Hippocratic Oath: references, use and oaths of Hippocratic stemma in antiquity and the middle ages.

LÓPEZ PRIETO MB; GELPI RJ; MERINO SF; RANCICH AM; VALICENTI MC

Buenos Aires

Congreso; 45 Congreso de la Sociedad Internacional de la Historia de la Medicina.; 2016

Sociedad Internacional de Historia de la Medicina

Objectives: To analyze the evolution of the Hippocratic Oath regarding its uses, references, and oaths of Hippocratic stemma in Antiquity and the Middle Ages.Research methodology: For this analysis, Pubmed was accessed and the references utilized. Books, chapters, anthologies and articles, were used. The relation to the Hippocratic Oath would be represented by the name of the oath when it included the word ?Hippocratic?, or when the authors recognized having based their oath on the Hippocratic Oath. Summary: Ancient medicine had oaths in initiation ceremonies in Egypt, India and Greece. Although no texts were found for Egypt, some authors argue that Imhotep created a formula similar to Hippocrates?s. While Charaka?s Oath (India) is older given its oral tradition, the Hippocratic Oath (C5 BC) is the best-known in the West. It is a short, binding, sacred, private and non-legal text from the Hippocratic Corpus. It is found in works by Hippocrates and biographies about him, as well as in other manuscripts. The Hippocratic Oath was modified through the centuries, taking into consideration function and use. The changes demonstrate that it did not impose rules, but society modified it by the interests of the times. In antiquity, the oath had few references in: Thesmophoria, Aristophanes (411 BC), Oxyrhynchus, Egypt (C3rd BC), Glossary, Erociano (1st C. BC), Compositiones Medicamentorum, Scribonius Largus (AD 43-48), Commentary on the Book of the Oaths by Hippocrates, Galen (AD 200), Ancient Poem on the Duties of a Physician, Quintus Statius Glaucus (AD 220), Commentary of Gregory Nazianzen (C4th AD) and Letter from Saint Jerome (C4th AD) as advice for Nepotian (priest). It is unknown how the Hippocratic Oath was transmitted from antiquity to the Middle Ages, but it played a marginal role in thinking. However, it was adapted for educational, moral and pastoral purposes (Christian, Hebrew, Muslim). Only two references related to its use were found: writings of Cassiodorus to physician to the royal family (C6th AD) and some Precepts in Treaties G and K (C9th or 10th AD). The Oath According to Hippocrates in so far as a Christian may Swear it (C10th AD), Vatican Library, and the Arabic Translation of the Covenant laid down by Hippocrates, in Lives of Physicians by Ibn abi Usaibia (1245-1246), were published in 1929. Their use is not mentioned. They changed the Greek gods to: ?Blessed be God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ? and ?God, the Master of life and death, the Giver of health and the Creator of healing and every treament?, respectively. The former removes the prohibition of lithotomy and the relation between teacher-student, as Christianity banned closed secret societies. The latter kept all of Hippocrates?s clauses. A Hebrew Paraphrase of the Hippocratic Oath (before 1200), a manuscript copied by Dosa ben Joseph (1461), by an unknown author, was written for personal use and added examining the rich and the poor, lifelong learning, and avoiding dissolute behavior and drinking. Medical schools of the time had oaths, but only the Salernitan School used a doctorate oath with Hippocratic stemma, from which some phrases were kept and others added: to attend the poor for no salary and to order the Sacrament of penance to the sick.Conclusions: In antiquity, the oath is believed to have been used by a minority group. In contrast, during the Middle Ages, it was used to reinforce the moral conduct of physicians in their practice.