Hippocrates

hip-pok'ra-tees (460-377 B.C.), an extraordinary medical writer of Greece. Little is known of his life beyond the fact that he was a physician on the island of Cos, that he belonged to the most intellectual period of Grecian life, and that he was singularly free from superstition. Over eighty treatises have been attributed to him, but it now is conceded that some were written by others who borrowed his name and reputation. His fame rests on a number of medical treatises which show that, had he lived at the present day, he would have been one of the most progressive men of the century. His works taken together form ten volumes, an encyclopedia of medicine and surgery as known in his day. He has been called the father of scientific medicine. He did not believe in miraculous diseases or cures. He taught that proper diet is a necessity of health, and that climate has a profound influence on both body and mind. See Galen; Medicine