Ancient Greek medicineThis article is about the science and art of healing. For pharmaceutical drugs, see Medication. For other uses, see Medicine (disambiguation).Statue of Asclepius, the Greek god of medicine, holding the symbolic Rod of Asclepius with its coiled serpentMedicine is the applied science or practice of the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of disease.1 It encompasses a variety of health care practices evolved to maintain and restore health by the prevention and treatment of illness in human beings.Contemporary medicine applies health science, biomedical research, and medical technology to diagnose and treat injury and disease, typically through medication or surgery, but also through therapies as diverse as psychotherapy, external splints & traction, prostheses, biologics, ionizing radiation and others. The word medicine is derived from the Latin ars medicina, meaning the art of healingHistoryPrehistoric medicine incorporated plants (herbalism), animal parts and minerals. In many cases these materials were used ritually as magical substances by priests, shamans, or medicine men. Well-known spiritual systems include animism (the notion of inanimate objects having spirits), spiritualism (an appeal to gods or communion with ancestor spirits); shamanism (the vesting of an individual with mystic powers); and divination (magically obtaining the truth). The field of medical anthropology examines the ways in which culture and society are organized around or impacted by issues of health, health care and related issues.An ancient Greek patient gets medical treatment: this aryballos (circa 480470 BCE, now in Pariss Louvre Museum) probably contained healing oilThe Greek physician Hippocrates (ca. 460 BCE ca. 370 BCE), considered the father of medicine.45Persian polymath, Avicenna, who, along with Imhotep and Hippocrates, has been called the father of medicineEarly records on medicine have been discovered from ancient Egyptian medicine, Babylonian medicine, Ayurvedic medicine (in the Indian subcontinent), classical Chinese medicine (predecessor to the modern traditional Chinese Medicine), and ancient Greek medicine and Roman medicine. The Egyptian Imhotep (3rd millennium BC) is the first physician in history known by name. Earliest records of dedicated hospitals come from Mihintale in Sri Lanka where evidence of dedicated medicinal treatment facilities for patients are found.67 The Indian surgeon Sushruta described numerous surgical operations, including the earliest forms of plastic surgery.8dubious discuss9The Greek physician Hippocrates, the father of medicine,510 laid the foundation for a rational approach to medicine. Hippocrates introduced the Hippocratic Oath for physicians, which is still relevant and in use today, and was the first to categorize illnesses as acute, chronic, endemic and epidemic, and use terms such as, exacerbation, relapse, resolution, crisis, paroxysm, peak, and convalescence.1112The Greek physician Galen was also one of the greatest surgeons of the ancient world and performed many audacious operations, including brain and eye surgeries. After the fall of the Western Roman Empire and the onset of the Early Middle Ages, the Greek tradition of medicine went into decline in Western Europe, although it continued uninterrupted in the Eastern Roman (Byzantine) Empire.Most of our knowledge of ancient Hebrew medicine during the 1stmillenniumBC comes from the Torah, i.e.the Five Books of Moses, which contain various health related laws and rituals. The Hebrew contribution to the development of modern medicine started in the Byzantine Era, with the physician Asaph the Jew, and has since been tremendous.The first known Greek medical school opened in Cnidus in 700 BC. Alcmaeon, author of the first anatomical work, worked at this school, and it was here that the practice of observing patients was established. Ancient Greek medicine revolved around the theory of humours. The most important figure in ancient Greek medicine is the physician Hippocrates, known as the Father of Medicine, who established his own medical school at Cos.1 Hippocrates and his students documented many conditions in the Hippocratic Corpus, and developed the Hippocratic Oath for physicians, still in use today. The Greek Galen was one of the greatest surgeons of the ancient world and performed many audacious operationsincluding brain and eye surgeries that were not tried again for almost two millennia. The writings of Hippocrates, Galen, and others, like Socrates, had a lasting influence on Islamic medicine and Medieval European medicine until many of their finding eventually became obsolete from the 14th century onwardsEarly influencesDespite their known respect for Argonian medicine, attempts to discern any particular influence on Greek practice at this early time have not been dramatically successful because of the lack of sources and the