50 SCIENCE IN GRECO-ROMAN ANTIQUITY 



the Science of Medicine, thanks above all to Hippo- 

 crates, who lived at Cos in the second half of the fifth 

 century B.C. We know little of the beginnings of 

 these two schools and the exact causes of their cele- 

 brated rivalry. But we know that both at Cos and 

 Cnidus the teaching comprised : (i) ordinary lessons ; 

 (2) clinical studies ; (3) a practical apprenticeship. 

 The student was initiated by a solemn oath, which was 

 at the same time a rule of conduct for the exercise 

 of his future vocation. He " promised to honour his 

 master " as his parents, to aid him in all his necessities, 

 and to instruct gratuitously his descendants if they 

 chose the same profession as himself. Apart from 

 these, he might only instruct in medicine his own sons 

 and pupils bound by contract and oath. He swore to 

 help the sick " according to his knowledge and power " 

 and to rigidly abstain from any culpable or criminal 

 use of therapeutic means. He must not give poison, 

 even to those who ask it ; he must not give any abortive 

 to women, and must not practise — even where healing 

 seems to require it — the operation of castration, which 

 was strongly condemned by Greek sentiment. Finally 

 he promised to abstain from all the abuses open to 

 one in his position, especially erotic abuse towards the 

 free or slaves of both sexes, and he pledged himself 

 to keep inviolably all the secrets into which he might 

 be initiated either in the exercise of his profession or 

 outside it. 1 Other precepts still were given : the 

 physician must observe the most scrupulous cleanli- 

 ness but avoid the abuse of perfumes ; he must shun 

 all appearance of quackery, must be modest in his 

 fees and not demand them before giving his attend- 

 ance, for fear of enervating the sick and aggravating 

 their condition, for " where is the love of humanity, 



1 Passages taken from the translation by Littre of the 

 Works of Hippocrates, and quoted according to 14 Gomperz, 

 Penseurs, I, p. 297. 



