The Greeks have been philosophers. They have been the fathers of democracy, males of a extra civilized time who lived lives of that means within the pursuit of reality.
On paper, anyway. On a regular basis life, although, was much less glamorous than the few shining moments that made their approach into historical past. Actual-life in historic Greece was troublesome, soiled, and infrequently actually disgusting.
Your Physician Would Style Your Earwax
Once you visited a physician in historic Greece, you possibly can just about depend on him reaching into your ear and taking a bit nibble of your earwax. That was how your physician acquired a analysis: He’d style your bodily fluids.
In fact, docs had extra diagnostic tips than simply tasting folks’s earwax. The physician would select the take a look at relying on the signs. For instance, a physician would possibly run his fingers by your phlegm or lick your vomit to see how candy it was.
All this began with Hippocrates—the person behind the Hippocratic oath. He believed that the physique was a set of fluids and that every bodily fluid had a selected style. Greek docs have been taught what these bodily fluids ought to style like so they may know if one thing was flawed.
In accordance with Hippocratic medication, urine was speculated to style like fig juice. So if you happen to felt a bit below the climate, your physician would take a bit sip—and in case your urine wasn’t tart sufficient, he knew there was an issue.
