 | |
| Author | Hippocrates (putative) |
|---|---|
| Genre | Medical literature |
| Text | On the Sacred Disease at Wikisource |
On the Sacred Disease is a work of the Hippocratic Corpus, written about 400 B.C. Its authorship cannot be confirmed, so is regarded as dubious. The treatise is thought to contain one of the first recorded observations of epilepsy in humans. The author explains these phenomena by the flux of the phlegm flowing from the brain into the veins rather than assigning them a divine origin. This turn from a supernatural to a naturalistic explanation is considered a major breakthrough in the history of medicine.[1][2]
- ^ Farrington, Benjamin (1966) [1939], Science and Politics in the Ancient World, New York: Barnes & Noble, Inc., pp. 64–66
- ^ Lloyd, G.E.R. (1986), The Revolutions of Wisdom: Studies in the Claims and Practice of Ancient Greek Science, Sather Classical Lectures, vol. 52, Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, pp. 26–29, ISBN 0-520-06742-8