Vis medicatrix naturae
Vis medicatrix naturae (literally "the healing power of nature", and also known as natura medica) is the Latin rendering of the Greek Νόσων φύσεις ἰητροί ("Nature is the physician(s) of diseases"), a phrase attributed to Hippocrates. While the phrase is not actually attested in his corpus,[1] it nevertheless sums up one of the guiding principles of Hippocratic medicine, which is that organisms left alone can often heal themselves (cf. the Hippocratic primum non nocere).
Hippocrates
Hippocrates believed that an organism is not passive to
From this follows the medical approach that “nature is the best physician” or “nature is the healer of disease”. To do this Hippocrates considered a doctor's chief aim was to help this natural tendency of the body by observing its action, removing obstacles to its action, and thus allow an organism to recover its own health.
Renaissance and modern history
After Hippocrates, the idea of vis medicatrix naturae continued to play a key role in medicine. In the
In the nineteenth-century, vis medicatrix naturae came to be interpreted as
Relation to homeostasis
Relation to evolutionary medicine
More recently, evolutionary medicine has identified many medical symptoms such as fever, inflammation, sickness behavior, and morning sickness as evolved adaptations that function as darwinian medicatrix naturae due to their selection as means to protect, heal, or restore the injured, infected or physiologically disrupted body.[7]
See also
References
- ^ Hiroshi, H. (1998) "On Vis medicatrix naturae and Hippocratic Idea of Physis" Memoirs of School of Health Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, Kanazawa University 22:45-54 http://sciencelinks.jp/j-east/article/199907/000019990799A0162403.php Archived 2008-06-10 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Grube, C. M. A (1954) “Greek medicine and the Greek genius” Phonix 8 123-135 JSTOR
- ^ a b Neuburger, M. (1944) "An Historical Survey of the Concept of Nature from a Medical Viewpoint" Isis 35 (1): 16–28 JSTOR
- OCLC 10366814
- PMID 11689921.
- ^ a b Cross, S. T. Albury, W. R. (1987) "Walter B. Cannon, L. J. Henderson, and the Organic Analogy" Osiris 3:165-192 page 175 [1]
- ISBN 0-679-74674-9