Medicus curat, natura sanat

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Medicus curat, natura sanat means in Latin "The doctor treats, nature heals". The saying is probably based on the teachings of the Greek doctor Hippocrates of Kos . As a reference in the Corpus Hippocraticum , the sentence "Natures are the doctors of diseases."

history

Galen of Pergamon distinguishes professional doctors who have learned from nature from the pharmacopola , who simply tries different means. However, imitation is not as effective as nature itself.

Therefore, the aphorism should make the following clear:

  • The actual healing happens in the patient. The therapeutic measures should support his abilities and his will to get healthy.
  • There is a natural course of disease that takes time. The therapy must also be based on this. An incorrect attempt at therapy can weaken the natural healing powers.
  • A good doctor takes natural processes into account in his actions.
  • In the ancient world, medicine was a healing art.

Natura is to be understood here in a double sense:

"The medical task is to interpret the signs of the body as indications of its nature and condition or their disorders and to use the powers of the remedies therapeutically."

However, the doctor is not the ruler, but only a humble servant of nature and, at best, its ally. This thinking pervaded the entire medicine of the Middle Ages and is also found in Avicenna and Rhazes : the latter wrote:

"If the disease is stronger than nature, then no medical help is possible, if nature is stronger, then it is not necessary."

Hildegard von Bingen used the term viriditas ( green power ) for this in her Scivias in the 12th century .

In the Christian Middle Ages, the aphorism was extended to Medicus curat, natura sanat, Deus salvat ( ... God saves ) in order to illustrate the interplay of physical, psychological and spiritual requirements.

The Italian Capuchin and surgeon Cesare Magati (1579–1647) also took the view in 1616, especially with regard to the treatment of wounds only with loose linen bandages, that neither the doctor nor his medicine heals, but nature, the new flesh and bones Make the blood clot and drain secretions.

In today's medicine the term self-healing power is used.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Corpus Hippocraticum: Epidemics 6.5.1.
  2. ↑ a b c d Ortrun Riha : Microcosm of man: The concept of nature in medieval medicine. In: Peter Dilg (Hrsg.): Nature in the Middle Ages: Conceptions - Experiences - Effects. Akademie Verlag, Berlin 2003. ISBN 3-05-003778-4 . Pp. 111-123
  3. ↑ Erhard Taverna: Added value "Spirituality". In: Swiss Medical Journal , 2012; 83:45. P. 1678.
  4. ↑ Ladislaus Münster, Giovanni Romagnoli: Cesare Magati (1579–1647), lettore di chirurgia nello studio ferrarese, primo chirurgo dell'arcispedale di S. Anna e il suo geniale e razionale metodo per la cura delle ferite. Ferrara 1968 (= Quaderni di storia della scienza e della medicina. Volume 9.)
  5. ↑ Barbara I. Tshisuaka: Magati, Cesare. In: Werner E. Gerabek , Bernhard D. Haage, Gundolf Keil , Wolfgang Wegner (eds.): Enzyklopädie Medizingeschichte. De Gruyter, Berlin / New York 2005, ISBN 3-11-015714-4 , p. 878.