H I P 
leaves, this plant, with the capers, and a few others, con¬ 
tinue flourishing. 
2. ' Hippocratea comofa, or bearded hippocratea: pani¬ 
cles comofe; peduncles multifid, capillary; leaves ovate, 
acuminate, entire. Native of Hifpaniola. 
3. Hippocratea Indica, or Indian hippocratea: panicles 
axillary, oppofite, peduncled ; leaves oppofite, (hort-peti- 
oled, oval, flawed, flmooth, ihining, about two inches long. 
This is a large twining flirub; a native of forelts, hills, 
and wild uncultivated places, on the coaft of Coromandel, 
as deflcribed by Dr. Roxburgh, No. 130. It flowers about 
the beginning of the hot fleafon ; the flowers are exceed¬ 
ingly numerous, very flmall, and of a rufty-yellow colour. 
Propagation and Culture. Thefle are propagated by feeds 
brought from South America or the Indies. Jacquin in¬ 
forms us that they corrupt very foon, and that therefore 
we can hardly expert to raifle plants from feeds flent to 
Eurooe. If fo, they fltould be flown whilft frelh, and flent 
over in pots or tubs. Mr. Miller, however, railed feveral 
plants from feeds, which lived two years, but did not 
flower. He thinks that they were rotted by having too 
much wet, and recommends the giving them little water 
in winter. They are very tender, and muft be kept con- 
ftantly in the bark-bed in the ftove. 
HIPPOC'RATES, the greateft phyflcian of antiquity, 
ufually termed the father of phyfic , born at the ifland of 
Cos, in the year 460 before Chrift. His father was Hera- 
clides, in whom the line of hereditary phyficians was con¬ 
tinued from ,/Efculapius. His maternal deflcent was de¬ 
rived from Hercules. Of the events of his life little is 
known with certainty. He is faid to have ltudied phyfic 
under Prodicus or Herodicus, and philofophy under Gor- 
gias and Heraclitus. He did not content himfelf with 
that empirical practice which was hereditary in his family, 
but purfued the ftudy of medicine upon the extenfive flcale 
on which it has fince been followed, with, all the aid- of 
phyfiological knowledge as it exifted in his time. He is 
laid, however, to have been the firft who made a proper 
feparation between medicine and philofophy, applying the 
dogmas of the latter to the practical ufle of the former, 
rather than blending both as fubjefts of fpeculation. He 
palfed a great part of his life in travelling, and refided in 
various places. He was for a time at the court of Perdiccas 
king of Macedon ; and his fame caufed him to receive 
invitations from different cities of Greece. His vifit to 
Abdera, the inhabitants of which had requefted his aid 
to free their celebrated countryman Democritus from a 
fuppofed madnefls, but whom he pronounced the wife ft 
man of their city, is a noted incident in his hiftory, but 
rather borders on fable. His fuppofed flervice in extin- 
guilhing the plague of Athens cannot be true, fince from 
the certain information of Thucydides we learn that its 
ravages were unchecked, and that the phyficians were its 
firft victims. He is faid to have reflufled an invitation to 
the court of Artaxerxes Longimanus, not chooling to 
exercifle his art in favour of the enemies of Greece. It is 
affirmed that he died at Larifla in Theffaly, at a very ad¬ 
vanced age. How dubious floever may be the circurn- 
ftances of the life of this great man, it is not queftioned 
that he acquired a reputation which has delervedly ranked 
him among the higheft characters of Greece, and which 
may be traced from the age in which he flourilhed through 
all fucceeding periods. Statues were erefted to his me¬ 
mory, and his maxims were received as authority, not 
only in the fchools of medicine, but in the courts of law. 
lie practifed- forgery as well as phyfic, the two branches 
not being feparated till fome ages afterwards. He appears 
to have been a man of great integrity and candour; and 
his oath (if genuine) comprifles the molt important moral 
duties of the profeflion. He left two flons, Theflalus and 
Draco, both eminent practitioners, and alfo a number of 
diflciples. 
Of the numerous works attributed to Hippocrates, fome 
are indiflputably genuine, fome are dubious, and many are 
unaueftionably flpurious. Of his genuine works the molt 
Vol.X..Not<>52, 
HIP 189 
valued are, r. V.pidcmicorum, Lib. III. 2. Prognoficon. 3. 
Aphorfni. 4. De Aerilius, Aquis, & Locis. 5. De Articulis 
& FraEluris. 6. De Capitis Vulticribus. Of the editions of 
the whole works of Hippocrates, the principal are thole 
of Hieronymus Mercurialis, Venet. 1588, folio; of Anu- 
tius Foefius, Frankf. 1595, folio, feveral times reprinted; 
of Antonides Vander Linden, Leyd. 16S5, 2 vols. Svo. re¬ 
printed Venet. 1757, 2 vols. 4to. of Renatus Chartier, 
with the works of Galen, Paris, 14 vols. folio ; and of 
Stephan. Mack, Viendob. 1743 & feq. folio. Mahon, who 
in 1804 publilhed a treatife on the praCti'ce of Hippocrates 
on fever, concludes with the following eulogium to his 
memory : “ Such was the Clinical lyftem of Hippocrates; 
a lyftem in which, after two thoufand years of labour, we 
have-only been able to difcover fome faults in the detail; 
an experimental fyftem, admirable for the genius which 
united its different parts, and the relations of which phy¬ 
ficians alone can appreciate, through the disjointed frag¬ 
ments which compofe the immortal works of this ancient 
Greek : a fyftem forgotten by the vulgar, but verified at 
all times and in all countries; for which the eaftern adage 
feems to have been formed, “ The arts may all be thef 
work of men, but medicine appears to have proceeded 
from the hands of the gods.” 
HIPPOC'RATES’s SLEEVE,/' A woollen bag, made 
by joining the two oppofite angles of a fquare piece of 
flannel, ufled to ftrain fyrups, and decoftions for clarifica¬ 
tion. Quincy. 
HIPPOCRA'TIA, f The folemn feafts inftituted in 
honour of Neptune. 
HIPPOCRAT'ICA, f. The hippocratical countenance, 
a difeafe which has a remarkable effect on the counte¬ 
nance. 
HIPPOCRAT'ICAL, adj. Belonging to Hippocrates; 
refembling Hippocrates. 
HIPPOCRE'NE, a fountain of Boeotia, near mount 
Helicon, facred to the Mules. It firft role from the 
ground, when ftruck by the feet of the horfe Pegafus, 
whence the name \rti r« wm, the horfe’s fountain. Ovid. 
HIPPOCREN'IDES, the Mufes. 
HIPPOCRE'PIS,/ [Gr. horle-flroe, from the form of 
the legume or pod.] In botany, a genus of the clals dia- 
delphia, order decandria, natural order of leguminofae or 
papilionacese ; called Horse-shoe Vetch. The generic 
characters are—Calyx: umbel fimple; perianthium. one- 
leafed, five-toothed, (the upper toothlets joined, and lei's 
divided,) permanent. Corolla: papilionaceous; banner 
heart-fliaped, with a claw the length of the calyx; wings 
ovate-oblong, blunt; keel lunulate, comprefted. Stamina: 
filaments diadelphous, Ample and nine-cleft, alcending; 
antherae fimple. Piitillum: germ llender, oblong, ending 
in a fubulate alcending ftyle; ftigma very fimple. Peri- 
carpium: legume comprelfed and membranaceous, very 
long, curved inwards, one of the futures many times cut 
almoft to the top into roundifh iinufes; and hence con¬ 
fining of feveral joints, obtufely triangular, connedted by 
the upper future. Seeds : lolitary in each joint, oblong, 
incurved.—The eflential character confifts in the horfe- 
ihoe form of the legume. 
Species. 1. Hippocrepis unifiliquofa, or fingle-podded 
horfe-ihoe vetch : legumes .fertile, folitary, ftraight. This 
is an annual plant, which fends from the root feveral 
trailing ftalks a foot long, that divide upwards into fmaller 
branches. Leaves pinnate, compoled of four or five pairs 
of narrow fmall leaflets, terminated by an odd one, which 
are obtufe, and indented at their ends. From the wings 
of the ftalk come out Angle flowers, which are yellow', and 
fucceeded by Angle pods fitting clofe to the ftalks, which 
are about two inches long, and a third of an inch broad, 
bending inwards like a fickle, and divided into many 
joints fhaped like a horfe-lhoe. It flowers in June and 
July, and the feeds ripen in the autumn, foon after which 
the plants decay. Native of Italy, and other parts of the 
fouth of Europe. Obferved by Ray near Leghorn and 
Naples; and by Rauwolff near Tripoli. It was cultivated 
3 C here 
