HISTORY OF THERAPEUTICS 11 



AsclepiadaB and a teacher in the medical temple school at Cos. He 

 was a contemporary of Pericles. He travelled in Asia Minor, 

 Greece, Scythia, and Lybia and resided subsequently in Thes- 

 saly, where he died in Larissa in 364 (375?). He published 

 the medical secrets of the priests of the Asclepiadae and his own 

 experiences in several books (Aphorisms, Prognostics, Epidem- 

 ics, Treatment of Inflammatory Diseases, Wounds of the 

 Head, Herniae). His expression, " Life is short, art is long, oppor- 

 tunity fleeting, experience deceptive, judgment difficult," is well 

 known. 



The Theory of Hippocrates. — The humoral pathology of Hippoc- 

 rates attributed all diseases to changes in the fluids of the body. 

 The body contained four cardinal fluids or humors: the blood, the 

 mucus, the yellow and the black bile. The normal mixture of these 

 four fluids {i.e., health) is the crasia, while an unequal mixture 

 generates disease, or dyscrasia. The problem of therapeutics is 

 to change dyscrasia into crasia. This can be accomplished in three 

 ways: 1, by removal of the superfluous fluid, — e.g., of the blood 

 by phlebotomy, of the bile by cholagogues, of mucus by drugs that 

 increase the secretion of mucus (derivative, depletive method); 2, 

 by altering or rendering harmless the superfluous fluid in the body 

 by cooking, ripening, or transforming, — pepsis, coctio, maturatio, 

 alteratio (alterative method); 3, by restoring deficient cardinal 

 fluids (dietetic method). 



In addition to the crasia theory, Hippocrates also formulated a 

 crisis theory. According to this latter theory the fever reaches the 

 crisis or turning point on certain so-called critical days. The 

 seventh day especially was regarded as the critical day and as the 

 proper time for therapeutic interference. Depleting drugs espe- 

 cially were administered on these days to increase the critical elimi- 

 nations. Cathartics and emetics, especially the vegetable drastics 

 (veratrum, euphorbium, daphne), were used for their derivative 

 action. Phlebotomy was employed to reduce fever only in strong 

 and full-blooded individuals. In addition to the external reme- 

 dies, he assumed the presence of an internal, primitive healing force 

 which induces the crisis. 



