Whoever Wishes to Investigate Medicine Properly
Whoever wishes to investigate medicine properly, should proceed thus: in the first place to consider the seasons of the year, and what effects each of them produces for they are not at all alike, but differ much from themselves in regard to their changes.
Then the winds, the hot and the cold, especially such as are common to all countries, and then such as are peculiar to each locality.
We must also consider the qualities of the waters, for as they differ from one another in taste and weight, so also do they differ much in their qualities.
In the same manner, when one comes into a city to which he is a stranger, he ought to consider its situation, how it lies as to the winds and the rising of the sun; for its influence is not the same whether it lies to the north or the south, to the rising or to the setting sun.
These things one ought to consider most attentively, and concerning the waters which the inhabitants use, whether they be marshy and soft, or hard, and running from elevated and rocky situations, and then if saltish and unfit for cooking; and the ground, whether it be naked and deficient in water, or wooded and well watered, and whether it lies in a hollow, confined situation, or is elevated and cold; and the mode in which the inhabitants live, and what are their pursuits, whether they are fond of drinking and eating to excess, and given to indolence, or are fond of exercise and labor, and not given to excess in eating and drinking.
On Air, Water, and Places
This is no modern medical text. Thus begins an ancient treatise originating some 2400 years ago, in approximately 400 B.C.E. Such insights belong to Hippocrates. Surprisingly applicable to the modern era, these remarks on the relevance of the natural world to health and wellness, both bodily and mental, may remind us of a connection that seems to otherwise have been forgotten in recent years.
A Greek physician-philosopher living in 460-377 B.C.E., Hippocrates was in many respects ahead of his time. Credited with the discovery that diseases arise due to natural as opposed to supernatural causes, he is known as the father of modern medicine. Hippocrates is also author of the first ecological text, a treatise by the name On Air, Water, and Places from which the above quote is excerpted.
How might this ancient wisdom expand our contemporary consciousness around contemplative ecology and medicinal approaches to a sustainable future? Looking to the past in this case provides an indispensable key.
Ecological Dynamics
Throughout On Air, Water, and Places, Hippocrates points directly to the intertwined ecological dynamics between the so-called outer and inner worlds. One who wishes to practice medicine wisely must consider the seasons, winds, waters, and earth, the ecological context in which one practices medicine, as these factors their intricacies inevitably seep into the bodily and mental constitutions of beings.
We are inextricably embedded in contexts, in an ecology whose quality directly impacts our health. Likewise, our activity directly impacts the quality of that ecology, creating a symbiotic cycle of influence.
In his treatise, Hippocrates elaborates on the relevance of these ecological dynamics to medicine, advising the traveling physician to pay close attention to the natural world.
From these things he must proceed to investigate everything else.
For if one knows all these things well, or at least the greater part of them, he cannot miss knowing, when he comes into a strange city, either the diseases peculiar to the place, or the particular nature of common diseases, so that he will not be in doubt as to the treatment of the diseases, or commit mistakes, as is likely to be the case provided one had not previously considered these matters.
And in particular, as the season and the year advances, he can tell what epidemic diseases will attack the city, either in summer or in winter, and what each individual will be in danger of experiencing from the change of regimen.
For knowing the changes of the seasons, the risings and settings of the stars, how each of them takes place, he will be able to know beforehand what sort of a year is going to ensue.
Having made these investigations, and knowing beforehand the seasons, such a one must be acquainted with each particular, and must succeed in the preservation of health, and be by no means unsuccessful in the practice of his art.
And if it shall be thought that these things belong rather to meteorlogy, it will be admitted, on second thoughts, that astronomy contributes not a little, but a very great deal, indeed, to medicine.
For with the seasons the digestive organs of men undergo a change.
While some may dismiss such methods as outdated folk medicine based on divination of the stars, Hippocrates appears to be pointing to proven relationships between environmental conditions, disease, and health. Ecology plays a central role in deciding the difference between illness and wellness. With the changing of seasons, for instance, the body must adapt and has evolved to do so quite well through homeostatic regulation. When human activity disrupts the health of the climate, however, then climate change in turn disrupts the health of life on earth.
This exact sort of pattern can be witnessed all around us. With record high emissions, temperatures (as well as stress) rising beyond levels most lifeforms can withstand, and worldwide ecosystem collapse extending from the Amazon to Antarctica, it may be time to recall the advice of Hippocrates and other ancients who realized the ecological dynamics of our existence long before it seems to have clicked for many of us.
In the present day, these ecological dynamics are especially volatile. In order to investigate medicine properly, not merely in formal practice as a physician, but in the ways to which all in the modern world may contribute through global health initiatives at all scales, we must comprehend the intuitively evident connection between nature and health.
Medicine in the Modern Era
While we provide here a mere two sections from the beginning of On Air, Water, and Places, the author's insights nonetheless already shine through, perhaps illuminating ways in which we may reorient our approach to medicine in the modern era.
In order for any amount of wellness to be sustained in the midst of a global onslaught of illness, manifesting in as diverse ways as there are minds and bodies to experience it, the ecological must take priority.
After all, for Hippocrates, the world ecology derives from the Greek oikos/οἶκος, meaning home. This earth, its air, water, and lands, are just as ecological as our own minds and bodies. All must be in harmony to truly be called home.
Source:
Adams, Francis. "On Airs, Waters, and Places." The Genuine Works of Hippocrates Translated from the Greek. London: Wyman, 1849.
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