Why location and weather matter in medicine; Airs, Waters and Places, Hippocrates

Why you might read Airs, Waters and Places?

Airs, Waters and Places is another foundational work of Hippocrates. It gives us a great overview of illness and Europe. As well as insight into the weather of the time. 

It has a place in my Self Education project both because of what it contains about health and location. But also because other works of Hippocrates stand on top of it. So it carries meaning through the rest of the corpus.

The content of Airs, Waters and Places

Hippocrates starts by describing how winds affect the population of a town. He covers all the compass points. When the town is exposed in that direction this is what health conditions will be prevalent. This includes what the population will look like. As well as what diseases they will be susceptible to and how deadly these illnesses will or will not be.

He then continues to do the same sort of analysis based on the water. He differentiates between lake water, spring water and brackish water. As well as rain and melted ice. He finds the ice to be the worst and the spring water from the mountains the best.

He spends the rest of the book detailing different places. This takes up most of the book. He first spends time on what he calls Asia and the Asian people but today we would call this the Middle East. He suggests that they are less prone to rashness because of their stable climate. That they get different diseases to Europe. And that their environment gives them a certain temperament. He then moves on the Scythian nomads and details why they are as they are. This includes that they have men who choose to be a woman. He suggests this is because of a practice of cutting behind the ear. They do it to fix one illness but Hippocrates says it causes impotence. He posits that after finding himself impotent many times a man of the Scythian gives up and chooses to be as a woman. He also suggests that this is more a problem for the wealthy. As the first illness, he recons is bought on by too much horse riding.

Reflections on Airs, Waters and Places

Hippocrates makes some interesting generalisation. He characterises people in ways we would never think of today. His focus on how the environment affects the people. He takes it to great lengths in classifying what that does to people is interesting. He goes into the realms of personality which we would now not connect with the environment of this type. Yet he must have been speaking from a place of some knowledge.

He takes us on a trip across Europe and we can learn much about the weather of parts of Europe and beyond. Almost more than we can learn about medicine and disease.

What others have to say about Airs, Waters and Places

"The presentation falls roughly into two halves, the first detailing various environmental factors that contribute to specific diseases, the second more ethnographic in its account of the differences between Asians and Europeans as a function of their environment and customs." From Faenum Publishing

From  Researchomatic "He advises the physician coming upon a city that is new to him to take note of the environmental factors that determine the kinds of diseases endemic to that location." 

Comparisons with other texts

Airs, Waters and Places is the explanation piece for what we see in Epidemics. In Epidemics the weather and conditions are listed. The Hippocrates moves on to the description of the diseases. Here in Airs, Waters and Places, we see why Hippocrates thinks that is of such importance. While in Airs, Waters and places we are given the overview in Epidemics we are given the specifics.

Conceptually it follows on from The science of Medicine. It follows because it is still overview type content and because it starts to detail some of that science.

Conclusion

Airs, Waters and Places cover how prevailing winds affect the health of a town. As well as their water supply. It also spends time discussing different people groups. Including how their environment affects them. We have discussed how this informs what we have seen in previous texts. As well as how much further Hippocrates is willing to take generalisations than we are today.

Have you read Airs, Waters and Places? If so what did you think of it? 

 
Want to read Airs, Waters and Places but haven't? Please leave me a comment and let me know why you want to read it.

Hopefully, this post inspires you to take the time to look into it on your own journey of Self Education.

Get a copy of Airs, Waters and Places.