54 SCIENCE IN GRECO-ROMAN ANTIQUITY 



trepanning, and they describe the operations with great 

 skill. They are cautious in recommending amputations 

 because the only means known to them for stopping the 

 flow of blood was a red-hot iron. When surgical 

 intervention is possible " the patient must cry out to 

 facilitate the operation." But for the amputation of 

 a doomed limb, it was necessary to wait until the 

 gangrene reached a joint. From all the preceding facts 

 we can see to what wealth and precision of knowledge 

 the Hippocratic writings bear witness. From ancient 

 times they have been the subject of many commentaries 

 the most important, the greater part of which is unfor- 

 tunately lost, being that of Galen (second century 



A.D.). 



Amongst the immediate successors of Hippocrates 

 must be mentioned Praxagoras of Cos and Diocles 

 of Carystus. The latter has left precise and detailed 

 prescriptions of Irygiene to be followed from morning 

 to evening, according to the seasons. However, the 

 methods recommended by Hippocrates and his disciples 

 were far from gaining universal adherence. The votive 

 tablets found at Epidaurus betray a totally different 

 mentality by the accounts of cures which they give. 

 A woman, for example, remained pregnant for five 

 years, then after a sojourn in the temple, gave birth to 

 a boy, who by himself bathed in the stream and then 

 began to frolic round his mother. 



6. THE EXACT SCIENCES IN THE FIFTH AND 

 FOURTH CENTURIES B.C. THE SCHOOLS OF 

 ATHENS AND CYZICUS 



The mathematical and astronomical writings of this 

 period have not been preserved, but we can reconstruct 

 them in some measure from the testimony of subse- 

 quent writers. Arithmetical researches were carried on 

 along the mystical path opened up by the Pythagor- 

 eans, but did not attain to any remarkable results. 



