Hippocrates, Vol. VIII (Loeb Classical Library)

PLACES IN MAN

Places in Man is organized as follows:

1: Introduction
2–8: Human anatomy and physiology, with particular emphasis on the brain and organs of sensation, the blood vessels and cords, and the bones and joints.
9–15: Fluxes and their causes: the seven cardinal fluxes from the head to the nostrils, ears, eyes, chest, spinal marrow, vertebrae, and joints.
16–40: The origin and treatment of specific diseases: e.g., pleurisy, internal suppuration, consumptions, sciatica, dropsies, fevers, jaundice, malignant ulcer, and angina. These chapters vary widely in form and content, lacking the more regular pattern (name, symptoms, course, prognosis, treatment) followed in Affections, Diseases I–III, and Internal Affections.
41–46: General principles of medicine: e.g., the roles of "similars" and "opposites" in disease causation and treatment; the modes of action of medications; the meaning of "good luck" in medical practice.
47: Diseases of Women.

Throughout its somewhat irregular course, Places in Man exhibits a unity of viewpoint and purpose centered around a number of principles enunciated in its early chapters:
(i) The best medical treatment is that based upon an understanding of how diseases arise in the body.