THE CHEMICAL AND NATURAL SCIENCES 211 



Doubtless there existed in Greece, side by side with 

 the scientific and lay medicine, a medical art practised 

 by the priests and thaumaturgists, in which incanta- 

 tions played a preponderant part. But this fact did 

 not prevent the lay medicine from following an entirely 

 different direction. In accordance with the scientific 

 ideal glimpsed by the Greek philosophers, it considered 

 that all disease, including epilepsy, had its origin in a 

 natural cause. The primary consideration was there- 

 fore to know the exact structure of the human body, and 

 it was to this that Greek anatomy applied itself with 

 conspicuous success, especially during the Alexandrian 

 period. In the study and the treatment of diseases, 

 Greek medicine displayed a no less remarkable skill. 

 It held that the health of the body consisted in a 

 state of equilibrium maintained by food and exercise. 

 " The fundamental condition of health is to observe 

 a just proportion between work and food, by taking into 

 account the constitution of the individual, differences 

 of age, season, climate, etc. A man would be protected 

 from all disease if one of these factors — the individual 

 constitution — could be ascertained beforehand by the 

 doctor." * We have seen how Hippocrates tried by 

 means of his humoral theory to define the conditions 

 of right and wrong proportions which constitute health 

 and sickness. 



Whatever explanations might be suggested, Greek 

 medicine was as a rule distrustful of philosophic 

 opinions which could not be directly verified by experi- 

 ence. It only accepted hypotheses which were founded 

 on and verified by facts. It had a very clear per- 

 ception of the individual and general characteristics of 

 diseases. Hence it succeeded in noting the symptoms 

 and courses of most of them with remarkable accuracy, 

 and in ascertaining causes as well as remedies. Surgical 

 art was likewise systematically practised, and brought 

 1 14 Gomperz, Pmseurs, I, p. 304. 



