‘First, do no harm!’ Hippocrates didn’t really say it…
Every medical (and naturopathic) student is taught Hippocrates’ first principle of medicine:
“Primum non nocere,” Latin for “First, do no harm.” Or, sometimes translated as, “Above all, do no harm!”
(It is almost always cited with the exclamation point at the end of the sentence.)
One little problem, says researcher Cedric M. Smith, MD, FCP: Hippocrates didn’t say this.
In a Journal of Clinical Pharmacology article, Origin and Uses of Primum Non Nocere—Above All, Do No Harm!, Smith reported that the earliest written reference to the phrase is from 1860 and it is attributed there to the 17th century “father of clinical medicine,” Thomas Sydenham.
–ken winston caine
Source:
The Journal of Clinical Pharmacology, 2005; 45:371-377
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- The healing power of doing nothing
- Send in the clowns
- When did term, ‘integrative medicine,’ enter the lexicon?
- A brief history and report on the state of the art of naturopathy in the U.S. and U.K.
- ‘Health Freedom’ language now officially part of New Mexico Complementary and Alternative Medicine Project’s right-to-practice campaign
