The Hippocratic Oath is an oath of ethics historically taken by physicians. It is one of the most widely known of Greek medical texts. In its original form, it requires a new physician to swear, by a
A fragment of the oath on the 3rd-century Papyrus Oxyrhynchus 2547.
The Greek physician Hippocrates (460–370 BC), to whom the oath is traditionally attributed, though most modern scholars challenge that attribution.
A 12th-century Greek manuscript of the oath in the shape of a cross. The oath continued to be in use in the Byzantine Christian world, with its references to pagan deities replaced by a Christian preamble.
Hippocratic Oath in a surgical treatise by Franciscus Arcaeus (1493–1573?), English edition of 1588
A pessary is a prosthetic device inserted into the vagina for structural and pharmaceutical purposes. It is most commonly used to treat stress urinary incontinence to stop urinary leakage and to treat
Hippocratic Oath
…to them. Neither will I administer a poison to anybody when asked to do so, nor will I suggest such a course. Similarly I will not give to a woman a pessary to cause abortion. But I will keep pure and holy both my life and my art. I will not use the knife, not even, verily, on sufferers from stone, but I…
Gold-plated stem pessary (interuterine device) from 1920
An assortment of pessaries
Pessary covered in phosphate after being left in the vagina for an extended time