Hippocrates Collected Works I

Hippocrates Collected Works I

Digital Hippocrates Collection Table of Contents

GENERAL INTRODUCTION
  1. Greek Medicine and Hippocrates
  2. The Hippocratic Collection
  3. Means of Dating Hippocratic Works
  4. Plato's References to Hippocrates
  5. THE COMMENTATORS AND OTHER ANCIENT AUTHORITIES.
  Galen
  6. LIFE OF HIPPOCRATES.
  7. THE ASCLEPIADAE.
  8. THE DOCTRINE OF HUMOURS.
  9. CHIEF DISEASES MENTIONED IN THE HIPPOCRATIC COLLECTION.
  10. POLU/S AND O)LI/GOS IN THE PLURAL.
  11. THE IONIC DIALECT OF THE HIPPOCRATIC COLLECTION.
  12. MANUSCRIPTS.

ANCIENT MEDICINE
  INTRODUCTION
  ANCIENT MEDICINE
  APPENDIX

AIRS WATERS PLACES
  INTRODUCTION
  MSS. AND EDITIONS.
  AIRS WATERS PLACES

EPIDEMICS I AND III
  INTRODUCTION
  EPIDEMICS I
  EPIDEMICS III: THE CHARACTERS
  EPIDEMICS III
  SIXTEEN CASES

THE OATH
Introduction
OATH

PRECEPTS
INTRODUCTION
PRECEPTS

NUTRIMENT
INTRODUCTION
NUTRIMENT

This electronic edition is funded by the National Library of Medicine History of Medicine Division. This text has been proofread to a low degree of accuracy. It was converted to electronic form using Data Entry.

GENERAL INTRODUCTION

4. Plato's References to Hippocrates

In the Protagoras (311 B) Plato assumes the case of a young man who goes to Ἱπποκράτη τὸν Κῷον, τὸν τῶν Ἀσκληπιαδῶν, to learn medicine. This passage tells us little except that Hippocrates took pupils for a fee. But in the Phaedrus (270 C--E) there is another passage which professes to set forth the true Hippocratic method. It is as follows :--

Socrates. Do you think it possible, then, satisfactorily to comprehend the nature of soul apart from the nature of the universe?	ΣΩ. Ψυχῆς2 οὐν φύς1ιν ἀξίως2 λόγου κατανοῆσαι οἴει δυνατὸν εἶναι ἄνευ τῆς2 τοῦ ὅλου φύς1εωσ2;
Phaedrus. Nay, if we are to believe Hippocrates, of the Asclepiad family, we cannot learn even about the body unless we follow this method of procedure.	ΦΑΙ. Εἰ μὲν οὖν Ἱπποκράτει γε τῷ τῶν Ἀσκληπιαδῶν δεῖ τι πείθεσθαι, οὐδὲ περὶ σώματοσ2 ἄνευ τῆς2 μεθόδου ταύτης2.
Socrates. Yes, my friend, and he is right. Yet besides the doctrine of Hippocrates, we must examine our argument and see if it harmonizes with it.	ΣΩ. Καλῶς2 γάρ, ὦ ἑταῖρε, λἐγει. χρὴ μέντοι πρὸς2 τῷ Ἱπποκράτει τὸν λόγον ἐξετάζοντα σκοπεῖν εἰ συμφωνεῖ.
Phaedrus. Yes.	ΦΑΙ. Φημί.
Socrates. Observe, then, what it is that both Hippocrates and correct argument mean by an examination of nature. Surely it is in the following way that we must inquire into the nature of anything. In the first place we must see whether that, in which we shall wish to be craftsmen and to be able to make others so, is simple or complex. In the next place, if it be simple, we must inquire what power nature has given it of acting, and of acting upon what ; what power of being acted upon, and by what. If on the other hand it be complex, we must enumerate its parts, and note in the case of each what we noted in the case of the simple thing, through what natural power it acts, and upon what, or through what it is acted upon, and by what.	ΣΩ. Τὸ τοίνυν περὶ φύς1εωσ2 σκόπει τί ποτε λέγει Ἱπποκράτης2 τε καὶ ὁ ἀληθὴς2 λόγος2. ἆρ' οὐχ ὧδε δεῖ διανοεῖσθαι περὶ ὁτουοῦν φύς1εωσ2; πρῶτον μέν, ἁπλοῦν ἢ πολυειδές2 ἐς1τιν, οὗ πέρι βουλησόμεθα εἶναι αὐτοὶ τεχνικοὶ καὶ ἄλλον δυνατοὶ ποιεῖν, ἔπειτα δέ, ἐὰν μὲν ἁπλοῦν ᾖ, σκοπεῖν τὴν δύναμιν αὐτοῦ, τίνα πρὸς2 τί πέφυκεν εἰς2 τὸ δρᾶν ἔχον ἢ τίνα εἰς2 τὸ παθεῖν ὑπὸ τοῦ; ἐὰν δὲ πλείω εἴδη ἔχῃ, ταῦτα ἀριθμησάμενον, ὅπερ ἐφ' ἑνός2, τοῦτ' ἰδεῖν ἐφ̓ ἑκάς1του, τῷ τί ποιεῖν αὐτὸ πέφυκεν ἢ τῷ τί παθεῖν ὑπὸ τοῦ;--Phaedrus 270 C, D.

It is obvious that if we could find passages in the Hippocratic collection which clearly maintain the doctrine propounded in this part of the Phaedrus we should be able to say with confidence that the

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