HISTORY OF MEDICINE. 375 



in philosophy and arts, the combination of these must neces- 

 sarily take place. The inquiry into causes is natural to man- 

 kind : we are easily pleased with our conjectures, and sufficiently 

 presumptuous in pushing them. The language of philosophy 

 and an air of science are very imposing ; and therefore, if any 

 one thought of applying this to physic, it was no wonder if it 

 was received with applause and admiration. This happened in 

 Greece ; and it is commonly imputed to the celebrated Hippo- 

 crates. This perhaps is owing to his being the most ancient 

 writer whose works we now possess ; but it is sufficiently pro- 

 bable, from the history of literature in Greece, that it happened 

 about his time. He is certainly the first in whom we find marks 

 of a dogmatic system, and it is also sufficiently certain, that 

 from his time forwards a dogmatic system of physic was culti- 

 vated without being referred to any more ancient author. The 

 history of this celebrated person makes always a considerable 

 part in the history of physic. At what precise period, however, 

 or how long he lived, what books he truly wrote, and what was 

 truly his system, are, I think, particulars not known with any 

 certainty. That he was, indeed, a great man, we believe 

 from the testimony of all antiquity ; but the superstitious vene- 

 ration of modern times appears to me to be founded often in 

 ignorance and fashion. From the writings of Hippocrates, we 

 find the state and practice of physic to be then considerably ad- 

 vanced. We find the most part of diseases distinguished, and 

 names given to them ; many of them had been carefully ob- 

 served, and, with regard to them, many aphorisms or general 

 conclusions had been formed ; many nice and difficult opera- 

 tions of surgery had been practised ; a great variety of medi- 

 cines, and even compound ones, were employed ; and with all 

 this we observe also a considerable attention to the management 

 of exercise and diet. 



After all my inquiries, my judgment concerning Hippocrates 

 is this : he was a man of parts, sagacity, and knowledge supe- 

 rior to the age in which he lived, and he probably laid a just foun- 

 dation for the reputation he then acquired. But we know well, 

 that no man can go much farther than the state of science at 

 his particular period allows him, and that this is especially true 

 with regard to those arts which depend upon an experience that 



