Hippocrates. 57 



iiesus. He makes known the various kinds of game, points 

 out the habitual retreats of wild beasts, describes their stra- 

 tagems to escape pursuit, and, lastly, their means of defence. 

 Without this book, we could only conjecture a very important 

 fact in zoology, which is, that certain races of wild animals have 

 lived in climates very different from those in which they are , 

 now observed. In his time, in fact, Macedonia and the northern 

 provinces of Greece had lions, panthers, jackals, and some 

 other species which at present are to be found only in Africa. 



We have yet two writers whose labours might have been 

 useful to Aristotle, and who both belonged to the family of 

 Asclepiades : the one is Hippocrates, the other Ctesias. 



Hippocrates, as we have already said, is not the author of all 

 the treatises which bear his name ; but he is certainly the author 

 who has most contributed to that admirable collection, which 

 must be considered as a general view of the researches of the 

 Asclepiades. He was born at Cos, in the 460th year before 

 Christ, and died in Thessaly, at the age of nearly a hundred 

 yeai's. During this long life, he might have known Socrates, 

 Plato, and even Aristotle, who lived at the Court of the King 

 of Macedonia, when he was himself called there on account of 

 the illness of Perdiccas. We have very few authentic facts re- 

 specting the life of this great physician. It is seen by his works 

 that he had travelled much, but it does not appear that he had 

 ever been in Egypt. It is related that he resisted the splendid 

 offers made to him by the King of Persia, and that he wished 

 to devote himself entirely to his country. It is also said that 

 he delivered the Athenians from a very cruel epidemic disease ; 

 but it is to be supposed that this was not the great plague of 

 430, for Thucydides, who had traced the history of that disas- 

 trous period, makes no mention of Hippocrates, who was then 

 living in all the vigour of his intellect. 



Hippocrates is too well known to require any eulogium from 

 us. It is known how skilful he was in the knowledge of dis- 

 eases, — how he could distinguish them by their signs, and de- 

 duce indications of treatment from the consideration of their 

 symptoms. In what relates to medicine properly so called, he 

 is almost always admirable ; but, on the other hand, in all that 

 relates to anatomical knowledge, he is feeble in a surprising de- 

 gree His ignorance in thi;? respect appears btill greater tiian 



