Hippocrates of Kos was born in the year 460 B.C. and through the ages there have been handed down from generation to generation some seventy-six works of medical reference, all signed with the name Hippocrates and called The Hippocratic Corpus. His island of Kos became well known throughout the Greek world because the great teacher of medicine worked and taught there, and a massive plane tree still graces the public square under which medical students were taught.
Perhaps the best known legacy of Hippocrates is his Oath that guided the ethics and practice of medical professionals for millennia. Physicians promise to "do no harm," "administer no poison," and keep the confidence of their patients.
In these pages Goldberg leads the reader on a tour of the history of medicine through the ages before and after Hippocrates, showing how he turned the field away from superstition toward a genuine science.
