Internet Wiretap Edition of
OATH AND LAW OF HIPPOCRATES
From "Harvard Classics Volume 38" Copyright 1910 by
P.F. Collier and Son.
This text is placed in the Public Domain, June 1993.
INTRODUCTORY NOTE
HIPPOCRATES, the celebrated Greek physician, was a
contemporary of the historian Herodotus. He was born in
the island of Cos between 470 and 460 B.C., and
belonged to the family that claimed descent from the
mythical AEsculapius, son of Apollo. There was already
a long medical tradition in Greece before his day, and
this he is supposed to have inherited chiefly through
his predecessor Herodicus; and he enlarged his
education by extensive travel. He is said, though the
evidence is unsatisfactory, to have taken part in the
efforts to check the great plague which devastated
Athens at the beginning of the Peloponnesian war. He
died at Larissa between 380 and 360 B.C.
The works attributed to Hippocrates are the earliest
extant Greek medical writings, but very many of them
are certainly not his. Some five or six, however, are
generally granted to be genuine, and among these is the
famous "Oath." This interesting document shows that in
his time physicians were already organized into a
corporation or guild, with regulations for the training
of disciples, and with an esprit de corps and a
professional ideal which, with slight exceptions, can
hardly yet be regarded as out of date.
One saying occurring in the words of Hippocrates has
achieved universal currency, though few who quote it
to-day are aware that it originally referred to the art
of the physician. It is the first of his "Aphorisms":
"Life is short, and the Art long; the occasion
fleeting; experience fallacious, and judgment
difficult. The physician must not only be prepared to
do what is right himself, but also to make the patient,
the attendants, and externals cooperate."
THE OATH OF HIPPOCRATES
I SWEAR by Apollo the physician and AEsculapius, and
Health, and All-heal, and all the gods and goddesses,
that, according to my ability and judgment, I will keep
this Oath and this stipulation -- to reckon him who
taught me this Art equally dear to me as my parents, to
share my substance with him, and relieve his
necessities if required; to look upon his offspring in
the same footing as my own brothers, and to teach them
this art, if they shall wish to learn it, without fee
or stipulation; and that by precept, lecture, and
every other mode of instruction, I will impart a
knowledge of the Art to my own sons, and those of my
teachers, and to disciples bound by a stipulation and
oath according to the law of medicine, but to none
others. I will follow that system of regimen which,
according to my ability and judgement, I consider for
the benefit of my patients, and abstain from whatever
is deleterious and mischievous. I will give no deadly
medicine to any one if asked, nor suggest any such
counsel; and in like manner I will not give to a woman
a pessary to produce abortion. With purity and with
holiness I will pass my life and practice my Art. I
will not cut persons labouring under the stone, but
will leave this to be done by men who are practitioners
of this work. Into whatever houses I enter, I will go
into them for the benefit of the sick, and will
abstain from every voluntary act of mischief and
corruption; and, further, from the seduction of females
or males, of freemen and slaves. Whatever, in
connection with my professional service, or not in
connection with it, I see or hear, in the life of men,
which ought not to be spoken of abroad, I will not
divulge, as reckoning that all such should be kept
secret. While I continue to keep this Oath unviolated,
may it be granted to me to enjoy life and the practice
of the art, respected by all men, in all times. But
should I trespass and violate this Oath, may the
reverse be my lot.
THE LAW OF HIPPOCRATES
1. Medicine is of all the arts the most noble; but,
owing to the ignorance of those who practice it, and of
those who, inconsiderately, form a judgment of them, it
is at present far behind all the other arts. Their
mistake appears to me to arise principally from this,
that in the cities there is no punishment connected
with the practice of medicine (and with it alone)
except disgrace, and that does not hurt those who are
familiar with it. Such persons are the figures which
are introduced in tragedies, for as they have the
shape, and dress, and personal appearance of an actor,
but are not actors, so also physicians are many in
title but very few in reality.
2. Whoever is to acquire a competent knowledge of
medicine, ought to be possessed of the following
advantages: a natural disposition; instruction; a
favorable position for the study; early tuition; love
of labour; leisure. First of all, a natural talent is
required; for, when Nature leads the way to what is
most excellent, instruction in the art takes place,
which the student must try to appropriate to himself by
reflection, becoming an early pupil in a place well
adapted for instruction. He must also bring to the task
a love of labour and perseverance, so that the
instruction taking root may bring forth proper and
abundant fruits.
3. Instruction in medicine is like the culture of the
productions of the earth. For our natural disposition,
is, as it were, the soil; the tenets of our teacher
are, as it were, the seed; instruction in youth is like
the planting of the seed in the ground at the proper
season; the place where the instruction is communicated
is like the food imparted to vegetables by the
atmosphere; diligent study is like the cultivation of
the fields; and it is time which imparts strength to
all things and brings them to maturity.
4. Having brought all these requisites to the study of
medicine, and having acquired a true knowledge of it,
we shall thus, in travelling through the cities, be
esteemed physicians not only in name but in reality.
But inexperience is a bad treasure, and a bad fund to
those who possess it, whether in opinion or reality,
being devoid of self-reliance and contentedness, and
the nurse both of timidity and audacity. For timidity
betrays a want of powers, and audacity a lack of skill.
They are, indeed, two things, knowledge and opinion, of
which the one makes its possessor really to know, the
other to be ignorant.
5. Those things which are sacred, are to be imparted
only to sacred persons; and it is not lawful to impart
them to the profane until they have been initiated into
the mysteries of the science.
[End]
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