ii4 Greek Medicine 



to the Hippocratic simplicity of treatment. After rest and 

 quiet the central factor in treatment was Dietetics. This 

 science regarded the age ' Old persons use less nutriment 

 than young ' ; the season ( In winter abundant nourishment 

 is wholesome, in summer a more frugal diet ' ; the bodily 

 condition ' Lean persons should take little food, but this 

 little should be fat, fat persons on the other hand should 

 take much food, but it should be lean '. Respect was also paid 

 to the digestibility of different foods ' white meat is more 

 easily digestible than dark ' and to their preparation. Water, 

 barley water, and lime water were recommended as drinks. 

 The dietetic principles of the Hippocratics, especially in 

 connexion with fevers, are substantially those of the present 

 day, and it may be said that the general medical tendency of 

 the last generation in these matters has been an even closer 

 approximation to the Hippocratic, ' The more we nourish 

 unhealthy bodies the more we injure them ' ; ' The sick 

 upon whom fever seizes with the greatest severity from the 

 very outset, must at once subject themselves to a rigid diet ' ; 

 ' Complete abstinence often acts well, if the strength of the 

 patient can in any way sustain it ' ; yet ' We should examine the 

 strength of the sick, to see whether they be in condition to 

 maintain this spare diet to the crisis of the disease '. ' In the 

 application of these rules we must always be mindful of the 

 strength of the patient and of the course of each particular 

 disease, as well as of the constitution and ordinary mode of 

 life in each disease.' 



Besides diet the Hippocratic physician had at his disposal 

 a considerable variety of other remedies. Baths, inunctions, 

 clysters, warm and cold suffusions, massage and gymnastic, as 

 well as gentler exercise are among them. He probably employed 

 cupping and bleeding rather too freely, and we have several 

 representations of the instruments used for these operations 

 (fig. 8). He was no great user of drugs and seldom names 



