Several lives of Hippocrates have been written.  The one most frequently quoted is that of Soranus of Ephesus (not the famous physician of the time of Trajan), and the statements which he gives are usually accepted, viz., that he was born in the island of Cos in the year 460 B.C.; that he belonged to an Asklepiad family of distinction, that he travelled extensively, visiting Thrace, Thessaly, and various other parts of Greece; that he returned to Cos, where he became the most renowned physician of his period, and died about 375 B.C.  Aristotle mentions him but once, calling him “the great Hippocrates.”  Busts of him are common; one of the earliest of which, and I am told the best, dating from Roman days and now in the British Museum, is here represented.

Of the numerous writings attributed to Hippocrates it cannot easily be determined which are really the work of the Father of Medicine himself.  They were collected at the time of the Alexandrian School, and it became customary to write commentaries upon them; much of the most important information we have about them, we derive from Galen.  The earliest manuscript is the “Codex Laurentianus” of Florence, dating from the ninth century, a specimen page of which (thanks to Commendatore Biagi) is annexed.  Those of you who are interested, and wish to have full references to the various works attributed to Hippocrates, will find them in “Die Handschriften der antiken Aerzte” of the Prussian Academy, edited by Diels (Berlin, 1905).  The Prussian Academy has undertaken the editorship of the “Corpus Medicorum Graecorum.”  There is no complete edition of them in English.  In 1849 the Deeside physician, Adams, published (for the Old Sydenham Society) a translation of the most important works, a valuable edition and easily obtained.  Littre’s ten-volume edition “OEuvres completes d’Hippocrate,” Paris, 1839-1861, is the most important for reference.  Those of you who want a brief but very satisfactory account of the Hippocratic writings, with numerous extracts, will find the volume of Theodor Beck (Jena, 1907) very useful.

I can only indicate, in a very brief way, the special features of the Hippocratic writings that have influenced the evolution of the science and art of medicine.

The first is undoubtedly the note of humanity.  In his introduction to, “The Rise of the Greek Epic,"(21) Gilbert Murray emphasizes the idea of service to the community as more deeply rooted in the Greeks than in us.  The question they asked about each writer was, “Does he help to make better men?” or “Does he make life a better thing?” Their aim was to be useful, to be helpful, to make better men in the cities, to correct life, “to make gentle the life of the world.”  In this brief phrase were summed up the aspirations of the Athenians, likewise illuminated in that remarkable saying of Prodicus (fifth century B.C.), “That which benefits human life is God.”  The Greek view of man was the very antithesis of that