APPENDICES 



A. THE OATH OF HIPPOCRATES (About 400 B.C.) 



[This, as Gomperz observes, is a monument in the history of civilization. It 

 is no less a monument in the history of science, since it proceeds from the Father 

 of Medicine more than two thousand years ago and, if we except mathematics, 

 medicine is the oldest of the sciences. There are many translations of the 

 "Oath," some more literal and some, like the following, more free.] 



I swear by Apollo the physician [Healer], and ^Esculapius, and Health 

 [Hygeia], and All-heal [Panaceia], and all the gods and goddesses, that 

 according to my ability and judgment I will keep this oath and stip- 

 ulation : to reckon him who taught me this art equally dear to me as 

 my parents, to share my substance with him and relieve his necessities 

 if required ; to regard his offspring as on the same footing with my 

 own brothers, and to teach them this art if they should wish to learn 

 it, without fee or stipulation, and that by precept, lecture and every 

 other mode of instruction, I will impart a knowledge of the art to my 

 own sons, and to those of my teachers, and to disciples bound by a 

 stipulation and oath, according to the law of medicine, but to none 

 others. 



I will follow that method of treatment which according to my 

 ability and judgment I consider for the benefit of my patients, and 

 abstain from whatever is deleterious and mischievous. I will give 

 no deadly medicine to anyone if asked, nor suggest any such counsel ; 

 furthermore, I will not give to a woman an instrument to produce 

 abortion. 



With purity and with holiness I will pass my life and practice my 

 art. I will not cut a person who is suffering with a stone, but will 

 leave this to be done by practitioners of this work. Into whatever 

 houses I enter I will go into them for the benefit of the sick, and will 

 abstain from every voluntary act of mischief and corruption ; and 

 further from the seduction of females or males, bond or free, 



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