Tree of Hippocrates explained

The Tree of Hippocrates is the plane tree (or platane, in Europe) under which, according to legend, Hippocrates of Kos (considered the father of medicine) taught his pupils the art of medicine. Paul of Tarsus purportedly taught here as well.^[1] The Platanus in Kos is an oriental plane (Platanus orientalis), with a crown diameter of about, said to be the largest for a plane tree in Europe.^[1]

Hippocrates' tree resides on the Platía Platanou (or "Square of the Platane"), in front of the Castle of Knights and next to the Gazi Hassan Mosque (erected in 1776) in the centre of Kos town. The current tree is only about 500 years old,^[2] but may possibly be a descendant of the original tree which allegedly stood there 2400 years ago, in Hippocrates' time.^[3] The tree has become hollowed out over the years, and some branches are supported by metal scaffolding. Next to the tree is a white tap with engravings in the Arabic language, also built by the Turkish Governor Gazi Hassan.^{[2] [4]}

Derivatives of the original tree

The Medical Association of Cos presented a gavel made from wood of the plane tree to the President of the Canadian Medical Association in 1954.^[5] Seeds or cuttings from the tree have been spread all over the world.^[6] A cutting of the tree was presented as a gift from the island of Kos to the United States and the National Library of Medicine, and planted on December 14, 1961 on the grounds surrounding the library.^[7] Many medical colleges, libraries or institutions have, or claim to have, trees cut or seeded from the original tree in Kos.^[8]

Trees cut or seeded from the original tree can be found, among others:
North America:

• The American College of Physicians have a mace with a wooden shaft made from a branch of a plane tree from the island of Kos.
• A cutting was planted on the campus of the University of Alabama at Birmingham to accompany a commissioned marble statue of Hippocrates. The 1971 installation was a gift from the Nakos Foundation to the University's medical center.^[9]
• The Canadian Medical Association obtained a cutting in 1969, which was planted in Walker County, Alabama in 1981.^[10]
• at The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University, Providence, RI^[11]
• at The Brody School of Medicine, East Carolina University^[12]
• at Mercer University School of Medicine^[13]
• at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences in Bethesda, Maryland
• at the University of Michigan Medical School^[14]
• at the University of South Alabama College of Medicine^[15]
• at the University of Victoria^[16]
• at Yale University^[17]
• at the University of Florida J Hillis Miller Health Science Center, where College of Medicine students obtained cuttings in 1969 and which inspired the annual Hippocratic Award
• at the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts
• at the West Virginia School of Medicine near the Library in Charleston, West Virginia
• at the Quillen College of Medicine, East Tennessee State University, Johnson City, Tennessee
• at MedStar Harbor Hospital, Baltimore, Maryland
• at New York Medical College / Westchester Medical Center, Valhalla, NY
• at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston Medical School^[18]
• adjacent to the University of Utah School of Medicine, where it is planted at the southwest corner of the Spencer S. Eccles Health Sciences Library

South America:

• at the University of São Paulo, Brazil
• at the Londrina State University, Brazil

Europe:

• at the University of Glasgow, Department of Medical Genetics^[19]
• at Queen's University Belfast Medical School, Northern Ireland ^[20]
• at the University of Barcelona, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences^[21]
• at the Royal College of Physicians in London

Oceania:

• at University of Sydney's School of Rural Health in Dubbo, Australia.^{[22] [23]}
• at Burwood Hospital, in Christchurch, New Zealand
• at Orange Health Service, Orange, Australia
• at Hawke's Bay Hospital in Hastings, New Zealand
• at Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital in Perth, Western Australia

Asia:

• in front of the Medical Library, Kyushu University, Fukuoka City (Japan). Donated by Dr. Hiroshi Kambara in 1973.

See also

• List of individual trees

External links

• Tree of Hippocrates panorama 360 panorama view of the ancient Plane Tree in the Square of the Platane, Kos .

Notes and References

1. Web site: HIPPOCRATES PLANE TREE - KOS GREECE. September 22, 2006. dead. https://web.archive.org/web/20080204230930/http://www.ihfk.gr/gr/hippotree_gr.html. February 4, 2008.
2. Book: Hendriksen , Bartho . Leo Platvoet . Ródos, Kós & Dodekánisos . Babylon-De Geus . 1996 . Amsterdam . 90-6222-518-7 . 69 .
3. Web site: Kos Facts - Voyageur's Europe online . September 22, 2006 . Voyageur Tours.
4. Web site: Greek Islands - Aegean Islands - Kos. September 22, 2006.
5. Web site: Brief History . September 22, 2006 . August 23, 2004 . The College of Family Physicians of Canada . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20061011105959/http://www.cfpc.ca/English/cfpc/communications/50th/history/default.asp?s=1 . October 11, 2006.
6. Web site: Healing by killing: medicine in the third reich . September 22, 2006 . Sheldon Rubenfeld, M.D. . March 2004 . Houston Medicine Magazine . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20060511230742/http://www.world-publishing.com/medicine/articles/march2004/healing_killing_3rd_reich.asp . May 11, 2006.
7. Web site: National Library of Medicine . National Library of Medicine . Objects of Art: Tree of Hippocrates . . March 1, 2000 . September 22, 2006.
8. Web site: FYI archives, September 6, 2006. December 2, 2011. Williams. Ann. September 6, 2006. The University of Utah .
9. Book: Norton, Bertha Bendall . 1970 . Birmingham's First Magic Century: Were You There? . Birmingham, Alabama . Lakeshore Press .
10. Web site: ALABAMA'S FAMOUS & HISTORIC TREE PROGRAM - 2003. September 22, 2006. PDF. Alabama Forestry Commission. https://web.archive.org/web/20060719062135/http://www.forestry.state.al.us/publication/PDFs/famous_and_historic_trees.pdf#search=%22tree%20of%20hippocrates%22 . July 19, 2006.
11. Web site: Tree of Knowledge. www.brownmedicinemagazine.org. 2016-06-02.
12. Web site: The Tree of Hippocrates: West Campus Addition Rooted in ancient Greece. April 5, 2012. ECU News Services.
13. Web site: AHEPA Organization Donates Statue of Hippocrates. September 22, 2006. University of Michigan Health History Research Center.
14. Web site: Hippocrates Tree to be Planted, Blessed at Medical School . September 22, 2006 . Mercer University . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20051126053559/http://www.si.umich.edu/HCHS/Retrospex/RetroV3N1/retro3.1e.html . November 26, 2005 .
15. Web site: Clikas honored for planting of "the trees of hippocrates" . September 22, 2006 . May 1, 1997 . University of South Alabama Biomedical Library . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20060910014331/http://southmed.usouthal.edu/com/thebeat/apr97/clikas.htm . September 10, 2006.
16. Web site: Forest Biology Tree Walk . September 9, 2008 . University of Victoria . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20090206045004/http://web.uvic.ca/forbiol/news/Treewalk.pdf . February 6, 2009 .
17. Web site: Yale Medicine, Spring 2006, archives . September 22, 2006 . 1981 . Yale Medicine . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20060909054600/http://yalemedicine.yale.edu/ym_sp06/archives.html . September 9, 2006.
18. Web site: UTHealth Media Relations. www.uth.edu.
19. Web site: Christine Borland. September 22, 2006. York University Art Gallery. https://web.archive.org/web/20070314222001/http://www.yorku.ca/agyu/exhibitions/borland.html . March 14, 2007.
20. https://www.qub.ac.uk/News/Allnews/ErskineHouseTreeCrownedNorthernIrelandsTreeoftheYear.html
21. News: Barcelona planta un árbol descendiente del de Hipócrates. La Vanguardia. 2017-10-24.
22. Web site: Hippocrates' tree . September 22, 2006 . Kidd . Michael . September 2006 . The Royal Australian College of General Practitioners . 733 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20110706125742/http://www.racgp.org.au/Content/NavigationMenu/Publications/AustralianFamilyPhys/2006issues/20060906/20060906kidd.pdf . July 6, 2011.
23. Hippocrates came across our desks. September 22, 2006. David J Tiller. Rick McLean . Bruce C Harris . November 2005. 11. Medical Journal of Australia. 183. 602. 10.5694/j.1326-5377.2005.tb00048.x. 80010468.