Let's Play Doctor: Medical Rounds In Ancient Greece: Summary
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physician's method of diagnosis in his piece “Let’s Play Doctor: Medical Rounds in Ancient Greece”:
The physician used his five senses to study all of the patient’s secretions and excretions to determine the balance of the humors. The prognosis of a disease from the signs and symptoms aided the proper treatment to restore the humoral balance... Prognosis of disease was made using information about the environment and individual symptoms of the patient. (Bockler 107) There is multiple ways to rebalance someone’s humoral equilibrium. Emetics, agents that induce vomiting, were used in the same way bloodletting was, to release unwanted humors. Changes in diet, hygiene, and allowing the humors to fix themselves were the less intrusive treatment options (Bockler, 107). All of these tactics were used in an attempt to rebalance the humors. Every aspect of…show more content… Scholars such as Richard Feen, the author of “The Moral Basis of Graeco-Roman Medical Practices”, have identified connections between the exclusivity of the Hippocratic teachings and certain religious cults of that time. Feen writes, “…for we see in the Hippocratic oath various elements of a religious, if not ‘cultish’ nature and origin... the possibility exists that the mysteries and the various cults brought to their medical followers an ethical code or set of moral obligations, and the Hippocratic oath was a product of such activity.” (Feen 45) Summarily, Feen is pointing to the conclusion that the Hippocratic Oath, one of the most influential pieces of Hippocratic writing, itself is a product of the ethical codes set by cults. It would be naive to make the assumption that religion had absolutely no influence on medical practices during Ancient Greece. The polytheistic beliefs were strong throughout Greece and would continue to be influential until Christianity arises. However, the majority of