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'Airs, Waters, Places' and Other Hippocratic Writings: Inferences for Control of Foodborne and Waterborne Disease.
Abstract The Hippocratic writings foreshadowed some current understandings of disease and epidemiology. Notwithstanding differences in time and medical knowledge, the ancient writers understood, as we do, that food, water, and the environment can be sources of disease. A comparison of current observations with some Hippocratic concepts reveals common principles that are applied in disease prevention and control programs. One constant that must be emphasized is that, while public health programs play a crucial role, preventive health practices must ultimately involve the individual.
Introduction Contemporary interest in the relationship between the environment and human health was an original preoccupation of Western science and medicine, Ancient Greek philosophers and medical thinkers seeking rational explanations for disease studied and discussed the relationship between health and environment. By the fifth century B.C., they had come to recognize that evil spirits did not invade the body and cause disease and that magical incantations or potions were not curative. Preeminent among these thinkers were the members of the Asclepiad medical community on the island of Cos, the most noteworthy of whom was Hippocrates (460-370 B.C.), "the father of medicine" (see photo on page 10). The Hippocratic Writings A collection of about 60 eponymous "writings of Hippocrates," the work of a number of authors, has come down to us. The Hippocratic writers viewed humans as situated in and subject to the order of nature and as composed of natural substances. They as...See the full content of this document
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