Hippocrates was a very well known Greek physician, and is often referred to as the “Father of Medicine.” He was born in the year 460 B.C. on the island of Kos, Greece (Smith). Hippocrates was born into a wealthy family. Almost all of the men who came before him were physicians. This family claimed their ancestry from the Asclepius, the Greek God of Medicine (Yapijakis 1). Hippocrates died around the year 377 B.C. in Larissa, Greece (Smith). During the time period that Hippocrates lived in, it was very unlikely for you to go to school unless your family was very wealthy, and he had that luxury. Throughout his years at school he studied reading, spelling, writing, music, poetry, and physical education. After his first nine years of schooling, he attended a secondary school for two more years, which was even more …show more content…
One major contribution that he made was the belief that diseases were caused by natural causes. Almost all physicians and doctors at this time believed that diseases happened to you when you angered the gods or by magic. He was also one of the first to observe the clinical signs of patients, and come to rational conclusions based on what he saw. Hippocrates looked carefully at the different symptoms that people had before making a diagnosis. This was a very new way of treating people at the time, and can be considered a very big breakthrough that he made (Yapijakis 2). During his lifetime, he discovered many new diseases. One discovery he made was that if a person had the abnormality of clubbed fingers, which is sometimes referred to as “Hippocratic fingers,” that there was a possibility that they had lung cancer or heart disease. He found that clubbed fingers are a symptom for these types of diseases. Another discovery that Hippocrates is credited with is the names of different categories of diseases. These are named epidemic, endemic, chronic, and acute (The