HIPPOCRATES. 473 



sounds are propagated through gases and other 

 vibrating media, is in proportion to the amount 

 of caloric around their particles, ceteris paribus. 



About fifty years after Pythagoras, arose Hip- 

 pocrates, who flourished in the age of Anaxa- 

 goras, Socrates, Heraclitus, and Democritus, 

 when Greece was the centre of light and civiliza- 

 tion to the whole world. To this illustrious man 

 is due the glory of having reduced the healing- 

 art to a regular and systematic form. He main- 

 tained that, although it is not the province of the 

 physician to speak of divine things, unless so far 

 as they may serve to improve our knowledge of 

 the causes and nature of the diseases incident to 

 the human body, it is yet necessary for him to 

 lay down some general principle from which he 

 may reason. He then declares his opinion, that 

 elementary fire is the cause of perpetual motion 

 throughout the universe, and when united with 

 organized bodies, constitutes the animating prin- 

 ciple ; that it resides in all matter, producing an 

 endless variety of effects, according to fixed and 

 definite laws ; and that, as it operates with con- 

 summate skill in the generation of animal mo- 

 tion, sensation, and intelligence, it must be some- 

 thing immortal, that sees, hears, and knows all 

 things. This mighty agent, which he terms 

 </>V<TIC or nature, was supposed to produce all the 

 phenomena of living bodies, by attracting what 

 is necessary for their developement, and expelling 



