58 Baron Cuvier's Lectures on tlic Natural Sciences. 



that of Plato ; at least it shews itself more, from his being 

 obliged to enter more into details. 



Some of his errors are evidently the result of imperfect ob- 

 servation ; but there are others which are absolutely founded 

 upon nothing. His description of the veins, for example, is 

 altogether imaginary. He speaks of a vein which goes from the 

 forehead to the anterior face of the arm, and of another which 

 goes to the posterior part, and rises upon the lateral parts of 

 the head. From end to end there is the same inaccuracy ; 

 and yet it is according to this imaginary distribution of the 

 bloodvessels that he is guided in prescribing the different bleed- 

 ings ; for, according to him, the place to be selected varies ac- 

 cording to the symptoms of diseases. 



Hippocrates considered the brain as a spongy organ, destined 

 to absorb the moisture of the body. He had no knowledge of 

 the nerves ; and when the word nerve occurred in his writings, 

 it designates the tendons, hgaments, and, in general, the various 

 white tissues. In his time, it was almost impossible to acquire 

 in Greece any accurate ideas respecting the internal organiza- 

 tion of man. To touch a dead body with any other intention 

 than that of rendering the last duties to it, was considered as a 

 horrible profanation. It is true that, in Egypt, the practice of 

 embalming bodies was in a certain degree favourable to the stu- 

 dy of anatomy ; but we have said that Hippocrates did not tra- 

 vel in that country. He did not, however, neglect to study all 

 that could be known without the aid of dissections. The prac- 

 tice of surgical operations, and the treatment of diseases of the 

 bones, would have pretty frequently afforded him opportunities 

 of making observations in osteology ; and of all the departments 

 of anatomy, it is in this that he has made the nearest approach 

 to truth. 



The physiology of Hippocrates is by no means better than 

 his anatomy. It is founded in a great measure upon the theo- 

 ry of the four elements, and upon their properties, heat, cold, 

 dryness, moisture. It is a system formed entirely a priori^ 

 a mere production of the imagination. But the moment we ar- 

 rive at the medical treatment, then the great observer appears 

 again, and we find reflections as just as profound on the influ- 

 ence of climates, seasons, and kinds of food. 



