in our day; and some suppose that the whole successful practice of Homoeopathy rests on the primal principle which Hippocrates advanced, although the philosophy of it claims a distinctly scientific basis in the principle similia similibus curantur.  Hippocrates had great skill in diagnosis, by which medical genius is most severely tested; his practice was cautious and timid in contrast with that of his contemporaries.  He is the author of the celebrated maxim, “Life is short and art is long.”  He divides the causes of disease into two principal classes,—­the one comprehending the influence of seasons, climates, and other external forces; the other including the effects of food and exercise.  To the influence of climate he attributes the conformation of the body and the disposition of the mind; to a vicious system of diet he attributes innumerable forms of disease.  For more than twenty centuries his pathology was the foundation of all the medical sects.  He was well acquainted with the medicinal properties of drugs, and was the first to assign three periods to the course of a malady.  He knew but little of surgery, although he was in the habit of bleeding, and often employed the knife; he was also acquainted with cupping, and used violent purgatives.  He was not aware of the importance of the pulse, and confounded the veins with the arteries.  Hippocrates wrote in the Ionic dialect, and some of his works have gone through three hundred editions, so highly have they been valued.  His authority passed away, like that of Aristotle, on the revival of science in Europe.  Yet who have been greater ornaments and lights than these two distinguished Greeks?

The school of Alexandria produced eminent physicians, as well as mathematicians, after the glory of Greece had departed.  So highly was it esteemed that Galen in the second century,—­born in Greece, but famous in the service of Rome,—­went there to study, five hundred years after its foundation.  It was distinguished for inquiries into scientific anatomy and physiology, for which Aristotle had prepared the way.  Galen was the Humboldt of his day, and gave great attention to physics.  In eight books he developed the general principles of natural science known to the Greeks.  On the basis of the Aristotelian researches, the Alexandrian physicians carried out extensive inquiries in physiology.  Herophilus discovered the fundamental principles of neurology, and advanced the anatomy of the brain and spinal cord.

Although the Romans had but little sympathy with science or philosophy, being essentially political and warlike in their turn of mind, yet when they had conquered the world, and had turned their attention to arts, medicine received a good share of their attention.  The first physicians in Rome were Greek slaves.  Of these was Asclepiades, who enjoyed the friendship of Cicero.  It is from him that the popular medical theories as to the “pores” have descended.  He was the inventor of the shower-bath.  Celsus wrote a work on medicine which takes almost equal rank with the Hippocratic writings.