Father of Western medicine: Who is Hippocrates?

Hippocrates, a universal genius of medicine, not only liberated medicine from mythology and religious thoughts and turned it into a rational natural science based on observation and experience, but also became the founder of medical ethics.

Hippocrates was born in 460 BC on the island of Kos, located very close to the western coast of Anatolia, which was also called Asia Minor in history. Hippocrates' father, who spent part of his life on the island of Kos, was also a physician.

Almost nothing concrete is known about his life. Even his life could be connected to the rumors that became widespread among the people. For example, it is said that a large plane tree in the middle of Kos survived Hippocrates and taught his students under it.

Hippocrates of Kos (c. 460 – c. 370 BC), also known as Hippocrates II, was a Greek physician of the classical period who is considered one of the most outstanding figures in the history of medicine. He is traditionally referred to as the "Father of Medicine" in recognition of his lasting contributions to the field, such as the use of prognosis and clinical observation, the systematic categorization of diseases, or the formulation of humoral theory. The Hippocratic school of medicine revolutionized ancient Greek medicine, establishing it as a discipline distinct from other fields with which it had traditionally been associated (theurgy and philosophy), thus establishing medicine as a profession.

It is an interesting paradox that mythology is mixed into the life of a famous physician who devoted his life to resisting the penetration of religious beliefs and mythology into medicine and argued that all diseases are caused by people acting contrary to the laws of nature.

According to the legend, Hippocrates is descended from Escu-lab (Asclepios/Asclepius), who was considered the God of Medicine by the Greeks. The fact that Hippocrates is referred to as the sixteenth son of Esku-lab in some publications is due to the fact that he is considered one of Esku-lab's spiritual children, as he was a distinguished physician.

Hippocrates' first teacher was his father. Hippocrates had two sons; He taught them medicine. His sons' names were Thessalus and Dracon. She had a daughter and her son-in-law was Polybe, a famous physician of that time. Girls could not become physicians at that time. Many of his grandsons were named after him (Hippocrates III, Hippocrates IV, and finally Hippocrates VII), and all became physicians at his school.

After visiting many places such as Ancient Greece, Egypt, Thrace, Anatolia, and Macedonia, Hippocrates founded the School of Medicine on the island of Kos. This is the real reason why we count him as the father of modern medicine. His date of death is unknown. In various publications, his date of death has been stated as approximate and in different ways. The famous medical historian Charles Singer states that the most active period of his life began approximately in 420 BC, and if the year 359 is accepted as the date of his death, he lived 101 years, which is a long life suitable for a great physician.

His younger contemporary, the famous philosopher Plato, in his work called Protagoras, mentions Hippocrates as "Cosian physician Hippocrates, descended from Asclepius" and indirectly describes his superior ability in medicine.

One of the most important principles of Hippocratic medicine is this: “There is no disease, there is a patient. Patients are tangible and never show the symptoms characteristic of the disease to the same extent. The patient is dependent on the influences of the ancestral past as well as the influences of the time and climate in which he lives. Habitual lifestyle, temperament, diet, differences in morphological type, facial expressions, changes in sweat, urine, stool, sleep, dreams, etc. Taking this into account, it can be predicted in advance what the course of the disease will be.”

The Aphorisms are the most famous work in the Hippocratic collection and are one of the books written by Hippocrates himself. It consists of a very concisely expressed, general set of thoughts. Since most of these have been confirmed by the accumulation of clinical experience from later ages, some of them have become medical consensus, and some have turned into proverbs used by the people. Charles Singer considers the Aphorisms to be one of the works of Hippocrates' old age, written around 380 BC.