GENERATION OF ANIMALS 



It is not possible to assign exact dates for all the 

 treatises in the Hippocratic collection ; indeed they 

 cannot all be ascribed to a single author, but one of 

 the most important, the 77. dp;^at7/s IrjrpiKyjs, refers to 

 Empedocles as having introduced new-fangled ideas 

 into the long established science of medicine (ch. 20). 

 Other treatises relevant to our subject are the tt. 

 depoyv v6dro}v tottwv, the tt. Suii't-qs, and the ~. yoi'rjs 

 Kal IT. (/>ro-to9 TTatSiov. All of these are most in- 

 teresting and will repay study. The last named in 

 particular is the work of a most active and enter- 

 prising man, always ready to experiment and to 

 record his results and to make use of them. 



It should of course be remembered that although Termino- 

 Aristotle introduced much new technical terminology '°^^* 

 and sometimes gave new content to what already 

 existed, many of the terms which he uses were the 

 common property of scientific writers, among them 

 being such important ones as the following : Srva/zis, 

 Kpaa-fi, (TvvT'i^yiJ.a, a-vfj.iJ.€Tpiu, €?8os, Trver/xa and the like. 

 I have attempted to trace the development of one 

 such term in my account of Si'm/xts (Introd. §§ 23 if.). 



It is not possible here to say much about Aristotle's Anstotle'i 

 successors, but it is necessary to say enough to 

 emphasize the important influence which they have 

 had in the history of science. Hieronymus Fabricius 

 ab Aquapendente (1537-1619) knew and admired 

 Aristotle's work on embryology, and what is more, 

 himself carried out further important observations 

 on the same subject. His brilliant successor, William 

 Harvey (1578-1657), was a student of Aristotle, and 

 much of his inspiration came from Aristotle's works. 

 Harvey was indeed the first to make any sub- 

 stantial advance in embryology since Aristotle him- 



suecessors. 



