The Hippocratic Corpus, a collection of about 70 anonymous works including the Hippocratic Oath, is believed to constitute the remains of an ancient medical library located on Cos, a Greek island. Although attributed to the great physician Hippocrates, neither the Oath nor any other works in the Corpus can be proved to have been written by him; indeed, they appear to have been written at different times by different people.

Perhaps written as early as the sixth century B.C., the Hippocratic Oath stands to this day as the guiding code of medical ethics. The Oath has two parts. The obligations between students and teachers of medicine are enumerated in the first section, while the second part sets forth the rules for providing medical treatment and constitutes a summary of ethical principles. In 1948, the World Medical Association adopted a modern version of the Oath.

Today, graduating students at nearly every medical school take some form of the Oath, which may include such maxims as maintaining the confidentiality of a patient’s treatment and fulfilling one’s duty to a patient regardless of race, religion or nationality. Some physicians question the relevancy of the Oath to contemporary medical issues, however, and view it solely as a matter of tradition.

PostScript: Hippocrates, a native of Cos who lived between 460 and 377 B.C., is known as the “father of medicine.” He taught that diseases have natural causes and can be cured through study, and Hippocratic medicine based treatment on factual analysis and clinical observation. Prior to Hippocrates, many physicians used magic, superstition and witchcraft to treat illness.