8 GREEK SCIENCE AND 



Above all, he inherited from the valley of the Euphrates 

 a whole mass of effective observations upon which, in 

 the first instance, his scientific system was built. From 

 Egypt he inherited chiefly mechanical devices ; some 

 knowledge of drugs and certain elements in his method 

 of reckoning time. Nor can we, despite the absence of 

 direct evidence, afford to neglect the uniformity with 

 which Greek tradition attributes the special development 

 of geometry to the Egyptians. The Minoan inheritance, 

 in the absence of a key to the script, is an entirely un- 

 certain quantity, but it is very tempting to connect the 

 serpent so frequently present in Minoan relics with the 

 well-known chthonic and Aesculapian symbol. Even 

 the very earliest Greek medical writings, some of which 

 can be referred back to the seventh century B.C., pre- 

 suppose long generations of research and of the careful 

 record of observations. Now what we know of the 

 Greeks of this period and of their state of civilization 

 does not yield a picture of conditions under which such 

 observations could easily be made and recorded. It 

 seems more likely that this element also was an inheri- 

 tance, and since we cannot suppose that any system 

 of scientific medicine was derived from such neigh- 

 bours of the Greeks as the Babylonians or Egyptians, 

 we are thrown back on the Minoan civilization as a 

 ^scxfrce. 



/ Whatever its sources may have been, however, Greek 

 Science began its course along with or rather as an 

 essential part of Greek philosophy in the Ionian cities 

 of Asia Minor in the seventh century B.C. In the great 

 social systems of the East there had long been accumu- 

 lating great masses of observation, and upon them rough 

 generalizations had been erected. These generalizations 

 on which the Greeks so largely drew, appear to have 



