Serious head injuries and how to diagnose them; On Injuries of the Head, Hippocrates

 Why you might read On Injuries of the Head?

On Injuries of the Head, covers in detail serious head wounds. As such it gives great insight into how head injuries were treated in Hippocrates time. It is interesting to see how much they are willing to be invasive when they can only see with their eyes.

In my Self Education project, the Hippocratic corpus is of great import. It is the first real medicine books and gives a great foundation for medicine and the life sciences in books to come.

Content of On Injuries of the Head

On Injuries of the Head goes through the types of head wounds. It covers from the simplest head wounds in which little is to be done. All the way to serious head injuries that are likely to result in death. Hippocrates spends time explaining how to examine head wounds. This includes the idea that you may have to cut the wound further open to see the bone and what damage has been done to it. He recommends not cutting the bone immediately but waiting to see if it comes out on its own or starts healing. If neither of these things happens then you should cut the bone most of the way through and let it fall the rest of the way. This is done so as not to damage the membrane of the brain.   

Reflections on On Injuries of the Head

Hippocrates never moralises about the cause of the injury. He does however say that the injuries could be deliberately inflicted. He treats violence the same as an accident as information to know about the wound and nothing else.

There is also an interesting section where in order to see the bone fracture Hippocrates adds a dye pack for a day and then scrapes the bone. This would leave only dye in the cracks of the fracture.

What others have to say about On Injuries of the Head

"Hippocrates' treatise On Wounds in the Head represents an excellent source of information regarding the extent of experience with head injuries in classical antiquity" From the National Library of Medicine

"On the basis of clinical observation, the great physician gives an accurate description of the external appearance and consistency of the cranium." From Hippocrates: A Pioneer in the Treatment of Head Injuries

Comparisons with other texts

Like On Hemorrhoids, this text is focused on the treatment of a specific injury. Unlike hemorrhoids this text is more life and death. The head injuries turn deadly a lot easier than the unpleasant but more survivable hemorrhoids.

In some ways, it is the opposite to On the Surgery. On the surgery mainly deals with the bandaging of wounds. Whereas it is left out of this text. Instead On Injuries of the Head is all about surgery.

Conclusion

On Injuries of the Head is a compact work detailing serious injuries of the head. It mainly focuses on those that imprint or otherwise damage the bone. It does not cover things we also look at now like a concussion. Hippocrates in most cases suggests finding out what you can and then giving the wound some time. He does cover what to do if healing does not come. This work follows the general ethos of the Hippocratic Corpus and is very detail-oriented.

Have you read On Injuries of the Head? If so what did you think of it? 

 
Want to read On Injuries of the Head 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.

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