Hippocrates
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Hippocrates was a Greek physician who helped transform medicine from a field ruled by magic, religion, and superstition to a scientific discipline. Hippocrates based his medical practice on the study of the human body and on objective observations. He believed a person's well being depended on the balance of the four humors (four fluids in body that help to determine a person's character and general health)- phlegm, black bile, yellow bile, and blood- and supported the doctrine of treating the body as a whole. His opinion that ill health should be treated not with drugs but with rest, good diet, fresh air, and exercise was progressive.
It is believed Hippocrates was born around B.C. 460 on the Greek island of Cos, the son of Heraclides and Phenaretes. His father was a physician, and Hippocrates reportedly studied under him, as well as under the atomist Democritus and the sophist Gorgias. Plato referred to Hippocrates in some of his writings, as did Aristotle. Hippocrates seems to have traveled widely in Greece and Asia Minor throughout his career, teaching and practicing medicine...