4.3 



HIPPOLYTIT3. 



HIPPOLYTUS. 



431 



tives to be employed unless the humours were duly concocted. To 

 relieve the head in certain diseases he was accustomed to make use of 

 sternutatories. In acute affections, when the disease was violent, he 

 employed bleeding, and recommended that blood should be taken from 

 as near the affected part as possible. This was the origin of tho 

 doctrine which recommended bleeding in pleurisy from the arm on the 

 side affected. He also made use of cupping-glasses, with and without 

 scarification. Certain diuretic and sudorific medicines also entered 

 into his pharmacopoeia, and he was not ignorant of the virtues of the 

 poppy. 



In the time of Hippocrates the distinction between medicine and 

 surgery had not been made, as we find among the works usually attri- 

 buted to him, and contained in the list of Erotian, treatises on frac- 

 tures, on ulcers, and on wounds of the head. In the latter he was in 

 the habit of employing the trephine, and gives directions for" its use. 

 However, in the oath of Hippocrates the pupil is made to swear that 

 he will not attempt the operation of lithotomy, but give it up to those 

 whose business it is to perform it. In the treatise ' On Injuries of the 

 Head,' he remarks that convulsions usually take place on the side of 

 the body opposite to the injury. 



We find that consultations were not unknown in the time of Hippo- 

 crates, for in the latter part of the ' Prrccepts ' he says that a physi- 

 cian ought not to be ashamed to call in the assistance of another, if 

 he finds himself at a loss in the treatment of his patient. The oath 

 which he administered to his pupils shows the high sense he had of 

 the duties and responsibilities of a physician. The pupil is made to 

 swear " that he will reverence his teacher as a father, and his des- 

 cendants as brethren; that he will use his art to the benefit of his 

 patients, and never to their injury or death, even if requested by them ; 

 that he will never attempt to procure abortion, that he will be chaste, 

 and never divulge any professional secrets." Similar sentiments are 

 expressed in tho treatise ' On the Physician,' but it is doubtful whether 

 this is a genuine production of Hippocrates. As we have remarked 

 above, Hippocrates wrote in the Ionic dialect, though the island in 

 which he was born was originally colonised by the Dorians. His style 

 is remarkably concise, so as to render his meaning at times somewhat 

 obscure ; and it would appear that he occasionally makes his statements 

 too general, in order to avoid loading his writings with exceptions. 

 The high estimation in which his works have been held is proved as 

 well by the general reputation of his name, as more especially by the 

 numerous commentaries upon them which have been published in all 

 ages. It will be sufficient to mention the names of Asclepiadea, of 

 Rnfus Ephesianus, of Celsus, and of Galen, who have all commented 

 upon his writing'. Galen declares that we ought to reverence them 

 as the voice of the Deity, and that if he has ever written too concisely 

 or somewhat obscurely, he has never written anything which is not to 

 the purpose. His knowledge of anatomy and physiology, and of the 

 processes which go on in the body during health and disease, was 

 extremely deficient, but in the accuracy with which he observed the 

 symptoms of disease, and in the fidelity of his descriptions he has 

 rarely, if ever, been surpassed. It is upon these grounds that he has 

 justly obtained the title of ' The Father of Medicine,' and will at all 

 times continue to command the respect of his medical descendants. 



Hippocrates is said to have died at a very advanced age at Larissa 

 in Thessaly. The essays of which he is the reputed author are 

 eventy-two in number, but the best commentators on them do not 

 allow more than fifteen or twenty to be genuine. The most esteemed 

 of them are the essays on Air, Water, and Locality ; the first and third 

 books of that on Epidemics, the Aphorisms, the Essay on Prognostics, 

 that on Wounds of the Head, and that on the Diet in Acute Diseases. 

 The best editions of his works are those of Foeaius, Frankf., folio, 

 1695, which was reprinted several times; of Linden, 2 vols. 8vo, 

 Amsterdam, 1665; of Mack, 2 vols. folio, Vienna, 1743-49; and of 

 Littre, Paris, 1839, Ac. They have been most voluminously com- 

 mented on. From a list which Fcesius gives of all the works published 

 upon them previous to 1595, it appears that 137 authors had written 

 upon the 'Aphorisms' alone, and the commentaries and criticisms 

 upon the rest of his essays would be sufficient by themselves to form 

 an extensive library. Many of the treatises have been edited separately. 

 There is a complete German translation of Hippocrates by J. F. C. 

 Grimm, Altenb., 17811792, 4 vols. 8vo. 



(Sprengel, Hittnirt de la Medicine; Haller, JIM. Medic. Pract. ; 

 Littrc's ed. of Hippocrata.) 



HIPPOLYTUS, a bishop, saint and martyr, of the first quarter of 

 the third century, who, from circumstances to be presently mentioned, 

 has recently excited great interest amongst scholars and theologians. 

 It waj the apparently unquestioned belief among the older Christian 

 writers that an eminent ecclesiastical author, Hippolytus, had resided 

 as bishop at Portus Roma), near Ostia, and that he had there been put 

 to death by the emperor Alexander Severus towards the end of his 

 reign, liut certain difficulties in the statement, coupled with the fact 

 of Severus not having persecuted the Christians, and of there being 

 no other instance recorded of a bishop of Portus, as also the occurrence 

 of some points of similarity between this Hippolytus and other 

 Hippolyti recorded in the Roman martyrologies, led to attempts to 

 controvert or explain away the difficulties in the common account. 

 Thus Le Moyne sought to show that Hippolytus was bishop of Adaua 

 (Aden), then the great emporium of the Koman commerce with the 



BIOO. DIV. VOL. ILL 



East, and consequently known as the Portus Romanus ; his views 

 found many followers, and though never generally adopted the opinion 

 prevailed that Hippolytua was in fact an Arabian, or at least an 

 Eastern bishop. But whilst there was so much doubt as to the 

 time and place where Hippolytus flourished, there was none as to 

 the eminent position he held as a writer arid confessor of the ancient 

 church. Eusebius, Jerome, and other eminent fathers, alike refer to 

 him in terms of profound regard, and the Romish church had long set 

 apart a day (August 21, in later years August 22), in commemoration 

 of St. Hippolytus, bishop and martyr. In 1551 there was discovered 

 at Rome, near a church dedicated to St. Laurence, a statue the work 

 apparently of an artist of not later than the 6th century repre- 

 senting a bishop seated, somewhat above the size of life, having 

 inscribed on it the name of Hippolytus, bishop of Portus, and on the 

 back of the chair the paschal cycle which he introduced at Rome, aud 

 a list of hU principal writings. His works, or such of them as 

 remained, including some of very doubtful authenticity, were collected 

 and published by Fabricius in 1716-18, and again by Gallandius in 

 1766 ; but some of the most remarkable of those enumerated on the 

 statue had escaped the research of the editors and of later investigators. 



Thus remained the information possessed respecting Hippolytus 

 when, in 1842, an agent of the French government, M. Menas, obtained 

 at Mount Athos among other manuscripts one in Greek on the 

 subject of ' Heresies." It was placed in the Bibliotheque du Roi at 

 Paris, where it remained without attracting any notice till an 

 excellent Greek scholar, M. Emmanuel Miller, in pursuing some 

 researches there examined this manuscript, and perceived that it was 

 not only an ancient but an hitherto unpublished work. He at once 

 addressed himself to the laborious task of preparing a copy of it for 

 the press; and the University of Oxford having undertaken the 

 expense of the publication, it was in 1851 printed at the University 

 press under the superintendence of M. Miller, with the title, ' 'nptyevovs 

 rpi\o(ro(j>oufj.ti>a $ Kara -naffOav aipea'faii' t\eyxos. Origenis Philosophu- 

 rnena sive omnium Haeresium Refutatio : e Codice Parisino nunc 

 primum edidit Emmanuel Miller,' 8vo, pp. 339. This work imme- 

 diatefy excited geueral interest among the scholars of Germany and 

 France as well as of England, and its great importance in connection 

 with the early history of the church waa at once perceived ; but at 

 the same time it became evident that it was incorrectly assigned to 

 Origen, whose known works it in no way resembled, whose opinions 

 it often differed from, and to whom no such work had been by any 

 early author ascribed. 



The subject was first brought directly before the English public by 

 Chevalier Bunsen in 1852, in a most laborious work (embodying the 

 studies in theology aud ecclesiastical history of many years), entitled 

 1 Hippolytus and his Age ; or the Doctrine and Practice of the Church 

 of Rome under Commodus and Alexander Severus, and Ancient and 

 Modern Christianity and Divinity compared,' 4 vols. 8vo. In this work 

 M. Bunsen undertook to show that the ' Refutation of all the Heresies," 

 ascribed by M. Miller to Origen, was really the lost work of Hippolytus, 

 mentioned under the same title as his by Eusebius, Jerome, Kpiphanius, 

 and Peter, bishop of Alexandria, and also inscribed on his statue. This 

 view he supported with great learning arid ability, and though other 

 scholars had fixed on Caius, on Ignatius, aud even on Tertullian, there 

 appears to be now a pretty general acquiescence in the Chevalier's views 

 as to the writer. We give the summary of his statement in his own 

 words : " We may sum up the arguments brought forward in a few 

 words. The book cannot have been written by Origen, nor even by 

 Caius the presbyter, for it is written by a bishop ; besides nobody (i.e., 

 no early Christian writer) ever attributed to the Alexandrian or to the 

 Roman presbyter a book with a like title. On the other hand, such 

 a book is ascribed by the highest authorities to Hippolytus, bishop of 

 Portus, presbyter of the Church of Rome, who lived and wrote about 

 220, as the ' Paschal Cycle ' and his statue expressly state." (' Hippol.,' 

 i. 335.) M. Bunsen's opinions on some other points (chiefly of theology 

 and philology) have however met with much opposition, aud he in 

 1854 replied to his opponents, and re-stated with additional proofs his 

 theory respecting the work on ' Heresies,' in a new and greatly-enlarged 

 edition, in 7 vols. 8vo, of his ' Hippolytus and his Age." With the 

 theological or general controversy we have here nothing to do. It has 

 in its various sections engaged the pens of many eminent scholars and 

 theologians of all churches and sects in England arid on the Continent; 

 and besides several distinct works (of which that of Dr. C. Wordsworth, 

 entitled ' St. Hippolytus and the Church of Rome in the earlier part 

 of the Third Century,' 8vo, London, 1853, and his ' Remarks on Bunsen," 

 8vo, 1855, are perhaps the most important which have been published 

 in London), essays of greater or less learning and acumen have appeared 

 in every review and almost every denominational journal of any note 

 in the English language, in the 'Journal of Classical and Sacred 

 Philology," and in most of the leading German philological and theo- 

 logical magazines. But the investigation which the subject has under- 

 gone will enable us to state in a few words what is now known of 

 Hippolytus. 



It would appear that he was in the active exercise of his labours aa 

 Bishop of Portus, near Ostia, about 218. Though not a corporate and 

 fortified town (civitas), Portus, as the adjacent harbour of Rome, was 

 a place of considerable importance ; and being frequented by foraign 

 merchants and traders as well as seamen, it is probable, as Bunsen 



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