HIPPOCRATES. 15 



the Great Plague which occurred at Athens in the time 

 of the Peloponnesian war. It is said that Hippocrates 

 advised the lighting of great fires with wood of some 

 aromatic kind, probably some species of pine. These, 

 being kindled all about the city, stayed the progress of 

 the pestilence. Others besides Hippocrates are, how- 

 ever, famous for having successfully adopted this practice. 



A third legend states that the King of Persia, pur- 

 suing the plan (which in the two celebrated instances of 

 Themistocles and Pausanias had proved successful) 

 of attracting to his side the most distinguished persons 

 in Greece, wrote to Hippocrates asking him to pay 

 a visit to his court, and that Hippocrates refused to go. 

 Although the story is discarded by many scholars, it is 

 worthy of note that Ctesias, a kinsman and contem- 

 porary of Hippocrates, is mentioned by Xenophon in 

 the " Anabasis " as being in the service of the King of 

 Persia. And, with regard to the refusal of the venerable 

 physician to comply with the king's request, one cannot 

 lose sight of the fact that such refusal was the only 

 course consistent with the opinions he professed of 

 a monarchical form of government. 



After his various travels Hippocrates, as seems to be 

 pretty generally admitted, spent the latter portion of his 

 life in Thessaly, and died at Larissa at a very advanced age. 



It is difficult to speak of the skill and painstaking 

 perseverance of Hippocrates in terms which shall not 



