1. | Read the text and answer the questions.

1. When was Hippocrates born?

2. What did he introduce into medical science?

3. What is the most important duty of a physician according to the

Hippocratic doctrine?

4. How did he usually examine patients?

5. What are the main Hippocratic ideas expressed in his book “On

Prognostics”?

6. What is his understanding of therapy?

Hippocrates

Hippocrates was born in 460 or 459 B.C. on the small island of Cos.

Hippocrates lived a long life and although the date of his death is not known with accuracy, it was probably 377 or 356 B.C.

He was certainly not only the wisest and greatest practitioner of his art, but also the most profound investigator and acute observer; he was the head of the most flourishing medical school of his age, who gathered around him many pupils and spread his teaching throughout the Greek world and even beyond.

Hippocrates freed medicine from superstition. He established the facts that disease was a natural process, that its symptoms were the reactions of the natural forces of the body.

The Hippocratic doctrine regards observation of the patient as the most fundamental obligation of physicians, giving very accurate direc­tions to its followers as to how the examination of the patient should be made: “It is necessary to study all that one can see, feel, and hear, everything that one can recognize and use”.

Hippocrates possessed neither clinical thermometer nor stetho­scope. The temperature was estimated with the hand applied to the chest. He employed auscultation, placing his ear to the chest of the patient and describing, for example, the friction sound of pleurisy, which he likened to the creaking of leather. Statements about the lungs show that perhaps the art of percussion was known. And al­lhough he had no scientific apparatus he had scientific method, and his writings are full of sound observation and logical reasoning. He had no patience with the idea that disease was a punishment sent by the gods.

Hippocrates noted the effect of food, of occupation and, espe­cially, of climate in causing disease. One of his most interesting books deals with airs, waters and places.

From the study of the natural history of disease Flippocrates was able to forecast how symptoms would develop, and whether a fatal issue was likely to follow. One of the greatest works of Hippocrates was entitled “On Prognostics”. This book teaches that only a physi­cian who knows how to make an accurate prognosis can acquire the confidence of the patient.

According to this work, “On Prognostics”, physician’s attention is also directed to the position assumed by the patient in bed, the nature of his respiration, the appearance of sputum, and to many other signs upon which prognosis may be based.

The body, according to Hippocrates, has within itself the means of cure. The symptoms of disease, and especially fever, are merely ex­pressions.

Great importance in treatment was attributed to diet, gymnastics, exercise, massage, sea bathing. Wc find in the book “On Diet” an interesting and valuable treatise on the preparation of a number of foods.

Blood-letting was rarely prescribed by Hippocrates and his pupils. Cupping was often used, also scarification. The cups were of glass or metal.

The Hippocratic “Materia Medica” was large. Among the purga­tives were milk, and especially large amounts of ass’s milk, decoction of melon, cabbage and other plants, often mixed with honey. Such narcotics were used: belladonna, opium, mandragora, etc.

Remedies for external use were: vinegar, olive oil, and wine, ap­plied in compresses, irrigations, and in treatment of wounds. Various fatty substances were used for diseases of the eyes; preparations of lead, copper, and arsenic — for various diseases of the skin, etc.

j 2 Read the text and answer the questions.

1. Did Pyrohov complete medical education?

2. Where did Pyrohov study surgery?

3. What was M.F Pyrohov’s contribution to medical science?

4. Did he formulate the most important principles of treating gun­shot wounds?

5. What other diseases were treated by Pyrohov?