ABSTRACT
If one is bold enough to estimate the chief contribution of this greatest physician of all time, it would seem to be that he established the facts that disease was a natural process, that its symptoms were the reactions of the body to the disease, and that the chief function of the physician was to aid the natural forces of the body. More than 140 Greek codices have transmitted the text, and hundreds of translations in Arabic, Latin, Hebrew, have come down to us from ancient times. In the period of decadence, Oriental mysticism again exerted its influence on Greek philosophy and medicine. “The art of medicine is the most beautiful and noble of all the arts, but on account of the inexperience of those who practise it, on the one hand, and the superficiality of those who judge physicians, on the other hand, it is often ranked behind the other arts.”.
