THE LAW OF HIPPOCRATES

Journeys in diverse places ...  Ambroise Pare
translated by Stephen Paget

On the motion of the heart and blood in animals
William Harvey. . .  Translated by Robert Willis

The three original publications on vaccination
against smallpox . ... ..  Edward Jenner

The contagiousness of puerperal fever
O. W. Holmes

On the antiseptic principle of the practice of surgery
lord Lister

The physiological theory of fermentation
Louis Pasteur
translated by F. Faulkner and D. C. Robb (Revised)

The germ theory and its applications to medicine and
surgery (Revised) . ... ..  Louis Pasteur
translated by H. C. Ernst

On the extension of the germ theory to the etiology
of certain common diseases (Revised) Louis Pasteur
translated by H. C. Ernst

Prejudices which have retarded the progress of
geology. ... . ... ..  Sir Charles Lyell

Uniformity in the series of past changes in the
animate and inanimate world sir Charles Lyell

INTRODUCTORY NOTE

Hippocrates, the celebrated Greek physician, was a contemporary of the historian Herodotus.  He was born in the island of Cos between 470 and 460 B. C., and belonged to the family that claimed descent from the mythical AEsculapius, son of Apollo.  There was already a long medical tradition in Greece before his day, and this he is supposed to have inherited chiefly through his predecessor Herodicus; and he enlarged his education by extensive travel.  He is said, though the evidence is unsatisfactory, to have taken part in the efforts to check the great plague which devastated Athens at the beginning of the Peloponnesian war.  He died at Larissa between 380 and 360 B. C.

The works attributed to Hippocrates are the earliest extant Greek medical writings, but very many of them are certainly not his.  Some five or six, however, are generally granted to be genuine, and among these is the famous “Oath.”  This interesting document shows that in his time physicians were already organized into a corporation or guild, with regulations for the training of disciples, and with an esprit de corps and a professional ideal which, with slight exceptions, can hardly yet be regarded as out of date.