HIPPOCRATES’S EPIDEMICS, BOOK 1

Ed. Chart. IX. [2.]

Ed. Bas. V. (314.)

...region for a certain time. Others follow the inhabitants constantly, as if they were kin. Indeed, in the book On Airs, Waters, and Places, he Hippocrates teaches about endemic diseases original: "ἔδημα τὰ νοσήματα," meaning "diseases within the people" or "native" diseases. These arise because of the specific locations where people live.

In this book, however, he discusses epidemic diseases. These attack entire cities or all generations of people at once for a certain period. He is accustomed to calling both of these types of diseases "common" and "publicly spreading." All other diseases are called "sporadic" original: "σποραδικά," from the Greek word for "scattered". These do not affect many people in common. Instead, they seize each person individually.

The Greeks often used the word "to sow" original: "σπείρειν" to mean "to scatter" or "to separate from one another." In this way, Thucydides says of the young men: "In the spring, others died scattered original: "σποραδικοί" in different parts of the city." Just as the origin of these diseases is shared, so too is their cause.

There are three causes from which diseases arise. One is found in the things we consume such as food and drink. The second is found in our actions such as exercise or lifestyle. The third is found in things that fall upon us from the outside referring to the air we breathe or environmental factors. Common diseases usually arise from each of these, and especially from the...