[p. xxxv]
Hippocrates of history and tradition was the author
of such and such a treatise.
Galen maintains that Plato refers to the treatise
Nature of Man. I believe that few readers of the
latter will notice any striking resemblances between
this work
To my mind the closest resemblances are in Chapters
VII and VIII, which deal with the relations between the
"four humours" and the four seasons. |
and the doctrine outlined by Plato.
More plausible is the view of Littré, that Plato refers
to Chapter XX of Ancient Medicine, which contains
the following passage :--
ἐπεὶ τοῦτό γε μοι δοκεῖ ἀναγκαῖον εἶναι παντὶ ἰητρῷ περὶ
φύς1ιοσ2 εἰδέναι, καὶ πάνυ σπουδάσαι ὡς2 εἴς1εται, εἴπερ τι
μέλλει τῶν δεόντων ποιήσειν, ὅ τί τέ ἐς1τιν ἄνθρωπος2 πρὸς2 τὰ
ἐς1θιόμενά τε καὶ πινόμενα, καὶ ὅ τι πρὸς2 τὰ ἄλλα ἐπιτηδεύματα,
καὶ ὅ τι ἀφ' ἑκάς1του ἑκάς1τῳ συμβήσεται.
Here the resemblance is closer--close enough to
show that the author of Ancient Medicine, if he be not
the Hippocrates of history, at least held views similar
to his. And here the question must be left. Few
would maintain with Littré that the resemblance
between the two passages is so striking that they
must be connected ; few again would deny that
Plato was thinking of Ancient Medicine. Ignorance
and uncertainty seem to be the final result of most
of the interesting problems presented by the Hippocratic
collection.
5. THE COMMENTATORS AND OTHER ANCIENT
AUTHORITIES.
About the time of Nero a glossary of unusual
Hippocratic terms was written by Erotian, which