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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.
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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.
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