Is the point of the analogy you are trying to make that we should be less like Hippocrates and more like the wise ladies? That we should ignore all persuit of health?
Is the better argument not that the wise ladies were onto something? Traditional medicines are a mixed bag, but some herbal remedies are truly effective and have since been integrated into scientific medicinal practices. Rather than inventing his own theoretical framework, Hippocrates would have been better-served by investigating the existing herbal practices and trying to identify the truly-effective from the placebo. Trial-and-error is a form of empiricism, after all—and this seems to be how cultural knowledge like herbal medicine came to be.
Is the better argument not that the wise ladies were onto something? Traditional medicines are a mixed bag, but some herbal remedies are truly effective and have since been integrated into scientific medicinal practices. Rather than inventing his own theoretical framework, Hippocrates would have been better-served by investigating the existing herbal practices and trying to identify the truly-effective from the placebo. Trial-and-error is a form of empiricism, after all—and this seems to be how cultural knowledge like herbal medicine came to be.