ii2 Greek Medicine 



the ' physical signs '. In modern times a large, perhaps the 

 chief, task of the student of medicine is to acquire a know- 

 ledge of these so-called physical signs of disease, the tradition 

 of which has been gradually rebuilt during the last three 

 centuries. Among the most important measures in which he 

 learns to acquire facility is that of auscultation. This useful 

 process has come specially into vogue since the invention of 

 the stethoscope in 1819 by Laennec, who derived valuable 

 hints for it from the Hippocratic writings. Auscultation is 

 several times mentioned and described by the Hippocratic 

 physicians, who used the direct method of listening and not 

 the mediate method devised by Laennec. There are, how- 

 ever, certain cases in which the modern physician still finds 

 the older non-instrumental Hippocratic method superior. In 

 the Hippocratic work irepl VOIKTUV, On diseases, we read of 

 a case with fluid in the pleura that ' you will place the patient 

 on a seat which does not move, an assistant will hold him bv 



* * 



the shoulders, and you will shake him, applying the ear to the 

 chest, so as to recognize on which side the sign occurs '. This 

 sign is still used by physicians and is known as Hippocratic 

 succession. In another passage in the same work the symptoms 

 of pleurisy are described and ' a creak like that of leather may 

 be heard '. This is the well known pleuritic rub which the 

 physician is accustomed to seek in such cases, and of which the 

 creak of leather is an excellent representation. 



Such quotations give an insight into the general method and 

 attitude of the Hippocratics. Of an art such as medicine, 

 which even in those times had a long and rational tradition 

 behind it, it is impossible to give more than the merest glimpse 

 in such a review as this. The actual practice is far too complex 

 to set down briefly. This is especially the case with the 

 ancient teaching as regards epidemic disease at which we 

 must cursorily glance. The Hippocratic physicians and indeed 

 all antiquity were as yet ignorant of the nature, and were but 



