The medical treatises collected under Hippocrates' name are essential sources of information about the practice of medicine in antiquity and about Greek theories concerning the human body. In this eighth volume of the ongoing Loeb edition of these invaluable texts, Paul Potter presents ten treatises that offer an illuminating overview of Hippocratic medicine. Three theoretical works?Places in Man, General Nature of Glands, and Fleshes?expound particular theories of anatomy and physiology and then elaborate on how disease and healing occur in the systems depicted. Prorrhetic 1 and 2 and Physician deal with symptoms and prognosis and with other aspects of the physician-patient relationship. And four practical manuals?Use of Liquids, Ulcers, Fistulas, and Haemorrhoids?give specific instruction for treatments. Thus from the writings in this volume we gain insight into the Hippocratic physician's understanding of the body, his approach to his patient, and his methods for dealing with a variety of disorders. The other works available in the Loeb Classical Library edition of Hippocrates are the following. Volume I: Ancient Medicine. Airs, Waters, Places. Epidemics 1 and 3. The Oath. Precepts. Nutriment. Volume II: Prognostic. Regimen in Acute Diseases. The Sacred Disease. The Art. Breaths. Law. Decorum. Physician (Ch. 1). Dentition. Volume III: On Wounds in the Head. In the Surgery. On Fractures. On Joints. Mochlicon. Volume IV: Nature of Man. Regimen in Health. Humours. Aphorisms. Regimen 1?3. Dreams. Volume V: Affections. Diseases 1?2. Volume VI: Diseases 3. Internal Affections. Regimen in Acute Diseases. Volume VII: Epidemics 2 and 4?7. Volume IV also contains the fragments of Heracleitus, On the Universe.

Author Biography

Paul Potter is Chair of the Department of the History of Medicine, University of Western Ontario.