The earliest, and perhaps the most important, work on ancient medicine comes from Greece - the Hippocratic corpus. Its roots lie in the medical school on Cos, which followed the teachings of Hippocrates of Cos. Though Hippocrates himself did not contribute to its’ content (he merely compiled it) and though the surviving collection was recompiled by scholars at the famed Library at Alexandria in ca. 200 BCE, its numerous treatises on diseases, anatomy and the origins of life itself give us a picture of the state of Greek medicine from the fifth century BCE.

Hippocrates carefully studied the symptoms of his patients and selected the most suitable treatment. He believed in restoring general health and well-being rather than targeting specific illnesses. His followers believed in proper diet and exercise for a healthy living.¹ He is most famous for inspiring the “Hippocratic Oath” which instructed doctors to provide treatment indiscriminately without concern about the money they receive.

Greek medicine probably began with the “nature philosophers” of the early 6th century who considered nature in ways other than those of religious thinkers. Pythagoreans continued this philosophy on life and nature. The basic medical concept was that of humors - fluids (air, blood, bile, phlegm) which flowed through the body, giving it balance. Excess of these humors or their imbalance were what the early Greeks believed gave rise to diseases.

The Hellenistic Era was a period of great development in the science of medicine. Theophrasus (370 BCE) evolved a system of classification of species. Meno, a student of Aristotle, compiled the first history of medicine, the Anonymus Londinensis. Praxagoras of Cos (ca. 325 BCE) Studied pulse rates in detail and made a compilation of various pulse rates and the diseases associated with them. He was also the first to distinguish between arteries and veins (though he thought that arteries carried air rather than blood).

Herophilus (ca. 280 BCE)

Herophilus made an in-depth study of human anatomy and greatly increased known knowledge of it. This he did by performing some of the first ever organised dissections of cadavers. He was the first to identify neurons, sinuses and the retina of the eye as well as the duodenum (the first section of the small intestine; the name “duodenum” is a translation of the term “twelve fingers” which Herophilus used to define its length.)

Erasistratus (ca. 260 BCE) 

Erasistratus studied the brain and nerves in detail. He recognised that all organs had individual arteries, veins and neurons, which he described to be a "three-fold network", though he still maintained that arteries carried air and not blood.

After Erasistratus, Greek medicine was enriched by small works of many minor writers. Books were written on toxicology and poisonous animals, and on botany. The foundations laid by the Greeks were acted upon by the Romans, notably Galen, in greatly improving the knowledge of medicine in the western world.

1. Peter James and Nick Thorpe, “Ancient Inventions”, (Ballantine Books, 1994), p. 2,3.