Definition: Hippocrates lived from about 460-377 B.C.
Born in Cos, Hippocrates trained to become a merchant. He then traveled around training medical students that there are scientific reasons for ailments. Before him, medical conditions were attributed to divine intervention. Hippocrates made diagnoses and prescribed simple treatments like diet, hygiene, and sleep. He was also a geometer who may discovered how to square the circle. He's known for saying "Life is short, and the Art long." The name Hippocrates is familiar because of the oath that doctors take (Hippocratic Oath) and a body of early medical treatises that are attributed to Hippocrates (Hippocratic corpus).
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