Millions of modern doctors around the world solemnly pronounce the Hippocratic Oath. True, there are two small questions: was there really that same Hippocrates? And if it was, then did it not bring humanity more harm than good?
The questions are not as crazy as they seem at first glance. One of the first to put them was the American Herbert Shelton. Oh, he was a unique person! He lived for almost a hundred years and died in an accident, in the prime of his creative ideas and new ideas, being an unusually vigorous, cheerful, healthy and successful person. This fact alone, you see, deserves some respect.
And besides, Shelton - this great doctor, philosopher, humanist of the twentieth century - was a doctor of medicine, pediatrics, surgery, dietetics, philosophy, literature … He wrote more than forty scientific papers translated into dozens of languages, for many years chaired the International Society of Hygienists, was editor-in-chief of the English magazine "Hygienic Review". Long before his unexpected departure, Shelton had become a real guru for all who seek to achieve health by natural methods.
Ice and fire
Natural hygiene methods and approaches are fundamentally at odds with traditional medicine. It's clear: one side relies on natural remedies, the other on medicines. And these two beginnings - forgive the banality - are like ice and fire, a cat and a mouse, a wife and a mistress. They have fought fiercely and desperately for millennia. And the stumbling block, in essence, is only one: so how can a sick person be cured?
Shelton notes that modern Western medicine originated in the Greek colonies of Asia Minor at the turn of the 5th-4th centuries BC, "during a period of complete disregard for anatomy, physiology, pathology and other sciences." And it is connected directly with the name of the supposedly great Hippocrates.
However, Shelton categorically states: the cult of this pundit was artificially inflated. And the works attributed to Hippocrates, most likely, do not contain a single line written by him.
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In fact, our knowledge of the historical Hippocrates is almost entirely borrowed from Plato. But can you trust one source?
Anonymous works
What is actually known? Around 460 BC on the island of Kos in Asia Minor, a man named Hippocrates was born, who later served as a priest of the famous temple, and also engaged in healing. And after some time, the myth appeared that Hippocrates is the father of medicine. And this is despite the fact that there are practically no medical works belonging to his pen. For a century, he was simply credited with medical work, mainly written by doctors from the medical school on the island of Kos, and in addition, early Greek treatises that were put together by Alexandrian scholars of the third century. It's funny, isn't it?
The great myth of Hippocrates, Shelton writes, was built over the centuries. “Since the manuscripts of the past, of which almost all are anonymous, were collected in the Library of Alexandria, readers believed that they had discovered the 'doctrines of Hippocrates' in many anonymous manuscripts of the 5th-4th centuries BC. Even in those days, some researchers disputed their authorship. But over time, readers became less critical, and the collection of 'works of Hippocrates' continued to grow until it included almost all the anonymous works of the classical age of Greece."
Oath of hippocrates
By the way, about the famous Hippocratic Oath given by doctors. Referring to the opinions of historians, Shelton writes: "The famous Hippocratic Oath is just a restoration of ethical instructions formulated by the Egyptian priests." At the same time, there are several options for the oath, and all of them, most likely, appeared long time after the death of Hippocrates.
Well, well, let's say there was such a great doctor Hippocrates, and all his works were written by him with his own hand. Shelton admits that while there is a lot of nonsense in them, "there is a lot of true hygiene, which indicates that whoever the authors of these works, they were influenced by the practice of temple medicine."
Extreme remedies for extreme conditions
What is meant? Initially, the doctors of the Hippocratic school actively used natural methods of treatment - rest, fasting, diet, exercise, sun and water baths. And then they began to expand the use of those magical substances that later became known as medicines, endowing them with medicinal properties. And, abandoning the means of nature, they began to actively impose on people “a miserable slavish dependence on disease-causing poisons. Only step by step did medicinal practice prevail over the ability to regulate the patient's lifestyle … The growing aggressiveness of drugs characterized the evolution of medicine since its inception around the 4th century BC. e. The Hippocratic School was predominantly a school of drug therapy."
Thus, the followers of Hippocrates laid the structure that modern medicine diligently follows. Here Shelton is very categorical: “Today, medicine is characterized by quackery in the same measure as in the days of Hippocrates … In his writings, you can find words that reflect one of the most fatal deceptions that dominated the minds of doctors. This lie is still held by modern doctors. There is nothing more terrible than a practice based on the principle: the more painful the patient is, the more desperate his condition, the weaker he is, the more he needs radical means. When the patient's ability to resist is reduced and it is easy to kill him, doctors offer him the most dangerous treatment.
Thus, the role of Hippocrates (imaginary or real - it doesn't matter) is very great. It was after him that the great and final split took place. Medicine has hopelessly split into two parts, desperately at war with each other: medicinal and natural. Both have great victories and desperate defeats. Which one to choose - decide for yourself.
M. Bolotovsky. “Interesting newspaper. Incredible"