Who Is The Father Of Medicine?

Hippocrates is generally regarded as the father of medicine.  He lived in Greek times and was born somewhere around 460 B.C. although the exact date is not known.  He is still revered today, due to the fact that all medical students, before they qualify and begin to practice as physicians, must take the Hippocratic oath.

This oath embodies the code of medical ethics which Hippocrates detailed in his writing, although it is likely that the code of ethics actually pre-dates Hippocrates.

Hippocratic is also used to describe the appearance of people who are about to die.  This is because Hippocrates was the first to detail the rather ashen and  sometimes shrunken appearance of someone whose death is imminent.

However, Hippocrates' chief aim was to preserve life and do all in his powers to administer medical treatment and eradicate disease/illness.  It is for this reason that he is still regarded as the embodiment of medical professionalism, over 2,500 years after his death.

Hippocrates