What made Hippocrates interested in Epilepsy?

Question

since he called Epilepsy the Sacred Disease... why?

Answer 1

Actually, he was using the name other people referred to it by. In his book on the subject, he actually argues the exact opposite. To quote:

"It is thus with regard to the disease called Sacred: it appears to me to be nowise more divine nor more sacred than other diseases, but has a natural cause like other affections. . "

If you want to know why OTHER people thought it was sacred... well, a grand mal seizure can be difficult to make sense of, even from the outside. To many people who see such a thing it can be outright terrifying. Some epileptics also have strange memories when they recover, which were interpreted by others as visions from gods or demons. So it came to be thought of as a visitation from the supernatural... the Sacred Disease.

Hippocrates was interested, of course, because he was a doctor. He wanted to cure ALL diseases, and there was nobody experienced enough at the time to tell him that he couldn't!

Answer 2

Hippocrates refers to the malady as the "sacred disease" because it was believed, like most physical disorders, to have been sent by the gods or be the result of spiritual powers of some sort or another. Epilepsy seemed different from other maladies because the loss of physical control seemed to indicate that one's body became inhabited by spiritual forces.

But as far as his interest in epilepsy in particular, that is an interesting question. In his writings, Hippocrates refers to diseases as "signs". The disease is shown in the "sign." You know about what is going on within the person from the external "signs". Along with htis emphasis, he also makes reference to the "krisis" or turning point, after which the person will either recover or die.

I think that it might have been because the "signs" and the "krisis" of epilepsy were so apparent and observable, that the condition seemed to be a good test case by which to measure the effects of disease on the body. Remember, Hippocrate's primary diagnostic method is external observation, he could not safely examine patients with the kinds of intrusive tests that we have today and did not have the kind of technology that we currently possess to see the inner workings of the human body. Perhaps he believed that by better understanding a malady as evident and observable as epilepsy, he could better understand how the body is afflicted by other types of disorders as well.

Answer 3

Many intelligent, and some powerful, people had epilepsy. Ignorant people considered the seizures a form of possession . . . by the gods. Hippocrates was a man of science, so the affliction fascinated him.