PATHOLOGY. 
not therefore be furprifed that many men of inferior ce¬ 
lebrity fhould have endeavoured to render their works 
popular by afcribing them to this famous phyfician. Ac¬ 
cordingly we find many writings extant bearing his name, 
which are evidently fpurious. It fhould be remarked 
however, that thefe writings are nearly of the fame date 
as his genuine cOmpofitions, and contain the prevalent 
doftrines of his time. 
The pathology of Hippocrates was founded on the af- 
fumption, that a principle exifis in the animal, tending 
to the prefervation of health, and the-removal of difeafe. 
To this principle, which he denominates Nature, heap- 
pears to have attributed fome degree of intelligence, and 
even in one place applies to it the epithet of juji. “ The 
manner in which Nature adts, or commands her fubfer- 
vient power to adt, is by attracting what is good and 
agreeable to each fpecies, and by retaining, preparing, 
and changing, it; and on the other fide in rejedting what¬ 
ever is fuperfluous or hurtful, after fhe has feparated it 
from the good.” This is the foundation of the dodtrine 
of depuration, concoction, and criiis, in fevers, fo much 
infilled upon by Hippocrates and many other phyficians. 
He fuppofes alfo, that every thing has an inclination to 
be joined to what agrees with it, and to remove from 
every thing contrary to it; and like wife that there is an 
affinity between the feveral parts of the body, by which 
they mutually fympathife with each other. 
Hippocrates referred the production of mod difeafes to 
diet and air ; to the former of which he attached fo much 
importance, that he compofed feveral books concerning 
it : yet in another part of his works he gives the judicious 
maxim, that while in health we fhould by no means at¬ 
tach ourfelves to nice and delicate habits of living, or 
live with too much regularity; becaufe thofe who have 
once begun to live by rule, become difordered if they 
depart in the lead from it. In the choice of fituation 
with regard to the purity of air, he was particularly care¬ 
ful; and noted efpecially the winds, the times of the fol- 
dices and equinoxes, &c. He likewife took into con- 
lideration the effects produced by deep, watching, exer- 
cife, &c. and attached great importance to certain hu¬ 
mours, particularly blood and bile. His claffification of 
difeafes was arranged according to the circumdances of 
their danger, duration, or locality : thus fome difeafes 
were mortal, dangerous, or curable; others acute or 
chronic; and again others were divided into endemical, 
epidemical, and l'poradic. Hereditary difeafes he likewife 
noticed. 
We are obliged to Hippocrates for the remark, that 
there are certain ftages in every didemper; a point of 
great practical importance. He generally noticed four; 
the beginning, the augmentation, the height, and 
the decline. In mortal difeafes, death took place indead 
of the decline ; on which account this latter was reckoned 
by Hippocrates to be worthy of particular in vedigation. 
He conceived that during this dage a crifis took place ; 
i. e. that the mortified matter which.produced the difeafe 
was by fome means feparated from the body ; but this 
feparation never occurred until the humour was fuffi- 
ciently concoded ; that is to lay, brought into a fit date 
for expuifion from the body, by the efforts of Nature. 
Moreover, this author fuppofed, that, as every fruit has 
a limited time to ripen in, fo concottion could not be ac- 
complilbed unlefs within a certain period. He took much 
pains to edabiilh critical day*, or the times when thefe 
concoctions and crifes fnculd take place; and he deemed 
them moll favourable when they occurred on odd days. 
In noting the ligns and characters of difeafe, Hippo¬ 
crates was extremely minute, and that chiefly with a view 
to foretelling the event of the malady. He obferved the 
altered appearance of every feature of the face, the com¬ 
plexion ; the dim, fierce, fparkling, or other exprefiion, 
of the eyes. He paid attention to the poflure and atti¬ 
tude of the fufferer •. he remarked the debility which ge¬ 
nerally attends the continued fupine pofition ; and he 
noticed the picking of the bed-clothes, the uneafy and 
Vol. XIX. No. 1283. 
5 
tremulous motions, and likewife the fubfultus tendinum, 
which denote death in patients affected with fevers. 
Hippocrates paid particular attention to the refpiration, 
the different Hates of which affilled him in forming his 
prognofis. He examined the urine with great care ; but, 
as his remarks on it chiefly regarded his humoral hypo- 
thelis, they are now of little intereft. He noticed, how¬ 
ever, that the crifis of fever was often brought about 
when the urine became very abundant, and the thick ap¬ 
pearance of it denoted difeafe of the bladder; he was in the 
habit of comparing the appearance of this evacuation with 
that of the tongue. The faeces too were invelligated, in re¬ 
lation to their odour, confluence, and colour, by this au¬ 
thor. But he has recorded more important fails concerning 
the expectoration which arifes in pulmonary complaints: 
he fays that, when it is mixed with blood (in chronic 
cafes), when it is entirely wanting, or when it is fo co¬ 
pious as to caufe rattling in the throat, it denotes ex¬ 
treme danger; but that, when it is mixed with puru¬ 
lent matter, it indicates confumption, and terminates 
in death. Concerning perfpiration, Hippocrates has re¬ 
corded the beneficial effects derived from its occurrence 
in fevers; when it is general, it often produces the crifis : 
but he has well remarked the danger of cold and partial 
fweats. 
It has been doubted whether this celebrated.phyfician 
underltood any thing about the pulfe. It has been fup¬ 
pofed that the paffages found in his works apply only to 
the pulfation which is feit in an inflamed part. But his 
knowledge mull have extended further than this on the 
fubjedt; becaufe he talks of flow and tremulous pulfes; 
and in his Coucce Pranotionrs he remarks, that the feniible 
pulfation of the artery in the elbow indicates delirium, or 
the prelenceof violent anger. 
Exercife was not neglected by Hippocrates; but he 
jullly blames his preceptor Herodicus for recommending 
it to thofe afflidled with fevers or inflammatory affedlions. 
Indeed the latter phyfician was fo fond of gymnaftics, 
that he made his patients walk from Athens to Megara, 
a diftance of twenty-five miles, and return as foon as they 
had touched the walls of the city. Yet Hippocrates 
juflly appreciated the advantage of exercife in chronic 
difeafes; and even tells 11s that “ we mull fometimes 
pufh the timorous out of bed, and roufe up the lazy.” 
Hippocrates gave many general rules of importance in 
regard to the ellablilhment of health, among which are 
the importantones of keeping up, in molt cafes, a regular 
difcharge; to deplete the plethoric by low living, and to 
avoid fudden expofure to increafed or diminiffied tempe¬ 
rature. 
The therapeutical maxims of Hippocrates were few 
and Ample, and all founded on his theory of Nature cu¬ 
ring difeafes ; infomuch that all that could be done was 
to remove fuch things as were injurious to the agency 
of that principle, or to affiil it in its operations when it 
was deficient. He alferted, in the firft place, “That con¬ 
traries, or oppofltes, are the remedies for each other;” 
and this maxim he explains by an aphorifm ; in which he 
fays, that evacuations cure thofe dillempers which come 
from repletion, and repletion thofe that are caufed by 
evacuation : fo heat is deflroyed by cold, and cold by heat, 
&c. In thelecond place, he alferted that phyfic is an ad¬ 
dition of what is wanting, and a fubtr.idlion or retrench¬ 
ment of what is fuperfluous : an axiom which is thus ex¬ 
plained, that there are fome juices or humours, which in 
particular cafes ought to be evacuated, or driven out of the 
body, or dried up ; and fome others which ought to be 
reftored to the body, or caufed to be produced there 
again. As to the method to be taken for this addition 
or retrenchment, he gives this general caution, “That 
you ought to be careful how you fill up, or evacuate, all 
at once, or too quickly, or too much ; and that it is 
equally dangerous to heat or cool again on a fudden ; 
or, rather, you ought not to do it : every thing that 
runs to an excels being an enemy to nature.” In the 
fourth place, he allowed that we ought fometimes to 
C dilate. 
