G 
PATHOLOGY. 
dilate, and fometimes to lock up ; to dilate, or 
open the paftages by which the humours are voided 
naturally, when they are not fufficiently opened, or when 
they are clofed ; and, on the contrary, to lock up or 
ilraiten the paftages that are relaxed, when the juices that 
pafs there ought not to pafs, or when they pafs in too 
great quantity. He adds, that we ought fometimes to 
linooth, and fometimes to make rough ; fometimes to 
harden, and fometimes to fatten again; fometimes to 
make more fine or fupple; fometimes to thicken; fome¬ 
times to roufe up, and at other times to ftupify or take 
away the fenfe ; all in relation to the folid parts of the 
body, or to the humours. He gives alfo this farther lef- 
fon, That we ought to have regard to thecourfe the hu¬ 
mours take, from whence they come and whither they 
go; and in confequence of that, when they go where 
they ought not, that we make them take a turn-about, 
or carry them another way, almoft like the turning the 
courfe of a river; or, upon other occafions, that we en¬ 
deavour, if poffibie, to recaj, or make the fame humours 
return back again ; drawing upward fuch as have a ten¬ 
dency downward, and drawing downward fuch as tend 
upward. We ought alfo to carry off, by con venient ways, 
that which is necelfary to be carried off; and not let the 
humours once evacuated, enter into the veffels again. 
Hippocrates giVes alfo the following inftruflion ; “ That, 
when we do any thing according to reafon, though the 
fuccefs be not anfwerable, we ought not eafily, or too 
haftily, to alter the manner of afliug, as long as the rea- 
fons for it are yet good.” But, as this maxim might 
fometimes prove deceitful, he gives the following as a cor¬ 
rector to it: “We ought (fays he) to mind with a great 
deal of attention what gives eafe, and what creates pain ; 
what is eafily fupported, and what cannot be endured. 
We ought not to do any thing raflily ; but ought often 
to paufe, or wait, without doing any thing: by this way, 
if you do the patient no good, you will at ieaft do him no 
hurt.” 
Thefe are the principal and moll general maxims of 
the pradtice of Hippocrates, and which proceed upon 
the iuppontion laid down at the beginning, viz. that 
Nature cures difeafes. We next proceed to confider 
particularly the remedies employed by him, which will 
ferve to give us further inftruflions concerning his practice. 
Diet was the firft, the principal, and often the only, re¬ 
medy made life of by this great phyfician to anfwer moll 
of the intentions above mentioned; by means of it he 
oppofed the moift to dry, hot to cold, See. and what he 
looked upon to be the mod confiderable point was, that 
thus he fupported Nature, and affifted her to overcome 
the malady. The dietetic part of medicine was fo much 
the invention of Hippocrates himfelf, that he was very de- 
firous to be accounted the author of it ; and, the better 
to make it appear that it was a new remedy in his days, 
lie fays exprefsly, that the ancients had written almoft no¬ 
thing concerning the diet of the fick, having omitted 
this point, though it was one of the mod ed'ential parts 
of the art. 
There were many difeafes for which he judged the bath 
was a proper remedy ; and lie takes notice of all the cir- 
cumdances that are necelfary in order to caufe tlie pa¬ 
tient to receive benefit from it, among which the follow¬ 
ing are the principal. The patient that bathes himfelf 
mud remain dill and quiet in his place, without fpeaking, 
while the adidants throw water over his head or are 
wiping him dry; for which lad purpofe he defired them 
to keep fponges, indead of that indrument called by the 
ancients Jtrigil, which ferved to rub od’ from the fkin the 
dirt and nadinefs left upon it by the unguents and oils 
with which they anointed themfelves. He mud alfo take 
care not to catch cold; and mud not bathe immediately 
after eating or drinking, nor eat or drink immediately 
after coming out of the bath. Regard mud alfo be had 
whether the patient has been accudomed to bathe while 
in health, and whether he has been benefited or hurt by it. 
Ladly, he mud abdain from the bath when the body is 
too open, or too codive, or when he is too weak ; or if he 
has an inclination to vomit, a great lofs of appetite, or 
bleeds at the nofe. 
When he found that diet, exercife, and bathing, were 
not fufficient to Vale nature of a burden of corrupted hu¬ 
mours, he was obliged to make ufe of other means; of 
which vomiting, bleeding, and purging, were the chief. 
Vomits were a favourite remedy with Hippocrates. He 
preferibed them to people in health, by way of preventa- 
tives, direfling them to be taken once or twice a-month 
in the winter and the fpring. The mod fimple of thefe 
was a decoftion of hyfl'op, with the addition of a littie 
vinegar and fait. With regard to the fick, he fometimes 
advifed them to the fame, when his intentions were only 
to cleanfe the domach. But, when he had a mind to re- 
cal the humours,as lie termed it, from the in mod recedes 
of tiie body, he made ufe of brifker remedies. Among 
thefe was white hellebore; and this indeed he mod fre¬ 
quently ufed to excite vomiting. He gave this root par¬ 
ticularly to melancholy and mad people; and from the 
great ufe made of it in thefe cafes by Hippocrates and 
other ancient phyficians, the phrafe, to have need of helle¬ 
bore, became a proverbial exprefiion for being out of one’s 
fenfes. He gave it alfo in deduxions, which come, accor¬ 
ding to him, from the brain, and throw themfeives on the 
nodrils or ears, or fill the mouth with faliva, or that caufe 
dubborn pains in the head, and a wearinefs or an extra¬ 
ordinary lieavinefs, or a weaknefs of the knees, or a fwel- 
ling all over the body. He gave it to confumptive per- 
ions in broth of lentils, to fuch as were afflicted with the 
dropfy called leucnphlegmatia, and in other chronical dif- 
orders. But we do not find that he made ufe of it in 
acute didempers, except in the cholera morbus, where he 
fays he preferibed it with benefit. Some took this medi¬ 
cine fading; but mod took it after fupper, as was com¬ 
monly praftifed with regard to vomits taken by way of 
prevention. The reafon why he gave this medicine mod 
commonly after eating was, that by mixing with the ali¬ 
ment, its acrimony might be fomewhat abated, and it 
might operate with lefs violence on the membranes of 
the domach. 
In the didempercalled empyema (ora colleftion of mat¬ 
ter in the bread), he made ufe of a very rough medicine. 
He commanded the patient to draw in his tongue as 
much as he was able; and, when that was done, he endea¬ 
voured to put into the hollow of the lungs a liquor that- 
irritated the part, which, railing a violent cough, forced 
the lungs to difeharge the purulent matter contained in 
them. The materials that he ufed for this purpofe were 
of different forts; fometimes he took the root of arum, 
which he ordered to be boiled with a little fait in a fuffi- 
cient quantity of water and oil ; difl'olving a little honey 
in it. At other times, when he intended to purge more 
drongly, he took the flowers of copper and hellebore; 
after that he (hook the patient violently by the fhoulders, 
the better to loofen the pus. This remedy, according 
to Galen, he received from the Cnidian phyficians; and it 
has never been ufed by fucceeding ones, probably be- 
caufe the patients could not fuller it. 
Blood-letting was another method of evacuation pretty 
much ufed by Hippocrates; and in inflammatory affec¬ 
tions he praflifed it in a large and decided manner; for 
he fometimes opened the veins of both arms, and kept 
them running till the patient fainted. The principal 
maladies in which he had recourfe to bleeding were in¬ 
flammations of the liver, fpleen, lungs, or other vifeera ; 
quinfy, pleurify, and pain in the head; but in fome in- 
liances of chronic difeafe, as dropfy and jaundice, he 
likewife performed this operation. In fevers he difap- 
proved of venefeflion, becaufe he conceived thofe difeafes 
were produced by certain humours which could not be 
expelled by that means : it muff, however, be underftood, 
that he did not extend this rule to fymptomatic fevers, 
but rather to thofe which were not preceded by figns of 
local 
