Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
  1. Home
  2. Search

Refine search

Refine search

Access:
Content type:
Publication date:
Apply   From and To filters
Subject: Show more
Journals Show more
Publishers: Show more
Societies Show more
Series: Show more
Collections: Show more

Actions for selected content:

Select all | Deselect all
  • View selected items
  • Export citations
  • Download PDF (zip)
  • Save to Kindle
  • Save to Dropbox
  • Save to Google Drive

Save Search

You can save your searches here and later view and run them again in "My saved searches".

Please provide a title, maximum of 40 characters.
Cancel
×

4 results

  • Chapter 2 - Phrenitis in Classical (Fifth–Fourth Centuries bce) and Hellenistic (Third–First Centuries bce) Medicine

  • Chiara Thumiger, Cluster of Excellence Roots, Christian-Albrechts Universität zu Kiel, Germany
  • Book:
    <i>Phrenitis</i> and the Pathology of the Mind in Western Medical Thought
    Published online:
    16 November 2023
    Print publication:
    30 November 2023, pp 21-57
    • Chapter
      • You have access
      • Open access
    • PDF
    • HTML
    • Export citation

  • Summary

    Chapter 2 begins with classical medicine, exploring the sources of so-called Hippocratic medicine, nosological and clinical, as well as other lesser-known authors from the fourth century BCE such as Diocles and Praxagoras. The limited material preserved on our topic from Hellenistic medicine (Herophilus and Erasistratus) is also surveyed. The richest information is preserved by the writings of the Hippocratic Corpus, where phrenitis first appears, and where it is richly described, both in nosological profiles and with reference to specific patients. Its core traits are by this point established: fever, localization in the chest , and an association with winter also showed by the co-morbidity with, and analogy to, pleuritis and pneumonia. Interestingly, the phren/phrenes are seldom mentioned in discussions of phrenitis, and when they are, not in their traditional, ‘Homeric’ psychological function, or directly as locus affectus, thus signalling a desire to distance the pathological narrative from traditional poetic models.

  • Beneath the skin: method and perception in Hippocratic medicine

  • Jorge Torres
  • Journal:
    Medical History / Volume 66 / Issue 1 / January 2022
    Published online by Cambridge University Press:
    01 April 2022, pp. 34-46
    • Article
      • You have access
    • PDF
    • HTML
    • Export citation

  • This paper examines some neglected aspects of Hippocratic medicine, drawing special attention to certain methodological questions concerning the role of sense perception in the acquisition of medical knowledge. I argue that there is greater epistemological uniformity among the texts of the Hippocratic Corpus than is sometimes assumed. I provide a careful reading of seemingly inconsistent Hippocratic treatises in the light of a plausible and coherent epistemological model. The impression that we are dealing with different, indeed inconsistent, epistemological views can be explained away by the specific dialectical contexts of each work and their historical background. Most importantly, a proper justification of this model will require us to delve into the epistemological foundations of Hippocratic medicine.