reasonable to believe that he took many things out of his writings having testified as he did abundance of esteem of him We may see by what has been said before (q) See the general maxims of Hippocrates the sentiments of Plato concerning the Gymnastick Medicine We find in Galen the description of some medicines which bear Plato's name as if he had been the inventor of them but they were manifestly some other Plato's or rather the name of this Philosopher was put upon them to give them the more credit We shall close with Plato's sense of the qualities to be required in a Physician There ought to be says he in every great City good Physicians who besides the study required to learn their profession have liv'd in their youth amongst multitude of sick people and have themselves run thro all sorts of distempers being naturally infirm or Valetudinarians This maxim is directly opposite to that of Hippocrates who requires that a Physician should be of a very healthy constitution Some have observed that Plato designedly chose the Academy which was the unhealthiest place of all Athens to reside in with his scholars only because it was unhealthy out of a perswasion that the infirmity of the body render'd the mind more vigorous But we must beg leave to doubt whether this was his Motive or not CHAP. IV. Nicomachus Aristotle 's Father ARistotle's Father whose name was Nicomachus liv'd about the same time with Plato He was of Stagyre in Macedonia and Physician to King Amyntas Father of Philip. He was of the Asclepiades as well as Hippocrates and pretended to be descended from a Son of Machaon of whom we have spoken before who bore the same name with himself This Physician wrote according to Suidas six books of Physick and one of Natural Philosophy but we have nothing of them remaining CHAP. V. Aristotle WE should speak here of some Physicians who liv'd before this Philosopher and were cotemporaries to his father but after having seen what Plato who was his master contributed to the advancement of Physick we thought it convenient immediately to subjoyn what his scholar further added Aristotle wrote two books Entituled (a) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Diogen Lacrt. in â—it Aristot of Physick but there are none of them remainning nor those the Title of which was (b) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of Anatomy Diogenes Laertius ascribes to him another book the title of which was (c) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the Stone this book is translated into Latin in the Theatrum Châ—micum with another which treats of the perfect Magistery that is to say of the Philosophers Stone but both these books are evidently suposititious If Aristotle had ever writ any book under the title mentioned by Diogenes Lacrtius supposing that we ought to understand by the Stone the Philosopher's Stone this book would unquestionably have made more noise amongst the Ancients whereas we find neither tract nor footstep in all the Authors extant that wrote during the space of five hundred years which were elaps'd between the Author of this pretended book and him that quotes it It is not impossible but that in the time of the later the book in question was attributed to Aristotle but it is more probable that there is some fault in the Text. We shall have occasion to speak more of this in the Chapter of Theophrastus which comes next But it was not after this manner that Aristotle imployed himself in Physick 't was in writing these other books which we first mentioned But since these books are lost we shou'd be obliged to conclude here what concerns the Physick of this Philosopher if his History of Animals and of their parts and Generation were not happily preserved wherein we find many curious things relating to the History of Animals in general and of their Anatomy in particular (d) Plin. lib. 8.16 Athen. lib. 9. cap. 23 lib. 8. cap. 11. Alexander the Great whose master he was being inquisitive into the nature and different properties of Animals obliged him to this task and furnished him for it with the summ of eight hundred Talents which amount to almost a million of Gold besides several thousand men in the several parts of Asia and Greece who had Orders to obey him and to inform him of all that hunting and fishing had taught them and to keep on purpose all sorts of Animals to discover what was peculiar to them With these helps a perfect work upon this Subject might have been expected Nevertheless the Antients themselves took notice that he advanced many a thing contrary to fact He may upon this account be excused by saying that he took them upon Credit from others not having been able to act or view every thing himself But supposing he were in some things obliged to trust to relations As for Example for certain Properties of Animals which only chance could discover there are others in which he ought to have made his enquiries himself or at least to have been present and directed those that were his Operators Of this nature are those things which relate to Anatomy what opinion can we have of his exactness in this particular when we hear him affirm that all Animals have flexible necks composed of Vertebrae except Wolves and Lyons in which tho neck consists of but one bone and that the bones of Lyons have no matrow against all experience e For his other Errours in the Anatomy of a Lyon and Eagle and a Crocodile those that are curious may consult the learned Borrichius Those that publisht the dissection of a Lyon at Paris in the Academy of Sciences some years ago have taken care to show the Errours of this Philosopher in the Anatomy of that Beast All that they observe may in fact be true except one passage in which they seem to make Aristotle say what he never thought of We find these words in one of his books f 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which the Latin Interpreter renders thus videtur Leo Animalium omnium perfectissimum Animal in assumendo maris formam These Gentlemen explain these words as if Aristotle had meant that the Lyon has by way of Excellence and beyond all other Animals the visible and apparent marks of the perfection of his Sex These are their own words and they urge as a proof that the Philosopher was mistaken that the Vrethra of a Lyon that is the channel of the Virga does not appear outward above three inches and a half Their conclusion had been just if Aristotle had meant as they think and Borrichius with them that the Lyon of all male Animals had the parts which distinguish'd the Sex most large and apparent But this in my opinion was farthest from his thoughts for I suppose he meant no more than that the Lyon is of all male Animals the easiest to be distinguish'd from his Female by his Masculine Air or
immediately laid claim to the Soveraignty of Physick and Philosophy set up for a new Hypothesis and a new Sect and with the true Spirit of an Enthusiastick Reformer very rudely and unjustly insulted and vilify'd all the great men that preceded him in either Study especially Aristotle and Galen This Insolence arm'd abundance of Volunteers against him and engag'd divers learned Pens on both sides in the Controversie amongst whom Doringius made one whose Book de Medicina Medicis whether we consider the Matter Method or Design of it must be accounted as it really is a Polemical not a Historical Piece For those few Historical Remarks which he premises seem rather to serve as an Introduction to his Argument and to shew the Antiquity and Excellence of the Sect which he undertakes the defence of than to make any part of the Original Design Neander of Bremen seems to promise something more perfect and compleat as our Author relates his design or rather the Title of his Book But I have never seen this Book as our Author likewise confesses he never had when he wrote his Preface and therefore I can only observe concerning it that this Piece cou'd afford our Author no Method or Assistance in the prosecution of his Excellent work hitherto After these the learned Conringius Professor at Helmstadt fell upon much the same Argument which he treated of in several Lectures to his Scholars and promis'd to publish compleat to the World but was prevented by death It was afterwards publish'd in Quarto under the Title of Hermanni Conringii Introductio ad universam Medicinam with tedious Notes by Christopher Schelhammer his Scholar and afterwards Professor in the same University which serve rather to swell the Bulk than raise the Value of his Author and to make him more Voluminous than Useful or Compleat The whole Work is divided into several Chapters or Lectures concerning the Nature Constitution and Invention of Med'cine or the Art of Physick Of the Physick of the Asclepiadean Family and the several Antient Schools of Physick Of the several Sects and their Authors The rest of his Chapters he bestows upon the several Members of the Faculty viz. Physiology Pathology Pharmaceuticks Semeioticks Diaeteticks Anatomy Botany c. each apart wherein after a few slight hints of the use of 'em in general he proceeds to ennumerate and censure the Authors that have written of 'em whether Antient or Modern Had this design been rightly and exactly prosecuted 't is probable our Author had been in great measure prevented For tho the Method in which they proceed be very different yet the matter wou'd have been in the main coincident But whether Conringius who perhaps intended these Lectures only as private directions to his own Scholars for the choice of Authors in the course of their studies who therefore might rest satisfy'd in the single Authority of their Master did not think himself oblig'd to dilate on those matters or Authors which he recommended to 'em or cautioned 'em of Or whether coming out after his Death from the Notes taken by his Scholars during his Reading these Lectures were mutilated by a hasty transcription Or which at last 't is most reasonable to believe that these Lectures were only Sketches of his design rough Draughts of a Piece which wou'd have made a very different Figure had the Author liv'd to have filled up his Design and given the Finishing Strokes The view which he gives of the Physick of any Age or Persons is very confus'd short and imperfect His Characters of Authors superficial arbitrary and sometimes unjust Nor is his Performance much mended by the hevy labours of his Disciple Schelhammer whose Partiality and want of Judgment absolutely incapacitate him for the business of a Historian or a Critick His Passion for Aristotle and Galen is most remarkable in him they are his Spectacles of Philosophy and Physick without which the can't see any thing nor comprehend how others shou'd Upon this account he bears an irreconcileable grudge to the English Physicians particularly to Dr Willis for not submitting their Reason upon all occasions to his two Oracles and having us'd his own understanding to leading-strings all his Life he wonders at the Boldness and Presumption of any one that dares trust his to its own Legs I suppose we need no other line to fathom the depth of this Gentleman's capacity and to assure us that no great burthens of Learning are like to reach us that way But if we consider his Favourites the Cobweb Spinners upon Aristotle and Galen and the plundering Compilers of tedious Dutch Systems of Practice which he values by the Bulk we have no great reason to be ambitious of his Favour but rather to take his censure for a Complement and be proud of being out of his good Graces Besides these and the Chronology of Wolfgangus Justus which our Author says he has not seen tho in the fourth Book of this Volume in the Chapter of Diocles Carystius he taxes him with a considerable mistake there are some other small Pieces of Heurnius Vanderlindan c. which afford some scatter'd hints but such as are no bar to our Author's pretensions as the first that has regularly trod this Path in which no continued traces appear to guide him I shall not attempt to forestal the satisfaction of the Reader with a tedious account of our Author's Performance and Merit on this account But I must be so just to him as without trespassing upon any man's patience to observe that Mr le Clerc is the first that has given us a distinct view of the state of Physick in the fabulous Ages of the world He has taken exact care to settle the age of the several reputed Inventers of it and from a confusion of Traditions absurd fabulous or uncertain so judiciously to extricate the truth as with a great measure of certainty to deliver to us no contemptible account of the growth and encrease of Physick during those dark times As his light encreases his prospect clears up and the second Book gives us a succinct but a well digested account of the Progress of the Science under the management and cultivation of the Philosophers till the time of Hippocrates whose Reputation and Abilities grew to such a heighth as to overtop and obscure all that went before him and even to cast a damp and a cloud upon the Merits of all that have succeeded him for so many Ages to this day His third Book is entirely taken up with the History and Physick of Hippocrates which he has so far exhausted that scarce the works of that great man himself can give us so just an Idea of his Merit and Abilities He has with great accuracy and diligence distinguished the genuine Works of Hippocrates from the spurious and with as great Art and Judgment extracted a compendious System of the Philosophy and Medicine of that Father of Physick From whence if we have not the means of surveying
Physick to be to this day very uncertain We may allow Monsieur di Capoa to have prosecuted the History of Physick so far as he has trac'd the Rise and Progress of it But besides that he loses the Character of a Historian choosing rather to combat as an Adversary the opinions he dislikes than to set 'em in their full light and spinning his own reasonings to much greater length than those are of which he opposes he omits abundance of things of great importance to the History of which he treats The chief use of his Book is to disabuse those that are prejudic'd in favour of the Antients Nor are this learned Mans works of small use especially in that Country where every thing that 's new is indifferentâ—y condemned for that reason 'T is apparent from what has been said that no body has yet written this History as I have already remarkt and that the Piece I now send abroad is the first that precisely handles this matter This makes me hope that the World will give me some grains the more of allowance and looking upon this only as an Essay will pardon more easily those faults they may find in it Nor in reality do I offer it for any more than an Essay my Subject yet as I may say but putting forth its buds in this little Volume which amounts not to a sixth part of the whole â—nd which had not seen the light but by this Specimen to try the relish and sound the opinions of my Judges that I may take my measures thereby in the Sequel This may suffice to stop the mouths of those that may object that I promise much and perform little that my Book does not make good its title that the Mountain is in labour of a Mouse If I thought they were of that opinion for whose judgments I ought to have a deference I wou'd immediately resign to some body else But if they think more favourably of me I shall persist in hopes to improve as I proceed by the instructions I may receive And I perswade my self that Greater Wits instead of accusing me of presumption in attempting a work that requires more learning than I am Master of will be fo just as to make some reckoning even of my weak endeavour and treat me at least as Quintilian does a certain Author whom he ranks among the indifferent ones * Dignus vel hoc proposito ut ilium sâ—issâ— omnia illa credamus He deserves says he the credit of knowing all that he ought to have known for undertaking to write of so great variety of things tho for no other reason than the boldness of the design I shall not amuse my self with the several uses that may be made of the History of Physick the title alone sufficiently shews what is to be expected I shall only take notice that one may see as t were with the cast an Eye by means of this History the prinâ—ipal Reasonings and most considerable Experiences that have been found out from the beginning of the World either for the prevention or cure of Diseases The Books which Physicians daily write are filled with their own proper Experiences or their particular Reasonings or those of others to which if they approve 'em they endeavour to give a new turn but we seldom see there those that are not for their Palate or at least we are not permitted to see the fairest side of ' em 'T is not so with this History which is obliged to penetrate into the very soul of every age and evâ—ry Author to relate faithfully and impartially the thoughts of all and to maintain every one in his right not giving to the Moderns what belongs to the Antients nor bestowing upon these latter what is due to the former leaving every body at liberty to make reflections for himself upon the matters of Fact as they stand related This at least is my own Idea of the History in hand and the end I proposed to my self in writing of it I have disengaged my self as much as possible from all prejudice on this occasion and have examined all the Authors that have come to my hands by their own writings and not by any written or verbal reports of 'em or their works I am convinced particularly in the case of Hippocrates that 't is dangerous to relie upon the testimony of another This ancient Physician having deservedly and upon many accounts gain'd the esteem of all the World and being lookâ—d on as a compleat Model every Author has made him the complement of his own discoveries or if any one were so tenacious as not to part with an invention which he thought he had a just title to he has immediately met with crowds of Opponents that have used their utmost efforts to shew that Hippocrates either said or saw it before a weakness not absolutely overcome to this hour I have declin'd taking any party or declaring for or against the opinions I report or if I have at any time taken more liberty it has been very rarely As to the disposition of my work the first part as I have said is the only one I publish at present which contains chiefly the Physick of Hippocrates that being of greatest importance in this Volume The rest which respects the the State of Physick before him and after him not being so considerable tho all of use to the History The first part seems to contain nothing but what is fabulous or very uncertain Yet even there among the Fables of Esculapius and other deified Physicians amidst the weak Essays of the first Men to secure or disengage themselves from distemper we discover the tracks of Medâ—cines in in most places yet esteem'd the principal such as Bleeding and Purging the antiquity of which is thereby establisht We may see likewise in the second Book that 't is not absolutely true that from Esculapius or his Sons to Hippocrates there was a sort of interregnum in Physick and that the six or seven hundred Years intervening between these two great Men were not time lost as some pretend On the contrary it shews that during this interval the Foundations of rational Physick were laid the Dissection of Animals introduced and a new method of enquiry into the causes of distempers brought into play for all which we are obliged to the Philosophers Pythagoras Alemaeon Democritus and others therein mentioned From Hippocrates to the Period that closes the 4th Book which I call the first History of Physick we find nothing new the term being very short We only observe that the Philosophers of that time the chief of which were Plato Aristotle and Theophrastus push'd on a little further in imitation of their Predecessors their Anatomical discoveries especially Aristotle The Practical Foundation laid by Hippocrates and his predecessors remained very little altered in all that Time There remains only the Physick of Hippocrates which as I have said is the most considerable part of this first Volume
Characters which were kept in the most secret places of the Temples of Aegypt Thus far Manetho To examine whether this second Mercury be different from Cicero's or not is not to our present purpose Iamblichus says also (c) De Myster Aegypt lib. 1. That there were Columns in Aegypt fill'd with Writings containing the Doctrines of Mercury The same Author remarks elsewhere That Pythagoras and Plato receiv'd abundance of light from what they read in Aegypt upon the Pillars of Mercury (a) Plato in Timao Critia Galen contra Jalian lib. 1. PLATO himself in two places speaks of Pillars upon which the Aegyptians and other ancient People writ their Laws the History of their Times and the most remarkable things invented by ' em What we shall say in the following Article of the Pillar of Isis will be a confirmation Whether all that has been related of these Columns and the Extracts made from 'em so much boasted of by the Aegyptian Priests were true or nor the Fame of em suffic'd to bring forth aburdance of Writings or Books which passâ—d for Copies of these Extracts and were taken for the legitimate Works of MERCVRY Iamblichus reckons (b) Thâ— the Books of the Ancients were very short yet the number here is manifestly very much amplified Some have reduc'd these Books to so many lines or short paragraphs 6525 of these Books Of some of these there remains no more than the Title others have been preserv'd entire There are yet some Manuscripts to be found in curious Libraries which treat of Chymistry of which we shall have occasion to take further notice as likewise of the famous Table of Emerauld of Hermes in the Second Part of this History in which we shall prove That if HERMES were the Inventor of Chymistry 't was not of Medical Chymistry Among the Books of Mercury of which the Ancients make mention and which relate to Physick there were some already suspected even in the time of Galen (c) De simplic Medicam facult lib. 6. in principio Such was that which he says was attributed to the Aegyptian Mercury which contain'd the Thirty six Herbs of the Horoscopes These he says were meer trifles only that amus'd the Reader to the loss of his time We have spoken before of the Hicrogliphical Books of MERCVRY which the Aegyptians kept with so much care in their Temples It was undoubtedly one of these Books which Diodorus calls in the singular number the Sacred-Book without naming the Author by which all the Physicians of Aegypt were oblig'd to regulate their practice So that observing the precepts of that Book they were justified tho' the Patient died but if they deviated from 'em never so little his death was imputed to 'em and they punishâ—d as Murtherers Clemens Alexandrinus goes farther (a) Stromat lib. 6. There are says he which are most considerable two and forty Books of HERMES thirty six of which contain the Aegyptian Philosophy which they oblig'd their SACRIFICERS or PRIESTS and PROPHETS to read The other six they caus'd their (b) A sort of Priests so callâ—d from their wearing lâ—ng Clâ—aks or because they carried upon certain occasiâ—ns the Bâ—d of Venus These Pastophori were thâ—â—â— that practis'd Physick in Aegypt PASTOPHORI to learn as belonging to Physick The first of these continues he treats of the STRUCTURE of the Body the second of DISEASES the third of the INSTRUMENTS requird the fourth of MEDICAMENTS the fifth of the DISEASES of the EYES the sixth of WOMENS DISEASES If these Books were really MERCVRYâ—s we can't deny him to have reducâ—d Physick to in Art He began with the Structure of the Body or Anatomy supposing it most natural to begin with the knowledge of the subject upon which we are to be employ'd After this he describ'd the maladies or changes which â—â—sal this Body The third and fourth Books 〈◊〉 of the Instruments and Medicaments neâ—â—â—sary for cure that is of Surgery and Pharmacy After these he proceeded to the Eye in particular whose diseases are very numerous â—â—d require a peculiar care Hence he treats â—â—trately of those Distempers of Women that are distinct from those of Men and require a different cure Nothing cou'd be more exact (c) See Conringius de Medicin Herm cap 3. but there is great reason to suspect that these Books were written many Ages after HERMES at a time when Physick had made great advances â—nd there is no doubt to be made but that the Aegyptian Priests fatherâ—d upon their HERMES some spurious piece of their own or of 〈◊〉 able Physician If the matter did not speak for it self the aforecited Iamblichus starts the suspicion by telling us That the Aegyptian Writers being perswaded that Mercury was the Inventor of all things usually gave him the honour of their own Productions or did themselves the grace to put his Name to their Books At this time no track or foot-step remaining of those Books of which Clemens Alexandrinus makes mention we know no more of the pretended Physick of HERMES than the generals already given If some other Books ascribâ—d to him which have remain'd to our days were genuine we might clearly from them infer that the Physick of HERMES was in great measure grounded on Astrology and Magick (a) See the passage corrected by Selden de diis Syris syntagm 1. Ita humanitas semper memor humanae naturae originis suae in illâ divinitatis imitatione perseverat ut sicut pater ac dominus ut sui similes esseut Deos secit aeternos ita humanitas Deos sâ—os ex sui vultus similitudine sig raret Asclep Statuas dicis ô Trismegiste Trismegist statuas ô Asclepividesue qa tenus tu ipse diffidas Statuas aâ—imatas sensu Spiritu pleâ—â—s â—â—â—taque facientes talia Statuas futurorum praeâ—â—â—as ea quae â—orâ—è omnis vates ignoret in multis varâ—is praedicentes imbeciâ—l tates hominibus facientes easque curantes tristitiam laetâ—tiamque promâ—ritis c. There is a passage which justifies our assertion in the Book call'd Asclepius which was anciently taken for one of HERMES's of which the Latin Version now extant among us is imputed to Apuleius This passage mentions certain Statues that gave and cur'd Diseases and told things to come and did divers other prodigious things The Book of the thirty six sacred Herbs of the Horosâ—â—pes cited by Galen as before however supposititious is at least a proof that it was the common opinion that MERCVRY did not confine himself to Physick otherwise they wou'd never have father'd such Books upon him The Title of this Book agrees very well with what Origen writes (b) Contra Cels lib. 8. That the Aegyptians say there are thirty six Damons or Gods of the Air which divide the Body of man among 'em into so many parts And adds That the Aegyptians had in their Language names for all these Daemons and that invoking any of 'em according to the part affected
go in our bodies after the same rate as they do in the world Urine is form'd in the bladder like rain in the second region of the air and as the rain proceeds from Vapours that arise from the earth and being condens'd produce clouds so urine is producâ—d from exhalations arising from the aliments that find their passage into the bladder Others relate that Heraclitus put this question to the Physicians whether it were possible to press the bowels of any one so as to get out all the water that was contain'd in them which the Physitians affirming to be impossible he expos'd himself naked to the Sun and afterwards manag'd himself in the Stable as is related above the consequence of which was that he was devour'd by Dogs as he lay in the dung being so weak that he was not able to help himself In short others have deliver'd this story otherwise and affirm that Heraclitus was cur'd of this swelling and dy'd long after this of another distemper The most remarkable opinion he held I mean that relates to Philosophy was this that Fire was the beginning of all things that every thing came from Fire and that every thing is done by Fire We shall have occasion hereafter to make some reflections upon this opinion He is reported to be the author of this Sentence (b) Vide Atâ—eâ—â—um that there were no such blockheads and fools in the world as Grammarians except Physicians Democritus was born in the 77th Olympiad He applied himself to Physick as he did to all other Sciences and was so desirous to become learn'd that he spent all his patrimony in travelling to see the most celebrated and famous men abroad He had been in Egypt Persia Babylon and the Indies where he convers'd with Philosophers Geometricians Physicians Priests Magicians and Gymnosophists Diogenes Laertius has given us the Titles of several Books written by Demceritus concerning Philosophy in general and Geometry He likewise compos'd some about Physick in particular the first is intitul'd Of the nature of man or of the Flesh which in all probability is the same that we find under the same title among the works of Hippocrates He writ another Treatise about Plagues which is cited by Aul ' Gellius under this title Of the plague and pestilential diseases A third treated of Prognostics a fourth of Diet or the method of regulating nourishment a fifth of the Causes of distempers and of things that were proper or contrary to the body by considering the time In some other Books he endeavour'd to find out the causes of Seeds of Trees of Fruits and of Animals There is in short another which is intituled (c) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Seâ— the Chapter of Theophratius lib. 4. about the Stone that is to say according to the Chymists about the Philosophers Stone Some Greek Books that treat of Chymistry are still remaining which carry his name and are many-scripts in the Library of the Louvre But learn'd men look upon them to be spurious as we shall see more largely hereafter Pliny likewise cites in abundance of places Democritus â—s Books concerning Plants in which he seems to have principally considerâ—d their Magical or Supernatural Virtues Democritus says this Author who was more devoted to the Magicians than any one since Pythagoras relates more incredible and monstrous Stories than even he did The Reader may consult the 17th Chapter of the 24th Book of Pliny to see more of this Among other things we may find there a remedy or composition to have sine Children This composition is made of Pine-apples bruisâ—d with honey myrrh saffron and palm-tree wine adding to this a drug or simple call'd by him Theombrotion and milk According to this Authorâ—s direction a man must drink of this immediately before he goes to his Wife and she likewise must drink of it as soon as she is derivered and all the while she suckles her Child Pliny speaks in the same place of an herb which Democritus call'd by a Greek name that signifies (d) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 bashful and contracts its leaves when a man touches it Throphrastus likewise makes mention of this plant which is the same with what we now call the sensitive plant which is very well well known If there was no more superstition or Magick in the other places of Democritus than there is in this Pliny wrong'd him when he accusâ—d him of it But t is evident from what this Author adds that the Books of Democritus were full of these trifles and Tatian a Christian Rhetorician and disciple of Justin Martyr has likewise observ'd that Democritus writ nothing but fabulous stuff (c) Lib. 11. cap. 3. Columella cites two Books of Democritus one of which was intitul'd of Agriculture and the other of things that have an Antipathy to one another One may judge of the contents of this latter Book by the following citation Democritus says Columella affirms that Caterpillars and other insects that destroy the greens in gardens dâ—e immediately if a woman that has her menses walks two or three â—â—â—ns over the bods with her fâ—â—t baâ—â— and â—air disheveled But it must be observ'd that the same Columella (f) 〈…〉 elsewhere tells us that the Books that in his time were attributed to Democritus were written by one Dolus or Bolus Mendesius an Egyptian and who perhaps is the same with him whom (g) Lib â— c. 7. Galen calls Horus Mendesius (h) 〈…〉 Celius Aurelianus makes mention of two other Books that went under Democritus's name but he look'd upon them to be spurious One treated of Convulsive diseases and the other of the Elephantiasis In the former of these Books we meet with a remedy against madness which consisted in a decoction 〈◊〉 Origarum that was to be drunk out of a round â—up fashionâ—d like a Bowl In the second he advises to bleed those that are infected with an Elephantiasis and give them of a certain herb which he does not name We shall conceive a more advantageous Idea of Democritus by what remains to be told of him The same thing in a manner happen'd to this Philosopher which befel Heraclitus He retir'd like him to a solitary place that he might be more at liberty but there was this remarkable difference between them that whereas the former wept continually at the follies of mankind the other laught incessantly (i) See the Letters at the end of Hippocrates's works This strange behaviour made his Countrymen of Abdera take him for a fool so they sent to Hippocrates desiring him to come and cure him This Physician arriving there found him employâ—d in dissecting of Animals and enquiring the reason of it he told him 't was to discover the effect of folly which he lookt upon to be the cause of the bile By this Hippocrates discover'd that the world was exceedingly mistaken in their opinion of him and after a long conversation wherein among other things Democritus told
of Conception and the formation of the Faetus in the Womb he pretends that the Seed both of the Male and Female being mingled in the Womb grow thick and hot or spirituous after which the Spirit contained in their Centre expandy it self and draws a part of the Air which the Mother breathes by means of which mixture these two Seeds in receiving refreshment are nourished or inflated till it forms about it self a small Pellicule which afterwards contains others under it which are all fix'd together At this time the blood of the Mother flowing into the Womb and fixing there produces a sort of flesh from the middle of which shoots the Navel which is a Pipe hanging down from these Pellicules by which the Faetus breathes is nourish'd and increases That the Faetus is nourished by the Navel is repeated (a) De Nat. Puer in more than one place yet notwithstanding this Hippocrates elsewhere affirms (b) De Carnib That it is nourished by sucking at the Mouth that otherwise it cou'd not have excrements when it came into the World in its Guts and would not so readily suck at the Breast if it had not before done something like it Hippocrates continuing to speak of the formation of the Child says That the flesh before spoken of being form'd the blood of the Mother which is drawn every day in greater quantity into the Womb by this flesh which breathes causes the Pellicules to swell and that it causes foldings in the outward ones which filling themselves with this blood produce what is call'd the Chorion Afterwards as the flesh grows the spirit distinguishes or disentangles the parts every one going towards its like the thick to the thick the clearer or thin to the thin the moist to the moist every thing repairing to its proper place or to the quarters of those of the same nature from whence they had their Origin so that what comes from the thick remains thick and the moist and the rest accordingly the heat after all bringing the bones to the hardness they are of After this the extremities of the body shoot outward like the branches of a Tree the Parts as well internal as external are better distinguished the Head erects it self above the Shoulders the Arms separate themselves from the Sides and the Legs spread themselves out the Nerves or Ligaments go to the Joints the Mouth opens the Nose and Ears shoot out of the Head and are perfected the Eyes are fillâ—d with a pure humour and the distinctions of Sex appear the Entrails are distinguished and ranged the Infant begins to breathe by the Mouth and by the Nose the Belly is fill'd with Spirit or Air as are the Guts also and the Air comes to them likewise by the Navel At length the Guts and Belly open so that a passage is made to the Anus and another from the Bladder outwards Hippocrates or the Author of this Book having reasoned thus of the formation of the body of a Child shews that Plants are produced after the same manner and explains their growth from Seeds by the same principles He hints likewise that Birds in the Egg have the same formation but inlarges not much thereupon The yolk of the Egg is according to him the matter of which they are produc'd and the white their nourishment From all which he concludes That Nature is the same and acts after a uniform manner in the generation of Men and Plants and whatsoever springs from the earth in which his opinion is the same with that of (c) See the Chapter of Empedocles Empedocles What Hippocrates says of the manner of his discovery that the mixture of the Seeds in the Womb is soon cover'd with a skin is pretty remarkable He had opportunity to inform himself therein by means of the advice he gave a Musicianess Slave who being gone six days to the great prejudice of her Voice and her Masters profit to leap several times upon the ground which she having done the Seed came away with noise It was like says he to a raw Egg without a shell the liquor of which was very transparent He saw there very fine white Fibres upon the Membrane which contained this liquor which being mix'd with a thick blackish red Matter which made the whole Membrane appear red there was in the middle of this Membrane something very fine which he took for the Navel and it was about the beginning of the place of the Origin of the Membrane The Author continuing to examine what happens to the Embryo in the Womb from the time that its body is form'd to the time of its birth says That the body of a Female has all its Parts distinct at the end of forty days at farthest and the Male at thirty For which he gives this reason That the Seed which produces a Female is more feeble and moist than that which produces a Male. He gives also another reason drawn from the time of Womens evacuations after Labour which for brevity sake we shall omit here He adds for the difference of Sexes That Males are begotten when the Seed of both Male and Female is vigorous and Females when their Seed is weaker or moister and has less heat He observes That the Males come from the right side of the Womb which is stronger and hotter and the Females from the left The Body of the Infant being thus rough drawn grows continually drawing to it self the most Oily part of the blood of the Mother which makes its bones become more hard the fingers part and nails come upon their ends hair upon their heads and other parts of their bodies After three months the Male begins to stir and the Female generally after four tho' there may be sometimes some variation The Infant being come to its just growth and bulk and not finding any longer sufficient nourishment from the Mother begins to stir violently and breaks the Membranes in which it was wrapp'd and so procures its exclusion which happens usually in the tenth month Being born it 's nourished with the Milk of its Mother or a Nurse The matter of which this Milk is composed is the most fat and oily part of the Aliment after this manner The Womb as it grows big presses the Omentum and Belly and by that compression obliges 'em to discharge their fat which is presently suckt into their Breasts the veins of which dilate themselves afterwards more and more by the sucking of the Infants This according to our Author is the manner of the formation and increase of Infants in the Womb and of their coming into the World which is to be understood of ordinary cases which exclude not the extraordinary ones whereof in some Books written for that purpose Hippocrates gives a particular Account Of the seventh and eighth Months Birth There are two Books one Intituled The seventh Months Birth and the other The eighth Months Birth The first of these Children may live and arrive at a
in both Arms at a time in others he did it several times and in several parts of the body but he does not put down the quantity took at a time The Veins which he open'd were those of the Arm (z) By the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hand the Greeks often understood all the arm so that when they only meant the hand they said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the extremity of the hand or of the arm Hippocrates makes particular mention of two veins of the arm or of the hand one of which he calls Hepatitis and the other Splenitis supposing that the first came from the Liver and the other from the Spleen the Hands the Ankles on both sides the Hams the Forehead behind the Head the Tongue the Nose behind the Ears under the Breasts and those of the Arms not reckoning those he burnt and the Arteries he opened of which we shall speak under the head of his Surgery Hippocrates likewise used Cupping-vessels with intent to recall and withdraw the humours which fell upon any part He contented himself sometimes with the bare attraction made by the Cupping-vessels sometimes he scarified also that is to say he slasht or prickt diverse holes on the place where the Cupping-vessel had been We shall see more at large in the (a) See below in the Chapter of Celsus sequel the several sorts of Cupping-vessels in use amongst the Antients and the manner of applying of them We shall speak likewise of their Cauteries in the Surgery of Hippocrates CHAP. XVIII Of Diuretick and Sudorifick Remedies WHen bleeding and purging which were the principal and most general means which Hippocrates us'd to take off a Plethora of the Blood or humours were insufficient he had recourse to Diureticks and Sudorificks Which he insinuates in this passage wherein nevertheless he makes mention of bleeding (a) De ratione victûs in morbis acutis p. m 403. All diseases says he are determined or cured by evacuations by the mouth by stool by urine or some other such way but sweating is common to all that is takes off all alike (b) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to urineâ— Diuretick Medicines were of different sorts according to the disposition of persons sometimes Baths and sometimes Sweet Wine provoke urine sometimes the nourishment which we take contributes to it and amongst those Herbs which are commonly eaten Hippocrates recommends Garlick Leeks Onions Cucumbers Melons Gourds Fennel and all the biting things which have a brisksmell With these he numbers Honey mixt with Water or Vinegar and all Salt Meats But when he would drive it more forcibly he took four Cantharides and taking off their Wings and their Feet gave them in Wine and Honey He gave these several Medicines in variety of Cronical distempers after Purging when he thought that (c) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 See the Chapter of the Causes of Dâ—seases the Blood was over-charg'd with a sort of moisture which he calls Ichor or in suppressions of urine and when it was made in less quantity than it ought Hippocrates used also sudorifick or sweating Medicines There are also some cases wherein he would force sweat (d) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Satius urinam sudorem provocare De morb mulier 1. as well as urine but he does not tell what is to be taken for that purpose He says in another place (e) De Morb. Epidemic lib. 6. sect 2. that good care ought to be taken when sweat is provoked both how and when but he tells not the means There is only a single passage that I know of wherein he mentions (f) Ibid. lib. 2. sect 6. Vid. Aphorism 42. l. 7. sweating by powring upon the Head a great quantity of hot Water till the Feet sweat that is till the sweat diffuses itself over the whole Body running from the Head to the Foot After which he would have them eat boyld Meat and drink thereupon pure Wine and being well covered with cloaths lay themselves to rest What he adds immediately after that they should eat two or three heads of Daffodills does not seem to me at all to relate to the provoking of sweat Daffodills being reckoned by Dioscorides among the Vomitories Hippocrates perhaps puts the Patient to his choice whether to sweat or vomit Perhaps the Narcissus of Hippocrates was not known afterwards by the same name which has been the fortune of several other Simples whose names have been changed I do not find any other sudorifick Medicines taken at the mouth in Hippocrates The Disease for which he proposes the aforesaid Remedies is a Fever which is not according to him produced either by the Bile or the Pituita but from meer Lassitude or some other like cause By this we see that Hippocrates did not approve of Sweating in any other Fever than here pointed at CHAP. XIX Of the Simple Mediicines which change the disposition of the body and humours as to their sensible qualities without making any sensible Evacuation (a) De affect p. m 515 This Book has been attributed to Polybius Vpon this see what is remarked of refreshing remedies below in the Chapter of acute Diseases THese Medicines says Hippocrates which Purge neither Bile nor Flegm that is to say which are not at all purgative act by cooling or heating by drying or moistning or by (b) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The first signifies to close to thicken the second to resolve to dissipate closing and thickning resolving and dissipating To these remedies he joins those which procure sleep but he does not say what are those remedies which cool and moisten and 't is probable that what he calls Medicine in this place serv'd likewise for Food Which he seems to insinuate a little after when he says that the Meat and Drink which men use in their health ought to serve them when they are sick choosing or preparing them according to the present occasion of cooling or moistning drying or heating As this relates to the Diet of the sick we may consult what has been before said upon that Head Hippocrates used those Medicines which thickned or resolved and dissipated as well externally as internally as well to draw the matter of an Abscess to the Head as to resolve and dissipate a Tumour or to thicken a sharp and thin Humour or to attenuate or subtilize thick viscid uses Of these more under the Chapter of his Pharmacy CHAP. XX. Of Hipnotic or Sleep-procuring Medicines HIppocrates speaking in the aforesaid passage of Remedies (a) We have observed in the preceding Chap. that the Book from whence this passage is taken has been ascribed to Polybius who as we shall see below was a greater reasoner than Hippocrates which procure sleep says they produce this effect (b) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by calming or giving rest to the blood neither does he tell us what these Medicines are He speaks in several other places of
the Membrane of the Ear be indisposed we cannot hear for the same reason we cannot see when the Tunicle of the Eye is in the same Condition (a) De generat aninial lib. 2. cap. 6. The Nose is divided into two Channels by a Cartilage It has two veins which are joined to the Brain but they come from the Heart these go into the Channel which is the Organ of smelling as it receives the External Air and all that is diffused thro it The Flesh as we have observed already is the Organ of Feeling The Tongue of Tasting being soft and spongy and of a Nature approaching to that of the Flesh (b) Hist An. lib. 1. cap. 11. The Eye reaches into the Brain and is situated on either side under a little vein (c) Ib. cap. 9. The humour which is in the Eye which causes vision is what we call the sight (d) De Gen. An. lib. 2. cap. 6. The Eye of all the Organs of sensation has this peculiarity that it is moist and cold or that it contains a humour that is moist and cold which is not there at first or which is not at first in its perfection but is separated or distill'd from the purest part of the moisture of the Brain by the Channel that goes to the Membrane of the Brain 'T is very plain from what has been said that Aristotle allow'd the Nerves no part in the production of sensation Nor indeed could he acknowledge the Nerves or their office retaining the Idea which he had of the Brain The Diaphragme which he calls Diazoma or the Membrane which separates the lower Belly from the Breast has according to Aristotle no other business than to divide these two Cavities that the upper which is the Seat of the Soul may not be infected by the vapours which rise from the lower This is the sum of what we could collect from the writings of this Philosopher concerning Anatomy And we may observe that both he and Plato call'd indifferently by the name of Veins the Veins properly so call'd and the Arteries that they did not give the name of Artery to any thing but the Wind-pipe which they call'd (e) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 rough or unequal in opposition to the Arteries properly so called and by the Antients named 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 laeves Arterlae smooth Arteries Aspera Arteria from whence we may infer that when we find in (f) See the next Vol. lib. 1. cap. of Erasistratus Hippocrates the word Artery in the sense of the Moderns that this word has been foisted in or that the Books in which 't is found are not Genuine The only place that I know of wherein Aristotle seems to give the name of Arteries to the Arteries properly so called is in his Book of the Spirit wherein he says that the Skin is compos'd of a Vein an Artery and a Nerve Of a Vein says he because the Skin yields Blood when 't is prick'd Of a Nerve because it can extend it self Of an Artery because 't is transpirable Aristotle seems here to have designed the real and true Arteries and to allot to them only Spirit according to the opinion of Praxagoras and Erasistratus of whom we shall speak hereafter which opinion perhaps they borrowed of him Perhaps also this Book was none of Aristotle's We must make one observation more concerning the Anatomy of Aristotle which is that he never dissected any thing but Brutes and that in his time they durst not Anatomize a Humane body Which he insinuates himself in these words (g) Hist An. lib. 1. cap. 16. The inward parts of mens bodies are unknown for we have nothing certain thereupon but we must judge of them by the resemblance which we suppose them to have to the parts of other Animals which answer to each of them I am surpriz'd (h) Anthropograph lib. 1. cap. 4. that Riolan should maintain the contrary and more that he should endeavour to prove it from passages of Aristotle which are nothing to the purpose but he is not the only one whose Prejudice and Bigotry for the Antients has caused to make such false steps We shall have occasion to say something more upon this subject in the first Book of the next Volume Aristotle wrote also some Books of Plants of which there are some yet remaining but he treats of them rather as a Philosopher than a Physician He was born in the ninety ninth Olympiad and he dyed the 3d year of the hundred and fourteenth Olympiad aged by this account about sixty three He was the Son of a Physician and of the family of the Asclepiades He belonged also to Physick another way which is not much for his honour (i) Diogenes Laertius Hesychius Milesius in vita Epicuri Epicurus reproaches him with having spent his patrimony while he was young in debauchery and that after he had been some time a Souldier he betook himself to selling (k) We shall consider in the sequel the meaning of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 used by Diogenes Laertius on this occasion of Antidotes about the Markets till Plato's School being open'd he applied himself to the study of Philosophy under him CHAP. VI. Theophrastus THeophrastus who succeeded Aristotle took upon him the management of his School and after his death did something likewise towards Physick The most considerable of his works which remain to our times are his Books of Plants But as Plants may be consider'd either as a part of Agriculture of Natural History or of Physick Theophrastus as well as Aristotle seems to consider them chiefly as a Naturalist and seems rather to have examined their Growth and Termination and the parts whereof they are composed than their Medicinal properties altho sometimes en passant he touches upon them too But he having describ'd several we shall be obligâ—d to take farther notice of him upon this account with Dioscorides There are yet some small pieces of his remaining concerning the Vertigo Swooning Sweat and the Palsie of which he treats rather as a Philosopher than a Physician that is he is inquisitive after the Causes of these Distempers only without speaking of any Remedies He says that Vertigoâ—s come when some strange spirit or superfluous moisture goes into the Head or as he expresses it about the Head whether this comes from any sort of Food as from Wine or from any other humour or from turning the Head round For adds he the place about the Brain or the Brain an usual manner of expression among the Greeks is naturally moist and when any foreign Spirit gets in it does violence after it is got in and forces the natural moisture into the veins causing it to turn round so that this Spirit has the same effect as if any body turn'd the Head round it being indifferent whether it be done inwardly or outwardly The Palsie arises from a chilness or privation and want of Spirits or
Physick ISIS say they reveals Medicines to the sick by Dreams in their sleep which never miss their effect so that instances are daily seen of those that recover their health even after the Physicians have given 'em absolutely over This testimony of Diodorus is back'd by divers others But whatever ISIS did in Physick we hear of no Books written by her as by HERMES We have nothing remaining of her except (a) Kerher Oedip. Aegypt Borrich de orâ— progres Chim ISIS's Table a piece very curious and as they say very ancient written in Aegyptian Characters and charg'd with Hieroglyphicks that is with mystical Figures or Emblems which is in the Closet of the Duke of Savoy of which we shall take further notice when we treat of the Table of HERMES before-mention'd There were in Galen's time certain Medicines that bore the name of Isis which seem rather impos'd upon emâ—â— raise their value than drawn from her invention OSYRIS and ISIS being dead they wâ—â—e number'd among the Gods as well as MERCVRY If it be askâ—d Why the Ancients made Gods of those that were mortal and subjected to the same conditions with the rest of Mankind Cicero (b) De Nat. deor lib. 2. answers That 't was an establish'd custom in the World to deifie those persons that did any considerable services to Mankind as did HERCULES CASTOR and POLLUX ESCULAPIUS BACCHUS c. All these whom Cicero here mentions are much later than OSYRIS and ISIS who are the first that had this honour done ' em We are inform'd at least by Sancthoniathon (c) Euâ—â—b praepar Evang. That the Phaenicians and Aegyptians were the first that held as great Gods the Inventors of things necessary to Life and those that were thought to have done any mighty service to Mankind and from them says he this custom has been receivâ—d by all the rest Clemens Alexandrinus says likewise That the same practice was in use among the Chaldeans and the Inhabitants of Arabia the Happy of Palestine and of Persia and all the Barbarians in general CHAP. VII HORUS APOLLO or PAEON another Inventor of Physick THE Invention of Physick has been given likewise to Horus or Apollo Son of Isis This Goddess according to Diodorus finding in the water her Son Horus who was slain by Titans not only restor'd him to life but made him immortal also He adds That the name of Horus has been reader'd Apollo and that he was believ'd to have learn'd the Arts of Physick and Divination of his Mother Isis and that he was very useful to Men by his Oracles and by his Remedies By what is past Horus appears not to be the Inventor of Physick having been taught it by his Mother but if he be the same with Apollo the sequel will prove him to have had the credit of inventing this Art himself Ciâ—â—â— who as we have seen multiply'd the Mercuâ—ies will have it that there were (a) De Nat. dâ—or lib. 3. four Apollo's amongst which Horus seems not to be included unless we make him the same whom he caâ—â—s the fiâ—st of all the Apollo's Son of Vulcan and Patron of Athens If Mercury and Vulcan who according to Cicero were both Sons of Calâ—s were â—â—â—â—ntan and Misraim Grandsons of Noâ—â—h (b) De orâ— â—rogr Chiâ—â— as Bâ—rrichius fancies and if Osyris and Isâ—â— livâ—d about that time Horus their Son might be conâ—empâ—â—â—ry to the Son of Vulcan And if with the Author of the universal Biblioâ—heqâ—e we subâ—â—â—â—te Osyris to Mercury the Apollo of Dâ—odorus and Cicero will be if not the same person yet Brothers Children at least If there were really any one of that name that signalizâ—â— himself by his Physick it must be the Son of Isis tho' he were not the Apollo whom Ovid (a) Inventum Medicina meum est Opiâ—erque per Orbeâ—â— Dicor â—â—â—â—um subjâ—ctâ— potentia nobiâ— Metamorph lib. 1. introduces laying claim to the Invention of Physick and the Vertues of Plants We may pass the same censure upon the Apollo of Ovid and the rest of the Poets as upon the Prometheus of Aeschylus that he is a feignâ—d person by whom the Sun was signâ—â—â—ed To this Star they ascrib'd the rise of Physick or rather a power of Life and Death over Men to cause Pestilences and to disperse em for the Sun or its heaâ— were esteemâ—d the principle of Generation and Corruption in all things upon whose peculiar influence upon Animal Bodies and those that surround 'em Health and Diseases did immediately depend Hyginus refines very much upon this when he says (b) Fab. lib 1. That Apollo was the first Oculist alluding to the light of the Sun and the appellation given him by the Poets the Eye of the World For the same reason he is said to be the God of Divination because Light or the Day discovers what was hidden in the Night By this he became more famous than the others and his Temples were more frequented by those that came to know their Fortunes than to cure their Distempers Others have thought that the Art of Divination was joinâ—d to Physick upon the account of the Prognosticks of Physicians * This conjecture seems very natural but I doubt the Art of Divination will appear to have been separated from Physick before the latter arriv'd at any great skill in the Prâ—gnosticks of which we find â—otâ—ing before Hippocrates but what the Coacae Praenotiones câ—ntain which seem to be the collective Body of the knowledge of his Predecessors 〈◊〉 that â—ind I rather think that the Priests who were the first Prâ—â—es◠〈…〉 introducâ—d Divination first into Physick that they might supply their 〈◊〉 in the latter by the imaginary â—â—â—s of thâ— fâ—rmeâ— and support their credit jointly by both which they cou'd not by either apart by which they frequently foretel what shall befal the Patient in the course of his distemper which is what procures the greatest veneration for the Profeâ—â—ion It shou'd seem by the Etymology of the word Apollo which comes from a (c) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This etymology seems better grounded than that which deduces it from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to expel 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quasi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Greek word signifying to destroy that the sick address'd themselves to him as much out of fear of mischief as hope of benefit as they rais'd Altars to the Fever Homer where he once calls Apollo Saviour of the People says a hundred times that he wounds and smites afar off He was Surnam'd likewise Alexicacos the Chaser of Evil but we find not that name in Homer He was call'd likewise (d) Others fetch this word from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to cease to put a stop or appease because appeas'd Diseases Paeon from a Verb which signifies according to some to heal but vulgarly to strike (e) Iliad Eustathius takes notice that Homer's PAEON the Physician of the Gods was Apollo himself It
to meddle therein under their Kings Priests and Grandees to whom it was permitted (x) Histâ— animal lib. 2. c. 18 Elian says the same of the antient Greece that none but Princes practis'd Physick meaning unquestionably the Princes and Heroes before-mention'd Jachen was undoubtedly of no less quality He was says Suidas a favourite of the Gods and very useful to Society who lived in the time of Senyes King of Egypt and who wrote very well of remedies drawn from Amulets and Charms Jachen adds he was very dextrous at curing diseases and cou'd stop the course of the Plagne and temper the sultry heat of the Dog-star for this a magnificent Tomb was rais'd to him whither the Priests repaired in all Epidemical Distempers and after the usual Sacrifices took Fire from his Altar with which they kindled Piles prepared in several parts of the City and thereby purg'd the Air of the Infection and stopt the progress of the distemper When this King and Physician liv'd is uncertain but they were apparently very antient In imitation of the Kings of Egypt their Neighbours the Kings of Judea applyâ—d themselves sometimes to the study of Philosophy and Medcine witness their great King Solomon of whom the Scripture says that he wrote five thousand Canticles and pronounced three thousand Proverbs that he knew from the Cedar of Libanus to the Hyssop that grows upon the Wall and that he wrote of Insâ—cts of Fishes of Birds and all other animals (y) Lib. 8. c. 2. Josephus enlarging upon this says that God endued this Prince with such understanding and wisdom that no other thro all antiquity was comparable to him that he surpass'd abundantly the greatest and most celebrated Egyptians He composed adds he five thousand Books of Songs and Verses and three thousand of Parables he wrote of natural history from the Hyssop to the Cedar and continued it thro all animals as well Birds as Fishes and those that live upon the Earth For God had given him a perfect knowledge of their Natures which he exercised in making Medâ—cines for the benefit of Men among which were some that had the vertue of casting out Devils so effectually that they dar'd not to return This way of casting 'em out is yet much in use with our Nation and I have seen one Eleazar a Jew in presence of the Emperor Vespasian his Sons Captains and Souldiers dispossess divers He hung at the nose of the Man possessed a Ring in which was set a Root which Solomon usâ—d to that purpose which as soon as the Devil smelt he threw the Daemoniack to the ground and quitted him He repeated afterwards certain words which Solomon left written and in his name forbad him to return But to show the effect of his charm more evidently he silled a Pitcher of Water and commanded the Devil to throw it down to demonstrate by that Sign that he had quitâ—ed the possessed which the Devil obeyed I thoâ—ght my self obligâ—d says the Author to make this relation that no one might doubt the extraordinary knowledge which God of his special Grace gave to Solomon (z) Vide lib. zeron Hamor The Rabbies say that Ezechias suppressâ—d those Books of Solomon because abundance put more trust in the power of the Herbs than of God * Trithemius mentions besides this three 〈◊〉 Books of Maâ—iâ—k Liber Lamene 2. Pentaâ—ulorâ— libeâ— 3. De Oâ—â—iâ—us Spiritâ—um Albertus mâ—â—nâ—s five mâ—re 1 Liber Almeâ—â—l 2. Liber novâ—m â—â—uni ruin 3. De novâ—m Candariis 4. De tribus figuriâ— Spirituum 5. De Sigissis ad Dae noniâ—câ—â— and seâ—â—â—al â—thers which 〈◊〉 all dâ—â—â—â—edly 〈…〉 The Book callâ—d Clavicula Solomonis which is said to be an imaginary Book yet is much sought after by those that are inquisitive after Magick supposes him to have written upon that subject Sufficient Apology has been made for him but this passage of Josephus shews that the Jews were strongly possessed with the opinion that Solomon used Superstitions remedies in the cure of diseases as the reciting certain words and applying a Ring which was a sort of Amulet as we have before taken notice It may perhaps be urgâ—d that t is not impossible that God shou'd have communicated this knowledge to Solomon but we find no examples of of any such cures in Holy Writ and the words which the Prophets and Apostles pronounc'd on the like occasions were only to signify their Commission and Power received from God to cure all diseases as In the name of God or of Jesus Christ be thou healed If they employ'd any matter or made any application it was of things common and well known without any manner of ceremony that might savour of superstition like the application of the Ring and Root before spoken of If Solomon did really stuff his Books with such remedies he had 'em not from Revelation as Josephus wou'd insinuate but from the correspondence he held with the learned Men of Egypt This Prince liv'd about a hundred and seventy years after the Siege of Troy I had forgot another argument of Solomon's knowledge of Physick or at least of the constitution of a human Body which is drawn from the following words of the 12th Chapter of Ecclesiastes Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth while the evil days come not nor thy years draw nigh when thou shalt say I have no pleasure in them While the Sun or the Light or the Stars be not darkned nor the Clouds return after the Rain In the day when the keepers of the House shall tremble and the strong men shall bow themselves and the grinders cease because they are few and those that look out of the Windows be dark'ned and the doors shall be shut in the Streets when the sound of the grinding is low and he shall rise up at the voice of the Bird and all the Daughters of Musick shall be brought low Also when they shall be afraid of that which is high and fears shall be in the way and the Almond Tree shall flourish and the Grashopper shall be a burthen and desire shall fail because man goeth to his long home and the mourners go about the Streets or ever the Silver cord be loosed or the Golden Bowl be broken or the Pitcher be broken at the Fountain or the Wheel broken at the Cistern Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was and the Spirit shall return unto God who gave it 'T is easy to find that this is a description of old age managed after the oriental manner and of the several inconveniences that attend it till they at last are terminated by Death or the dissolution of the humane Body The Sun the Light the Moon and the Stars denote the Wit the Judgment the Memory and the other faculties of the Soul which daily decay in old men The Clouds and the Rain are Catharr â—s and Defluxions familiar to this Age. The Keeperâ—s of the House and the Strong men are
a Homer to immortalize their names Vixere fortes ante Agamemnona Multi c. One might however have expected that the Historians wou'd have done what we cou'd not hope from the Poets but the History of these times is generally so confus'd and defective that the Physicians are not the only persons that have reason to complain of it We don't certainly know when Homer liv'd but much less the place where he was born Therefore tho we shou'd allow with Celsus that during this space of time there was no Physicians of any note whose memory is preserv'd down to us we ought not to impute it to them but to the Age wherein they lived and it does not follow that Medâ—cine was not cultivated before his time whom he supposes to be the restorer of it Isidore of Sevil more clearly discusses this question Apollo passes among the Greeks says he for the author and inventor of Physick His Son Aesculapius improv'd this Art or at least had the reputation of doing it but being kill'd by a Thunderbolt 't is said that ever since that Physick was forbidden and that the art perish'd at the same moment with its Author having been conceal'd or bury'd for almost 500 years till the Reign of Artaxerxes King of Persia when Hippocrates the Son of Asclepius of the Isle of Co discover'd it again to the world If we were to believe the account this Author gives us the reason of the interruption of Physick is evident enough After Esculapius's death no mention was made of this Art till the time of Hippocrates but in all appearance he was but ill inform'd of what happen'd during that period he sets down as he was of the true name of the Father of Hippocrates whom he calls Asclepius by a gross mistake imagining I suppose that he was callâ—d Asclepiades by the same Analogy that Homer calls Achilles Peleiades because Hippocrates was the Son of Asclepius just as Achilles was of Peleus Whereas in truth the name of Asclepiades belong'd in common to all the posterity of Esculapius whom the Greeks call Asclepius What Isidore adds immediately after about the three Sects of Physick is argument enough that he had taken no great pains to inform himself sufficiently in this matter CHAP. II. Of the Asclepiadae and the Schools which they erected THe descendants of Aesculapius who are callâ—d Asclepiadae have been believed to preserve this Art in their family without interruption We should be able to say something more particularly to this point if the writings of Eratosthenes Pherecides Apollodorus Arius of Tarsus and Polyanthus of Cyrene were now extant who took care to compose the history of these Successors of Esculapius But altho the Works of these Authors are lost yet the names of some of the Asclepiadae are still preservâ—d as appears by the list of the predecessors of Hippocrates who callâ—d himself the seventeenth in order of descent from Esculapius (a) Epist Paeti ad Artaxerxem The Genealogy of this Physician is still remaining in the following manner Hippocrates of whom we shall speak hereafter was the Son of Heraclides who was the Son of another Hippocrates the Son of Gnosidicus the Son of Nebrus the Son of Sostratus the third the Son of Theodore the second the Son of Crisamis the second the Son of Lostratus the second the Son of Theodore the first the Son of Crisamis the first Son of Cleomitides the Son of Dardanus the Son of Sostratus the first the Son of Hippolochus the Son of Podalirius the Son of Esculapius Stephanus Byzantinus bestows two Sons more upon Gnosidicus besides him already mention'd the first of these two was call'd Aenius and the second Podalirius It may be said perhaps that this Genealogy is fabulous but supposing some mistake or interpolation in this succession of the Asclepiadae 't is at least certain that there were several branches of the Family of Esculapius besides that from which Hippocrates was descended which latter was distinguish'd by the surname of Asclepiadae Nebrides which was given it for the sake of one Nebrus who was very famous for his great skill in Physick and to whom the Priestess of Apollo gave a very advantageous character according to the Author's observation whom we cited last We shall take occasion to say something hereafteâ— of Gnosidicus Heraclides and the other Hippocrates in the following Book As for those that came before them we ingenuously own that we know nothing of them CHAP. III. Of the several branches of the Asclepiadae and the three different Schools which they erected AS we have already observ'd there were other branches of the Asclepiadae that were dispersed in several places (a) Galen merhod med lib. 1. We find mention of three celebrated Schools erected by them the first was that of Rhodes which happen'd to fail first by the failing of this branch of the Successors of Esculapius which seems to have fallen out a long while before Hippocrates since he does not speak of it as he does of that of Cnidus which was the third and that of Co the second These two last flourished at the same time as as the School of Italy wherein were those Philosopher-Physicians of whom Celsus speaks altho the Grecian Schools were more ancient These three Schools that were the only ones that made any figure by a Spirit of Emulation perpetually contended among themselves who shouâ—d make the greatest progress in Physick However Galen assigns the first place to that of Co since it produc'd the greatest number of excellent disciples that of Cnidus held the second rank and that of Italy the third Herodotus also makes mention of a School of Physicians that was in Cyrene where as we have taken notice already there was a Temple of Esculapius whose worship was different from that of the Grecians From whence it may be conjectur'd that there were likewise Asclepiadae of another sort The same (a) lib. 3. Historian mentions likewise another School of Physick that was at Crotona the Country of Democedes a famous Physician contemporary with Pythagoras which Physician as Herodotus informs us being ejected out of his City by the severity of his Father Calliphon came first to Aegina and afterwards to Athens where he liv'd in great repute From thence he went to Samos where he had an opportunity to heal Polycrates the King of that Island of a troublesom distemper which was worth him two talents of Gold Some time after this being taken prisoner by the Persians he concealâ—d his profession but upon a discovery was oblig'd to undertake the cure of Darius who had dislocated his Foot and of his Qâ—â—tossa who had a Cancer iâ— her Breast This Historian adds that Democedes succeeding in these two cures obtain'd so great a reputa-with the King that he made him dine at his own Table however he cou'd not be induc'd to take up his abode there for finding an opportunity to return to Greece under the disguise of a Spy he perform'd it
Artery and the other the Vena Cava At that time all the Blood Vessels were indifferently call'd Veins and the word Artery properly signify'd the (e) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 aspera arteria or the Wind-pipe Nay Hippocrates gives the name of Veins to the Ureters and seems to bestow the same appellation upon the Nerves as we shall take notice below besides there are but few places where he formally distinguishes the Arteries from the Veins and where he calls them Arteries which may render the credit of those books or at least of those passages suspicious where this distinction is to be found The Artery adds he immediately after contains more heat than the Vena Cava and is the receptacle of the Spirits There are other Veins in the Body besides these two As for that which is reported to be the largest of all and next to the heart it runs thro the Belly and the Diaphragm and dividing itself into two streams visits either Kidney towards the Loins Above the heart this Vein divides to the right and to the left and ascending to the head distributes itself to either Temple We may continues he joyn the other Veins to this that are also very large but to speak all in a word all the Veins that are dispers'd thro the whole Body come from the Vena Cava and the Artery Here are already two opinions concerning the Origin of the Veins and Arteries There is a third likewise to be found in two several passages in Hippocrates whether in respect of the Origin of the Veins or in respect of your distribution (a) Lib. de Ossium naturâ de Natur. humanâ The largest veins of the Body are says he dispos'd after this manner There are in all four pair the first pair come out behind the head and descending down the back part of the neek on each side of the spine come to the Hips and Thighs pass on thro the Legs to the outside of each Foot For this reason in all pains of the Back and Hips bleeding in the veins of the Hams and external Ancles are of great relief the second pair coming likewise from the Head run behind the Ears down the Neck they are callâ—d the Jugulars and run within the Spine down the Loins where they divide on either side towards the Testicles and Thighs and the inside of the Hams from thence through the inward Ancles to the inside of the foot For this cause in all pains of the Testicles and Loins bleeding in the veins of the Hams and internal Ancles is very serviceable The third pair come out of the Temples and run along the Neck towards the Shoulders and Lungs from thence one turning from the right a little towards the left runs under the Breast to the Spleen and Kidneys the other likewise turning from the left to the right runs under the Breast to the Liver and Kidney And these two branches terminate in the Rectum The fourth part coming out of the fore part of the Head and Eyes run under the Lungs and the Clavicles and from thence thro the upper part of the Arm pass over the bending of the Elbow to the back of the Hands and Fingers and thence they return again thro the palm of the Hand on the inside of the Elbow and under the Arm to the Arm-pits and upon the surface of the side one to the Spleen and the other to the Liver At length both branches running over the Belly terminate in the privities To salve the contradiction between these two last passages it may be urg'd that the Book of the nature of the Bones from whence this latter is drawn is not Hippocrates's but Polybius his Son-in-Law's Neither Galen nor Erotian take notice of this Book among the works of Hippocrates They have not so much as taken notice of the name tho they seem to have explain'd certain words found in it There is a passage of (b) De Generat Anim. lib. 3. cap. 3. Aristotle wherein this Philosopher speaking of the Origin and destribution of the Veins and relating the several sentiments of the Physicians thereupon cites these very words of this Book of the nature of the Bones which we have translated and cites them as Polybius's This proof were sufficient but it removes not all the difficulty for we read the very same words in the Book of Human Nature which Galen maintains strongly to be Hippocrates's pretending to prove it by the Authority of (c) Platon Phaedr Plato who as he says has quoted a passage out of it tho others have ascrib'd this Book to Democritus Nevertheless Galen himself (d) De Hippocrat Platon decreâ— l. 6. c. 3. But Pelops Galen's Master was of another mind maintaining that Hippocrates held as himself also did that the Veins and Arteries as well as Nerves had their Origine from the Brain denies this later opinion touching the origin and destribution of the Veins to be Hippocrates's or even Polybius's but affirms that it must have been foysted surreptitiously into the Text. But this is not probable for we find the same opinion in the Book de locis in Homine There is another difficulty relating to the Book of the flesh or of the principles from whence was taken what we said in the first place that the Veins and Arteries came out of the Heart Aristotle in the afore-cited passage after having remarked that almost all the Physicians consented with Polybius to bring the veins from the Head concludes they were all in an error not knowing that they came from the Heart and not from the Head If Hippocrates be the Author of that Book of the Flesh wherein this opinion of Aristotle is plainly laid down how is it likely this Philosopher should not know it Why should he not as well have read the Writings of Hippocrates as those of Polybius From hence we may infer that this Book is no more Hippocrates's than that of the Nature of the Bones Perhaps Aristotle chose rather in this place to cite Polybius or Synnesis of Cyprus and Diogenes Apolloniates Physicians of small reputation in comparison of Hippocrates than to cite Hippocrates himself whose Name we sind but in (e) Politâ—c li. 7. cap. 4. one place of his Works and there mentioned only en passant perhaps I say he has omitted to quote him out of malice or envy Plato shew'd more honour having made honorable mention of him in several places Perhaps the Book in question was not Hippocrates's for neither do we find the Title of it in the List that Erotian gives of his Works Of the description of the HEART Amongst the Anatomical Books ascrib'd to Hippocrates there is none written with more exactness than that of the Heart which being very short we give you here the entire Translation of it The Heart says the Author of this Book is of a Pyramidal figure its colour is a deep red It is encompassed on all sides with a clos'd Membrane
advance and are extended very much which must in no manner be hurt He uses also in this place the same name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The same Book likewise furnishes us with a third passage wherein we meet the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 repeated several times it is in speaking of the Articulations of the Vertebrae but all that he says there seems better explicable of the Ligaments than of the Nerves properly so call'd We find likewise in another (k) De Morb. vulgar lib. 2. sect 4. Book of Hippocrates the following passage There are two Nerves 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which come from the Brain which passing behind the great Vertebrae draw sidewards from above towards the Gullet or Oesophagus and touching the Artery on both sides join again as if there were but one and terminate where the Vertebrae and the Diaphragma take their Origin or are join'd Some have supposed that these Nerves parting in this place tended towards the Liver and towards the Spleen There is another Nerve which proceeds from each side the Vertebrae along the Spine and passing obliquely over the Vertebrae disperses it self into the sides And these Nerves as well as the Veins of which I spoke before seem to traverse the Diaphragm and terminate in the Mesentery These Nerves re-joining again at the place where the Diaphragm takes its Origin and passing through the middle below the Artery return to the Vertebrae and at last lose themselves in the Os Sacrum It is impossible to translate this passage well by reason of its obscurity it is taken from a fragment of Anatomy in the Book before cited which appears to be out of its place having no coherence with any thing either antecedent or consequent yet Galen has commented upon this Book of Hippocrates (l) Comment in lib. de artiâ— for he relates some of the first words of the passage we have translated which proves that the fragment from whence it was taken was inserted even in his time in the place where we now find it Galen contents himself to insinuate in two words that this passage treats of real Nerves without giving himself the trouble to explain it entire and perceiving that this passage was little for the honour of Hippocrates he goes about to excuse him saying What he writ was only for a (m) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Memorandum for himself and not to treat exactly to the bottom of this matter And to give the more credit to it he adds That the first and third Books of his Epidemicks were the only Books which Hippocrates finished or that he wrote with any design of publishing The passage here meant being taken out of the second which according to Galen was but a sort of Meddly which the Author had not digested this may be so but he ought to have shewn that Hippocrates had elsewhere spoken better or more clearer on this head It is to no purpose to perplex our selves to find in an Author what he has not if we shou'd allow that this ancient Physician and the Asclepiades his predecessors knew or had seen some considerable Trunk of Nerves as it was hard if the practice of Chirurgery gave them no occasion they appear not to have distinguish'd them well from Tendons or Ligaments nor to have known the true use of them (n) See the Chapter of Blood-letting The forecited passage in which Hippocrates assigns to the Veins and Arteries the Office of the Nerves is a convincing proof of his Ignorance on that subject but there cannot be a better proof than we find in the Writings of this Physician and the manner of his reasoning with (o) Vid. lib. â— Alcmaeon and other Philosophers of his time about Hearing Smelling and the rest of the Senses therein we do not see that either one oâ—t other so much as suspected the share the Nerves have in Sensation Of the Organs of SENSE We have seen before Alcmaeon's Opinion The following descriptions of the Organs of Sense are taken from Hippocrates (a) Lib. de Carn The Ears sa's he have a hole which butts upon a bone as hard and dry as a stone to which is join'd a Fistulous cavity or a sort of passage oblique and narrow at the entry of which there is a Membrane extreamly fine and dry whose driness as well as that of the bone produces the sound the Air being reflected by this bone and by this membrane After which without mentioning the Nerves he endeavours to prove that whatever is dry sounds most In another place he says (b) De Loc. in Hom. That the cavities which are about the Ears are made only for the better hearing of noises and sounds And he adds That whatever comes to the Brain by the Membrane which encompasses it is distinctly heard that for that reason there is but one passage which pierces in this place to the Membrane which is spread over the Brain As for the Smelling he says The brain being moist has the faculty of scenting or smelling by drawing in the odour of dry things with the air which runs a-thwart (c) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lib. de Carnib 4. certain dry bodies The Brain adds he reaches even into the cavity of the Nose in this place there is no bone between them but only a soft cartilage like a Spunge which can neither be call'd bone nor flesh He describes the Eye after this manner There are says he some small veins extreamly slender which go (d) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 into the sight or eye Lib. de loc in hom into the eye thro' the Membrane which incloses the Brain These veins nourish the sight of the eye with a Liquor extreamly pure which comes from the brain in which the Images of things appear to the eyes the same veins if they dry up extinguish the sight There are also three Membranes which encompass the eye of which the first is the thickest the second is thinner the third is extreamly fine which preserves the liquor or humour of the eye The first being hurt the eye is out of order The second being broken puts it in great danger that it puffs outward like a bladder But the third which preserves the humour is that whose breaking is of worst consequence What follows we find in another (c) Lib. de Carn Book We see for this reason or after this manner vision is made There is a vein which runs from the Membrane of the Brain which passing thro' the bone enters into each eye By these two veins the most subtil part of the viscid humour of the brain distils as it were thro' a Streiner and forms round about it a Membrane like to that which is transparent in the eye which is exposed to the air and winds which is form'd much after the same manner that other Membranes are but there are several Membranes about the eye which are like to that which is transparent within In this
â—s but his Son-in-Law Polibius's the proof will yet remain in full strength for this Author does not lay this down as his opinion only but as a notion generally establish'd Galen was obliged to declare against odd days for the same reasons he rejects the dignity of the number seven and other numbers which by the Pythagoreans were esteemed to have a certain virtue in themselves as being more perfect than the rest and altho' he allows that the Crisis falls out upon the seventh days yet he does not impute this effect to the power of the number but to the Moon which governs the Weeks which consists of seven daâ—s whether Hippocrates thought of the Moon 's influence upon this occasion but he talks in one of his Books before-cited (l) Dâ— partu Septimest of a harmony resulting from the union of certain numbers more entire and certain than the rest it shews plainly that he meant in the sense of Pythagoras which Celsus takes notice of when he says (m) Verum in his quidem antiquos â—uâ—c celebreâ— admodum Pythâ—goâ—ici numeri fefellerunt lib 3. cap. 4. That the Pythagorean numbers which were very much in vogue at that time that is in the time of Hippocrates mislead the ancient Physicians into Error But whatever was Hippocrates's opinion of the power of his odd and other Critical days he confesses that it falls out otherwise sometimes and he gives an instance of a salutary Crisis coming upon the sixth day and the like upon the fifteenth but these are very rare instances and therefore donâ—t overthrow the General Rule Before we quit this head we must take notice that besides the changes which determine the fate of the Patient Hippocrates speaks often of another sort of a change which is when the disease instead of terminating changes (n) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Species as when a Pleurisie turns to an inflamation of the Lungs a Vertigo to an Epilepsie a Tertian Fever to a Quartane or a continual c. CHAP. IV. Of other accidents or symptoms that accompany Diseases and those that happen before or after them Of the signs by which Hippocrates distinguishâ—d one from the other and knew beforehand what wou'd be the success or future event THE vast esteem Hippocrates gain'd is chiefly owing to his great Industry in strictly observing the most minute circumstances of Diseases and his exact care in nicely describing every thing that happenâ—d before and every accident that appearâ—d at the same time with them as also what gave ease and what increas'd the malady which is what we call the method of writing the History of a disease By these means he not only understood how to distinguish one disease from another by the signs which properly belong'd to each but by comparing the same sort of distemper which happen'd to several persons and the accidents which usually appearâ—d before and after he couâ—d easily foretel a disease before it came and afterwards give a right judgment of the success and event of it He seems also in (a) Lib. 1. dâ— diaeta sub princip a certain place as if he would insinuate that he is the greatest Physician that can put this in practice or can teach a method how to tell the Patient beforehand what shall happen to him in the course of his distemper which is what we call giving the Prognosticks of a disease T was by this way of prognosticating that he came to be so much admir'd by all the Ancients who without doubt were throughly convinc'd of that Maxim which he owes to himself viz. (b) Lib. praenotion in princip That that Physician who upon the appearance of some certain signs in a disease can tell his Patient what he has hitherto suffered and what will happen to him every day and after having received information from him he not only speaks further of those things he omitted before but also lays down beforehand what will come to pass 't is he shall have the reputation of knowing perfectly the condition of the Patient and make him entirely resign himself to his management And as it is not always in the power of the Physician to save the Lives of the sick for that reason Prognosticks will be serviceable in some measure to secure him from reproach Hippocrates understood so well the Doctrine of Signâ— that it may very well be said to be his Master-piece and Celsus makes this remark (c) Bâ—â—â—nsioâ—â—◠〈◊〉 Mediâ—i quamvis in curatioâ—ibus muâ—â—â—nt taâ—â—en â—â—â—c Hippâ—câ—atâ—m optime pâ—â—â—agisse â—aâ—eâ—ur Lib. 2. prafâ—â— That the Physicians that liv'd after him tho' they found out several new things relating to the management of diseases yet they were obligâ—d to the Writings of Hippocrates for what they knew of Signs You find a vast number of these Signs almost every where in his Writings but they are particularly collected in his Book of Aphorisms and three other Books that treat of nothing but that subject alone the Prenotions or Prognosticks the Predictions and the Coacae Praenotiones Galen because they were very faulty wou'd not allow the two last to be of Hippocrates's writing He adds further That what is valuable in them is taken out of the two first and from the Books of Epidemical Diseases notwithstanding many Learned Men both Ancient and Modern have writ Commentaries upon them and had 'em in great esteem To be able to make a tolerable guess from a Prognostick that is to say to be capable to tell beforehand that from the appearance of such and such a thing this or that shall necessarily follow the observation ought to be made from its seldom or never-failing one Experience alone or even 2 or 3 being not sufficient to give an Authority which cannot be said of all the Prognosticks of Hippocrates in general As to some of them one wou'd rather judge they were Remarks made in particular cases by those that exactly observ'd what happenâ—d to every Patient from the beginning to the end of his distemper and who by comparing what they saw first with what followed after thence concluded good or ill success This is what Galen hints at when he tells you that one part of these Prognosticks were abstracted from the Books of Epidemical Diseases He adds That if any one designâ—d to make himself Master of the Art of Prognosticating the success of Diseases he thought that the best means to succeed wouâ—d be to look into the Histories of them delivered to us by the most learned of the Faculty and from thence draw conclusions suitable to his intent This method in effect wouâ—d prove very good but to avoid the danger of being mistaken t wou'd be necessary to collect an infinite number of Observations on all distempers of what nature soever they are to be able to find out amongst them a sufficient number of cases exactly alike in every sort of disease so that he might speak for certain that in
down the Torrent with the rest so that neither his Reasonings or his Observations nor his Remedies have the least mixture of this weakness so common in those Times and yet common still even amongst some Physicians We don't see that his Prognosticks had any other foundation than from the pure nature of things Itâ—s true in his Book of Dreams he talks of some Sacrifices or Ceremonies which ought to be perform'd to some certain Deities according to the nature of the Dreams we dreamt But these were only Duties which Religion necessarily engag'd Men to His good sense appear'd in another place particularly when in the same Book he solves Dreams by what has been said or done in the day time from whence he draws consequences to judge of the condition of the body according as 't is charg'd with Choler Phlegm Blood c. which he brings in as the Causes on which depends the difference of Dreams and the circumstances that accompany them We 'll speak one word more of the aversion he had to superstition in what related to Remedies and the cure of Diseases when we come to the Chapter of Purgation CHAP. V. Of the sorts of Diseases that Hippocrates knew gave names to or describ'd THE particular Diseases which are mentioned in the Writings of Hippocrates may be reducâ—d to five different Classes The first is of distempers whose names have been never chang'd and that have been known ever since to the Greek Physicians by the same names and signs as they were distinguish'd by this ancient Physician This first Class is the most considerable and contains alone a much greater number of distempers than the four following put all together The second includes those which have not preserved their names altho' they have been known and distinguish'd by the accidents which Hippocrates attributed to them I put in the third Class some distempers which he gave no name to but only a simple description of And in the fourth those that tho' they are nam'd and describ'd exactly in the Works that are allow'd to be his yet notwithstanding have not been known since that time either by their names which were grown out of use or by the description the Author gives of them The fifth and last Class is of those that have names which were no longer known and that at the same time there were no descriptions of so that we can speak almost nothing of them but by conjecture CHAP. VI. A Catalogue of the Diseases of the first Class or of those whose Greek Names are preserv'd and have always continued very near the same WE 'll rank every one of these Diseases in an Alphabetical order according to their English Names which are partly deriv'd from the Greek which we 'll put at the bottom of the page A (a) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ABscesse or Aposthume (b) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Alphus a cutaneous distemper (c) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Alopecy a disease of the head when the hair falls off or is thin in several places (d) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 These are the common names to the part and its diseases Almonds diseases of this part inflamation suppuration ulceration (e) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Anus the falling down relaxation or invertion of it Vid. Hemorrhoids inflamation of the Anus (f) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ancyle or Ancylosis a contraction of the Joints (g) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Aphony loss of voice (h) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Apthae Ulcers of the mouth (i) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Those that were taken with this disease were call'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say struck v Thunder struck and Pleurisie Hippocrates also confounds sometimes Apoplexy with Palsie where he gives the first of these Names to both Discases Apoplexy a sudden privation of sense and motion Appetite loss of Appetite v. Loathing Appetite depravâ—d of those that eat earth and stones v Colour and the distemper of Women with Child (k) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Afterbirth retain'd (l) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Asthma a sort of difficulty of breathing v. Dispnea (m) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This last word signifies the action of miscarrying Abortion (n) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Weasels Arms. 'T is the name that Hippocrates gives to those that have such arms Arms shorter and of a less proportion than they ought to be B (a) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This last word signifies also Bunch back'd BOunch-back'd (b) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Branchus a sort of a defluxion hoarseness (c) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a common name to the Glands of the Groin and their Diseases Buboes swellings of the Glands in general and particularly those of the Groin Brain inflam'd v. Inflamation Brain gangren'd v. Sphacclus Brain mov'd v. commotion Brain dropsical v. Dropsie (d) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Blood-shot of the Eyes (e) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A dry Blood-shot (f) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Baldness (g) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 corpulent The body torpid or languid (h) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Blood vomiting of blood great loss of blood by Stool in a burning Fever Loss of blood v. Haemorrhage (i) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 barren Women Barrenness v. Womb. k The Bladder clos'd or stopp'd v. Vrine Tubercule of the Bladder v. Tubercule Stone of the Bladder v. Stone C (a) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 CAchexy An ill habit of the fleshy parts of the body caus'd by the corruption and aboundance of humours (b) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cancer a sort of a Tumour (c) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 An outward Cancer (d) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 An inward Cancer (e) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 An hereditary Cancer or that 's born with one Cancer of the Throat of the Breast of the Womb and of other parts a Cancerous Ulcer (f) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cardialgy pain of the Stomach Heart burning (g) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Carie. (h) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Carus a sort of a dead sleep and out of which there 's no raising the Patient (i) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cataphora another sort of extraordinary dead sleep (k) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Catarrh or defluxion upon some part v. Rheum (l) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A salt Catarrh nitrous acrid and hot (m) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Catarrhs that kill suddenly (n) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Catochus A Disease in which the Patient continues inflexible with his eyes open without knowledge or motion (nn) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Carbuncle a sort of Tumour Causus v. Fever (o) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cholera a sudden discharge of humours upward and downward (p) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A wet Cholera a dry Cholera Chordapsus v. Ileus (q) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Coma a sort of a dead
this only because he thinks that the distemper of Phaenicia is precisely the same that 's callâ—d Elephantiasis whereas it may be it had only a bare relation to it and that by this distemper of Phaenicia Hippocrates had understood the (b) See the Commentary 〈◊〉 Mr. Le Clere on Leviticus Leprosie of the Jews that was a sort of a Leuce that might have some symptom common with an Elephantiasis without being the same The Commentaries of Hippocrates which we 'll speak of hereafter furnish'd us with other examples of distempers which we can have no knowledge of further than by conjecture because their names are no longer in use and besides thereâ—s no description given of them Such is the disease which Hippocrates calls (a) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Epidem lib. 1. Tangae which is thought to be a sort of a Tumor Such is also that that 's call'd (b) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Epidem lib. 7. Hippouris whereby 't is guess'd that he means a certain defluxion which throws it self on the genital Parts of those that ride too often or sit too long on Horseback and is obstinate and continues a long time or a weakness or some indisposition of the same Parts arising from the same Cause And that which he calls (c) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ibid. Anemie that 's thought to be a swelling of the veins caus'd by windy blood which puts them in danger of being broke You may put in the same rank the (d) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Epiâ—em lib. 4. Typhomany which thought to be a swelling is taken for a disease that 's part Lethargy and part Phrensie and that that 's call'd (e) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Epidem lib. 6. Sect 3. See above in the distempers of the first Class at the word Parotides Pherea CHAP. XI Of the means to preserve Health AFter having seen in what Health and Sickness consists what the subject of them is and what are the causes and differences in the next place we ought to speak a word or two of the Advice that Hippocrates gave to those that were in health after which we 'll inquire into the means he made use of to cure those that were sick One of his principal Maxims was this (a) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Epidem lib. 6. ect 4. Aphor. 20. That to preserve health we ought not to overcharge our selves with too much Eating nor neglect the use of Exercise nor avoid Labour He said in the second place That we ought by no means to accustom our selves to too nice and exact a method of Living because said he further those that have once begun to act by this Rule if they vary the least from it find themselves very ill which does not happen to those that take a little more liberty and live somewhat more irregularly Notwithstanding this he does not neglect to make a diligent enquiry into what those that were in health made use of for nourishment in those times Upon which I can't forbear making this observation That in those days they were not so delicate by much as we are now which appears by the care Hippocrates takes to tell what is the quality of the flesh of a Dog of a Fox of an Horse of an Ass which he wou'd not have done if at that time they had not been usâ—d for Eatables at least by the common People We will not relate here what Hippocrates has writ concerning other sorts of Provisions it 's sufficient to know that he examines all those that are now in use For example Sallads Milk Whey Cheese Flesh as well of Birds as of four footed Beasts fresh and salt Fish Eggs and all manner of Pulse and the different sorts of Grain we feed on as well as the different sorts of Bread that are made of it He also speaks very often of a sort of liquid Food or Broth made of Barley-Meal or some other Grain which they steep'd for some time and boil'd with water but as this has a regard more particularly to the manner of Dieting the Sick we 'll speak a little more of it in the following Chapter Hippocrates is full as nice on the subject of Drink he takes a great deal of pains to distinguish the good waters from those that are bad The best in his opinion ought to be clear light without smell or taste and taken out of Fountains that turn towards the East The salt waters and those that he calls hard that is in my opinion heavy or that overcharge the stomach and those that rise out of Fenny ground are the worst of all as also those that come from melted Snow But tho' Hippocrates makes all these distinctions yet he advises those that are in health to drink of the first water that comes in their way which agrees with the Advice he gave before not to be too exact in the manner of living He speaks also but 't is but two words of Alom Waters or that partake of the nature of Alom and of those that are hot without enlarging further on their qualities or use we only perceive by it that he had a knowledge of Mineral Waters As to what relates to Wine he advises in some places to mix it with an equal quantity of water and Galen observes that Hippocrates regulates by that the just proportion we ought to keep in this mixture So that says he the Wine by its power might drive out what 's hurtful to the body and the water serve to temper the acrimony of the humours But my thoughts are that he does not treat in those places but of particular cases that are there stated and perhaps it was from the vast quantity of Wine they drank in those times where they almost never drank it pure You may see also that Hippocrates regulating the quantity of the Wine which ought to be drank according to the different Seasons of the Year says That in the Summer time you ought to mix a great deal of Water with the Wine in the Spring and Autumn a little less quantity and in the Winter (a) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say Wine more pure or less mix'd which is opposite to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Wine very much mix'd less than in any other time which supposes that in all times you ought to drink a mixture Besides he gives a distinct account of several sorts of Wines then in use exactly describing their qualities Exercise which Hippocrates advises to those that are in health as well as to those that are infirm ought to be used according to the Rules and with the Precautions he has set forth which are the same we touch'd upon en passant in the foregoing Book upon the occasion concerning Herodicus who we said was the Author of the Gymnastick or the Art of Exercising for health On which we must observe that Hippocrates himself in the three Books intituled Of Diet and in the Book of Dreams which is the
sequel of the precedent ones pretends that 't is to him the obligation 's due for the same thing that is for the invention of the Art of Exercise which compleats Diet but these Books have been lookâ—d upon ever since from the time of Galen to be of anothers writing and were then attributed according to the said Galen's remark to Eurypheus Phaon Philistion Ariston or to some other Physician that livâ—d just about the same time that Hippocrates did If I durst give my opinion with the rest I shou'd say that the Books in question might be of Herodicus's writing who has pass'd by the consent of all the Ancients for the Inventor of the Gymnastick However it is the Advices of the Author of these Books in relation to the Art we are going to speak of depend upon the different times one ought to take to walk in and on the condition the person ought to be in before he does it whether it ought to be fasting or after eating somewhat in the morning or evening in the Air the Sun-shine or Shade whether he ought to be naked or cloath'd when he ought to walk slowly and when 't is necessary to run all this in respect to different ages and temperaments and with the design of bringing the body down of dissipating humours or of gaining some other advantage from it Wrestling tho' it be a violent Exercise was numbred with the rest There 's also mention made in the same place of a Play of the hands and fingers which was thought good for health and call'd Chironomie and of an Exercise which was perform'd round a sort of a Ball hung up which they call'd Corycus which they struck forward with all the strength ☞ they had with their hands You may consult the above-mentioned Mercurialis that searches to the bottom of these things And as you have seen in the Chapter concerning Herodicus that Baths were included in the Gymnastick as well as the custom of rubbing and anointing ones self youâ—ll find several directions in this Author upon all this But Galen observes in relation to Baths that they were not â—et common in the time of Hippocrates himself which he gathers from a passage of this ancient Physician where he says (a) De Diaeta in acutis That there are few Houses where you find things necessary for a convenient Bath You 'll see in the next Chapter what Hippocrates thought of Baths and the benefits that might be expected from them As to what remains seeing health does not depend solely on the good use and regular management of Diet nor on Exercise or Ease and that besides 't is of importance to be regular in other things we have mentioned before when we treated of the Causes of Health such are sleep and watchings the air and other bodies which are about us that which ought to be separated from our Bodies or retain'd there and lastly the Passions I say the preservation of our Health depending on all these Causes Hippocrates has not failâ—d to give us Rules for all To begin with those things which ought to be separated from our Bodies or there retain'd he wou'd have us take great care not to load our selves with Excrements or keep them in too long and besides the Exercise we are speaking of which carries of one part of em and which he prescrib'd chiefly on this account he wou'd have us excite or rouze up Nature when it flagg'd and endeavour'd not to expel the rest or take off those impediments which resisted its efforts 'T was for that principally he made use of Meats proper to loosen the body and when those means were not sufficient he wou'd have us have recourse to Clysters and Suppositories The composition of Clysters for persons that were thin and emaciated consisted of Milk and oily unctuous substances which they mixâ—d with a decoction of Chick Pease but for those that were Plethorick they only made use of Salt or Sea-water You 'll see in the Chapter of Purgatives which you 'll come to presently other compositions of Clysters and other particular circumstances relating to this remedy we shall also speak there concerning Suppositories and the manner of preparing them Hippocrates also advis'd Vomitives as a great preservative against distempers which he caus'd to be taken once or twice a Month during the Winter and Spring-time The most simple of them were made of a decoction of Hyssop with an addition of a little Vinegar and Salt He made those that were of a strong and vigorous Constitution take this Liquor fasting whereas those that were thin and weakly took it after Supper But as Vomits are remedies which are used also in distempers weâ—ll speak of them likewise at the same time we do of Purgatives Coition is wholesome in Hippocrates opinion provided you consult your strength and do not pursue it to an excess which he always finds fault with upon all accounts and wouâ—d have it also avoided in relation to sleep and watching You find also in his Writings several remarks concerning good or bad Air and he makes it appear that the good or bad disposition of it does not depend solely on the difference of the Climate but on the situation of every Place in particular which in regard to this he carefully examines into not to insinuate that you ought to be too scrupulous on this point or to oblige any one to quit his Native Country or the place where one's fix'd to seek a better which would disturb Society but to let the Physicians know what sorts of distempers are apt to reign in one place more than another that they may endeavour to prevent them or make it their study to get a proper remedy and from the effects of the different situation of Places compare things in relation to Health and Sickness Lastly Hippocrates knew the good and bad effects of the Passions and wou'd have us in regard to them use a great deal of moderation CHAP. XII The Practice of Hippocrates or his manner of managing distempers General Maxims on which this practice is founded IF we reflect on what was said before of the power which Hippocrates attributed to Nature in relation to the Animal OEconomy and to Distempers in particular of which Nature according to him is the Arbiter and Judge determining them in a certain limited time and by regular movements as we remark'd when we spoke of Crises's we 'll immediately infer that this opinion must carry him so far as to be contented for the most part in being a Spectator of what the strength of Nature performs without doing any thing on his side on this occasion We shall also be confirmâ—d in this opinion if we consult the Books intituled Of Epidemical Distempers which are as it were Journals of the Practice of Hippocrates for you 'll find from thence that this ancient Physician does very often nothing more than describe the symptoms of a distemper and what has happenâ—d to the Patient day after day
day and let out abundance of blood as was necessary If he blooded upon the eighth day in the case here mentioned we have still more reason to believe he did it in the preceeding On the other side it is not probable that he should forget to mention it in a case wherein it was his ordinary practice especially when he puts down Remedies of much less importance not omitting so much as a Suppositor Since therefore says Galen there lies some difficulty upon either of these opinions we ought to determin for that which has least This being supposed I am of opinion that it was used to several of these Patients but that the mention of it was omitted in the History of their cases as a thing suppos'd of course And I rather subscribe to this Opinion because Hippocrates himself takes express notice of bleeding on the eighth day which I imagin he peculiarly remark'd because it was a thing against the usual practice supposing the mention of bleeding the preceeding days as being the common methods Most of the modern Commentators upon Hippocrates are of Galen's opinion But to this it may be answer'd that Hippocrates being very exact as Galen himself acknowledges even in the relation of the most Minute Medicines he us'd such as Suppositors 't is hard to think in this case he would omit the most considerable To this we may add that Galen himself maintains elsewhere that Erasistratus of whom we shall speak hereafter never blooded any body only for this reason that in ennumerating the Medicines he made use of in several occasions he makes no mention of bleeding If this Argument will hold against Erasistratus it will against Hippocrates Besides it was altogether of as great importance that we should be inform'd of the Remedies as of the Process of the distempers The symptoms which arise depending as much upon the practice of the Physician himself as upon the nature of the distemper In all probability where Hippocrates omits the mention of bleeding in any case he did not use it nor is this so much against his principles as Galen would insinuate On the contrary he follows him therein precisely as appears by what has been said already If Hippocrates had blooded his Patients plentifully in Fevers in the beginning of their illness as Galen pretends he would not perhaps have had the opportunity of seeing so many Fevers terminate by Crisis that is by natural Evacuation which come of themselves in certain days This Ancient Physician laid so much weight upon the assistance of Nature and the method of Diet which was his favourite Medicine that he thought if they took care to diet the Patients before-mention'd according to rule they might leave the rest to nature These are his true principles from which he never deviates so that his pieces of eâ—idemical diseases seem to have been compos'd only with an intention to leave to posterity an exact model of management in pursuance of these principles To return to the Rules that Hippocrates prescribes for bleeding (r) Galen Commentâ—on Aphor. 6. lib 6. 't is observable in all diseases which have their seat above the Liver he bleeds in the Arm or some of the upper parts of the Body but for those that were below it he open'd the Veins below as of the Foot the Ankle or the Ham. (s) De ratione victûs in â—cuâ—â—s sub â—inâ—m If the Belly was too Laxative and bleeding was thought necessary Hippocrates ordered the Looseness to be stopt before bleeding Almost all these instances hitherto regard scarce any thing but acute distempers We find several concerning chronical diseases A young man complaining of a great pain of his Belly with a great rumbling while he was fasting which ceased after eating This pain and noise continuing his meat did him no good but on the contrary he daily wasted and grew lean Several Medicines as well Purgers as Vomiters were in vain given him At length it was resolv'd to bleed him by intervals first in one Arm and then t'other (t) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 till he was without blood Epidemic lib. 5. sub Principio till he had scarce any blood left which perfectly cur'd him Hippocrates let blood also in the Dropsie and even in a Tympany in both these cases he prescribes bleeding in the Arm (u) De affectionâ—â— In a disease arising from an over-grown Spleen which is attended by diverse other symptoms he proposes bleeding several times repeated at a Vein of the Arm which he calls the Splenatick Vein We shall speak more of this Vein hereafter He proposes in another place (w) De Morbis lib. 2. bleeding under the Tongue in a sort of Jaundice This perhaps was an Empirical Medicine grounded only upon experience for the use of which he could give no good reason and what confirms me in this opinion is that the Book wherein this remedy is mentioned is supposed to have been written by the Cnidian Physicians who as we have said before were Empiricks Or perhaps it might be grounded upon some reason which is lost to us because we have not the same Idea of the disposition of the Veins and their sympathy with the several parts of the body that the Antients had What Hippocrates advances elsewhere that if we burn in any one the Veins or Arteries of the Temples he can never procreate after seems to be founded upon no better reason We have as much reason to ask what particular communication there is between the Veins of the Temples and the Organs of Generation as between the Liver and the Spleen which are the parts affected in the Jaundice and the Veins of the Tongue This difficulty would lye as heavy upon us as the other if Hippocrates himself his not inform us (x) See for this the Chapter of the Anatomy of Hippocrates that the Seed which comes from all parts of the body and particularly from the Head passes or descends by the Veins of the Temples or behind the Ears so that when one burns those Veins one intercepts the passage of the Seed (y) See the list of diseases known to Hippocrates This opening of the Veins behind the Ears was as we have shew'd before a familiar practice among the Scythians by which they curâ—d themselves of a certain sort of a Sciatica There is no doubt but that bleeding as well as purging which are two Medicines whose effects are not easily to be accounted for must in many cases be Empirical remedies It was sufficient for Hippocrates and the rest of the ancient Physicians to know that they were serviceable in certain cases to induce them to the use of them in those cases tho ignorant of the reasons of their operations We see by what has been said concerning bleeding that there were some occasions in which he did not only bleed once in the course of a distemper but that he did it very largely continuing it sometimes even to swooning Sometimes he blooded
may see what sort of Compound Medicines Hippocrates used If the Book De Affectionibus be his we may infer from thence that he wrote particularly upon this subject The Author in that Book quoting others which treat of Medicaments only These Books bore the title of Pharmaca and Pharmacitis says our Author ut Scriptum est in Pharmacis that is in Libris De Pharmacis Agentibus The word Pharmacitis is an Adjective to which the Substantive Liber which is understood must be joyned Pharmacitis Liber the Book of Medicines But this Book has been ascrib'd to Polybius Son-in-law to Hippocrates and it is remarkable that these Books or this Book of Medicaments is cited no where else by Hippocrates Galen observes that those sort of Books were very rare in those days because the Ancient Physicians used to give a Receipt of the Medicines they used with the History of the distemper they used them for Another thing which is worth our Observation is that the compound Medicines of Hippocrates were but very few and consisted of very few Simples four or five at most We find indeed in Actuarius the description of a very compounded Antidote which he calls Hippocrates's Antidote for which he says the Athenians presented him with a Crown But this is plainly a fiction and one of the specious Titles the Greeks used to give to their Medicines to promote the sale of which we shall see more examples hereafter Here we must take notice that Hippocrates understood Pharmacy or the Art of Compounding or Preparing Medicines (w) Lib. de Theriaca ad Pison This Galen endeavours to prove from a passage of the second Book of the Epidemicks where he introduces Hippocrates speaking after this manner (x) This passage is very obscure as we find it in Hippocrates and Galen or the Author of the Book cited by us giveâ— it us very different from what it is in our Originaly We know the nature of Medicines whereof so many different things are compounded for all are not compounded alike but some after one manner and others after another Some simples ought to be boylâ—d quick others slowly They are likewise differently prepared Some are dry'd some are stampt some are boiled c. The last observation we shall make upon the Pharmacy of Hippocrates is that he not only understood the preparation of Medicines but that he prepar'd them himself or in his own House by his Servants after his own directions This was the practice of the Physicians of those times when neither Pharmacy nor Surgery were become particular professions CHAP. XXIII A List of the Simples us'd by Hippocrates A AGnus Castus Alica Alom Alom of Egypt Scissil Alâ—m Burnt Alom Almonds Amomum * Anagallis Anagyris Alkanet * Ammoniac Gum. Aneth Anise Anthemus or Anthemis Asparagus After-birth humane Asphodil Atriplex * Amber Ass its Dâ—ng Ash-tree Apples B Brass and its Rust Filings Scales and Calx Birthwort Baccharis * Butter Blites Bulbus albus Bulbus parvus growing among the Corn. Bembylium a sort of Melissa Erot. Bryony Buprestis the name both of a Plant and an Animal Beetles Beans Basil Barley Achilles's Barley Bramble Bulls Gall Liver and Vrine C CLivers Goosegrass Cachrys Calamint Calamus aromaticus Cantharides * Capers Cardamomes Casia Castor Cedar and its Rosin Centaury Chalcitis Chamaeleon Chondrus Coleworts Chrethmus Chrysocolla Chrysitis Cinnamon Cneorum Cnidia Grana Cnicus Colocynthis Cucumbers Garden and wild Conyza Coriander Crateogonon Cresses Cumine vulgar and Ethiopian Cyclamen Cyperus Cypress Cytisus Cravfish Cheese Clary Carrots Cinquefoil Cuttle-fish its Bones and Eggs. Chalk D DOg. Daphnoides Daucus Dittany Dittany of Crete Dracontium Dracuncunculus Docks E EBony Elaterium Epipetrum Erviolum Ervum Erysinum Evanthemum Eggs. Elder F FRankincense Frankincense granulated Flower or Meal of several sorts of Grain fine and course Fenugreek Fennel Ferula Fig-tree Garden and wild its Leaves Wood and Fruit c. Frogs Feverfew Fox Dung G GArlick Goose Grass Clivers Goat the Milk Dung Excrements of the Skin Fat and Horns Gourds Gall of Oxen Swine Sea Scorpion c. Galba num Galls Nuts Glans Egyptia Grapes and the mass of 'em after pressing H HEmlock Horns of Oxen Goats and Deer rasp'd and burnt Hellebore white and black Heath Herb Charien Hedgehog Sea Hedgehog Hippomarathrum Hippophae Holoconitis Hyssop vulgar and Cilician Hare's Wool Hemp. Honey Honey of Cedar I JUncus odoratus Iris. Isatis or Wood. Ivie L LOadstone Lettice Lagopyrus Laserpitium Laurel Lentills Lentiscus Lees of Wine Lees of Wine burnt Lotus Lupines Lapis Cyanaeus Magnesius Leeks M MArsh Mallow Mugwort Mushromes Milk Asses Cows Mares Bitches Mastick Tree Mastick Malicorium Mandrake Mallow Meconitis a Meconium purgans Meconium somniferum Meconium an excrement Melanthium Melilot Mint Mercury the Herb. Mulberries Millet Minium Misy Modus a root Molybdaena Moss Mustard Mules Dung Myrica Myrrh Myrrha Stacte Myrtle Myrtidanum N NArcissus Nardus Nitre Nitre red Nuts Thasian Nettle Navelwort O ONions Orache Oats Oak Oyl Oenanthe Oesype Olive Wood Leaves Gall Fruit Stones and Oyl Origanum Orobus Orpiment Orpine P PImpernel Parsley Bastard Pomegranate Pepper Panax b Poppy Peplium Peplus Pompions Parsley Parsley curled Pencedanum Poplar Phaseolus Philistium Pine and its Kernel Peony Pears Pease and dry Purslan Pitch Prassium Pseudodictamnus Pennyroyal Q QUick Lime R RAisins Rhadish Ranunculus Root white Resine Rhamus Rhus Ricinus Rocket Rose Rosemary Rubia Rue S SOthernwood Silver and its Flower Spices of all sorts Stag its horns c. Services or Sorb Apples Sea water Succory yellow Sheeps Fat Marrow and Dung Saffron Sagapenum Sandarach Gum. Savoury Savin Sage Sâ—â—mmony Squills Scolopendrium Salt Saâ—â—â—f Thebes Seseri Sesamum Sesamoides Spodium Sulphur Stavesacre Staebe Struthium Stybis Styrax Soot Sea Calfs Lungs Spelt T THorn white Thorn Egyptian Turnep Turpentine Teda Terra Aegyptiaca Terra nigra Samia Thapsia Thlapsi Time Thymbra Tithymalus Tithymalis Torpedo Tortoise Tragus Tribulus Trefoil Trigonum V VIper Verbascum Verdegrise Verjus Vine it 's Wood Leaves and Tendrels Vinegar Violets white blue Urine W WOrmwood Wax white Wax Wheat Whey Worms Wine of several sorts X XAnthium Z ZEa These are the names that occur in Hippocrates except perhaps a very few which may have escap'd our notice The Greek like most other Languages having suffered great alteration and the names of diverse Plants being chang'd it became within 2 or 3 Ages different to determin what Plants Hippocrates design'd by some of 'em but the number of 'em is so small that the loss is not very considerable CHAP. XXIV Some instances of particular Cures of some Diseases both Acute and Chronical WE shall find here besides the practice of the general rules before laid down several particular Medicines of which no mention has been made We have already seen Hippocrates's distinction between Fevers that were not symptomatical but were of themselves the original distemper and those which attended inflamations We have observ'd that in the first sort of Fevers Diet
distempers are judgâ—d more by conjecture than Art tho in this case those that have experience are preferrable to those that have not (m) De victus ratione in acutis One Physician often approves what another does not This exposes their Art to the calumny of the people who therefore imagining it to be altogether vain compare it to that of the Augurs of whom one says of the same Bird that if it appears on the Left side it is a good omen if on the Right a bad one and others the quite contrary (n) Praeceptiones We ought never to warrant the success of a Medicine for the minutest circumstances cause the distemper to vary and make 'em sometimes more tedious and dangerous than we expected (o) Lib de arte The end of Physick is absolutely to cure Diseases or at least to abate their violence but those that are desperate ought never to be undertaken that is where the distemper is of it self incurable or become so by the total destruction of the Organs for Physick reaches not so far (p) Lib. de decenti habitu A Physician ought to visit his Patients frequently and to be very attentive to every thing (q) Lib de medico 'T is requisit for the credit of a Physician that he should have a healthy look and a good complexion for men are apt to suspect that he that has not his own health can scarce be instrumental to procure it to another in the same case (r) Ibid de decent habitu A Physician ought to be decent in his habit grave in his manners moderate in all his actions chast and modest in the conversation he is obligâ—d to have with Women no loiterer ready to answer every body with candour sober patient ready to do his duty without disturbing himself (s) â—â—â—â—ceptiones 'T is no dishonour to a Physician when he is in doubt about the method of treating his Patient in any case to call in other Physicians and to consult with them what is to be done to the benefit of the Patient (t) Ibidem In point of Fees a Physician ought to be honest and good natur'd and to have a regard to the ability of the Patient On some occasions he ought neither to ask nor expect a Fee especially if the Patient be a poor man or a stranger whom he is obliged to relieve There are other occasions wherein the Physician may agree with his Patient before hand for his reward that the Patient may with more confidence commit himself to his care and be assurâ—d that he will not desert him (v) Dâ—prisca medicina Those that thought Physick an invention that deserv'd to be attributed to the Gods have not only followed the common opinion but in my mind right reason also This is what Hippocrates says of Physick in general From whence we may draw two inferences of importance to our History First That there were a great number of Physicians in his time although but few good ones Secondly That the use of Consultations was also then establish'd And lastly That Physick was even then exposâ—d to detraction and calumny as well as since CHAP. XXVII Of the Writings of Hippocrates COncerning the Writings of this Ancient Physician there are three things chiefly to be observ'd First The esteem they have always met with Secondly The distinction between those Writings which are legitimate and those that are supposititious Thirdly His Language and Stile In the first place the Writings of Hippocrates have been always had in particular veneration Galen says that what Hippocrates has deliver'd has always been esteemed as the word of a God and assures us that if what he writ be a little obscure thro his brevity or if he seems in certain places to have omitted some little things he has nevertheless written nothing which was not very much to the purpose The Works of Hippocrates says Suidas are very well known to all that study Physick we have such a respect for them that they think what he has said to come out of a Divine Mouth and not a Human. A plain mark of the esteem that all Ages have had for the Writings of Hippocrates is that there is scarce any Author who has had so many Commentators Amongst the most Ancient of them Galen speaks of one Asclepiades Rufus Ephesius Sabinus Metrodorus Satyrus Heraclides Tarentinus Heraclides Erythraeus and one Zeuxis to whom we may add Galen himself and Celsus who have often translated him word for word We shall mention another party of these Authors in the sequel He has had undoubtedly several others among the Ancients without reckoning those that explain'd his obscure words as we shall see by and by And the number of the Moderns is greater as we shall shew in its proper place To come to the distinction of the true Writings of Hippocrates from the spurious we shall begin with a List given by Erotian This Author who liv'd under Nero distinguishing the Books of Hippocrates or those which past for such in his time according to the subject of which they treated ennumerates the following The Books says he which relates to the Doctrine of signs are the Book called the Prognostick two Books of Predictions which two latter are not Hippocrates 's as we shall shew hereafter and the Book of the Humours The Books which relate to Physick and which are the most rational are the Book of the winds of the Nature of Man of the Epilepsie of the Nature of Children of times and seasons The Books concerning the manner of treating distempers are the Book of fractures of the articulations of ulcers of wounds and darts of wounds of the head of the Physicians repository that called Mochlicus of the Emeroides and Fistula's of diet two of diseases of Ptisan of the laces or parts in man two Books of Womens distempers one of barren Women one of Nourishment and one of Waters The Aphorisms and six Books of Epidemick diseases treat of mixt matters Those which follow concern the Art in general the Book entituled the Oath that called the Law and that of the Ancient Physick As for his Ambassadors Speech and the Speech at the Altar they serve only to prove the kindness of Hippocrates to his Country but concern not Physick at all Galen speaks of one Artemidorus Capito and one Dioscorides both of Alexandria who collected and published the works of Hippocrates together He adds that this Edition had the approbation of the Emperor Adrian under whom they livâ—d and who had a great affection for Physick However Galâ—z taxes them with taking too much liberty and changing several words of the Text which they did not understand VVe don't certainly know whether the Catalogue of the Books of Hippocrates publish'd by these Authors were greater than that which Erotian gives us but t is probable it was since Galen who follow'd them very near mentions several Books of Hippocrates's or that past
for his whose names are not met with in Erotian â—s Catalogue Tâ—ese Books are that of Affections and other of internal Affections and two others of Diseases Besides those mentioned by Erotian Galen speaks also of an Addition to the Book call'd Mochlicus which is the Book we now have of the nature of the Bones He saw likewise the Title of the Book of the Glands which past for Hippocrates's though Galen thought it spurious He acknowledg'd likewise the Book entituled Tht Seven Months Birth the following which is of the Eighth Months Birth being but a part of the former Galen seems also to speak of several Books of Diet whereas Erotian quotes but one And although that he believed not that the prenotions of Cos were Hippocrates's 't is apparent that they pass'd commonly for such in his time and that the seventh Book of Epidemick diseases was likewise generally received tho Galen lookt upon 't as manifestly spurious Suidas the latest Greek Author speaks this of the books of Hippocrates at the end of the passage before cited The first says he of the books of Hippocrates contains the Oath the second his Predictions the third the Aphorisms a work above human capacity The fourth contains that admirable collection which goes by the name of Hexecontabiblos that is to say consisting of sixty Books which contain all the rest that relates to Physick and Philosophy We have yet remaining as many as Suidas reckons those whose Titles are found neither in Erotian nor that I know of in Galen are the following The Book of the Nature of a Woman of what relates to Virgins of the Seed of the flesh of Superfaetation of the time of Childrens breeding of teeth of the Heart of the Sight of the Eye of Anatomy of the manner of drawing dead Children out of the womb of the Physician of decent habit and of Precepts We find at the end of the Collection of Hippocrates's works certain pieces under the name of (a) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 strange pieces These consist of Letters supposed to have been sent or received by Hippocrates or written upon his account of an Act of the Senate of the Athenians in his favour two discourses mentioned by Erotian by the name of the Speech of the Embassy or Deputation and of the Speech before the Altar of which the first is attributed to Thessalus the Son of Hippocrates the sccond to Hippocrates himself of his Life and Genealogy written by Soranus of a little book of Purgers and another of the manner of giving Hellebore We shall not trouble the Reader with all the Criticks have said concerning the distinction of the true Writings of Hippocrates from the counterfeit or supposititious We shall only take notice that several were already suspected in the time of Galen and Erotian himself amongst those which they give us the list of Some of these Books have been ascribed to the Sons of Hippocrates others to his Son-in-Law or to his Grandsons or to his Disciples or to his Predecessors as the book of Articulations and of Fractures which some have thought to have been writ by his Grandfather who was of the same name tho others have maintained that this first Hippocrates wrote nothing They have likewise ascrib'd them to other Physicians who lived either before or at the same time with him and to the Philosophers as Democritus who is suppos'd to be Author of the book of the nature of man Galen with abundance of reason imputes this fathering of Books and Titles so frequent among the Antients to the Covetousness of the first Copyers and he tells us that the considerable summs which the Kings Attalus and Ptolomy who vied who should have the finest Library gave to those that brought them the writings of great men gave occasion to this falsifying of Names and Authors and to the confusion we find in the disposition of antient works As we have said we shall not amuse ourselves with the judgment of the Criticks Those that have a mind may consult Mercurialis who has written particularly upon that subject It will be of use however to take notice that to those suppositions which we have spoken of must be attributed the contradictions found in some of the opinions of Hippocrates some being directly opposite to others In the second place we observe that (b) See the Chapter of the signs of Diseases these books of Hippocrates which are of the best reasoning are the most suspected We must further take notice that those pieces before call'd Strange which are annexed to the works of Hippocrates are most part of them and perhaps all of them spurious as we shall shew more particularly in the following Chapter As for the Style and Language of Hippocrates which is the third thing to be examin'd we must not wonder that Capito and Dioscorides did not always understand Hippocrates tho they were native Greeks Erotian who liv'd under Nero had composed a Glossary that is a Dictionary of the Obscure and Obsolete words us'd by him or â—at least of those which had not been of a long time in use in the Greek tongue By this Glossary which is yet extant we are informed that several Authors had employ'd themselves upon the same subject before him amongst which he names the following Xenocritus a Grammarian who he says was the first that wrote upon that subject Callimachus disciple of Herophilus Bacchius Philinus an Empirick Apollonius Cittiaeus Apollonius Ophis Dioscorides Phocas or rather Phacas Glaucius another Empirick Lysimachus of Cos Euphorion Aristarchus this was in all probability the famous Grammarian Aristocles Aristopeas Antigonus and Dydymus both of Alexandria the later also a Grammarian Epicles Lycus Neapolitanus Strato and Mnestheus To these we ought also to add Galen whose Glossary is yet remaining We have (c) See the Chapter of the Anatomy of Hippocrates at the beginning already observed that the Style of Hippocrates is very concise which makes it frequently difficult to understand him To this may be added that 't is otherwise very grave and Erotian observes (d) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that the Phrase of Hippocrates is the same with Homer â—s His language seems to be properly Ionique and Aelian pretends as we have seen (e) See Book the Chapter of Democritus before that Hippocrates us'd this Dialect in Favour of Democritus whereas being himself of Cos his Dialect should have been the Dorick But Galen observes (f) In lib. Hippocrat de fractur Comment 1. that the language of Hippocrates inclines somewhat towards the Attick and he adds that some have said that he writ in old Attick Be it how it will it appears that there was a considerable change in the Greek Tongue during the space of four hundred years which might have elapsed between Hippocrates and the first that wrote a Gloss upon him by the difficulty these Authors met with altho they were Greeks as well as himself to understand what he meant by such
we should have had no occasion to complain of his brevity The letter directed to Dionysius is yet more merry than t'other He desires him to come to his house while he should be with Democritus For all the letters run upon this voyage of which it seems he was to inform the whole world before hand and to have an eye over the conduct of his wife * That shâ— play no pranks in his absence she has been very well brought up by her father says he but the Sex is frail and had need be kept within their duties in which a friend may succeed better than relations c. We 'll content our selves with these two samples by which the reader may judg how they agree with the gravity of Hippocrates As to the letters which Democritus and Hippocrates wrote one to another there are two of the former in one he speaks of the voyage that Hippocrates made to see him and to give him Hellebore having been call'd to that purpose by Democritus his fellow Citizens who took him for a mad man because he liv'd in a solitary place and laughed and did not mind those that came to see him You found me says Democritus writing of the order of the World of the disposition of the Poles and the course of the stars and you judg'd thereby that those that sent for you were fools and not I. Thereupon Democritus delivers in two words his opinion in Philosophy concerning the Images or Species diffused thro' the air of which his books as he says makes mention He tells Hippocrates afterwards that a Physician ought not to judg of his Patient by the aspect only for in that case he Democritus should have run the risque of passing for a mad man in his judgment He concludes with telling Hippocrates that he had sent him back the book which this Physician had written concerning madness which book is immediately annexed after this letter It consists but of one page which is nothing but a repetition of some lines of Hippocrates's book of the falling sickness which is likewise cited in this The second letter or the second book of Democritus address'd to Hippocrates is intituled of the nature of man which is the title of a book written by Hippocrates which has been ascrib'd to Democritus as we have already observed This book or letter is very near twice as long as the former It contains an enumeration of the principal parts of the body and the offices they perform There is nothing in it that deserves our observation except what he says of the Spleen that it sleeps and is good for nothing which opinion we shall see confirmâ—d (d) See the Chapter of Aristotle and that of Eratistratus hereafter There is but one letter of Hippocrates to Democritus now extant which is much shorter than the two abovementioned In the beginning of it he tells him that if the Physicians at any time succeeded in this art the people ascribed it to the Gods but if they miscarried they used to lay the blame upon them I have says Hippocrates got more scandal than honour by my practice and tho' I am advanced in years yet I have not attained to perfection in this art and even Aesculapius himself the inventer of it never carried it so far After this he takes occasion briefly to mention his journey to Democritus testifies for him that he is far from being mad and desires him to write to him often and to send him the books he had composed The letters of Hippocrates to Damagetus give a more particular account of his conversation with Democritus when he went to cure him one of them is very long in it he gives Damagetus an account of his voyage and all that happen'd to him till his return We have already seen in the preceeding book the occasion of this journey and the success of it I shall say no more of it for fear of being thought too prolix only give me leave to remark that these letters have nothing of the stile of Hippocrates It may be easily imagined that the pretended madness of Democritus and the journey with Hippocrates undertook with a design to cure him afforded matter enough to make a sort of a Romance To conclude I don't know who this Damagetus was The letter to King Perdiccas is of the same stamp with the rest that is to say equally spurious We there find as well as in that which is address'd to King Demetrius some Anatomical observations and some maxims relating to Physick which however don't deserve to be taken notice of except a few that are drawn out of the writings of Hippocrates The small book of Purgatives contains some necessary precautions to be observed in the taking of them It seems more probable that it is a collection of precepts given by Hippocrates upon this subject than a genuine work of that ancient Physician The life of Hippocrates written by Soranus contains besides what has been said in the beginning of this book an account of his countrey his extraction the time of his birth his studies and his masters in short an abridgment of the most remarkable things that happen'd to him in the course of his profession till his death Hippocrates says Soranus having lost his father and mother quitted his own countrey and fixed in Thessaly (e) We shall hereafter speak of this Physician Andreas in his book of the Original of Physick maliciously reports that the reason of it was because he had set the Library at Cnidus on fire Others write that the occasion of this journey was to learn the practice of other places and to furnish himself with an opportunity of understanding his profession better by the different cases that daily came before him But Soranus of Cos pretends that Hippocrates was influenc'd by a dream to make his abode in Thessaly He made himself continu'd this Author to be admir'd by all Greece through which he travell'd and practis'd Physick One day amongst the rest being call'd conjointly with Euriphon another Physician but older than himself to a consultation about Perdiccas son to Alexander King of Macedonia whom they gave out to be sick of a hectick feaver he soon found out that this Prince's mind was more indisposed than his body and as he carefully watched all his actions observing that he chang'd colour at the sight of Phila Mistress to the King his father he judged that he was in love with her and found the means to cure him by letting this fair one know the dangerous effects of her beauty He was also desired by the people of Abdera to come and cure Democritus of his madness and to free their City from the plague After this Soranus informs us how he refused to come to the Illyrians and even to the Court of Artaxerxes where this latter sickness raged how he hindred the war which the Athenians were going to make upon the Inhabitants of Cos by calling the Thessalians to their relief
was broke And (g) Nam Hippocrates clarus arte medicinae videtur honestissime fecisse qui quosdam errores suos ne posteri errarent confessus est Quintilian commends him upon the score of this very same ingenuity Neither do we find that he was afraid to cite examples of such patients as dyed under his hand Of two and forty sick men whose distempers he describes in the first and third Book of Epidem Diseases only seventeen escaped all the rest dyed For this reason we may believe him when he tells us in the second book of the abovemention'd Treatise as he takes occasion to speak of a certain sort of Quinsie that was accompany'd with ill symptoms that all the persons he ever saw sick of it recovered again If they had dyed continues he I should have certainly told it We may discover by this the character of an honest man and indeed it is visible in all the maxims which we have already cited as likewise in those comprehended in the Oath (h) See in the following Book the Chapter of the Disciples of Hippocrates which he demanded of Disciples the substance whereof is as follows that a Physician is obliged to honour the person who teaches him this art as his own natural father to let him participate of all that lyes in his power in relation to the necessaries of life to respect his children or his posterity like his own brothers and to teach them Physick in his turn if they have a design that way without asking any gratuity to communicate to them all that he knows in the same faculty as well as to his own children and to all such as will bind themselves by this Oath but not to others to order his patients such a (l) This comprehends all that a Physician is to do for his patient See the Chapter of Diet. regimen as he shall judg most convenient for them and to the utmost of his power hinder them from any thing that may hurt them never to give poyson to any one or advise others to do it not to give women remedies to procure abortions but to follow his profession like an honest man not to cut any one for the Stone in the bladder but leave the operation to those that make it their profession that whatever house he comes into he shall only do it with a design to cure the sick and behave himself so that they shall not have any matter of suspicion against him or be able to accuse him of doing the least injury to any one whatever particularly of having abused any wife or woman or young man whether free or slave in short that he will take care to keep secret and to conceal whatever he sees or hears while he is concern'd or otherwise when he shall judg that it is a thing which ought to be published The conclusion is that he wishes all manner of prosperity to him in this practice if he keeâ—s his Oath religiously and quite the contrary if he is perjur'd The person that takes this Oath swears by (k) See for this Lib. 1. Apollo the Physician by Aesculapius by Hygia by Panacaea and by all the other Gods and Goddesses Hippocrates has been reproached with violating this oath himself as to that which relates to the procuring of abortions We have spoken of this case already but the book from whence this story is borrowed is said to have been written by Polybus I don't know how to excuse this fact any other way This is not the only accusation that has been urg'd against Hippocrates Some have charged him with setting the Library at Cnidus on fire It has been likewise pretended to decry his reputation that he (l) Plin. Lib. 29. Cap. 1. See Book 1. above prescribed no remedies but such as he copied out of Esculapius's Temple in the Isle of Cos making them pass for his own which he was the easier able to do since the Temple was burnt down soon after he had committed this piece of Plagiarism 'T is true indeed that Hippocrates orders those that are troubled with a Peripneumony to take (m) See the Chapter of the Cure of Diseases in the third Book Pine Apples and Honey which is the very same remedy that Esculapius prescribes in this case as we have seen already 'T is likewise certain that Hippocrates advised ptysical people to eat fat and salted meats as Esculapius counsels them to eat Bacon But after all if Hippocrates was lineally descended from this God he might easily enough come to the knowledg of these remedies either by tradition from his Ancestors the Asclepiadae who were all Physicians without being obliged to copy them in the Temples of Aesculapius Among the things that have been said against Hippocrates we don't comprehend what the Physicians of following ages have urged to confute his opinions or to destroy the credit of his method All which we shall examine as occasion presents it self CHAP. XXX Of Phaeon Euryphon Philistion Ariston Pythocles Philetas Acumenus Aegimius Physicians contemporary with Hippocrates 'T is not to be question'd but that there were several Physicians in the time of Hippocrates The number of Physicians or at least of those that bore that name was always great Hippocrates has observ'd it himself where he says that there were several Physicians by name but few that were so in reality But we scarce know any of either sort that lived at the same time with Hippocrates his reputation having wholly effaced theirs Galen mentions four Physicians who he says lived partly before Hippocrates and partly at the same time Their names are Phaon or Phaeon Euryphon Philistion and Ariston I don't know who the first was As for Euriphon of Cnidus he must needs be older than Hippocrates since he passes for the Author of the Cnidian Sentences that are cited by Hipocrates However Soranus makes both of them meet at a consultation in Perdiccas's Pallace as we have already shown As for Philistion he might very well pass for the contemporary of Hippocrates since he was the master of Eudoxus the Cnidian who flourished in the CIII Olympiad of whom we shall speak hereafter This Physician I mean Philistion was of Locri or as some say born in Sicily I know nothing of his opinions but that he believed with Hippocrates (a) Aut Gellius lib. 17. Cap. 11. that there was a passage for part of what we drink thro' the lungs Neither do I know who was the brother of Philistion whom (b) Tardar pass lib. 2. Cap. 1. Caelius Aurelianus cites without naming him otherwise Philistion has likewise written a treatise of Cookery as Athenaeus has observed and as we shall have occasion to show in the Chapter of Diocles in the following Book Ariston has passed for the Author of Hippocrates's Book of Diet. Diogenes Laertius speaks of six men that have bore this name without reckoning the father of Plato but says nothing that one of them was a Physician
In the seventh Book of Epidemical Diseases there is mention just made of one Pythocles of whom it is reported that he gave his Patients water or milk mingled with a great deal of water To these we may joyn the (c) See the Phaedrus of Plato and Xenophon of the sayings and deeds of Socrates Physician Acumenus a friend of Socrates of whom Plato and Xenophon talk very advantageously All that these Authors report of his opinions is that he looked upon a walk in the open air to be much better (d) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 We have translated these words after the sense of Mercurialis which seems to be just than in Portico's and other covered places There remains an ancient Physician named Aegimius of Velia or Elis who according to Galen was the first that writ about the Pulse altho' the title of his Book was about (e) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 instead of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cal. de differ Puls lib. 4. Palpitation because at that time Pulse and Palpitation signified the same thing as we may gather from some passages in Hippocrates where the latter of these words signifies exactly the same with the former If this Aegimius was not cotemporary with the abovementioned he lived at farthest in the time of Diocles or Praxagoras of whom we shall speak in the following Book THE HISTORY OF Physick PART I. BOOK IV. Of what happen'd relating to this Art from the death of Hippocrates to Chrysippus exclusively CHAP. I. Thessalus and Draco the Sons of Hippocrates Polybus his Son in law some others of his descendants and some persons of the same name with Hippocrates HIppocrates left two sons Thessalus and Draco who followed the profession of their Father and a daughter that was married to one Polybus who was likewise a Physician His two sons had each of them one to whom they gave the name of their father and this name was in such esteem in the family that there were no less then (a) Suidas See the Chapter of Praxagoras below seven one after another who bore it who were all Physicians Hippocrates's eldest son was of greatest reputation He spent the greatest part of his life (b) Galen in lib. Hippocr de nat hum Comm. 1. in the Court of Archelaus King of Macedonia To him as likewise to his brother and even to their children were attributed some of the Books found in the Collection of Hippocrates ' even before the time of Galen who calls Thessalus an Admirable man (c) Galen ibid Polybus also rose to great reputation and continued to teach the scholars of his father-in-law There are yet some books remaining under his name one of which treats of the means of preserving health others of diseases and one of the nature of the seed which agrees almost in every thing with Hippocrates 'T is very probable that these books likewise are suppositious Those which were found amongst the works of Hippocrates and which were anciently ascribed to Polybus do him more honour being as we have observed before of all the books father'd upon Hippocrates those wherein the reasoning is most exact and most coherent From one of these books entituled of the nature of the Foetus is drawn the greatest part of what we have before laid down concerning the manner of conception or of the formation of the Foetus in the Womb. We find likewise in the fourth book of Diseases which has been laid with almost universal consent to the same Polybus a very Ingenious System of the causes of Diseases drawn from the four humours established by the Author which are (d) See upon this Book 3. the Pituita the Blood the Bile and the Water Galen testifies for Polybus that he never deserted the opinions of Hippocrates nor made any alteration of him any more than Thessalus but this seems not probable especially of the former if the book we have cited be truly Polybus's we see already in it some difference in the System and we find further that the opinion concerning the passage of part of the drink into the Trachaea Arteria which is as we have observed maintained in more than one place of Hippocrates's works is vigorously opposed We must not confound the sons of our Hippocrates with those of whom (e) Aristoph in Nubibus 〈◊〉 Galen quod â—nimi mores sequantur temper cor p. Cap. 4. Athâ—naeuâ— l. 3. Aristophanes Galen and Athenaeus speak so brutish and lewd that they gave occasion to the people of Athens to call all persons of that infamous Character the sons of Hippocrates These were the sons of one Hippocrates an Athenian who was himself esteemed a man of no worth There is yet another Hippocrates among the Greek Authors who wrote of Veterinary or the Physick of Beasts which are collected into one Volume or rather the Collectors have made bold with the name of the great Hippocrates and have father'd works upon him in which he had no concern CHAP. II. Prodicus Dexippus and Appollonius disciples of Hippocrates Ctesias his Kinsman HIppocrates was not contented to teach Physick only to those of his own family As he practised Physick (a) Galen affirms this and it may be gathered out of the Maxims of Hippocrates that have beeâ— cited out of a principle of humanity and not purely for profit or glory he imparted his knowledg to strangers being the first of the Asclepiades that did it so that Physick which was before confin'd within the limits of one Family was afterwards communicated to all the world and might be learn'd by any that would apply themselves to it We have seen already the Oath he exacted of his Scholars One of the most considerable of these was one Prodicus of Selymbra (b) Plin. l. 29 C. 1. who is said to have invented the use of unguents in Physick to have first anointed the body with those compositions for preservation of health and for the cure of distempers This Medicine became so common among the Antients that they proceeded even to the abuse of it especially after they had introduc'd Liquid perfumes or sweet-scented Oyls of which Virgil makes this complaint (c) Casia was a sort of Spâ—e infused in Oyl of Olives to persume it Et Casia liquidi corrumpiturnsus Olivi These being used as well for pleasure as necessity and lewd women and effeminate men making the greatest consumption of them this abuse grew so scandalous that sober persons were afraid to use them lest they should be taken to use them to the same purpose that they did For this reason 't was that the Philosopher Aristippus who found these sweet Oyls serviceable to him made such imprecations against those Debauchees that brought a scandal upon the use of perfumes But Pliny seems to confound this disciple of Hippocrates with his master The Unguentarie medicine being a branch of the Gymnastick it is without doubt the invention of (d) See Book the 2 Herodicus and not of Prodicus
Spirit For says he the Spirit is the cause of heat and motion so that if it becomes motionless the blood or moisture necessarily grow chill And for this reason we find the Feet be numm'd and sometimes the upper parts when they are pressed by a Chair or any other way this compression stopping or interrupting the Spirit that it cannot move as usual causes the Blood to grow cold By what has been said we may see that this Philosopher suspected the Nerves on these occasions no more than Hippocrates did and was no better acquainted with their use than his Master Aristotle We have also a Book of Theophrastus of Stones wherein he treats of several sorts of Stones as well Genuine as others of their nature the manner of their formation and the places where they are found c. And as we may see by the Catalogue of his Writings he gave to some of them the same Titles that Aristotle had done before to his perhaps the singular number was substituted for the plural in the Title of the Book of Aristotle of the Stone of which before CHAP. II. Heraclides of Pontus ALmost at the same time there liv'd another Philosopher who engag'd in Physic This was Heraclides of Pontus who studied partly under Speusippus the Scholar of Plato and partly under Aristotle This Heraclides writ a Book of the cause of Diseases and another entituled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 What he call'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is without respiration was a disease in which sometimes as our Author affirms men lay thirty days without breathing as if they were dead yet the body did not corrupt We have seen before that Empedocles cured a woman of this distemper which is a sort of suffocation of the Matrix Diogenes Laertius reckons fourteen famous men of the name of Heraclides of which two were Physicians and not counting him of whom we are speaking The first who was the eighth of the fourteen was Scholar to Hicesius a Physician of whom we shall speak hereafter the second was a famous Empirick of Tarentum whose History we shall likewise give To all these Heraclides we may add Hippocrates Father and Heraclides Erithreus of whom also hereafter CHAP VIII Diocles. 'T Is time to quit the Philosophers and return a little back to re-assume the Physicians The first of this Profession after Hippocrates and his Family that made any noise in the world was Diocles Carystius whom the Athenians for that reason called the (a) Theodor. Priscians Second Hippocrates (b) Plin. lib. 20. cap. 20. Celf. Praefat. All the Antients agree that he came presently after the Father of Physick whom he succeeded very near both in time and reputation He 's suppos'd to be Author of a Letter yet extant Addressed to Antigonus King of Asia which shews that Diocles lived in his time and not in the time (c) Tiraquell de Nobil cap. 21. and after him Wolfgangus Justus in his Chronologia Medicorum Who also holds that he lived both under Darius the Son of Hystaspes and under Antigonus tho between those two Princes there passed two entire Centuries of Darius Son of Hystaspes as two modern Authors have written But the Chronological Errors which we have detected upon the occasion of the pretended Letters of Hippocrates shew that we are not to rely much upon proofs of this nature this Letter of Diocles being no less to be suspected than the others Those that place Diocles in the time of Darius Son of Hystaspes are manifestly in an errour Others have gone on the other side too low if I be not mistaken But however it be we find in this Letter rules for preservation of health which consist in foreseeing Diseases by certain signs and preventing them by certain Remedies The Body is there divided into four parts the Head the Breast the Belly and the Bladder and there are Medicines there prescrib'd to preserve these parts from their usual Distempers He prescribed Gargarisms to purge the Head and Frictions For the Breast he advises vomiting after Meals and Fasting He ordered the Belly to be kept open not by Medicine but by proper Diet such as Blites Mercury Garlick boyled the Herb Patience Colwort Broth confections with Honey For the distempers of the Bladder he appointed some Diuretick Medicines such as the Roots of Selery and Fennel boyl'd in Wine with the water of the Decoction of Daucus Smyrnium of Elder or Chiches Diocles wrote several Books of Physick which are lost Amongst the rest was one of Diseases their Causes and Cure a fragment of which is cited by (d) De Locis affect lib. 3. c. 7. Galen concerning the Disease called the Melancholick or Flatulent Disease wherein Diocles speaks thus There is a Disease whose seat is about the Stomach which some call Melancholy others Flatus or Wind in which after eating things hard of digestion men spit abundance of very clear Spittle their Belches are sowre with Wind and heat in the Hippocondria with a rumbling motion not at first but sometime after and often violent pain in the Stomach which extend in some even to the back After the Meat is perfectly digested all ceases and returns again after eating The same symptoms sometimes take a man fasting and sometimes after Meals and force him to throw his victuals undigested up again and sometimes bitter hot phlegm or so sowre as to set their Teeth an edge These distempers for the most part come in youth but come when they will they hold a long time We may suppose they that are troubled with it have too much heat in the veins which receive the nourishment from the Stomach and that the Blood which they contain is thereby thickned For it is plain that those veins are obstructed or stopt from this sensible proof that the nourishment is not distributed thro the body but remains crude upon the stomach instead of passing into the Channels which ought to recieve it and going the greatest part of it into the lower Belly it is thrown up the next day by vomit Another proof that the heat is greater than naturally it ought is not only the heat which the parties feel but the immediate relief they find by taking cold things Diocles adds that some hold that in these distempers the orifice of the Stomach which is joined to the Guts is in flamed and that this inflamation causes the obstruction and hinders the aliments from descending in due time into the Guts and that by their stop the inflation of the Stomach the heat and other symptoms before mention'd are occasioned Diocles had a peculiar opinion of Fevers We must judge says he of things which we cannot see by those which we can see we observe that external inflamations abscesses and wounds are attended by Fevers therefore when a Fever takes any body though we cannot externally discover any abscess wound or inflamation we must however believe that there is some such thing within the body His practice
was much the same with that of Hippocrates He blooded and purged after the same manner and upon the same occasions His particular method in every distemper may be seen in (e) Acuti Pass l. 3 c. 17. Caelius Aurelianus The same Author reports that Diocles caused all those that were troubled with the Iliack passion to swallow a Leaden Bullet a Medicine of which I find no mention in Hippocrates and which might perhaps be of Diocles's own invention He distinguished between the Ileus and Chordapsus which two names Hippocrates seemed to give to the same distemper Diocles signified by the former of these names a distemper of the intestina tenuia and by the latter of the intestina crassa He practised also Surgery and invented an instrument to draw out the head of a Dart when it was left in the wound which was called by his name in Celsus his time He invented also the manner of (f) Galen de Faâ—ciâ—s Bandage for the head which went also by his name Galen observes that this Physician was the first that wrote of Anatomical Administration that is of the manner and order of dissection for the better displaying the parts of the body He gave at the same time this account for the Silence of those that preceded him and of the motives that induced him to write upon that subject (g) De Adminisâ— Anatom lib. 2. Before Diocles says Galen Physick being almost entirely limited to the family of the Asclepiades the Fathers taught their Sons Anatomy and bred them from their infancy to the dissection of Animals So that it going from Father to Son by way of Manual Tradition it was needless to write of the manner because it was as impossible they should forget it as their Alphabet which they learnt almost at the same time But the Art of Physick spreading beyond this family by means of the Scholars of Hippocrates Diocles wrote upon this subject in favour of those whose Fathers were not Physicians Thus far Galen of Diocles who nevertheless by Galen's own report had made no great progress in Anatomy He satisfied himself with what his predecessors had done who were no great Anatomists as we have already observ'd Galen testifies likewise for Diocles that he practiced Physick out of a principle of Humanity as Hippocrates had done and not for Pront or Glory which were motives upon which other Physicians acted He speaks of him elsewhere as a great man in his Art and affirms that he was master of it in every part Athenaeus mentions a piece of Diocles which treated of Poysons and another which teaches (h) This Book was entitled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the manner of dressing victuals Athenaeus tells us of several other antient Physicians that wrote upon this latter subject and mentions amongst others Philistion whom we have spoken of before Erasistratus Philotimus Glaucus and Dionisius Their design in probability was not so much to please the taste as to render the food more wholesom Nevertheless Plato complains (i) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that the Art of Cookery was crept into Physick under pretence of dressing for health whereas it had the quite contrary effect and he asserts that this Art is just of as much use in Physick as (k) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Art of washing and perfuming is to the Gymnastick of which we have already spoken He calls the art of Cookery and the art Washing and Beautifying the flatterers of Physick and Gymnastick Diocles wrote likewise the distempers of Women He compos'd also a Book entitled of the weeks wherein he treated undoubtedly of the critical days after the manner of Hippocrates There was also another Diocles of Chalcedon who is cited by (l) Medicament local l. 7. c. 4. Galen but I know not when he lived CHAP IX Praxagoras PRaxagoras came a little after Diocles living at the latest about the time of Aristotle His Fathers name was (a) De dissectiones â—ulv cap ult Nicarchius b He was at the Isle of Cos as well as Hippocrates and of the same Family that is of the Asclepiades with this peculiarity () Method Med. lib. 1. that he was the last the Family being extinct in him This is the observation of Galen with which Suidas does by no means agree who says there were seven descendants from Hippocrates all Physicians who successively bore his name but I am rather apt to credit Galen Praxagoras is reckon'd the third after Hippocrates who worthily maintain'd the honour of rational Physick Galen speaks honourably of him as a man that understood his business excellently well He left several Books which are lost Galen cites some of them as that of the use of abstinence those of the ordinary and extraordinary symptoms of Diseases another entituled of natural things or things which naturally happen and another of Medicaments He past in his time for a great Anatomist but all that he wrote upon that subject being lost we know nothing of his Sentiments except that he believed with Aristotle that the Nerves come from the Heart He added (d) Galen de decret Hippocrat â—laton that the Arteries turn to Nerves as their cavities grow straight towards the extremities He held with this Philosopher that the brain was of little use and look'd upon it as only an appendix to the spinal Marrow He maintain'd also that the (e) De dignoseeâ—d Puls l. 4. cap. 2. Arteries contain'd no Liquor an opinion which we shall see driven farther by Erasistratus From hence we may conclude that Praxagoras was the first Author that distinguish'd the arteries properly so call'd from the veins The Physicians of the preceding ages having indifferently call'd both veins and arteries by the name of veins Praxagoras was the first that distinguish'd with more exactness than before the humours or juices of the body (f) See the Anatomy of Hippocrates and Aristotle Rufus Ephesius reports that he said of these juices that one was sweet another (g) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 equally mix'd or temperate (h) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 another resemosed Glass which was a sort of flegin very penetrant another sower another nitrous another of the colour of a Leek another salt another bitter another like the yolk of an Egg. He added besides these two other sorts of Juices one which he call'd (i) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Raking that is which produced a sense in the part as if it were scrap'd with a Knife or some such Instrument the other he call'd (k) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 These names as well as those taken from the colour of a Leek and the Yoâ—k of an Egg are really new But those of sowre bitter nitrous c. were applied by Hippocrates to the same things before fix'd (l) Introduct capâ— 9. Most diseases according to him depended upon these dispositions of the humours and it was his opinion that it was in vain to look any where else than into
they were cur'd There are some other (a) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Liber Books which bear the name of MERCVRY which prove likewise that Astrology made a great part of his Physick The Ancients were so strongly possessâ—d that Magick and Astrology made a part of Physick that some wou'd place Zoroaster an ancient King of Bactria who is generally taken to be contemporary to Ninus King of Assyria or who according to Berosus was the same with Cham the Son of Noah among the Physicians because he had the reputation of having been a very great Magician or the Inventor of Magick To conclude 't is probable Mercury might make use of some ordinary or natural Medicines but Antiquity scarce affords us any proof of it The Herb (b) Vid. Hoâ— Odyss MOLY that MERCVRY gave to Vlysses as of force against the charms of Circe is in the number of superstitious Remedies but that which bears his Name (c) Mercurialis or Mercury and which is in common use seems to have been employ'd by its Inventor as now it is To the Mercurialis we may add Coral of which they say MERCVRY taught the use against the bitings of Serpents which was to drink it in pure Wine The Author of the Hymn to MERCVRY which is father'd upon Orpheus who reports this of Coral speaks of MERCVRY's Grot where all sorts of good things were hidden where no diseases came where remedy was to be had for the bitings of Serpents for Lunaticks and Lepers So far Orpheus but he does not tell the means MERCVRY us'd on these occasions I find nothing more particular concerning the Physick of HERMES than that the ancient Aegyptians deriv'd from him in general all that belongâ—d to that Profession (d) Poâ—itiâ— or lib. 2. cap. 15. Aristotle speaks of an ancient Law among the Aegyptians by which the Physicians were forbidden to move the humours that is to purge before the fourth day which if they did t was at their own peril and risque This agrees with what was said before of the sacred Books by which Physicians were oblig'd to regulate their practice and perhaps this Law might be contain'd in that Book ascribâ—d to MERCVRY Diodorus takes notice that the Aegyptian Physick consisted mainly of Abstinence Clysters and Vomitories but we have no proof that this practice was establish'd by HERMES We have nothing more on this subject but that after his death he was worshipp'd as a God a practice that grew very frequent afterwards as may be seen in the following Articles CHAP. VI. OSYRIS or APIS or SERAPIS and ISIS other Inventors of Physick (a) Diodor. hb. 1. There were anciently to be seen in the City of Nâ—sa which some place in Arabia others in Aegypt the following Inscriptions upon two Pillars in Mystick Characters The first says â—hus My Father is CHRONOS the youngest of the Gods I am King OSYRIS who have extended my Conquests over the whole Earth from the uninhabitable parts of the INDIES to those under the BEAR to the sources of the DANUBE and thence to the OCEAN I am the eldest Son of CHRONOS and have brought him a fair and noble Race I am Father of the Day there is no place in the World where I have not been and I have fill'd the Vniverse with my good Deeds The second was in these words I am ISYS Queen of all this Country who have been instructed by THOUT No one can unbind 〈◊〉 I bind I am the eldest Daughter of CHRONOS the youngest of the Gods I am Wiâ—e and Sâ—â—â—er to King OSYRIS I am the first that tâ—â—ghâ— Mâ—â— Agriculture I am Mother to King HORUS 'T is I that blaze in the Dog-Star I buiâ—â— the City of Bubaâ—tus Adieu adieu 〈◊〉 where I was bred From these tâ—â— Insâ—â—â—â—ions we may infer first That OSYRIS and ISIS who have been taken for the most ancient King and Queen of Aegypt were contemporary to HERMES or THOVT If the conjecture advanc'd in the Article precedent were well grounded they wou'd be of the same Family too Others aver that THOVT was Counsâ—llâ—â— or Secretary to this King and Queen without taking notice of any relation between ' em We are told in the second place by the Inscription of Osyris That he had fill'd the World with his benefits The same Authâ—r that recites the Inscriptions tells us in the same Book That the Aegyptian Priests affirm HERMES to be the Inventor of ARTS and SCIENCES in general and that the Kings meaning the King OSYRIS and Queen ISIS had invented those which were necessary to Life Of these Arts none is so useful as Agriculture of which ISIS boasts her self to be Inventress The same invention is ascrib'd to OSYRIS nor is it the only one they share in common betwixt ' em They are likewise said to have invented Physick First t is said of OSYRIS because 't is said of APIS who appears to have been the same (a) Plutarch de Iâ—â—d Oâ—yâ—id Person APIS says Clemens Alexandrinus a Native of Aegypt invented Physick Cyril who was of the same City with Clemens says likewise That APIS an Aegyptian one of the most considerable of those that serv'd in their Temples and who understood natural Philosophy was the first that invented the ART of PHYSICK and practic'd it with greater success than any that preceded him teaching it afterwards to ESCULAPIUS By this APIS shou'd not be the same with OSYRIS who was King of Aegypt whereas the other was but a Priest but we may either suppose Cyril to be mistaken or that APIS was King and Priest at the same time Be it as 't will Plutarch assures us That APIS and OSYRIS according to the Tradition of the Aegyptians themselves were but two different Names for the same person which Strabo confirms as does also (a) De curâ affect gentil Theodoret. The same Author wou'd have it likewise that SERAPIS was a third name for OSYRIS (b) Tacit. Hist lib. 4. Some ancient Authors maintain Serapis to have been the same with ESCVLAPIVS (c) De Idolatr lib. 1. cap. 19. Vossius fancies that the Aegyptians gave that name to Joseph to whom they paid Divine Honours in acknowledgment of the benefits their Country receiv'd from him but if SERAPIS be the same with OSYRIS he must be abundance older We shall speak of the Temple of Serapis in the Article of Esculapius As for ISIS Diodorus tells us That the Aegyptians affirm that ISIS invented divers medicaments and that she was very expert in Physick For which say they being already rais'd to be a Goddess she still takes care of the health of Men. Hence it is that they who implore her succour find themselves immediately reliev'd They say That the reputation of ISIS is not founded upon vain Fables like those of the Greeks but upon evidence of Fact That 't is supported by the testimony of almost all the Vniverse who honour this Goddess for the succour they find from her in
receive life and sensation He affirms elsewhere that it is this faculty which gives nourishment preservation and growth to all things The manner wherein nature acts or its most sensible administration by the means of the faculties according to him consists on one side in attracting what is good and agreeable to each species and in retaining preparing or changing it and on the other side in rejecting whatever is superfluous or hurtful after she has separated it from the good The Physick of Hippocrates generally turns upon this hinge as also upon that inclination which as he supposes every thing has to be joynâ—d with what agrees with it and to remove from all that is contrary to it self supposing first an affinity between the several parts of the body which is the reason that they sympathize reciprocally in the ills they suffer as they share the good that arrives to them in common according to the great Maxim which he establishes (e) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that every thing concurs consents and conspires together in the body with relation to the animal O Economy as we shall find more particularly in the following Chapter Thus I have shown what it is that Hippocrates calls nature He no otherwise describes this principle of so many surprizing operations unless it be that he seems to compare it to a certain heat whereof he speaks after this manner (f) De Carâ—â—bus What we call heat or hot seems to me to have something of immortal in it that understands all that sees and knows as well what is present as what is to come At least we find a great resemblance between the effects which he ascribes to that heat of which more hereafter and those which he attributes to nature As for the rest altho Hippocrates acknowledges in some places fire water air and earth or fire and water in particular to be the first elements of the bodies yet he seems in others to admit three different principles the solid the liquid or the humid and the Spirits which he explains otherwise (g) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Equidem lib. vi sect viii by the container the contained and that which gives motion But as he particularly made use of these principles to explain all the accidents of humane body we shall forbear to give his meaning of them till we come to that Chapter In one of Hippocrates's Books which is entituled of Flesh (h) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the latter is more natural and answers the subject of the Book better according to others of principles we find something very singular concerning the formation of the universal world and of Animals in particular He at first supposes that the production of man or his being that he has a Soul that he is in health or that he is sick all his good and ill fortune in the world that he is born or dies to proceed from things (i) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 elevated and above us or the coelestial bodies By this we may understand the Stars the influences of which according to this Author have no small power over humane bodies But he explains himself when he ascribes all the above-mention'd things to that immortal heat of which above that is generally suppos'd to be the same thing with what he calls nature in other places The greatest part of the heat continues he that I have describ'd having gainâ—d the highest place at the time of the Chaos form'd that which the ancients call'd the Aether another part of this heat or the greatest part of the heat which remain'd continuing in the lowest space which is call'd Earth there was a meeting of Cold and Dry there and a great disposition to motion A third part keeping the middle space between the Aether and the Earth made what we call the Air which is likewise somewhat hot At last a fourth part that lay nearest to the Earth and was the thickest and most humid of all form'd what we call water All these things having been jumbled together by a circular motion at the time of the above-mention'd Chaos that portion of heat which continu'd in the earth being dispers'd into several places and divided into several parts in one place more and less in another the earth was dried up by this means and form'd as it were (k) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 membranes or tunicles in which the matter growing hot as it were by a sort of fermentation that which was most oyly and least moist was quickly burnt and so form'd the Bones but that which was more viscid and in some measure cold not being combustible form'd the Nerves or rather the Tendons and Ligaments which are hard and solid As for the Veins they were form'd of the coldest and most viscid parts the more glutionous parts being dry'd by the heat and from thence came the Membranes and Skins of which they are compos'd The cold particles which had nothing in them oleous or viscid being dissolv'd produc'd the humour or liquor which these Membranes inclose The Bladder with its contents were form'd after the same manner as were also all the other cavities In those parts continues Hippocrates where the glutinous exceeds the fat the Membranes are made and in those where the fat is stronger than the glutinous Bones are produc'd The Brain â—â—ing the (l) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Capital City seat or proper place of cold and glutinous which the heat cou'd neither dissolve not burn t is first of all formed of the membranes in its supersâ—â—e and afterwards of bones by the means of a small portion of fat which the heat had roasted the marrow of the back-bone is made after the same manner being cold and glutinous like the brain and consequently very different from the marrow of the bones which being only fat is not cover'd with any membranes The heart having likewise a great deal of glutinous matter in it became haâ—d and glutinous flesh inclos'd in a membrane and hollow The Lungs being near the heart are thus formed The heart by its own heat presently dries up the most viscid part of the moisture makes a sort of scumm full of Pipes and Channels being likewise filled with divers little veins The Liver is made of a great quantity of moist and hot that has nothing fat or viscid in it so that the cold being too strong for the hot the humid is coagulated or thicken'd Upon the same foot Hippocrates reasons about the production of the Spleen the Reins and some other parts What we have already cited may serve to give a Specimen of his manner of Philosophizing Upon which I make this reflection that this System of Hippocrates seems to be not very different from that of Heraclitus the heat by which the former supposes all things to have been produced being very near the same thing with fire which according to the latter was the origine or principle of all Bodies as we have observed above
in the Chapter of that Philosopher Several passages may be taken out of the first Book of Diet to confirm what we have advanc'd In a word says he in one place of this Book the Fire has disposâ—d all things in the body in imitation of the Vniverse c. But while we are upon the Philosophy of Hippocrates lest the Alchymists shou'd take it ill at our hands we must by no means omit this passage in the first Book above-mention'd viz. that those that work in Gold beat it wash it and melt it by a gentle Fire because a violent fire is not proper for such a business 'T is pretended that Hippocrates here had an Eye on the mystery of the Philosophers Stone of which we shall have occasion to speak in the second part of this History And this may suffice for his Philosophy Let us now descend from the general principles of bodies to the particular principles of the human body and leaving all Philosophical reflections let us see what observations we can find in Anatomy there for those properly belong to the History of Physick Those that are minded to see more particularly how far Hippocrates carried his Philosophy may consult the Books de Flatibus de natura hominis the first de natura pueri de dieta and some others But the Reader ought to be inform'd that the above-mention'd treatises are suspected to be spurious and not to belong to him His opinion concerning the seat of the Soul is to be found in the following Chapter CHAP. III. Of the Anatomy of Hippocrates 'T Is a difficult matter to give a just extract of the Anatomy of Hippocrates for three things hinder us from knowing so much of this subject as it is necessary we shou'd In the first place we find several contradictions in the writings of Hippocrates or rather in those that are ascrib'd to him Secondly tho we shou'd heap together all that he says of each part 't would be an imperfect account and not very coherent Lastly tho so many faults had not crept into the Text as there have or there were less disagreement in the original MSS. yet his stile is so concise and there are some places in him so obscure as being frequently expressed in terms peculiar to himself that are not to be found elsewhere that 't is extreamly difficult for one to understand him aright tho he is never so great a master of the Greek Language For this reason we should very much regret the loss of one of Galen's Books intituled The Anatomy of Hippocrates if we had not just reason to suspect this Author of partiality when he engages for the interests of this antient Physician sufficient proofs whereof we shall see below that purely belong to Anatomy The helps that a man might expect to find upon this occasion from the modern Commentators is but inconsiderable If any light is to be had from them we ought rather to trust the antient interpreters than those of our Age because it is to be feared that the latter full of their new discoveries imagine they see them every where like those that can discover in Homer the most hidden mysteries of all Arts and Sciences or those quick-sighted Genelemen that can find the Philosophers Stone in all Books whatever let the matter they treat of be what it will That we may not be charg'd with being guilty of this prepossession which we have condemn'd our selves we will faithfully set down all that we cou'd find relating to this argument in the works of Hippocrates and take particular care not to omit the least thing about which the Anatomists of the following ages have had different opinions or pretended to make any discovery that so we may give every man his due and rob none of the praise that really belongs to them I will not pretend to confine my self to a certain order but indifferently set down every thing as it comes to hand and refer the Reader that expects a continu'd description or a greater insight into the nature connexion situation of the parts of the body to a full treatise of Anatomy which he will find in the Chapter of Galen (a) De locis in homine The nature of the Body says Hippocrates is the principle or foundation on which all the reasoning of Physick is built One wou'd be apt to infer from hence that he had a mind to recommend Anatomy as one of the principal means by which we may discover the nature of the body What helps to confirm this conjecture we find that immediately after he teaches what is the situation composition and use of the several parts 'T is undeniable that Hippocrates wou'd have us study the nature of the body but we may discover by some other places that he thought we cou'd arrive to the knowledge of it no way so well as in the practice of Physick for he laughs at those who fancy'd themselves to be great Physicians because they knew something in Anatomy (b) De Prisc medâ—cin Some Physiciansiand Philosophers says he pretend that a man can't understand the art of Physick unless he knows what man is what is his first formation and after what manner his Body is made But for my part I am of opinion that all that has been said or written about nature by these people belongs more to the art of Painting than it does to Physick and am perswaded that a man can't know nature clearly but by the means of Physick as those that are well skill'd in that art will soon perceive Here he seems to address himself to the Philosophers that preceeded him and to these of his own time who as we have observ'd had thrust themselves into this profession and were the first that began to instruct themselves in Anatomy It has been remarked above that the Asclepiadae the Predecessors of Hippocrates had other helps of knowing the humane body besides Anatomy As for Hippocrates 't is probable that he did not neglect this latter way as being related to Philosophy which he had carefully studied There wou'd not be the least pretence to doubt of this if the little Book or fragment attributed to him and intituled little Book or fragment attributed to him and intituled Anatomy was really of his writing but this is not certain since Erotiam who has given us a Catalogue of Hippocrates's Books makes no mention of it Be it as it will we shall see anon how far he advanc'd in this Science either by Anatomy or any other method which we have touch'd upon in the Chapter of Asclepiadae Hippocrates owns in one place that the (c) Lib. de Aliment Veins come from the Liver which is the origine and fountain of them as the Heart is of the Arteries In another place he maintains that the Veins and Arteries proceed equally from the Heart (d) Lib. de Carnibus There are two hollow Veins that come from the Heart one of which is call'd the