Over many years, my onboarding session for new third-year medical students rotating with me in Magnolia has evolved into a standard ritual: a how-to lesson on writing prescriptions (a core physician skill); a discussion of Thomas Eakins’ 1875 painting The Gross Clinic (a large print of which hangs in my office and speaks dimensions to medical history); and the teaching of two Latin phrases existential to the practice of the medical art. Although prescription writing and exploring Eakins’ masterpiece are important exercises for a physician-in-training, the two essential Latin phrases embody the most critical lessons of the day.

The first phrase is “Primum Non Nocere,” translated “First, do no harm.” We all have heard it, and the phrase is often wrongly credited to the Hippocratic Oath. It is traced to the writings of Hippocrates, specifically, to his book “Epidemics, Book I, Section 11”: “As to diseases, make a habit of two things—to help, or at least to do no harm.” Hippocrates’ original words may guide us even better than the oft quoted Latin maxim. The phrase applies to every medical decision in our art from writing prescriptions legibly to performing complicated surgery. The phrase should be spoken to one’s self frequently to direct one’s daily work as a physician.1 Practicing beneficence with an emphasis on non-maleficence is central to our art.2

The second Latin phrase is “Ars Longa, Vitae Brevis,” translated “The art is long, life is short.” Such is the meaning of the first four words of the first aphorism of Hippocrates. Physicians (and even writers and artists) have embraced this phrase for thousands of years. The four words acknowledge what the Hippocratic tradition has long asserted, that medicine is a difficult art, taking years to master, and our own lives are short. This, too, we must remember daily. Hippocrates’ four words have an implicit meaning beyond the spoken words: be humble as we practice our art. Our work is difficult, and we are mortal. There is no place for hubris in medicine. Physicians start from a point of weakness, having only our knowledge and experience to guide us. Humility must be considered with our every action. Respect other physicians, and be slow to judge them, for what we all do is a heavy load. Hippocrates may be asking: Do we ever master our art? Are we not always learners until the end of our days?

Now, if I can only find the Latin translation for Dr. Peter Blake’s original and oft quoted UMMC maxim: “Do the right thing.” Young physicians must absorb that aphorism as well.

Contact me at drluciuslampton@gmail.com. — Lucius M. Lampton, MD, Editor