Page:History of Greece Vol IV.djvu/419

ARRIVAL OF PYTHAGORAS AT KROTON. 401 The physician acquired his knowledge from observation of men Bick as well as healthy, and from a careful notice of the way in which the human body was acted upon by surrounding agents and circumstances : and this same knowledge was not less neces sary for the trainer ; so that the same place which contained the best men in the latter class was also likely to be distinguished in the former. It is not improbable that this celebrity of Kroton may have been one of the reasons which determined Pythagoras to go thither ; for among the precepts ascribed to him, precise rules as to diet and bodily regulation occupy a prominent place. The medical or surgical celebrity of Demokedes (son-in-law of the Pythagorean Milo), to whom allusion has been made in a former chapter, is contemporaneous with the presence of Pythag- oras at Kroton ; and the medical men of Magna Grsecia main- tained themselves in credit, as rivals of the schools of the As- klepiads at Kos and Knidus, throughout all the fifth and fourth centuries B.C. The biographers of Pythagoras tell us that his arrival there, his preaching, and his conduct, produced an effect almost electric upon the minds of the people, with an extensive reform, public as well as priva'e. Political discontent was repressed, incontinence disappeared, luxury became discredited, and the women, hastened to exchange their golden ornaments for the simplest attire. No less than two thousand persons were converted at his first preach- ing ; and so effective were his discourses to the youth, that the Supreme Council of One Thousand invited him into their assem- bly, solicited his advice, and even offered to constitute him their qui n'ayant pas etc amaigris par un precede' re'gulier de 1'art, ont les chairs muqueuscs. Les aneiens medccins savoient, comme on le voit, procurer ramaigrissemcnt conformement a 1'art, ct reconnoitre a ses effets -.in amaigrissement irregulier: toutes choscs auxquclles nos me'decins sont (strangers, et dont on ne rctrouvc 1'analogue que panni les entraineurs An- glois. Au reste cct ensemble de connoissances empiriques et theoriqucs doit etre mis au rang des pertes facheuses qui ont accompagne la longue et turbulcnte transition du monde ancien au monde moderne. Les admira- blcs institutions destinees dans 1'antiquite u developper el affermir le corps, ont disparu : 1'hygiene publique est destitue'e a cet egard do toute direction Bcicntifique et generale, et demeure abandonnee completement au hasard." See also the remarks of Plato respecting Herodikus, DC Republica, iii, p> 106 ; Aristotel Politic, iii, 11, 6 ; iv, 1, 1 viii, 4, 1. YO3L. IV. 26dC.