The Legacy of Greece: Essays By: Gilbert Murray, W. R. Inge, J. Burnet, Sir T. L. Heath, D'arcy W. Thompson, Charles Singer, R. W. Livingston, A. Toynbee, A. E. Zimmern, Percy Gardner, Sir Reginald Blomfield
Philosophy
The Legacy of Greece: Essays By: Gilbert Murray, W. R. Inge, J. Burnet, Sir T. L. Heath, D'arcy W. Thompson, Charles Singer, R. W. Livingston, A. Toynbee, A. E. Zimmern, Percy Gardner, Sir Reginald Blomfield
Greece -- Civilization
Before parting with the Hippocratic physician a word must be said as to
his therapeutic means. His general armoury may be described as
resembling that of the modern physician of about two generations ago.
During those two generations we have, it is true, added to our list of
effective remedies but, on the other hand, there has been by common
consent a return to the Hippocratic simplicity of treatment. After rest
and quiet the central factor in treatment was Dietetics. This science
regarded the age--'Old persons use less nutriment than young'; the
season--'In winter abundant nourishment is wholesome, in summer a more
frugal diet'; the bodily condition--'Lean persons should take little
food, but this little should be fat, fat persons on the other hand
should take much food, but it should be lean'. Respect was also paid to
the digestibility of different foods--'white meat is more easily
digestible than dark'--and to their preparation. Water, barley water,
and lime water were recommended as drinks. The dietetic principles of
the Hippocratics, especially in connexion with fevers, are substantially
those of the present day, and it may be said that the general medical
tendency of the last generation in these matters has been an even closer
approximation to the Hippocratic. 'The more we nourish unhealthy bodies
the more we injure them'; 'The sick upon whom fever seizes with the
greatest severity from the very outset, must at once subject themselves
to a rigid diet'; 'Complete abstinence often acts well, if the strength
of the patient can in any way sustain it'; yet 'We should examine the
strength of the sick, to see whether they be in condition to maintain
this spare diet to the crisis of the disease'. 'In the application of
these rules we must always be mindful of the strength of the patient and
of the course of each particular disease, as well as of the constitution
and ordinary mode of life in each disease.'
Besides diet the Hippocratic physician had at his disposal a
considerable variety of other remedies. Baths, inunctions, clysters,
warm and cold suffusions, massage and gymnastic, as well as gentler
exercise are among them. He probably employed cupping and bleeding
rather too freely, and we have several representations of the
instruments used for these operations (fig. 8). He was no great user of
drugs and seldom names them except, we may note, in the works on the
treatment of women, which are probably of Cnidian origin and whence the
greater part of the 300 constituents of the Hippocratic pharmacopœia are
derived. Thus his list of drugs is small but several known to him are
still used by us.
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