APHORISM, a principle expressed tersely in a few telling words or any general truth conveyed in a short and pithy sen tence, in such a way that when once heard it is unlikely to pass from the memory. The name was first used in the Aphorisms of Hippocrates, a long series of propositions concerning the symp toms and diagnosis of disease and the art of healing and medicine. The term came to be applied later to other sententious state ments of physical science, and later still to statements of all kinds of principles. Aphorisms have been especially used in dealing with subjects to which no methodical or scientific treatment was applied till late, such as art, agriculture, medicine, jurisprudence and politics. The Aphorisms of Hippocrates form far the most celebrated as well as the earliest collection of the kind. The first aphorism, perhaps the best known of all, which serves as a kind of introduction to the book, runs as follows:—"Life is short, art is long, opportunity fugitive, experimenting dangerous, reasoning difficult: it is necessary not only to do oneself what is right, but also to be seconded by the patient, by those who attend him, by external circumstances." Another famous collection of aphorisms is that of the school of Salerno in Latin verse, in which Joannes de Meditano, one of the most celebrated doctors of the school of medicine of Salerno, has summed up the precepts of this school. The book was dedicated to a king of England. It is a disputed point as to which king, some authorities dating the publi cation as at moo, others assigning a later date.
Another collection of aphorisms, also medical and also in Latin, is that of the Dutchman Hermann Boerhaave, published at Ley den in the year 1709; it gives a terse summary of the medical knowledge prevailing at the time, and is of great interest to the student of the history of medicine.