GENERAL INTRODUCTION

antiquioribus quam vulgo creditur. Wellmann and Wilamowitz hold similar views nowadays. As the Hippocratic writings are all anonymous, such a hypothesis is not difficult to maintain. But it is a matter of merely antiquarian interest whether or not the shadowy " Hippocrates " of ancient tradition is really the writer of the Epidemics. The salient and important truth is that in the latter half of the fifth century works were written, probably by the same author, embodying a consistent doctrine of medical theory and practice, free from both superstition and philosophy, and setting forth rational empiricism of a strictly scientific character. If in future I call the spirit from which this doctrine emanated " Hippocrates " it is for the sake of convenience, and not because I identify the author with the shadowy physician of tradition.

Similar in style and in spirit to the three treatises discussed above are Aphorisms and Airs Waters Places, along with two surgical works, Fractures

With this should be joined the work Articulations, which is very closely allied to Fractures, and is supposed by Galen to have been originally combined with it as a single work. Instruments of Reduction appears to be a compendium of Articulations.

and Wounds in the Head. The severely practical character of the last is particularly noteworthy, and makes the reader wonder to what heights Greek surgery would have risen had antiseptics been known. Aphorisms is a compilation, but a great part shows a close relationship to the Hippocratic group. The least scientific of all the seven treatises is Airs Waters Places, which, in spite of its sagacity and rejection of the supernatural, shows a tendency to facile and unwarranted generalization.