Corpus Hippocraticum, the mixed collection of medical writings from these centuries which has reached us under the name of Hippocrates, but in fact contains treatises, essays, pamphlets, and notes by the most various authors, as their styles and contents show.
For English readers by far the most useful edition of any large part of the Corpus is the four volumes of the Loeb Hippocrates—i, ii, and iv by Dr. W. H. S. Jones, and iii by Dr. E. T. Withington, containing the surgical books. But this is not exhaustive; for the complete Corpus the most recent edition is still the ten volumes of Émile Littré, Œuvres complètes d'Hippocrate (Paris, 1839–61). This, like the Loeb, has translations opposite the text, introductions, and a few illustrations; it is now a rare book and still valuable in spite of its age.
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- Copyright © The Classical Association 1953
References
page 1 note 1 For a recent account see Jones, W. H. S., Philosophy and Medicine in Ancient Greece (Supplement to the Bulletin of the History of Medicine, No. 8, Johns Hopkins Press, 1946), 32–37.Google Scholar
page 2 note 1 For such rivals see The Art (π∊ρì τέχνης), a defence of sound medicine; Sacred Disease (π∊ρì ıρ
ς νoÚσoυ), an attack on magical and supernaturalist views of epilepsy; and Ancient Medicine (π∊ρì 
ρχαíης íητρiκ
ς), which assails hypothetical views of disease for ignoring concrete detail.
page 2 note 2 Varro in Pliny, N.H. xxix. 4; Soranus, Life of Hippocrates; Strabo 657.
page 2 note 3 See, for intance, Herzog, R., Die Wunderheilungen von EpidaurusGoogle Scholar, an edition, with commentary, of the votive tablets discovered at Epidaurus, the parent sanctuary, and recording treatment and cures; particularly 139 on the Asclepieum and medical practice. This denial is now repeated in such a standard work as Castiglioni, A., A History of Medicine (New York: A. Knopf, 1947), 143.Google Scholar
page 2 note 4 311 b.
page 2 note 5 90 b.
page 3 note 1 vi.
page 3 note 2 ii.
page 3 note 3 ix.
page 3 note 4 xiv. In Littré only (ix. 218, 220). The author says that he has written a book on this subject; this has perished. Compare Xenophon (Anab. III. iv. 30), who says that eight doctors were appointed on the way home to deal with the many wounds among the Ten Thousand.
page 4 note 1 iii.
page 4 note 2 xiii.
page 4 note 3 iv.
page 5 note 1 i.
page 5 note 2 vii.
page 5 note 3 xii.
page 5 note 4 I xiii.
page 5 note 5 xiv.
page 5 note 6 xv–xvii.
page 5 note 7 ix.
page 6 note 1 xiv.
page 6 note 2 iv.
page 6 note 3 
ν γἁρ παρ
φiλανθρωπıη, πἀρ∊στinodot; καì φıλoτ∊χνìη, which has been used as a motto in modern medical schools.
page 6 note 4 vi.
page 6 note 5 viii.
page 6 note 6 i. Cf. Homer, Il. i. 70 on Calchas: 
ς 
δη τἀτ' ὲóντα τἀ τ' ὲσσóμ∊να πρó τ' έóντα.
page 7 note 1 ix.
page 7 note 2 viii.
page 7 note 3 ix–x.
page 8 note 1 Trepanning: Head-wounds, xxi. Cataract: see Meyerhof, M., ‘Die Operation des Stars in der griechischen Medizin’ (Die Antike, 1932).Google Scholar Dental work, holding teeth in line for jaw-setting with gold band or linen: Joints, xxxii. Nose, treatment in fracture: Joints, xxxv. Ear, incised or cauterized: Joints, xv. Lithotomy: Oath. Obstetrics: the gynaecological books.
page 8 note 2 xlii–xliv.
page 9 note 1 xlvii.
page 9 note 2 Thus there is Regimen in Acute Diseases, but also Regimen in Health and the compilation Regimen without qualification. Herodicus of Selymbria, the trainer-turned-dietetic expert who is criticized by Plato (Rep. iii. 406 a, Protag. 316 d, Phaedo 227 d), is further condemned in Epidemics VI. iii. 18 (v. 302 Littré) for killing fever patients with running, wrestling, and vapour-baths, contrary to the nature of fever.
page 10 note 1 Cautery: Epidemics, IV. iv (v. 146 Littré). Incision and injection, with subsequent piping (μoτòν κασσıτέρıνoν κoiλoν ‘a hollow tin lint’ which must mean some sort of tin tube inside lint): Diseases, II. xlvii ad fin. (vii. 70–72 Littré).
page 10 note 2 720 a, 857 c.
page 11 note 1 For this list see Littré, v. 16.
page 11 note 2 For slave patients see Epidemics, I. xxi; II. iv. 5; IV. ix, xii, xxiii; v. i, xix, xxv, xxxv, xli, lxxxv, lxxxvii; VII. xxiv, xl. (The Loeb contains only I and III.)
page 11 note 3 i.
page 11 note 4 iv.
page 11 note 5 β∊βήλoıσı δὲ oύ θέμıς πρì 
τ∊λ∊σθ
σıν òργíoıσıν έπıστήμης.
page 11 note 6 I have used his edition, The Hippocratic Oath (Supplement to the Bulletin of the History of Medicine, No. I, 1943).Google Scholar It has a very full commentary and discussion.