1. Hippocrates is traditionally referred to as the "Father of Medicine" in recognition of his lasting contributions to the field, such as the use of prognosis and clinical observation, the systematic categorization of diseases, and the formulation of humoral theory.
Hippocrates's studies set out the basic ideas of modern-day specialties, including surgery, urology, neurology, acute medicine and orthopedics.
However, the achievements of the writers of the Hippocratic Corpus, the practitioners of Hippocratic medicine, and the actions of Hippocrates himself were often conflated; thus very little is known about what Hippocrates actually thought, wrote, and did.
Hippocrates is commonly portrayed as the paragon of the ancient physician and credited with coining the Hippocratic Oath, which is still relevant and in use today.
Hippocrates is credited with greatly advancing the systematic study of clinical medicine, summing up the medical knowledge of previous schools, and prescribing practices for physicians through the Hippocratic Corpus and other works.
Historians agree that Hippocrates was born around the year 460 BC on the Greek island of Kos; other biographical information is likely to be untrue.
Hippocrates is mentioned in passing in the writings of two contemporaries: in Plato's dialogues Protagoras and Phaedrus, and in Aristotle's Politics, all of which date from the 4th century BC.
Soranus wrote that Hippocrates's father was Heraclides, a physician, and his mother was Praxitela, daughter of Tizane.
Soranus said that Hippocrates learned medicine from his father and grandfather, and studied other subjects with Democritus and Gorgias.
Hippocrates was probably trained at the asklepieion of Kos, and took lessons from the Thracian physician Herodicus of Selymbria.
Hippocrates taught and practiced medicine throughout his life, traveling at least as far as Thessaly, Thrace, and the Sea of Marmara.
Hippocrates died, probably in Larissa, at the age of 83,85 or 90, though some say he lived to be well over 100.
Hippocrates is credited as the first person to believe that diseases were caused naturally, not because of superstition and gods.
Hippocrates was acknowledged by the disciples of Pythagoras for allying philosophy and medicine.
Hippocrates separated the discipline of medicine from religion, believing and arguing that disease was not a punishment inflicted by the gods but rather the product of environmental factors, diet, and living habits.
However, Hippocrates did hold many convictions that were based on incorrect anatomy and physiology, such as Humorism.
Medicine at the time of Hippocrates knew almost nothing of human anatomy and physiology because of the Greek taboo forbidding the dissection of humans.
Hippocrates was reluctant to administer drugs and engage in specialized treatment that might prove to be wrongly chosen; generalized therapy followed a generalized diagnosis.
Hippocrates once said that "to eat when you are sick, is to feed your sickness".
In Hippocrates's time it was thought that fever was a disease in and of itself.
Hippocrates treated patients with fever by starving them out, believing that 'starving' the fever was a way to neutralize the disease.
Hippocrates made careful, regular note of many symptoms including complexion, pulse, fever, pains, movement, and excretions.
Hippocrates is said to have measured a patient's pulse when taking a case history to discover whether the patient was lying.
Hippocrates is given credit for the first description of clubbing of the fingers, an important diagnostic sign in chronic lung disease, lung cancer and cyanotic heart disease.
Hippocrates was the first physician to describe Hippocratic face in Prognosis.
Hippocrates's teachings remain relevant to present-day students of pulmonary medicine and surgery.
Hippocrates was the first documented chest surgeon and his findings and techniques, while crude, such as the use of lead pipes to drain chest wall abscess, are still valid.
Hippocrates often used lifestyle modifications such as diet and exercise to treat diseases such as diabetes, what is today called lifestyle medicine.
Hippocrates helped establish several areas that would become specialized, contributing to them with his studies, those including surgery, urology, neurology, acute medicine and orthopedics.
Hippocrates laid the foundation of surgery with his studies, as his works described differing surgical techniques of general surgery, urology, orthopedics, and neurosurgery.
Hippocrates used antiseptic techniques such as cleaning the surgical field with boiled water, salt, seawater, and natural perfumes.
Hippocrates noted that a surgeon should have an organized medical bag of instruments.
Two popular but likely misquoted attributions to Hippocrates are "Let food be your medicine, and medicine be your food" and "Walking is man's best medicine".
The question of whether Hippocrates himself was the author of any of the treatises in the corpus has not been conclusively answered, but modern debate revolves around only a few of the treatises seen as potentially authored by him.
Hippocrates's contributions revolutionized the practice of medicine; but after his death the advancement stalled.
The centuries after Hippocrates's death were marked as much by retrograde movement as by further advancement.
Hippocrates is certainly considered wise, of very great intellect and especially as very practical.
Accordingly, the busts of Hippocrates that have been found could be only altered versions of portraits of these deities.
The Travels of Sir John Mandeville reports that Hippocrates was the ruler of the islands of "Kos and Lango" [sic], and recounts a legend about Hippocrates's daughter.
Hippocrates was transformed into a hundred-foot long dragon by the goddess Diana, and is the "lady of the manor" of an old castle.
Hippocrates emerges three times a year, and will be turned back into a woman if a knight kisses her, making the knight into her consort and ruler of the islands.
The Hippocrates Project is a program of the New York University Medical Center to enhance education through use of technology.