Medicus curat, natura sanat

Medicus curat, natura sanat is an old aphorism in Latin which means that the physician cures while nature heals.

Variations in Latin include natura sanat, medicus curat morbus and there are equivalents in other languages such as Benjamin Franklin's sarcastic "God heals, and the Doctor takes the Fees" and Ambroise Paré's "Je le pansai, Dieu le guérit."[1][2][3] The phrase was used in medieval times and the idea has been traced back to classical authors such as Galen and Aristotle.[4][2]

Georg Groddeck made an acronym of the phrase which he used as the title of his 1913 book, Nasamecu.[5]

See also

References

  1. ^ Strauss, Emanuel (2013), Concise Dictionary of European Proverbs, Routledge, p. 243, ISBN 9781136789717
  2. ^ a b Beaven, Alfred (22 July 1832), "Medicus Curat", Notes and Queries (131): 35
  3. ^ Finger, Stanley (2012), Doctor Franklin's Medicine, University of Pennsylvania Press, p. 34, ISBN 9780812201918
  4. ^ Riha, Ortrun [in German] (2010), Peter Dilg (ed.), "Mikrokosmos Mensch. Der Naturbegriff in der mittelalterlichen Medizin", Natur im Mittelalter, Walter de Gruyter, p. 122, ISBN 9783050050065
  5. ^ Canguilhem, Georges (2012), "The Idea of Nature in Medical Theory and Practice", Writings on Medicine, translated by Todd Meyers, Stefanos Geroulanos, Fordham University Press, p. 33, ISBN 9780823234318
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