CHAPTER VIII
BRIEF EXTRACTS FROM SOME OF THE HIPPOCRATIC WRITINGS
The statements which have thus far been made in these
pages with regard to Hippocrates are only of a general
character, and it may therefore be interesting for the
reader to have placed before him a few selected extracts
from the writings which have formed the basis of these
statements. The English text here used is a translation
of the German version of Robert Fuchs, to which reference
has already been made. It would have been a pleasure to
use for this purpose the admirable English translation of
Frederick Adams, published in 1849 under the auspices
of the Sydenham Society of Great Britain; but, unfortunately,
this version contains only a part of the Hippocratic
writings, and, besides, this writer did not at that time
have the advantage of consulting the French and German
versions which have been published since 1849.
It seems almost unnecessary to state here, by way of preface, that the small amount of space which may properly be devoted to these extracts renders it necessary to present many of them in a very fragmentary and disconnected form, merely enough text being furnished to give the reader some slight idea both of the manner in which Hippocrates and those associated with him handled certain medical topics, and also of the views which they entertained with regard to the same subjects.
BRIEF EXTRACTS FROM SOME OF THE HIPPOCRATIC WRITINGS
Aphorisms.—I.—1. Life is short, art is long, the right moment
lasts but an instant,[1] experience is often deceptive, a correct
judgment is hard to reach.*
- ↑ Daremberg (Hist. de la Méd.) makes the following comments on this
