Hippocratic Corpus

Ancient medicine is most of the time considered as irrational, and this is because of limitations in knowledge and understanding of life and most of all the human body. There were no streamlined systems of treatment and the war against disease was put in the hands of gods. However, the developments made by Hippocrates a Greek physician through his Hippocrates Corpus saw a change to some form of rationality in the world of medicine. Based on the chapters of the Corpus. Hippocrates provides very well informed teaching about the treatment of some of the conditions of the body. This essay puts much focus on a few of the chapters that deal with the treatment of broken limbs and analyze it based on the notion that ancient medicine was in fact  rational.

One of the astounding aspects of the Corpus is Hippocrates broad knowledge of human anatomy and more specifically the bones and how they are structured in the human body. He explains the treatment of a broken arm where he advises the bandaging of the arm while folding at the elbow to allow the weight of the arm to act on the arm and the fracture to align itself. These are some of the reasons to show that Hippocrates approach to medicine was rational.

1.      The Corpus advises turning the arm while folded towards the chest in order to allow the fracture to correct itself while healing. These are all practices that are used in today’s medicine and more importantly the handling of fractures. He provides very rational thinking in the handling of fractures.

2.      He expertly explains the importance of proper orientation when bandaging broken limbs, the specific ways dressing, using warm water and the level of bandaging being a factor of the specific bone broken in the body. All these are all practices of modern medicine used in handling fractures.

3.      He uses swelling and sickness around fractures to show progress and condition of fractures. He also has great knowledge of must importance for holding bones in place and how to orient the libs during recovery. A good example is sleeping upright when the foot is recovering from an injury.

4.       He explains a sign of poor recovery of a foot injury on the heel by the development of necrosis which is an indicator of poor supply of blood and a great negligence indication on the part of the physician handling that particular patient. This shows that he also had knowledge about blood vessels and their importance for blood supply.

5.      Another factor is associated with his inclination towards the health of patients that encourages other physicians to take oaths that force them to focus on diligence and quality services.

The corpus shows an accumulation of great knowledge and experience in treatment by the physician Hippocrates. They show great rational approach to medicine. Ancient medicine had many limits in terms of knowledge, technique, and technology but some of them were not irrational. The development of the complexity of medical knowledge of today is based on the accumulation of small information and experience from ancient medicine and this shows that it was rational..