We have read with deep interest the Edito rial “Hipócrates, el arte médico, el racio nalismo y la astrología” by Samuel Finkielman¹, where he delineates the undeniable contri butions of Hippocrates of Cos (460-370 BC) to Medicine. Finkielman highlights Hippocrates’s “medical profession” and his ability to identify and name symptoms and signs, along with his semiological descriptions. For this reason, it is relevant to remember the influence of classi cal languages such as Greek -and later Latin- on medical language. This Letter aims to report the assessment of Greek and Latin terminology by medical students at a Chilean university to highlight the importance that both Greek and Latin maintain in medical language to date, thereby highlighting the relevance of including the contribution and legacy of these languages in undergraduate medical training.

The oldest written sources of Western Medi cine are considered to be the Hippocratic writ ings (Ιπποκρατική Συλλογή), dating back between the 5th and 4th centuries BC^1,2. The Romans later adopted Greek Medicine, and in the 1st century AD, Aulus Cornelius Celsus translated several Greek medical terms into Latin². However, the Greek era of language in medical sciences ex tended its influence until about the 2nd century AD³. Subsequently, various sociopolitical and cultural factors led to the incorporation of Latin as a scientific language³, becoming the science language per excellence, of prestige, to transmit knowledge in the different fields. Examples of this were the writings of Andreas Vesalius (De Humani Corporis Fabrica, 1543), William Harvey (Exercitatio Anatomica de Motu Cordis et Sanguinis in Animalibus, 1628), Marcello Malpighi (De Visce rum Structura Exercitatio Anatomica, 1666) as well as the work of Sir Isaac Newton (Philosophiae Nat uralis Principia Mathematica, 1687). The influence of prestigious Latin in the medical area extend ed until the 19th century. Today, however, Eng lish is, without a doubt, the language of scien tific and medical communication, just as Latin was and, before it, Greek.

Currently, classical Greek and Latin are con sidered “dead languages”. However, far from this, they are not obsolete languages or have limited modern use, and in certain circles, they are considered “living” languages⁴ and essential for the medical community through terminol ogy. This contribution is through prepositions, prefixes and suffixes⁵ that have allowed the con struction of words for new concepts, with wide spread use in science in general, for example, in botany, zoology, anatomy or microbiology⁶.

Now, it is true that, in general, there is no medical training curriculum -except for the case recalled by the authors of the Latin for Medicine course at the Pontifical Catho lic University of Chile-^7,8 including classical languages, but rather, this knowledge is ex pressed in the form of a “hidden curriculum” or indirectly through terminology teaching in the various subjects⁴. Therefore, to determine the students’ interest in these languages and their contribution to the medical vocabulary, a survey was carried out, shown in Figure 1. The results express recognition of the contribution of the Latin and Greek languages in medical language. However, the specific knowledge on the part of the students is more limited.

Figure 1 Percentage frequency results of the survey applied to medical students. N = 54. Average age = 19.0 ± 0.9 years 

Finally, in a scenario where classical language and culture centres have been gradually disap pearing in several Latin American universities, we consider remembering the transcendental relevance of classical Greek and Latin. We need to connect the training of medical and related health professions students with the recogni tion of the contribution of these classical lan guages, promoting a genuine and deep interest in these subjects to integrate this knowledge into the cultural background of future health professionals and scientists. The above can fa cilitate the acquisition of medical vocabulary and other specific knowledge⁵.