in the diagnosis of disease in relation to the human organism. Group III: This group utilizes an analytical approach to the diagnosis and treatment of sickness. It relies on the formation of hypotheses based on systematized views of the humoral activity and their corresponding treatments. Its medical theory could be described as rational versus empirical. Diseases and their causes are categorized as are their respective remedies. It places emphasis on cure by contraries and largely ignores the concept of the self-healing capacity of the organism. The organism and its environment are analyzed in terms of hypothesized causal processes. Treatment consists in opposing the humor, quality or power causing the disease by administering a remedy of opposite quality. Group IV: This group according to Harris Coulter, "Consists of two works: Ancient Medicine and The Art. These two works provide analysis and critique of the therapeutic doctrine of Group three. The idea of cure through opposition between qualities is rejected, and a philosophical justification is given for the ideas underlying the works of Group 1." Hippocratic Corpus: origins The origins of the Hippocratic Corpus can be traced in the sixth and fifth centuries B.C. in Italy. There were two seminal schools of Western medical thought; there was Agrigentum on the southern coast of Sicily and Croton on the west coast of the Gulf of Taranto. Agrigentum was the home of Empedocles, while Croton harbored the Pythagorean sect of medical philosophy. The school of Agrigentum and Empedocles placed great emphasis on cure by contraries and thus should be associated with Group III of the Hippocratic Corpus. The school of Croton rejected the notion of cure by contraries while championing the medical philosophy that perceived the human organism consists of an infinite number of humors. The arguments of this group should be identified with Group IV of the Hippocratic Corpus. The first medical philosopher of the school of Croton was Alcmaeon of Croton. Alcmaeon argued that the maintenance of good health required a balance of the powers of moist and dry, cold and hot, bitter and sweet. Sickness arises when there is an imbalance within the human organism caused by the predominance of one power over another. In the Agrigentum school of thought Empedocles hypothesized that the universe consisted of four elements: earth, water, air, and fire. On the basis of these four elements he sought to account for the origin of matter. Matter