UPPER SCHOOL READING TEST

THE FIRST DOCTOR

The ancient Greeks were the first in the west to practice a form of modern medicine. The Greeks, setting aside the superstitions of centuries past, began a serious study of the human body and health through the work of “the father of medicine”, Hippocrates (460 – 370 B.C.), who opened the first real school of medicine in 420 B.C.

Hippocrates used the same approach other ancient Greek scientists used to discover the causes of ailments. He believed that illness had causes which could be found and treated in many cases. He did not believe that illness was born in the will of the Gods.

The first real doctor, Hippocrates became famous far and wide as a healer. As others insisted in learning about the many cures he had discovered, Hippocrates developed an oath which he made all new doctors take. A version of the oath is still taken by doctors today, which has provided the medical profession a powerful, ethical base for thousands of years.

Many of Hippocrates’ ideas were wrong. He thought that the body contained four liquids or humors; blood, phlegm, black bile and yellow bile. He was wrong, and this idea slowed medical progress and investigation for a long time. But we owe Hippocrates an enormous debt. Many of his ideas stand at the core of modern medicine. He was the first to use certain terms in a medical context, such as crisis, acute and chronic, used to describe the severity and longevity of an ailment. He was the first western man to believe health could be assisted through observation and treatment.

Read out loud, the Hippocratic Oath. The following is the ancient oath developed by the first doctor, Hippocrates. It is sworn to the various Gods and Goddesses of health and well-being. The words in italics are added to help define difficult words used in the oath. You do not need to read aloud words in italics, just understand that they help define the harder words in the oath.

THE HIPPOCRATIC OATH

I swear by Apollo the physician, by Æsculapius, Hygeia, and Panacea, and I take to witness all the gods, all the goddesses, to keep according to my ability, and my judgment, the following Oath:

"To consider dear to me as my parents him who taught me this art;
 To live in common with him and if necessary to share my goods with him;
 To look upon his children as my own brothers,
 To teach them this art if they so desire without fee or written promise;
 To impart to my sons and the sons of the master who taught me and the disciples who have enrolled themselves and have agreed to the rules of the profession, but to these alone do I offer the precepts (main rules of) and the instruction.
 I will prescribe regimen (what ever must be done) for the good of my patients according to my ability and my judgment and never do harm to anyone.
 To please no one will I prescribe a deadly drug nor give advice which may cause his death.
 Nor will I give a woman medication to procure (get an) abortion.
 But I will preserve the purity of my life and my art.
 In every house where I come I will enter only for the good of my patients, keeping myself far from all intentional ill-doing and all seduction and especially from the pleasure of love with women or with men, be they free or slaves.
 All that may come to my knowledge in the exercise of my profession or in daily commerce (business) with men, which ought not to be spread abroad, I will keep secret and will never reveal.
 If I keep this oath faithfully, may I enjoy my life and practice my art, respected by all men and in all times, but if I swerve from it or violate it, may the reverse be my lot (fate).

Here is the modern Oath, taken today by many doctors:

I swear to fulfill, to the best of my ability and judgment, this covenant:

I will respect the hard-won scientific gains of those physicians in whose steps I walk, and gladly share such knowledge as is mine with those who are to follow.

I will apply, for the benefit of the sick, all measures which are required, avoiding those twin traps of over treatment and therapeutic nihilism. (Nihilism is the idea that all attempts are doomed to fail. A doctor who believed this would never treat a patient at all.)

I will remember that there is an art to medicine as well as science, and that warmth, sympathy, and understanding may outweigh the surgeon’s knife or the chemist’s drug.

I will not be ashamed to say “I know not,” nor will I fail to call in my colleagues when the skills of another are needed for a patient’s recovery.

I will respect the privacy of my patients, for their problems are not disclosed to me that the world may know. Most especially must I tread with care in matters of life and death. If it is given me to save a life, all thanks. But it may also be within my power to take a life; this awesome responsibility must be faced with great humbleness and awareness of my own frailty. (Frailty is weakness.) Above all, I must not play at God.

I will remember that I do not treat a fever chart (A piece of paper with a graph on it, showing how a patient’s temperature is rising or falling) , a cancerous growth, but a sick human being, whose illness may affect the person’s family and economic stability. My responsibility includes these related problems, if I am to care adequately for the sick.

I will prevent disease whenever I can, for prevention is preferable to cure.

I will remember that I remain a member of society, with special obligations to all my fellow human beings, those sound of mind and body as well as the infirm.

If I do not violate this oath, may I enjoy life and art, respected while I live and remembered with affection thereafter. May I always act so as to preserve the finest traditions of my calling and may I long experience the joy of healing those who seek my help.

(Written in 1964 by Louis Lasagna, Academic Dean of the School of medicine at Tufts University.)