12 Greek Biology 



development, than such observations on the nature and habits 

 of animals, is the service that the Hippocratic physicians 

 rendered to Anatomy and to Physiology, departments in which 

 the structure of man and of the domesticated animals stands 

 apart from that of the rest of the animal kingdom. It is with 

 the nature and constitution of man that most of the surviving 

 early biological writings are concerned, and in these depart- 

 ments are unmistakable tendencies towards systematic arrange- 

 ment of the material. Thus we have division and description 

 of the body in sevens from the periphery to the centre and from 

 the vertex to the sole of the foot, 1 or a division into four regions 

 or zones. 2 The teaching concerning the four elements and four 

 humours too became of great importance and some of it was 

 later adopted by Aristotle. We also meet numerous mechanical 

 explanations of bodily structures, comparisons between ana- 

 tomical conditions encountered in related animals, experiments 

 on living creatures, 3 systematic incubation of hen's eggs for the 

 study of their development, parallels drawn between the develop- 

 ment of plants and of human and animal embryos, theories of 

 generation, among which is that which was afterwards called 

 ' pangenesis ' discussion of the survival of the stronger over 

 the weaker almost our survival of the fittest and a theory 

 of inheritance of acquired characters. 4 All these things show 

 not only extensive knowledge but also an attempt to apply 

 such knowledge to human needs. When we consider how even 

 in later centuries biology was linked with medicine, and how 

 powerful and fundamental was the influence of the Hippocratic 

 writings, not only on their immediate successors in antiquity, but 

 also on the Middle Ages and right into the nineteenth century, 

 we shall recognize the significance of these developments. 



1 Tre/H e/35o/Mu8coz/. The Greek text is lost. We have, however, an early 

 and barbarous Latin translation, and there has recently been printed an 

 Arabic commentary. G. Bergstrasser, Pseudogaleni in Hippocratis de septi- 

 manis commentarium ab Hunaino Q. F. arabice versum, Leipzig, 1914. 



2 ?re/ji vovcrw 5'. 3 Trepl Kupfitqs. 4 Especially in the TTC/JI yovi]S. 



