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Hippocrates

Hippocrates

Hippocrates of Kos (c. 460 BC–c. 380 BC) was an ancient Greek physician. He has been called "the father of medicine", and is commonly regarded as one of the most outstanding figures in medicine of all time. He was a physician trained at the Dream temple of Kos, and may have been a pupil of Herodicus. Writings attributed to him (Corpus hippocraticum, or "Hippocratic writings") rejected the superstition and magic of primitive "medicine" and laid the foundations of medicine as a branch of science. Little is actually known about Hippocrates's personal life, but some of his medical achievements were documented by such people as Plato and Aristotle.

Writings

Aristotle The Hippocratic writings introduced patient confidentiality, a practice which is still in use today. This was described under the Hippocratic Oath and other treatises. Hippocrates recommended that physicians record their findings and their medicinal methods, so that these records may be passed down and employed by other physicians. Other Hippocratic writings associated personality traits with the relative abundance of the four humours in the body: phlegm, yellow bile, black bile, and blood, and was a major influence on Galen and later on medieval medicine. The Hippocratic Corpus is a collection of about sixty treatises, most written between 430 BC and AD 200. They are actually a group of texts written by several different people holding several different viewpoints erroneously grouped under the name of Hippocrates, perhaps at the Library of Alexandria. None of the texts included in the Corpus can be considered to have been written by Hippocrates himself, and one of them at least was written by his son-in-law Polybus. The best known of the Hippocratic writings is the Hippocratic Oath; however, this text was most likely not written by Hippocrates himself. A famous, time-honoured medical rule ascribed to Hippocrates is Primum non nocere ("first, do no harm"); another one is Ars longa, vita brevis ("art is long, and life short").

Works

Of these works, none can be demonstrably credited to Hippocrates, but they are considered to form the Corpus Hippocraticum:
- Aphorisms
- Instruments Of Reduction
- Of The Epidemics
- On Airs, Waters, And Places
- On Ancient Medicine
- On Fistulae
- On Fractures
- On Hemorrhoids
- On Injuries Of The Head
- On Regimen In Acute Diseases
- On The Articulations
- On The Sacred Disease
- On The Surgery
- On Ulcers
- The Book Of Prognostics
- The Law
- The Oath

The "portrait" of Hippocrates

The purely conventional iconography of Greek poets and philosophers were set in the "portrait" busts, (illustration, above right), produced in series to decorate the villas of the Roman cultured class. The changing careers of these idealized "character" images have been studied by Paul Zanker, The Mask of Socrates: The Image of the Intellectual in Antiquity, translated by Alan Shapiro. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1996. [ ISBN 0-520-20105-1]. See [http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/bmcr/1996/96.08.04.html review in Bryn Mawr Classical Review].

External links

- [http://etext.library.adelaide.edu.au/aut/hippocrates.html Online version of works]]
- [http://classics.mit.edu/Browse/browse-Hippocrates.html Translations of Hippocratic texts in English]
- [http://194.254.96.6/FMPro?-DB=livanc.fp3&-Format=livanc-rech.htm&cote=
- &-max=1000&-Find Texts in Greek]
- Aphorisms available at [http://sources.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aphorisms WikiSource]
- [http://www.healthvoices.com/blog/hippocrates/2005/10/24/what_would_hippocrates_do What Would Hippocrates Do?] Category:460 BC births Category:380 BC deaths Category:Ancient Greeks Category:Classical Humanists Category:History of ancient medicine ja:ヒポクラテス simple:Hippocrates

460 BC

Centuries: 4th century BC - 5th century BC - 6th century BC Decades: 500s BC 490s BC 480s BC 470s BC 460s BC - 450s BC - 440s BC 430s BC 420s BC 410s BC 400s BC Years: 465 BC 464 BC 463 BC 462 BC 461 BC - 460 BC - 459 BC 458 BC 457 BC 456 BC 455 BC ----

Events

- Egypt revolts against Persia, starting a six year war. An Athenian force sent to attack Cyprus is diverted to support this revolt.
- Cincinnatus becomes consul of the Roman Republic.

Births

- Democritus, Greek philosopher (d. 370 BC)
- Hippocrates of Cos, Greek physician (d. 377 BC)
- Thucydides, Greek historian (d. 395 BC)

Deaths

- Epicharmus, Greek poet (b. 550 BC)
- Panini, Hindu Indian grammarian (b. 520 BC) Category:460s BC

380 BC

Centuries: 5th century BC - 4th century BC - 3rd century BC Decades: 430s BC 420s BC 410s BC 400s BC 390s BC - 380s BC - 370s BC 360s BC 350s BC 340s BC 330s BC 385 BC 384 BC 383 BC 382 BC 381 BC 380 BC 379 BC 378 BC 377 BC 376 BC 375 BC ----

Events

- Nectanebo I deposes Nefaarud II to become king in Egypt and establishes the 30th Dynasty. When it comes to an end in 343 BC, it will be the last native house to rule.
- Cleombrotus I succeeds his brother Agesipolis I as king of Sparta.

Births

- King Darius III of Persia (d. 330 BC) (approximate date).

Deaths

- Agesipolis I, king of Sparta
- Aristophanes, Greek dramatist
- Philoxenus of Cythera, Greek dithyrambic poet.
- Hakor, king of the Twenty-ninth dynasty of Egypt
- Nefaarud II, son of Hakor and last king of the Twenty-ninth dynasty Category:380s BC

Ancient Greece

Ancient Greece is the term used to describe the Greek-speaking world in ancient times. It refers not only to the geographical peninsula of modern Greece, but also to areas of Hellenic culture that were settled in ancient times by Greeks: Cyprus, the Aegean coast of Turkey (then known as Ionia), Sicily and southern Italy (known as Magna Graecia), and the scattered Greek settlements on the coasts of what are now Albania, Bulgaria, Egypt, Libya, southern France, southern Spain, Catalonia, Georgia, Romania, and Ukraine. There are no fixed or universally agreed upon dates for the beginning or the end of the Ancient Greek period. In common usage it refers to all Greek history before the Roman Empire, but historians use the term more precisely. Some writers include the periods of the Greek-speaking Mycenaean civilization that collapsed about 1100 BC, though most would argue that the influential Minoan was so different from later Greek cultures that it should be classed separately. In the modern Greek school-books, "ancient times" is a period of about 1000 years (from the catastrophe of Mycenae until the conquest of the country by the Romans) that is divided in four periods, based on styles of art as much as culture and politics. The historical line starts with Greek Dark Ages (1100–800 BC). In this period artists use geometrical schemes such as squares, circles, lines to decorate amphoras and other pottery. The archaic period (800–500 BC) represents those years when the artists made larger free-standing sculptures in stiff, hieratic poses with the dreamlike "archaic smile". In the classical years (500–323 BC) artists perfected the style that since has been taken as exemplary: "classical", such as the (Parthenon). In the Hellenistic years that followed the conquests of Alexander (323–146 BC), also known as Alexandrian, aspects of Hellenic civilization expanded to Egypt and Bactria. Traditionally, the Ancient Greek period was taken to begin with the date of the first Olympic Games in 776 BC, but many historians now extend the term back to about 1000 BC. The traditional date for the end of the Ancient Greek period is the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC (The following period is classed Hellenistic) or the integration of Greece into the Roman Republic in 146 BC. These dates are historians' conventions and some writers treat the Ancient Greek civilization as a continuum running until the advent of Christianity in the third century AD. Ancient Greece is considered by most historians to be the foundational culture of Western Civilization. Greek culture was a powerful influence in the Roman Empire, which carried a version of it to many parts of Europe. Ancient Greek civilization has been immensely influential on the language, politics, educational systems, philosophy, art and architecture of the modern world, particularly during the Renaissance in Western Europe and again during various neo-Classical revivals in 18th and 19th century Europe and The Americas.

Origins

The Americas The Greeks are believed to have migrated southward into the Greek peninsula in several waves beginning in the late 3rd millennium BC, the last being the Dorian invasion. The period from 1600 BC to about 1100 BC is described in History of Mycenaean Greece known for the reign of King Agamemnon and the wars against Troy as narrated in the epics of Homer. The period from 1100 BC to the 8th century BC is a "dark age" from which no primary texts survive, and only scant archaeological evidence remains. Secondary and tertiary texts such as Herodotus' Histories, Pausanias' Description of Greece, Diodorus' Bibliotheca and Jerome's Chronicon, contain brief chronologies and king lists for this period. The history of Ancient Greece is often taken to end with the reign of Alexander the Great, who died in 323 BC. Subsequent events are described in Hellenistic Greece. Any history of Ancient Greece requires a cautionary note on sources. Those Greek historians and political writers whose works have survived, notably Herodotus, Thucydides, Xenophon, Demosthenes, Plato and Aristotle, were mostly either Athenian or pro-Athenian. That is why we know far more about the history and politics of Athens than of any other city, and why we know almost nothing about some cities' histories. These writers, furthermore, concentrate almost wholly on political, military and diplomatic history, and ignore economic and social history. All histories of Ancient Greece have to contend with these limits in their sources.

The rise of Hellas

In the 8th century BC Greece began to emerge from the Dark Ages which followed the fall of the Mycenaean civilization. Literacy had been lost and the Mycenaean script forgotten, but the Greeks adapted the Phoenician alphabet to Greek and from about 800 BC written records begin to appear. Greece was divided into many small self-governing communities, a pattern dictated by Greek geography, where every island, valley and plain is cut off from its neighbors by the sea or mountain ranges. 800 BC. It was the greatest architectural statement of 5th century BC Greece]] As Greece recovered economically, its population grew beyond the capacity of its limited arable land, and from about 750 BC the Greeks began 250 years of expansion, settling colonies in all directions. To the east, the Aegean coast of Asia Minor was colonized first, followed by Cyprus and the coasts of Thrace, the Sea of Marmara and south coast of the Black Sea. Eventually Greek colonization reached as far north-east as present day Ukraine. To the west the coasts of Albania, Sicily and southern Italy were settled, followed by the south coast of France, Corsica, and even northeastern Spain. Greek colonies were also founded in Egypt and Libya. Modern Syracuse, Naples, Marseille and Istanbul had their beginnings as the Greek colonies Syracusa, Neapolis, Massilia and Byzantium. By the 6th century BC Hellas had become a cultural and linguistic area much larger than the geographical area of Greece. Greek colonies were not politically controlled by their founding cities, although they often retained religious and commercial links with them. The Greeks both at home and abroad organised themselves into independent communities, and the city (polis) became the basic unit of Greek government. First Crete, then in short order the other Greek city-states, adopted the formal practice of pederasty. From its ritual roots in Indo-European prehistory, the practice was elevated to prominence, influencing pedagogy, warfare and social life, and becoming a central feature of Hellenic culture for the next thousand years.

Social and political conflict

The Greek cities were originally monarchies, although many of them were very small and the term "King" (basileus) for their rulers is misleadingly grand. In a country always short of farmland, power rested with a small class of landowners, who formed a warrior aristocracy fighting frequent petty inter-city wars over land and rapidly ousting the monarchy. About this time the rise of a mercantile class (shown by the introduction of coinage in about 680 BC) introduced class conflict into the larger cities. From 650 BC onwards, the aristocracies had to fight not to be overthrown and replaced by populist leaders called tyrants (tyrranoi), a word which did not necessarily have the modern meaning of oppressive dictators. By the 6th century BC several cities had emerged as dominant in Greek affairs: Athens, Sparta, Corinth, and Thebes. Each of them had brought the surrounding rural areas and smaller towns under their control, and Athens and Corinth had become major maritime and mercantile powers as well. Athens and Sparta developed a rivalry that dominated Greek politics for generations. In Sparta, the landed aristocracy retained their power, and the constitution of Lycurgus (about 650 BC) entrenched their power and gave Sparta a permanent militarist regime under a dual monarchy. Sparta dominated the other cities of the Peloponnese, with the sole exceptions of Argus and Achaia. In Athens, by contrast, the monarchy was abolished in 683 BC, and reforms of Solon established a moderate system of aristocratic government. The aristocrats were followed by the tyranny of Pisistratus and his sons, who made the city a great naval and commercial power. When the Pisistratids were overthrown, Cleisthenes established the world's first democracy (500 BC), with power being held by an assembly of all the male citizens. But it must be remembered that only a minority of the male inhabitants were citizens, excluding slaves, freedmen and non-Athenians.

The Persian Wars

In Ionia (the modern Aegean coast of Turkey) the Greek cities, which included great centres such as Miletus and Halicarnassus, were unable to maintain their independence and came under the rule of the Persian Empire in the mid 6th century BC. In 499 BC the Greeks rose in the Ionian Revolt, and Athens and some other Greek cities went to their aid. In 490 BC the Persian Great King, Darius I, having suppressed the Ionian cities, sent a fleet to punish the Greeks. The Persians landed in Attica, but were defeated at the Battle of Marathon by a Greek army led by the Athenian general Miltiades. The burial mound of the Athenian dead can still be seen at Marathon. Ten years later Darius's successor, Xerxes I, sent a much more powerful force by land. After being delayed by the Spartan King Leonidas I at Thermopylae, Xerxes advanced into Attica, where he captured and burned Athens. But the Athenians had evacuated the city by sea, and under Themistocles they defeated the Persian fleet at the Battle of Salamis. A year later, the Greeks, under the Spartan Pausanius, defeated the Persian army at Plataea. The Athenian fleet then turned to chasing the Persians out of the Aegean Sea, and in 478 BC they captured Byzantium. In the course of doing so Athens enrolled all the island states and some mainland allies into an alliance, called the Delian League because its treasury was kept on the sacred island of Delos. The Spartans, although they had taken part in the war, withdrew into isolation after it, allowing Athens to establish unchallenged naval and commercial power.

The dominance of Athens

Delos The Persian Wars ushered in a century of Athenian dominance of Greek affairs. Athens was the unchallenged master of the sea, and also the leading commercial power, although Corinth remained a serious rival. The leading statesman of this time was Pericles, who used the tribute paid by the members of the Delian League to build the Parthenon and other great monuments of classical Athens. By the mid 5th century the League had become an Athenian Empire, symbolised by the transfer of the League's treasury from Delos to the Parthenon in 454 BC. The wealth of Athens attracted talented people from all over Greece, and also created a wealthy leisured class who became patrons of the arts. The Athenian state also sponsored learning and the arts, particularly architecture. Athens became the centre of Greek literature, philosophy (see Greek philosophy) and the arts (see Greek theatre). Some of the greatest names of Western cultural and intellectual history lived in Athens during this period: the dramatists Aeschylus, Aristophanes, Euripides, and Sophocles, the philosophers Aristotle, Plato, and Socrates, the historians Herodotus, Thucydides, and Xenophon, the poet Simonides and the sculptor Pheidias. The city became, in Pericles's words, "the school of Hellas." The other Greek states at first accepted Athenian leadership in the continuing war against the Persians, but after the fall of the conservative politician Cimon in 461 BC, Athens became an increasingly open imperialist power. After the Greek victory at the Battle of the Eurymedon in 466 BC, the Persians were no longer a threat, and some states, such as Naxos, tried to secede from the League, but were forced to submit. The new Athenian leaders, Pericles and Ephialtes, let relations between Athens and Sparta deteriorate, and in 458 BC war broke out. After some years of inconclusive war a 30-year peace was signed between the Delian League and the Peloponnesian League (Sparta and her allies). This coincided with the last battle between the Greeks and the Persians, a sea battle off Salamis in Cyprus, followed by the Peace of Callias (450 BC) between the Greeks and Persians.

The Peloponnesian War

450 BC In 431 BC war broke out again between Athens and Sparta and its allies. The proximate cause was a dispute between Corinth and one of its colonies, Corcyra (modern-day Corfu), in which Athens intervened. The obviate cause was the growing resentment of Sparta and its allies at the dominance of Athens over Greek affairs. The war lasted 27 years, partly because Athens (a naval power) and Sparta (a land-based military power) found it difficult to come to grips with each other. Sparta's initial strategy was to invade Attica, but the Athenians were able to retreat behind their walls. An outbreak of plague in the city during the siege caused heavy losses, including Pericles. At the same time the Athenian fleet landed troops in the Peloponnese, winning battles at Naupactus (429 BC) and Pylos (425 BC). But these tactics could bring neither side a decisive victory. After several years of inconclusive campaigning, the moderate Athenian leader Nicias concluded the Peace of Nicias (421 BC). In 418 BC, however, hostility between Sparta and the Athenian ally Argos led to a resumption of fighting. At Mantinea Sparta defeated the combined armies of Athens and her allies. The resumption of fighting brought the war party, led by Alcibiades, back to power in Athens. In 415 BC Alcibiades persuaded the Athenian Assembly to launch a major expedition against Syracuse, a Peloponnesian ally in Sicily. Though Nicias was a skeptic about the Sicilian Expedition he was appointed along Alcibiades to lead the expedition. Due to accusations against him, Alcibiades fled to Sparta where he persuaded Sparta to send aid to Syracuse. As a result, the expedition was a complete disaster and the whole expeditionary force was lost. Nicias was executed by his captors. Sparta had now built a fleet to challenge Athenian naval supremacy, and had found a brilliant military leader in Lysander, who seized the strategic initiative by occupying the Hellespont, the source of Athens' grain imports. Threatened with starvation, Athens sent its last remaining fleet to confront Lysander, who decisively defeated them at Aegospotami (405 BC). The loss of her fleet threatened Athens with bankruptcy. In 404 BC Athens sued for peace, and Sparta dictated a predictably stern settlement: Athens lost her city walls, her fleet, and all of her overseas possessions. The anti-democratic party took power in Athens with Spartan support.

Spartan and Theban dominance

The end of the Peloponnesian War left Sparta the master of Greece, but the narrow outlook of the Spartan warrior elite did not suit them to this role. Within a few years the democratic party regained power in Athens and other cities. In 395 BC the Spartan rulers removed Lysander from office, and Sparta lost her naval supremacy. Athens, Argos, Thebes, and Corinth, the latter two formerly Spartan allies, challenged Spartan dominance in the Corinthian War, which ended inconclusively in 387 BC. That same year Sparta shocked Greek opinion by concluding the Treaty of Antalcidas with Persia by which they surrendered the Greek cities of Ionia and Cyprus, thus reversing a hundred years of Greek victories against Persia. Sparta then tried to further weaken the power of Thebes, which led to a war in which Thebes allied herself with the old enemy, Athens. The Theban generals Epaminondas and Pelopidas won a decisive victory at Leuctra (371 BC). The result of this battle was the end of Spartan supremacy and the establishment of Theban dominance, but Athens also recovered much of her former power. The supremacy of Thebes was short-lived. With the death of Epaminondas at Mantinea (362 BC) the city lost its greatest leader, and his successors blundered into an unsuccessful ten-year war with Phocis. In 346 BC the Thebans appealed to Philip II of Macedon to help them against the Phocians, thus drawing Macedon into Greek affairs for the first time.

The rise of Macedon

The Kingdom of Macedon was formed in the 7th century BC out of northern Greek tribes. They played little part in Greek politics before the beginning of the 4th century, but Philip was an ambitious man who had been educated in Thebes and wanted to play a larger role. In particular, he wanted to be accepted as the new leader of Greece in recovering the freedom of the Greek cities of Asia from Persian rule. By seizing the Greek cities of Amphipolis, Methone and Potidaea, he gained control of the gold and silver mines of Macedonia. This gave him the resources to realize his ambitions. Philip established Macedonian dominance over Thessaly (352 BC) and Thrace, and by 348 BC he controlled everything north of Thermopylae. He used his great wealth to bribe Greek politicians and create a "Macedonian party" in every Greek city. His intervention in the war between Thebes and Phocis brought him recognition as a Greek leader, and gave him his opportunity to become a power in Greek affairs. But despite his sincere admiration for Athens, the Athenian leader Demosthenes, in a series of famous speeches (philippics) roused the Greek cities to resist his advance. In 339 BC Thebes, Athens, Sparta and other Greek states formed an alliance to resist Philip and expel him from the Greek cities he had occupied in the north. But Philip struck first, advancing into Greece and defeating the Greek cities at Chaeronea in 338 BC. This traditionally marks the end of the era of the Greek city-state as an independent political unit, although in fact Athens and other cities survived as independent states until Roman times. Philip tried to win over Athens by flattery and gifts, but did not really succeed. He organised the cities into the League of Corinth, and announced that he would lead an invasion of Persia to liberate the Greek cities and avenge the Persian invasions of the previous century. But before he could do so he was assassinated (336 BC).

The conquests of Alexander

Philip was succeeded by his 20-year-old son Alexander, who immediately set out to carry out his father's plans. He travelled to Corinth where the assembled Greek cities recognised him as leader of the Greeks, then set off north to assemble his forces. The army with which he invaded the Persian Empire was basically Macedonian, but many idealists from the Greek cities also enlisted. But while Alexander was campaigning in Thrace, he heard that the Greek cities had rebelled. He swept south again, captured Thebes, and razed the city to the ground as a warning to the Greek cities that his power could no longer be resisted. In 334 BC Alexander crossed into Asia, and defeated the Persians at the river Granicus. This gave him control of the Ionian coast, and he made a triumphal procession through the liberated Greek cities. After settling affairs in Anatolia, he advanced south through Cilicia into Syria, where he defeated Darius III at Issus (333 BC). He then advanced through Phoenicia to Egypt, which he captured with little resistance, the Egyptians welcoming him as a liberator from Persian oppression. Darius was now ready to make peace and Alexander could have returned home in triumph, but he was determined to conquer Persia and make himself the ruler of the world. He advanced north-east through Syria and Mesopotamia, and defeated Darius again at Gaugamela (331 BC). Darius fled and was killed by his own followers, and Alexander found himself the master of the Persian Empire, occupying Susa and Persepolis without resistance. Persepolis (as an eagle) being offered wine by Ganymede. A child Eros is in the foreground.]] Meanwhile the Greek cities were making renewed efforts to escape from Macedonian control. At Megalopolis in 331 BC, Alexander's regent Antipater defeated the Spartans, who had refused to join the Corinthian League or recognise Macedonian supremacy. Alexander pressed on, advancing through what are now Afghanistan and Pakistan to the Indus river valley, and by 326 BC he had reached Punjab. He might well have advanced down the Ganges to Bengal had not his army, convinced they were at the end of the world, refused to go any further. Alexander reluctantly turned back, and died of a fever in Babylon in 323 BC. Alexander's empire broke up soon after his death, but his conquests permanently changed the Greek world. Thousands of Greeks travelled with him or after him to settle in the new Greek cities he had founded as he advanced, the most important being Alexandria in Egypt. Greek-speaking kingdoms in Egypt, Syria, Iran and Bactria were established. The Hellenistic age had begun.

Medicine

Medicine is a branch of health science concerned with maintaining human health and restoring it by treating disease and injury; it is both an area of knowledge, a science of body systems and diseases and their treatment, and the applied practice of that knowledge. The practice of medical care is shared between the medical profession—physicians or doctors—and other groups of professionals, such as nurses or pharmacists (sometimes called allied health professions). Historically, only members of the medical profession proper have been considered to actually practice medicine in the strictest sense, in contrast to the allied fields of health care professionals. Clinicians can be physicians, nurses, or physician assistants -- those who provide health care or otherwise tend to their patients. The medical profession is the social and occupational structure of the group of people formally trained and authorized to apply medical knowledge. Many countries and legal jurisdictions have legal limitations on who may practice medicine or the allied medical fields. Medicine is typically seen as composed of various specialized sub-branches, such as pediatrics, gynecology, neurology, dealing with particular body systems, diseases, or areas of health. Systems of medical and healthcare practices have existed among human societies since at least the dawn of recorded history. These systems have developed in various ways in different cultures and regions. Medicine as understood in the modern period has historically been considered to be the mainstream tradition which developed in the Western world since the early modern age. Many other traditions of medicine and healthcare are still widely practiced throughout the world, most of which are still considered to be separate and distinct from Western medicine, also called biomedicine or the Hippocratic tradition. The most highly developed systems of medicine outside the Western system are the Ayurvedic tradition of India and traditional Chinese medicine. Various non-mainstream traditions of health care have also developed in the Western world distinct from mainstream medicine. The various other systems practiced among various cultures are sometimes practiced alongside or in cooperation with Western medicine, while sometimes being seen as competing traditions. Medicine is also often used amongst medical professionals as shorthand for Internal Medicine. Veterinary medicine is the practice of health care specialized for other animal species.

History of medicine

Medicine as it is practiced now is rooted in various traditions, but developed mainly in the late 18th and early 19th century in Germany (Rudolf Virchow) and France (Jean-Martin Charcot, Claude Bernard and others). The new, "scientific" medicine replaced earlier Western traditions of medicine, mostly based on the "four humours" and other pre-modern theories. The focal points of development of clinical medicine shifted to the United Kingdom and the USA by the early 1900s (Sir William Osler, Harvey Cushing). Evidence-based medicine is the recent movement to link the practice and the science of medicine more closely through the use of the scientific method and modern information science. Genomics and knowledge of human genetics is already having a large influence on medicine, as the causative genes of most monogenic genetic disorders have now identified, and the development of techniques in molecular biology and genetics are influencing medical practice and decision-making.

Practice of medicine

The practice of medicine combines both science and art. Science and technology are the evidence base for many clinical problems for the general population at large. The art of medicine is the application of this medical knowledge in combination with intuition and clinical judgment to determine the proper diagnoses and treatment plan for this unique patient and to treat the patient accordingly. Central to medicine is the patient-doctor relationship established when a person with a health concern or problem seeks the help of a physician (i.e. the medical encounter). Other health professionals similarly establish a relationship with a patient and may perform interventions from their perspective, e.g. nurses, radiographers and therapists. As part of the medical encounter, the doctor needs to:
- develop a relationship with the patient
- gather data (medical history and physical examination combined with laboratory or imaging studies)
- analyze and synthesize that data (assessment and/or differential diagnosis), and then
- develop a treatment plan (further testing, therapy, watchful observation, referral and follow-up)
- treat the patient accordingly
- assess the progress of treatment and alter the plan as necessary. The medical encounter is documented in a medical record, which is a legal document in many jurisdictions. One method that is used is called the problem-oriented medical record (POMR), which includes a problem list of diagnoses and a "SOAP" method of documentation for each visit:
- S - Subjective, the medical history of the problem from the point-of-view of the patient.
- O - Objective, the physical examination and any laboratory or imaging studies.
- A - Assessment, is the medical decision-making process including the differential diagnoses and most probable diagnoses.
- P - Plan, the way resolve the problem and monitor progress

Medical systems

Medicine is practiced within the medical system of a particular culture or government. Leaving aside tribal cultures, the most significant divide in developed countries is that between universal health care and the market based health care (such as practiced in the U.S.).

Patient-doctor relationship

The doctor-patient relationship and interaction is a central process in the practice of medicine. There are many perspectives from which to understand and describe it. An idealized physician's perspective, such as is taught in medical school, sees the core aspects of the process as the physician learning from the patient his symptoms, concerns and values; in response the physician examines the patient, interprets the symptoms, and formulates a diagnosis to explain the symptoms and their cause to the patient and to propose a treatment. In more detail, the patient presents a set of complaints or concerns about his health to the doctor, who then obtains further information about the patient's symptoms, previous state of health, living conditions, and so forth, and then formulates a diagnosis and enlists the patient's agreement to a treatment plan. Importantly, during this process the doctor educates the patient about the causes, progression, outcomes, and possible treatments of his ailments, as well as often providing advice for maintaining health. This teaching relationship is the basis of calling the physician doctor, which originally meant "teacher" in Latin. The patient-doctor relationship is additionally complicated by the patient's suffering (patient derives from the Latin patiens, "suffering") and limited ability to relieve it on his own. The doctor's expertise comes from his knowledge about, or experience with, other people who have suffered similar symptoms, and his presumed ability to relieve it with medicines or other therapies about which the patient may initially have little knowledge. The doctor-patient relationship can be analyzed from the perspective of ethical concerns, in terms of how well the goals of non-maleficence, beneficence, autonomy, and justice are achieved. Many other values and ethical issues can be added to these. In different societies, periods, and cultures, different values may be assigned different priorities. For example, in the last 30 years medical care in the Western World has increasingly emphasized patient autonomy in decision making. The relationship and process can also be analyzed in terms of social power relationships (e.g., by Michel Foucault), or economic transactions. Physicians have been accorded gradually higher status and respect over the last century, and they have been entrusted with control of access to prescription medicines as a public health measure. This represents a concentration of power and carries both advantages and disadvantages to particular kinds of patients with particular kinds of conditions. A further twist has occurred in the last 25 years as costs of medical care have risen, and a third party (an insurance company or government agency) now often insists upon a share of decision-making power for a variety of reasons, reducing freedom of choice of both doctors and patients in many ways. The quality of the patient-doctor relationship is important to both parties. The better the relationship in terms of mutual respect, knowledge, trust, shared values and perspectives about disease and life, and time available, the better will be the amount and quality of information about the patient's disease transferred in both directions, enhancing accuracy of diagnosis and increasing the patient's knowledge about the disease. In some settings, e.g. the hospital ward, the patient-doctor relationship is much more complex, and many other people are involved when somebody is ill: relatives, neighbors, rescue specialists, nurses, technical personnel, social workers and others.

Clinical skills

Main articles: Medical history, Physical examination. A complete medical evaluation includes a medical history, a physical examination, appropriate laboratory or imaging studies, analysis of data and medical decision making to obtain diagnoses, and treatment plan. The components of the medical history are:
- Chief complaint (CC) - the reason for the current medical visit.
- History of present illness (HPI) - the chronological order of events of symptoms. A mnemonic PQRST is sometimes helpful in obtaining the history:
- Provocative-palliative factors - what makes a symptom worse or better.
- Quality - description of the symptom
- Region - which part of the body is affected
- Severity - what is the intensity of the symptom; using a scale of 0-10 (10 worst)
- Timing - what is the course of the symptom
- Current activity - occupation, hobbies, what the patient actually does.
- Medications - what drugs including OTCs, and home remedies, as well as herbal remedies such as St. John's Wort. Allergies are recorded.
- Past medical history (PMH/PMHx) - other medical diagnoses, past hospitalizations and operations, injuries, past infectious diseases and/or vaccinations, history of known allergies.
- Review of systems (ROS) - an outline of additional symptoms to ask which may be missed on HPI, generally following the body's main organ systems (heart, lungs, digestive tract, urinary tract, etc).
- Social history (SH) - birthplace, residences, marital history, social and economic status, habits (including diet, medications, tobacco, alcohol).
- Family history (FH) - listing of diseases in the family that may impact the patient. A family tree is sometimes used. The physical examination is the examination of the patient looking for signs of disease. The doctor uses his senses of sight, hearing, touch, and sometimes smell (taste has been made redundant by the availability of modern lab tests). Four chief methods are used: inspection, palpation, percussion, and auscultation; smelling may be useful (e.g. infection, uremia, diabetic ketoacidosis). The clinical examination involves study of:
- Vital signs include height, weight, body temperature, blood pressure, pulse, respiration rate, hemoglobin oxygen saturation
- General appearance of the patient
- Skin
- Head, eye, ear, nose, and throat (HEENT)
- Cardiovascular - heart and blood vessels
- Respiratory - lungs
- Abdomen and rectosigmoid
- Genitalia
- Spine and extremities - musculoskeletal
- Neurological and psychiatric Laboratory and imaging studies results may be obtained, if ncessary. The medical decision-making (MDM) process involves analysis and synthesis of all the above data to come up with a list of possible diagnoses (the differential diagnoses), along with an idea of what needs to be done to obtain a definitive diagnosis that would explain the patient's problem. The treatment plan may include ordering additional laboratory tests and studies, starting therapy, referral to a specialist, or watchful observation. Follow-up may be advised. This process is used by primary care providers as well as specialists. It may take only a few minutes if the problem is simple and straightforward. On the other hand, it may take weeks in a patient who has been hospitalized with multi-system problems, with involvement by several specialists. On subsequent visits, the process may be repeated in an abbreviated manner to obtain any new history, symptoms, physical findings, and lab or imaging results or specialist consultations.

Settings where medical care is delivered

See also clinic, hospital, and hospice Medicine is a diverse field and the provision of medical care is therefore provided in a variety of locations. Primary care medical services are provided by physicians or other health professionals who has first contact with a patient seeking medical treatment or care. These occur in physician's office, clinics, nursing homes, schools, home visits and other places close to patients. About 90% of medical visits can be treated by the primary care provider. These include treatment of acute and chronic illnesses, preventive care and health education for all ages and both sex. Secondary care medical services are provided by medical specialists in their offices or clinics or at local community hospitals for a patient referred by a primary care provider who first diagnosed or treated the patient. Referrals are made for those patients who required the expertise or procedures performed by specialists. These include both ambulatory care and inpatient services, emergency rooms, intensive care medicine, surgery services, physical therapy, labor and delivery, endoscopy units, diagnostic laboratory and medical imaging services, hospice centers, etc. Some primary care providers may also take care of hospitalized patients and deliver babies in a secondary care setting. Tertiary care medical services are provided by specialist hospitals or regional centers equipped with diagnostic and treatment facilities not generally available at local hospitals. These include trauma centers, burn treatment centers, advanced neonatology unit services, organ transplants, high-risk pregnancy, radiation oncology, etc. Modern medical care also depends on information - still delivered in many health care settings on paper records, but increasingly nowadays by electronic means.

Branches of medicine

Working together as an interdisciplinary team, many highly trained health professionals besides medical practitioners are involved in the delivery of modern health care. Some examples include: nurses, laboratory scientists, pharmacists, physiotherapists, speech therapists, occupational therapists, dietitians and bioengineers. The scope and sciences underpinning human medicine overlap many other fields. Dentistry and psychology, while separate disciplines from medicine, are sometimes also considered medical fields. Physician assistants, nurse practitioners and midwives treat patients and prescribe medication in many legal jurisdictions. Veterinary medicine applies similar techniques to the care of animals. Medical doctors have many specializations and subspecializations which are listed below.

Basic sciences

- Anatomy is the study of the physical structure of organisms. In contrast to macroscopic or gross anatomy, cytology and histology are concerned with microscopic structures.
- Biochemistry is the study of the chemistry taking place in living organisms, especially the structure and function of their chemical components.
- Biostatistics is the application of statistics to biological fields in the broadest sense. A knowledge of biostatistics is essential in the planning, evaluation, and interpretation of medical research. It is also fundamental to epidemiology and evidence-based medicine.
- Cytology is the microscopic study of individual cells.
- Embryology is the study of the early development of organisms.
- Epidemiology is the study of the demographics of disease processes, and includes, but is not limited to, the study of epidemics.
- Genetics is the study of genes, and their role in biological inheritance.
- Histology is the study of the structures of biological tissues by light microscopy, electron microscopy and immunohistochemistry.
- Immunology is the study of the immune system, which includes the innate and adaptive immune system in human, for example.
- Microbiology is the study of microorganisms, including protozoa, bacteria, fungi, and viruses.
- Neuroscience is a comprehensive term for those disciplines of science that are related to the study of the nervous system. A main focus of neuroscience is the biology and physiology of the human brain.
- Nutrition is the study of the relationship of food and drink to health and disease, especially in determining an optimal diet. Medical nutrition therapy is done by dietitians and is prescribed for diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, weight and eating disorders, allergies, malnutrition and neoplastic diseases.
- Pathology is the study of disease - the causes, course, progression and resolution thereof.
- Pharmacology is the study of drugs and their actions.
- Physiology is the study of the normal functioning of the body and the underlying regulatory mechanisms.
- Toxicology is the study of hazardous effects of drugs and poisons.

Diagnostic specialties

- Clinical laboratory sciences are the clinical diagnostic services which apply laboratory techniques to diagnosis and management of patients. In the United States these services are supervised by a Pathologist. The personnel that work in these medical laboratory departments are technically trained staff, each of whom usually hold a medical technology degree, who actually perform the tests, assays, and procedures needed for providing the specific services.
- Transfusion medicine is concerned with the transfusion of blood and blood component, including the maintenance of a "blood bank".
- Cellular pathology is concerned with diagnosis using samples from patients taken as tissues and cells using histology and cytology.
- Clinical chemistry is concerned with diagnosis by making biochemical analysis of blood, body fluids and tissues.
- Hematology is concerned with diagnosis by looking at changes in the cellular composition of the blood and bone marrow as well as the coagulation system in the blood.
- Clinical microbiology is concerned with the in vitro diagnosis of diseases caused by bacteria, viruses, fungi, and parasites.
- Clinical immunology is concerned with disorders of the immune system and related body defenses. It also deals with diagnosis of allergy.
- Radiology is concerned with imaging of the human body, e.g. by x-rays, x-ray computed tomography, ultrasonography, and nuclear magnetic resonance tomography.
- Interventional radiology is concerned with using imaging of the human body, usually from CT, ultrasound, or fluoroscopy, to do biopsies, place certain tubes, and perform intravascular procedures.
- Nuclear Medicine uses radioactive substances for in vivo and in vitro diagnosis using either imaging of the location of radioactive substances placed into a patient, or using in vitro diagnostic tests utilizing radioactive substances.

Clinical disciplines

- Anesthesiology (AE), Anaesthesia (BE), is the clinical discipline concerned with providing anesthesia. Pain medicine is often practiced by specialised anesthesiologists.
- Dermatology is concerned with the skin and its diseases.
- Emergency medicine is concerned with the diagnosis and treatment of acute or life-threatening conditions, including trauma, surgical, medical, pediatric, and psychiatric emergencies.
- General practice, Family practice, family medicine or primary care is, in many countries, the first port-of-call for patients with non-emergency medical problems. Family doctors are usually able to treat over 90% of all complaints without referring to specialists.
- Hospital medicine is the general medical care of hospitalized patients. Doctors whose primary professional focus is hospital medicine are called hospitalists.
- Internal medicine is concerned with systemic diseases of adults, i.e. those diseases that affect the body as a whole , (restrictive ,current meaning) or with all adult non-operative somatic medicine (traditional , inclusive meaning) , thus excluding pediatrics , surgery , gynaecology & obstetrics and psychiatry. There are several subdisciplines of internal medicine:
- Cardiology is concerned with the heart and cardiovascular system and their diseases.
- Critical care medicine is concerned with the therapy of patients with serious and life-threatening disease or injury. Intensive care medicine employs invasive diagnostic techniques and (temporary) replacement of organ functions by technical means. Also known as Intensive care medicine. This field is often associated with Pulmonology.
- Endocrinology is concerned with the endocrine system, i.e. endocrine glands and hormones, usually Diabetes or Thyroid diseases.
- Gastroenterology is concerned with the alimentary tract.
- Geriatrics is concerned with medical care of the elderly.
- Hematology (or haematology) is concerned with the blood and its diseases.
- Hepatology is concerned with the liver and biliary tract, and is usually a part of Gastroenterology
- Infectious diseases is concerned with the study, diagnosis and treatment of diseases caused by biological agents.
- Nephrology is concerned with diseases of the kidneys.
- Oncology is devoted to the study, diagnosis and treatment of cancer and other malignant diseases, and is often grouped with Hematology.
- Pulmonology (or chest medicine, respiratory medicine or lung medicine) is concerned with diseases of the lungs and the respiratory system.
- Rheumatology is devoted to the diagnosis and treatment of inflammatory diseases of the joints and other organ systems, such as arthritis.
- Neurology is concerned with the diagnosis and treatment of nervous system diseases.
- Obstetrics and Gynecology (often abbreviated as Ob/Gyn) are concerned respectively with childbirth and the female reproductive and associated organs. Reproductive medicine and fertility medicine are generally practiced by gynecological specialists.
- Palliative care is a relatively modern branch of clinical medicine that deals with pain and symptom relief and emotional support in patients with terminal diseases (cancer, heart failure).
- Pediatrics (or paediatrics) is devoted to the care of infants, children, and adolescents. Like internal medicine, there are many pediatric subspecialities for specific age ranges, organ systems, disease classes and sites of care delivery. Most subspecialities of adult medicine have a pediatric equivalent such as pediatric cardiology, pediatric endocrinology, pediatric gastroenterology, pediatric hematology, and pediatric oncology, pediatric ophthalmology, and neonatology.
- Physical medicine and rehabilitation (or physiatry) is concerned with functional improvement after injury, illness, or congenital abnormality.
- Preventive medicine is the branch of medicine concerned with preventing disease.
- Community health care or public health is an aspect of health services concerned with threats to the overall health of a community based on population health analysis.
- Occupational medicines principal role is the provision of health advice to organisations and individuals to ensure that the highest standards of health and safety at work can be achieved and maintained.
- Psychiatry is a branch of medicine that studies and treats mental disorders. Related non-medical fields are psychotherapy and clinical psychology. There are several subdisciplines of Psychiatry:
- Child & adolescent psychiatry focuses on the care of children and adolescents with mental/emotional/learning problems (i.e., ADHD, Autism, family conflicts).
- Geriatric psychiatry focuses on the care of elderly people with mental illnesses (i.e., dementias, post stroke cognitive changes, depression).
- Addiction psychiatry focuses on substance abuse and its treatment.
- Forensic psychiatry focuses on the interface of psychiatry and the Law.
- Radiation therapy is concerned with the therapeutic use of ionizing radiation and high energy elementary particle beams in patient treatment.
- Surgical specialties - there are many medical disciplines that employ operative treatment. Some of these are highly specialized and are often not considered subdisciplines of surgery, although their naming might suggest so.
- General surgery is traditionally defined as the specialty of surgery of the skin, endocrine glands, and abdomen (and, sometimes, the mammary glands). In some countries, it is still deemed a pre-requisite training prior to progression to training in certain sub-specialties, but lately has evolved into its own sub-specialty.
- Cardiovascular surgery is the surgical specialty that is concerned with the heart and major blood vessels of the chest.
- Neurosurgery is concerned with the operative treatment of diseases of the nervous system.
- Maxillofacial surgery (technically a subspeciality of dentistry)
- Ophthalmology deals with the diseases of the eyes and their treatment.
- Orthopedic surgery consists on surgery of the locomotor system.
- Otolaryngology (or otorhinolaryngology or ENT/ear-nose-throat) is concerned with treatment of ear, nose and throat disorders. The term head and neck surgery defines a closely related specialty which is concerned mainly with the surgical management of cancer of the same anatomical structures.
- Pediatric surgery treats a wide variety of thoracic and abdominal (and sometimes urologic) diseases of childhood.
- Plastic surgery includes aesthetic surgery (operations that are done for other than medical purposes) as well as reconstructive surgery (operations to restore function and/or appearance after traumatic or operative mutilation).
- Surgical oncology is concerned with curative and palliative surgical approaches to cancer treatment.
- Urology focuses on the urinary tracts of males and females, and on the male reproductive system. It is often practiced together with andrology ("men's health").
- Vascular surgery is surgery of "peripheral" blood vessels, i.e. those outside of the chest (usually operated on by cardiovascular surgeons) and of the central nervous system (treated by neurosurgery).
- Urgent Care focuses on delivery of unscheduled, walk-in care outside of the hospital emergency department for injuries and illnesses that are not severe enough to require care in an emergency department.
Interdisciplinary fields
Interdisciplinary sub-specialties of medicine are:
- Aerospace medicine deals with medical problems related to flying and space travel.
- Bioethics is a field of study which concerns the relationship between biology, science, medicine and ethics, philosophy and theology.
- Clinical pharmacology is concerned with how systems of therapeutics interact with patients.
- Conservation medicine studies the relationship between human and animal health, and environmental conditions. Also known as ecological medicine, environmental medicine, or medical geology.
- Diving medicine (or hyperbaric medicine) is the prevention and treatment of diving-related problems.
- Evolutionary medicine is a perspective on medicine derived through applying evolutionary theory.
- Forensic medicine deals with medical questions in legal context, such as determination of the time and cause of death.
- Medical humanities includes the humanities (literature, philosophy, ethics, history and religion), social science (anthropology, cultural studies, psychology, sociology), and the arts (literature, theater, film, and visual arts) and their application to medical education and practice.
- Medical informatics and medical computer science are relatively recent fields that deal with the application of computers and information technology to medicine.
- Nosology is the classification of diseases for various purposes.
- Sports medicine deals with the treatment and preventive care of athletics, amateur and professional. The team includes specialty physicians and surgeons, athletic trainers, physical therapists, coaches, other personnel, and, of course, the athlete.
- Therapeutics is the field, more commonly referenced in earlier periods of history, of the various remedies that can be used to treat disease and promote health [http://2.1911encyclopedia.org/T/TH/THERAPEUTICS.htm] [http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9106176?query=Therapeutics&ct=].
- Travel medicine or emporiatrics deals with health problems of international travelers or travelers across highly different evironments.
Medical education
See also Medical doctor (BE), Physician (AE), and Medical school. Medical training involves several years of university study followed by several more years of residential practice at a hospital. Entry to a medical degree in some countries (such as the United States) requires the completion of another degree first, while in other countries (such as the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand) medical training can be commenced as an undergraduate degree immediately after secondary education. The name of the medical degree gained at the end varies: some countries (e.g. the US) call it "Doctor of Medicine" (abbreviated 'M.D.'), while other countries (mostly following the British Oxbridge system) call it "Medicinæ Baccalaureus & Baccalaureus Chirurgiæ" (Latin for "Bachelor of Medicine/Bachelor of Surgery", Old English: "Chirurgie"); this is technically a double degree, frequently abbreviated 'MB BChir', 'MB ChB', 'MB BS' (or variations thereof), dependent on the medical school. In either case, graduates of a medical degree may call themselves physician. In the US and some other countries there is a parallel system of medicine which is equal in all aspects of education, legality, and practice to M.D.'s. It is called osteopathic medicine (generic term: "osteopathy") which awards the degree of "Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine" (abbreviated 'D.O.'). In many countries, a doctorate of medicine does not involve original research as does, in distinction, a Ph.D.. Once graduated from medical school most physicians (both M.D.'s and D.O.'s) begin their residency/house post training, where skills in a speciality of medicine are learned, supervised by more experienced doctors. The first year of residency is known as the "intern" year (USA) or "junior/pre-registration house officer" year (UK). The duration of residency training depends on the speciality. A medical graduate can then enter general practice and become a general practitioner (or primary care internist in the USA); training for these is generally shorter, while specialist training is typically longer. Medical education is a never ending endeavor. In addition to continually reading relevant medical journals, physicians require a number of continuing medical education (CME)credits annually to be recertified. These can be acquired by attending conferences, lectures, online, and through other sources.
Medical devices
See also the main articles: implant, artificial limbs, corrective lenses, cochlear implants, ocular prosthetics, facial prosthetics, somato prosthetics, surgical prosthetics, maxillo-facial prosthetics and dental implants Medical devices are devices used by health professionals as tools in diagnosis, treatment, or other aspects of patient care.
Legal restrictions
In most countries, it is a legal requirement for medical doctors to be licensed or registered. In general, this entails a medical degree from a university and accreditation by a medical board or an equivalent national organization, which may ask the applicant to pass exams. This restricts the considerable legal authority of the medical profession to doctors that are trained and qualified by national standards. It is also intended as an assurance to patients and as a safeguard against charlatans that practice inadequate medicine for personal gain. While the laws generally require medical doctors to be trained in "evidence based", Western, or Hippocratic Medicine, they are not intended to discourage different paradigms of health and healing, such as alternative medicine or faith healing.
Criticism
Criticism of medicine has a long history. In the Middle Ages, it was not considered a profession suitable for Christians, as disease was considered Godsent, and interfering with the process a form of blasphemy. Barber-surgeons generally had a bad reputation that was not to improve until the development of academic surgery as a speciality of medicine, rather than an accessory field. Through the course of the twentieth century, doctors focused increasingly on the technology that was enabling them to make dramatic improvements in patients' health. The ensuing development of a more mechanistic, detached practice, with the perception of an attendent loss of patient-focused care led to further criticisms. This issue started to reach collective professional consciousness in the 1970s and the profession had begun to respond by the 1980s and 1990s. Perhaps the most devastating criticism of modern medicine came from Ivan Illich, in his 1976 work Medical Nemesis. In his view, modern medicine only medicalises disease, causing loss of health and wellness, while generally failing to restore health by eliminating disease. The human being thus becomes a lifelong patient. Other less radical philosophers have voiced similar views, but none were as virulent as Illich. (Another example can be found in Technopoly: The Surrender of Culture to Technology by Neil Postman, 1992, which criticises overreliance on technological means in medicine.) Criticism of modern medicine has led to some improvements in the curricula of medical schools, which now teach students systematically on medical ethics, holistic approaches to medicine, the biopsychosocial model and similar concepts. The inability of modern medicine to properly address many common complaints continues to prompt many people to seek support from alternative medicine. Although most alternative approaches lack scientific validation, some report improvement of symptoms after obtaining alternative therapies. The bioscience medical paradigm and the alternative / complementary healthcare paradigms may differ to such an extent that what constitutes scientific evidence is contested. Many medical doctors also practice alternative medicine alongside the orthodox. Medical errors are also the focus of many complaints and negative coverage. Practitioners of human factors engineering believe that there is much that medicine may usefully gain by emulating concepts in aviation safety, where it was long ago realized that it is dangerous to place too much responsibility on one "superhuman" individual and expect him or her not to make errors. Reporting systems and checking mechanisms are becoming more common in identifying sources of error and improving practice. Radical critics of certain medical traditions may hold that whole fields or traditions of medicine are intrinsically harmful or ineffective. They would reject any use or support of practices belonging to that tradition. However, generally, there is spectrum of efficacy on which all traditions lie; some are more effective, some are less effective, but nearly all contain some harmful practices and some effective ones. Naturally, though, most individuals or groups seeking a healthcare practice to improve their own health would seek a tradition with the maximum degree of efficacy.
See also

- Academic conference
- Big killers
- Complementary and alternative medicine
- Health profession
- Healthcare system
- Iatrogenesis (ill health caused by medical treatment)
- List of diseases
- List of medical abbreviations
- List of medical schools
- Important publications in medicine
- Medical equipment
- Rare diseases
External links

- [http://home.planet.nl/~hend2438/MOTW/index.htm Medicine on the Web]
- [http://www.nlm.nih.gov NLM] (National Library of Medicine, contains resources for patients and healthcare professionals)
- [http://www.vh.org Virtual Hospital] (digital health sciences library by the University of Iowa)
- [http://cancerweb.ncl.ac.uk/omd/index.html Online Medical Information]- medical news, links and resources.
- [http://www.medmark.org Online Medical Directory]
- [http://www.wikimd.org/index.php?title=Free_Medical_Resources Collection of links to free medical resources] fiu-vro:Arstitiidüs als:Medizin zh-min-nan:I-ha̍k ko:의학 ja:医学 simple:Medicine th:แพทยศาสตร์

Dream temple

:Healing temple

Herodicus

Herodicus (Ήρóðιĸος) was a Thracian physician of the fifth century BC, and a native of Selymbria. The first use of therapeutic exercise for the treatment of disease and maintenance of health is credited to him, and he is believed to have been one of the tutors of Hippocrates. He also recommended good diet and massage using beneficial herbs and oils, and his theories are considered the foundation of sports medicine. He was specific in the manner that a massage should be given. He recommended that rubbing be initially slow and gentle, then subsequently faster, with the application of more pressure, which was to be followed by more gentle friction.[http://www.meridianinstitute.com/eamt/files/snow/mvch1.htm] Herodicus is also described as a gymnastic-master (παιδοτρίβης) and a sophist. According to Plato, Herodicus recommended that his patients walk from Athens to Megara, a distance of more than 70 miles, but this claim may be unfounded.

Sources

[http://www.ancientlibrary.com/smith-bio/1538.html Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology] Category:Greek physicians

Superstition

:For other senses, see superstition (disambiguation). A superstition is an irrational or invalid belief about the relation between certain actions (often behaviors) and other actions that is not true. The essence of superstition is not defined by the "truth" of the result, however, but recognized by the methods through which truth is searched for. The superstitious individual erroneously believes that the future, or the outcome of certain events can be caused or influenced by certain specified behaviors, despite the lack of a causal relationship in reality. Many superstitions emerged from the notions of "good luck" and "bad luck"; the notion of "luck", however, can itself be considered a form of superstition. Some popular superstitions are a result of misinterpreting correlations as causes, although many others are simply urban legends that have no rational justification whatsoever. Many things that were once considered scientific are now considered superstitious such as alchemy or astrology By its definition superstition is not based on reason and is not true. Many superstitions can be prompted by misunderstandings of causality or statistics. Others spring from unenlightened fears, which may be expressed in religious beliefs or practice, or to belief in extraordinary events, supernatural interventions, apparitions or in the efficacy of charms, incantations, the meaningfulness of omens and prognostications. Any of the above can lead to unfounded fears, or excessive scrupulosity in outward observances. Fanaticism, some argue, (citation needed) arises from this same displaced religious feeling, in a state of high-wrought and self-confident excitement. Such unquestioning loyalty can apply to politics and ideologies as well as religion; indeed, it can even be focused on sports teams and celebrities. See Baseball superstition for a series of such examples. Examples of superstitions include things like a gambler crediting a winning streak in poker to a "lucky rabbit's foot" or to sitting in a certain chair, rather than to skill or to the law of averages. An airline passenger might believe that it is a medal of St Christopher (traditional patron saint of travellers) that keeps him safe in the air, rather than the fact that airplanes statistically crash very rarely. Brides on their wedding day do not usually see their groom until the ceremony believing that to do so causes bad luck. Superstition is also used to refer to folkloric belief systems, usually as juxtaposed to another religion's idea of the spiritual world, or as juxtaposed to science. In the academic discipline of folkloristics the term "superstition" is used to denote any folk belief expressed in if/then (with an optional "unless" clause) format. IF you break a mirror, THEN you will have seven years of bad luck UNLESS you throw all of the pieces into a body of running water.

Superstition and behavioral psychology

The behaviorist psychologist B.F. Skinner placed a series of hungry pigeons in a cage attached to an automatic mechanism that delivered food to the pigeon "at regular intervals with no reference whatsoever to the bird's behavior". He discovered that the pigeons associated the delivery of the food with whatever chance actions they had been performing as it was delivered, and that they continued to perform the same actions: :One bird was conditioned to turn counter-clockwise about the cage, making two or three turns between reinforcements. Another repeatedly thrust its head into one of the upper corners of the cage. A third developed a 'tossing' response, as if placing its head beneath an invisible bar and lifting it repeatedly. Two birds developed a pendulum motion of the head and body, in which the head was extended forward and swung from right to left with a sharp movement followed by a somewhat slower return. ("'Superstition' in the Pigeon", B.F. Skinner, Journal of Experimental Psychology #38, 1947 [http://psychclassics.yorku.ca/Skinner/Pigeon/]) Skinner suggested that the pigeons believed that they were influencing the automatic mechanism with their "rituals" and that the experiment also shed light on human behavior: :The experiment might be said to demonstrate a sort of superstition. The bird behaves as if there were a causal relation between its behavior and the presentation of food, although such a relation is lacking. There are many analogies in human behavior. Rituals for changing one's luck at cards are good examples. A few accidental connections between a ritual and favorable consequences suffice to set up and maintain the behavior in spite of many unreinforced instances. The bowler who has released a ball down the alley but continues to behave as if she were controlling it by twisting and turning her arm and shoulder is another case in point. These behaviors have, of course, no real effect upon one's luck or upon a ball half way down an alley, just as in the present case the food would appear as often if the pigeon did nothing -- or, more strictly speaking, did something else. (Ibid.) Like the pigeons, many people associate behavior (head-turning or worship of God(s) ) with an external phenomenon (delivery of food or conquest by a foreign power) that was not necessarily connected in any way with personal behavior. Any misfortune could thus be interpreted as a sign of divine disfavor, whether or not the individuals who suffered bore direct responsibility.

Religious views on the subject of superstition

Superstition may be expressed in the terminology of religion, giving rise to skeptical thinkers' opinion that all religion is superstition. Greek and Roman pagans, who modeled their relations with the gods on political and social terms scorned the man who constantly trembled with fear at the thought of the gods, as a slave feared a cruel and capricious master. "Such fear of the gods (deisidaimonia) was what the Romans meant by 'superstition' (Veyne 1987, p 211). For Christians just such fears might be worn proudly as a name: Desdemona. The Roman Catholic Church considers superstition to be sinful in the sense that it denotes a lack of trust in the divine providence of God and, as such, is a violation of the first of the Ten Commandments. The Catechism of the Catholic Church states superstition "in some sense represents a perverse excess of religion" (para. #2110). The Catechism even appears to turn a bit of a critical eye on Catholic doctrine whenever certain practices become frivolous or scrupulous: :Superstition is a deviation of religious feeling and of the practices this feeling imposes. It can even affect the worship we offer the true God, e.g., when one attributes an importance in some way magical to certain practices otherwise lawful or necessary. To attribute the efficacy of prayers or of sacramental signs to their mere external performance, apart from the interior dispositions that they demand is to fall into superstition. Cf. Matthew 23:16-22 (para. #2111) Atheists and Agnostics often see all Religious belief as a form of superstition, and religious believers have seen other religions as superstition. Edmund Burke, the great Irish orator, once said, "Superstition is the religion of weak minds".

Hippocrates

Writings

Works

The "portrait" of Hippocrates

See also

External links

460 BC

Events

Births

Deaths

380 BC

Events

Births

Deaths

Ancient Greece

Origins

The rise of Hellas

Social and political conflict

The Persian Wars

The dominance of Athens

The Peloponnesian War

Spartan and Theban dominance

The rise of Macedon

The conquests of Alexander

See also

Medicine

History of medicine

Practice of medicine

Medical systems

Patient-doctor relationship

Clinical skills

Settings where medical care is delivered

Branches of medicine

Basic sciences

Diagnostic specialties

Clinical disciplines

Interdisciplinary fields

Medical education

Medical devices

Legal restrictions

Criticism

See also

External links

Dream temple

Herodicus

Sources

Superstition

Superstition and behavioral psychology

Religious views on the subject of superstition

See also

Books