long series of commentators culminating in Galen.
The librarians of Alexandria could not have done
more than establish a canon, and if our present
collection represents their work in this direction
it was done very badly, as the most superficial critic
would not fail to notice that a great part of its
contents is neither by Hippocrates himself nor by
his school.
The Hippocratic collection is a library, or rather,
the remains of a library. What hypothesis is more
probable than that it represents the library of the
Hippocratic school at Cos? The ancient biographies
of Hippocrates relate a fable that he destroyed the
library of the Temple of Health at Cnidos (or,
according to another form of the fable, at Cos) in
order to enjoy a monopoly of the knowledge it
contained. The story shows, at least, that such
libraries existed, and indeed a school of medicine,
like that which had its home at Cos, could not
well have done without one. And what would this
library contain? The works of the greatest of the
Asclepiads, whether published or not ; valuable
works, of various dates and of different schools,
bearing on medicine and kindred subjects ; medical
records and notes by distinguished professors of
the school, for the most part unpublished ; various
books, of no great interest or value, presented to
the library or acquired by chance.
The Hippocratic collection actually corresponds
to this description. This is nearly all the historian
is justified in saying. Beyond is mere conjecture.
We can only guess when this library ceased to be
the property of the Hippocratic school, and how it
was transferred to one or other of the great libraries
