THE HIPPOCRATICS 



science were to progress and retrograde to- 

 gether. I refer to the true Greek medical 

 tradition; for there were quacks in Greece, 

 as there have been ever since; today people 

 still troop after them. But in speaking of our 

 debt to Greece in medicine, we have in mind 

 the broad currents of good practice and in- 

 creasing knowledge which flow full in the Hip- 

 pocratic writings, continue on through the great 

 physicians and anatomists of Alexandria, and 

 spread themselves abroad over the Roman 

 Empire until, six hundred years after Hippoc- 

 rates, they are brought together in the ample 

 system of Galen. It is convenient to proceed 

 chronologically in this little attempt to follow 

 the interrelations of Greek biology and 

 medicine. 



The almost consciously schematic and in- 

 troductory tract On Ancient Medicine is 

 usually placed first in the Hippocratic writings. 6 

 As its name implies, and its contents make 

 clear, it sets forth no novel system, but bases 

 its argument upon the experience and clinical 

 observation of generations. Like other writings 

 of the master, or his immediate school, it will 

 steer a safe course between a crude and hap- 

 hazard empiricism and distorting the teach- 



[13] 



