Environment and Political Institutions between Antiquity and Contemporary Medicine

Abstract

In both myth and Genesis (by God) the creation of the world begins with the separation of water, sky/air and ground; later appear the life and the man and from Olympic divinities (or God) derive health and disease and remedies. When Milesian philosophers distinguished between nature (to be observed) and speculation, a parallel revision has been made in the me-dicine, from theurgical to rational one. Thus, Hippocratic medicine poin-ted attention on air waters and places as natural environmental elements, to be observed, as method to understand the probable diseases of a city, also with a role of political institutions, says the Hippocratic treatise De aere. Centuries later, only in the 19th century has been rediscovered the importance of environment in the health's policy, a concept full developed in the last time (i.e. health and pollution, health and quality of life).