MEDICINE AND PHILOSOPHY IN CLASSICAL ANTIQUITY

116 Hippocratic Corpus and Diocles of Carystus

On Internal Affections 10 shows, in order to bring about the best condition

or ‘mode of living’ (

)) of a patient who is almost certainly going

to die:

When the case is such, the patient wastes away sorrily for a year, and dies; you must

treat him very actively and strengthen him... If treated in such a way, the patient

will fare best in the disease; the disease is usually mortal, and few escape it.^56

Furthermore, in a passage fromOn Diseases 3. 15 the doctor is even advised

to tell the patient about the hopelessness of his case before engaging in

treatment:

If the sputum is not being cleaned out effectively, if respiration is rapid, and if

expectoration is failing, announce that there is no hope of survival; unless the

patient can help with the cleaning. But still treat as is appropriate for pneumonia,

if the lower cavity cooperates with you.^57

In these writings, then, treatment is recommended in virtually all cases

whatever the outcome. The outcome is sometimes said to be that the patient

will become healthy again;^58 but there are also several cases in which the

result is left vague.^59

A second, striking, fact is that it is often left at the doctor’s discretion

whether to follow a particular course of treatment, or even whether to

engage in treatment at all. The tentative, by no means rigid character of

Hippocratic treatment is indicated by expressions such as ‘if you wish’, ‘if

you think it is right’, ‘if you treat him’, ‘if you wish to treat him’,^60 ‘if you do

not want to give him the drug’.^61 This is not to say that, for the Hippocratic

doctors, treatment does not aim at restoring health; indeed, apart from the

many cases where treatment is said to result in a recovery of health, there

are several occasions where treatment is advocated not because lack of

treatment would result in the patient’s death but because it would cause

the disease to become chronic and ‘to age with’ (#

),^62 or

(^56) Int. Aff. 10 ( 7. 190 L.):j
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(tr. Potter ( 1998 ) vol.vi, 105 ). See alsoInt.
27 ( 7. 238 L.): 5 S-# 4, and von Staden ( 1990 ) 108 (aboutOn Diseases 1. 6 ): ‘easing the
patient’s condition or prolonging his or her life’; alsoInt. Aff. 12 ( 7. 196 L.):$ B 
#C O

A
% $(although this case is not hopeless).
(^577). 140 L. (tr. Potter ( 1988 ) vol.vi, 37 ). On verbal intervention see von Staden ( 1990 ) 109 – 11.
(^58) E.g.Int. Aff. 9 ( 7. 188 L.); 12 ( 7. 198 L.); 21 ( 7. 220 L.).
(^59) E.g.On Diseases 2. 15 ( 7. 28 L.); 2. 29 ( 7. 46 L.).
(^60) On Diseases 3. 3 ( 7. 122 L.); 3. 7 ( 7. 126 L.); 3. 13 ( 7. 134 L.); 3. 17 ( 7. 156 L.).
(^61) Int. Aff. 10 ( 7. 192 L.):B . % <-#C $
3  .
(^62) E.g.On Diseases 2. 73 ( 7. 112 L.).