INTRODUCTORY NOTE 



HIPPOCRATES, the celebrated Greek physician, was a contempo- 

 rary of the historian Herodotus. He was born in the island of 

 Cos between 470 and 460 B. C., and belonged to the family that 

 claimed descent from the mythical JEsculapius, son of Apollo. 

 There was already a long medical tradition in Greece before his 

 day, and this he is supposed to have inherited chiefly through his 

 predecessor Herodicus; and he enlarged his education by ex- 

 tensive travel. He is said, though the evidence is unsatisfactory, 

 to have taken part in the efforts to check the great plague which 

 devastated Athens at the beginning of the Peloponnesian war. 

 He died at Larissa between 380 and 360 B. C. 



The works attributed to Hippocrates are the earliest extant 

 Greek medical writings, but very many of them are certainly not 

 his. Some five or six, however, are generally granted to be 

 genuine, and among these is the famous "Oath." This interesting 

 document shows that in his time physicians were already organized 

 into a corporation or guild, with regulations for the training of 

 disciples, and with an esprit de corps and a professional ideal 

 which, with slight exceptions, can hardly yet be regarded as 

 out of date. 



One saying occurring in the words of Hippocrates has achieved 

 universal currency, though few who quote it to-day are aware 

 that it originally referred to the art of the physician. It is the 

 first of his "Aphorisms": "Life is short, and the Art long; the 

 occasion fleeting; experience fallacious, and judgment difficult. 

 The physician must not only be prepared to do what is right 

 himself, but also to make the patient, the attendants, and ex- 

 ternals cooperate" 



