On Ancient Medicine
By Hippocrates
Written 400 B.C.E
Translated by Francis Adams
Part 1
Whoever having undertaken to speak or write on
Medicine, have first laid down for themselves some hypothesis to
their argument, such as hot, or cold, or moist, or dry, or
whatever else they choose (thus reducing their subject within a
narrow compass, and supposing only one or two original causes of
diseases or of death among mankind), are all clearly mistaken in
much that they say; and this is the more reprehensible as relating to an art which all men avail themselves of on the most important
occasions, and the good operators and practitioners in which
they hold in especial honor. For there are practitioners, some
bad and some far otherwise, which, if there had been no such
thing as Medicine, and if nothing had been investigated or found
out in it, would not have been the case, but all would have been equally
unskilled and ignorant of it, and everything concerning the sick would
have been directed by chance. But now it is not so; for, as in all the
other arts, those who practise them differ much from
one another in dexterity and knowledge, so is it in like manner
with Medicine. Wherefore I have not thought that it stood in
need of an empty hypothesis, like those subjects which are
occult and dubious, in attempting to handle which it is
necessary to use some hypothesis; as, for example, with regard to things above us and things below the earth; if any one should treat of
these and undertake to declare how they are constituted, the
reader or hearer could not find out, whether what is delivered
be true or false; for there is nothing which can be referred to
in order to discover the truth.
Part
2
But all these requisites belong of old to Medicine, and an origin and way have
been found out, by which many and elegant discoveries have been made, during a
length of time, and others will yet be found out, if a person possessed of the
proper ability, and knowing those discoveries which have been made, should
proceed from them to prosecute his investigations. But whoever, rejecting and
despising all these, attempts to pursue another course and form of inquiry, and
says he has discovered anything, is deceived himself and deceives others, for
the thing is impossible. And for what reason it is impossible, I will now
endeavor to explain, by stating and showing what the art really is. From this
it will be manifest that discoveries cannot possibly be made in any other way.
And most especially, it appears to me, that whoever treats of this art should
treat of things which are familiar to the common people. For of nothing else
will such a one have to inquire or treat, but of the diseases under which the
common people have labored, which diseases and the causes of their origin and
departure, their increase and decline, illiterate persons cannot easily find
out themselves, but still it is easy for them to understand these things when
discovered and expounded by others. For it is nothing more than that every one
is put in mind of what had occurred to himself. But whoever does not reach the
capacity of the illiterate vulgar and fails to make them listen to him, misses
his mark. Wherefore, then, there is no necessity for any hypothesis.
Part
3
For the art of Medicine would not have been invented at first, nor would it
have been made a subject of investigation (for there would have been no need of
it), if when men are indisposed, the same food and other articles of regimen
which they eat and drink when in good health were proper for them, and if no others
were preferable to these. But now necessity itself made medicine to be sought
out and discovered by men, since the same things when administered to the sick,
which agreed with them when in good health, neither did nor do agree with them.
But to go still further back, I hold that the diet and food which people in
health now use would not have been discovered, provided it had suited with man
to eat and drink in like manner as the ox, the horse, and all other animals,
except man, do of the productions of the earth, such as fruits, weeds, and
grass; for from such things these animals grow, live free of disease, and
require no other kind of food. And, at first, I am of opinion that man used the
same sort of food, and that the present articles of diet had been discovered
and invented only after a long lapse of time, for when they suffered much and
severely from strong and brutish diet, swallowing things which were raw,
unmixed, and possessing great strength, they became exposed to strong pains and
diseases, and to early deaths. It is likely, indeed, that from habit they would
suffer less from these things then than we would now, but still they would
suffer severely even then; and it is likely that the greater number, and those
who had weaker constitutions, would all perish; whereas the stronger would hold
out for a longer time, as even nowadays some, in consequence of using strong articles of food, get off with little trouble, but others
with much pain and suffering. From this necessity it appears to
me that they would search out the food befitting their nature,
and thus discover that which we now use: and that from wheat, by
macerating it, stripping it of its hull, grinding it all down,
sifting, toasting, and baking it, they formed bread; and from
barley they formed cake (maza), performing many
operations in regard to it; they boiled, they roasted, they
mixed, they diluted those things which are strong and of intense
qualities with weaker things, fashioning them to the nature and
powers of man, and considering that the stronger things Nature
would not be able to manage if administered, and that from such
things pains, diseases, and death would arise, but such as Nature could
manage, that from them food, growth, and health, would arise. To such
a discovery and investigation what more suitable name could one give than that of Medicine? since it was
discovered for the health of man, for his nourishment and
safety, as a substitute for that kind of diet by which pains,
diseases, and deaths were occasioned.