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Definition: Hippocrates from Merriam-Webster's Collegiate(R) Dictionary

Hippocrates ca460– ca377 b.c. father of medicine Greek physician


Hippocrates

From The Columbia Encyclopedia
(hĭpŏk'rӘtēz), c.460–c.370 B.C. , Greek physician, recognized as the father of medicine. He is believed to have been born on the island of Cos, to have studied under his father, a physician, to have traveled for some time, perhaps studying in Athens, and to have then returned to practice, teach, and write at Cos. The Hippocratic or Coan school that formed around him was of enormous importance in separating medicine from superstition and philosophic speculation, placing it on a strictly scientific plane based on objective observation and critical deductive reasoning. Although Hippocrates followed the current belief that disease resulted from an imbalance of the four bodily humors , he maintained that the disturbance was influenced by outside forces and that the humors were glandular secretions. He believed that the goal of medicine should be to build the patient's strength through appropriate diet and hygienic measures, resorting to more drastic treatment only when the symptoms showed…
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Full text Article Hippocrates

From Philip's Encyclopedia
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Full text Article Hippocrates

From The Classical Tradition
Translated by Patrick Baker "The history of Hippocratism is the history of medicine itself" (Henry E. Sigerist, 1931). The name Hippocrates (ca. 460-ca. 370 bce ) thus stands metonymically not only for the works passed down under his name (Corpus Hippocraticum), but also for the history of medicine…
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(born c. 460 BCE, island of Cos, Greece–died c. 375 BCE, Larissa, Thessaly) Hippocrates was an ancient Greek physician who lived during Greece’s Classical period and is traditionally regarded as the father of medicine. It is difficult to isolate the facts of Hippocrates’ life from the later tales…
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Full text Article Hippocrates

From Britannica Concise Encyclopedia
(born c. 460 bc , island of Cos, Greece—died c. 375, Larissa, Thessaly) Greek physician regarded as the father of medicine. During his lifetime, he was admired as a physician and teacher. Plato and Aristotle mention him in several of their own works, and Aristotle’s student Meno recounts his ideas…
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Full text Article Hippocrates

From The Columbia Encyclopedia
(hĭpŏk'rӘtēz), c.460–c.370 B.C. , Greek physician, recognized as the father of medicine. He is believed to have been born on the island of Cos, to have studied under his father, a physician, to have traveled for some time, perhaps studying in Athens, and to have then returned to practice, teach, and…
| 383 words
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Full text Article Hippocrates

From Chambers Biographical Dictionary
c.460-377/359 bc Greek physician Known as the "father of medicine", and associated with the medical profession's Hippocratic oath, this most celebrated physician of antiquity was born and practised on the island of Cos, but little is known of him except that he taught for money. Skilled in diagnosis…
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Full text Article Hippocrates

From Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable
A Greek physician ( c .460– c .375  bc ), known as the Father of Medicine. He was a member of the well-known family of priest-physicians, the Asclepidae, and was an acute and indefatigable observer, practising as both physician and surgeon. More than 70 treatises known as the Hippocratic Collection…
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Full text Article Hippocrates

From The Oxford Companion to Food
of Cos, universally venerated as the father of medicine, was apparently an older contemporary of Plato (thus c .400 bc ) but absolutely nothing is known of his life from contemporary Greek sources. Much later writings suggest that he was the founder of the medical school of Cos, which had a…
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Full text Article HIPPOCRATES

From A Dictionary of Classical Greek Quotations
C460-C377BC Physician from the island of Kos 1 καί γαρ νουσήματα είωθεν άπό σμικρών προφασίων μεγάλα καί πολυχρόνια γίνεσθαι Ailments are wont to develop from small causes into severe and long-protracted afflictions. Affections 33 2 αί γαρ μεταβολαί είσι … αϊ τε έγείρουσαι την γνώμην τών άνθρώπων, …
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Full text Article HIPPOCRATES (FIFTH CENTURY BCE)

From The Essentials of Philosophy and Ethics
Hippocrates of Cos was a physician who maintained early on that epilepsy and other illnesses were not the result of evil spirits or angry gods, but due to natural causes. He has been called the ‘Father of Medicine’, and the ‘wisest and greatest practitioner of his art’. Hippocrates taught the…
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