Authors' Note: The origins of the Hippocratic Oath, as discussed in the above verse, join several others by the authors under the rubric "creative anachronism". Although little is known of classic Greek office routines, there is no confirmation that clerks transcribed dictated medical reports during that epoch. One has to wait to the modern era for the invention of the typo.
Hippocrates of Kos was putatively the author of many texts (the Hippocratic Corpus) deriving from the school of medicine on his native island, one of two that thrived in Greece during its classical period. Surviving writings describe early concepts of diseases, symptoms and treatments. Among these were comments on the humanistic basis of medical practice that were formalized centuries later into the assertion of medical ethics and professionalism that we know today.
Along the same lines, readers are invited to review our small but growing collection of "creative anachronisms" on our blog "Edifying Nonsense" by clicking HERE.
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