[Environment and political institutions between antiquity and contemporary medicine]

In both myth and Genesis (by God) the creation of the world begins with the separation of water, sky/air and ground; later appear the life and the man and from Olympic divinities (or God) derive health and disease and remedies. When Milesian philosophers distinguished between nature (to be observed) and speculation, a parallel revision has been made in the medicine, from theurgical to rational one. Thus, Hippocratic medicine pointed attention on air waters and places as natural environmental elements, to be observed, as method to understand the probable diseases of a city, also with a role of political institutions, says the Hippocratic treatise De aëre. Centuries later, only in the 19th century has been rediscovered the importance of environment in the health's policy, a concept full developed in the last time (i.e. health and pollution, health and quality of life).