GREEK BIOLOGY AND MEDICINE 



Places, which also illustrates the broad Hip- 

 pocratic view of the province of medicine. It 

 is the earliest essay known on the influence 

 of physical environment upon health, disease 

 and temperament. It holds that the intelligent 

 physician must understand the effects of the 

 situation or exposure of a city, of the varying 

 seasons and the different winds, the quality 

 of the water, the nature of the soil, and the 

 inhabitants. It treats of climate and the dis- 

 eases which prevail in certain localities from 

 their exposure to certain winds; of the kinds 

 of water and their effect upon the human body, 

 for example in the formation of urinary calculi. 

 The influence of the season is then set forth; 

 and finally the effect of climate and despotic 

 institutions in inducing the mild and unwarlike 

 dispositions of the peoples of Asia, whose 

 spirit is enslaved; while the mountainous and 

 well-watered lands of Europe, with their sharp 

 changes of season, have produced enterprising 

 and warlike, or even ferocious inhabitants. 



Such is a scanty outline of this penetrating 

 presentation of matters which have been under 

 the sharpest discussion, and from so many 

 points of view, in the last hundred years. 

 Without agreeing with all the statements of 

 [26] 



