HIPPOCRATES. \\ 



" On the Articulations," seems to put the matter beyond 

 doubt. Thus he says in one place, " But if one will strip 

 the point of the shoulder of the fleshy parts, and where 

 the muscle extends, and also lay bare the tendon that 

 goes from the armpit and clavicle to the breast," etc. 

 And again, further on in the same treatise, " It is evident, 

 then, that such a case could not be reduced either by 

 succussion or by any other method, unless one were to 

 cut open the patient, and then, having introduced the 

 hand into one of the great cavities, were to push outwards 

 from within, which one might do in the dead body, but 

 not at all in the living." 



His descriptions of the vertebrae, with all their pro- 

 cesses and ligaments, as well as his account of the 

 general characters of the internal viscera, would not have 

 been as free from error as they are if he had derived all 

 his knowledge from the dissection of the inferior animals. 

 Moreover, it is indisputable that, within less than a 

 hundred years from the death of Hippocrates, the human 

 body was openly dissected in the schools of Alexandria 

 nay, further, that even the vivisection of condemned 

 criminals was not uncommon. It would be unreasonable 

 to suppose that such a practice as the former sprang up 

 suddenly under the Ptolemies, and it seems, therefore, 

 highly probable that it was known and tolerated in the 

 time of ; Hippocrates. It is not surprising, when we 

 remember the rude appliances and methods which then 



