HIPPOCRATES, commonly called the Father of Phy sic, was the most renowned physician of ancient Greece, and the oldest medical writer of whom there are any au thentic works now extant. He was a native of the island of Cos, which had been long celebrated in the annals of me dicine, being the seat of one of the schools founded by the Asclepiades or descendants of .Esculapius. Hippocrates himself belonged to that family, and is reckoned by his biographers the 18th in a direct line from that personage. Among the number of his ancestors was Podalirius, the son of tEsculapius, who, along with his brother Nlachaon, followed the Grecian army in the Trojan war. His genea logy by the mother's side was equally honourable ; as, in this line, he was the 20th descendant of Hercules. These genealogies may be fabulous, but they were credited among the ancients, and tended to increase the veneration in which the character of this great physician was held. Very few details of the life of Hippocrates have been trans mitted to us; but the singular eminence of his character makes the biographer dwell with pleasure on circum stances, which, in the life of another man, would appear un worthy of attention. Hence a variety of unimportant ru mours are stated, and the arguments for and against their probability are studiously discussed.
He was born in the first year of the 80th Olympiad, or 458 years before Christ, in the reign of Artaxerxes Longi manus of Persia, and was the contemporary of Socrates, Herodotus, and Thucydides. Ills father Heraclides, and his grandfather Hippocrates the elder, who were both emi nent physicians, bestowed much pains on his education in literature and general science, as well us in medicine. He studied polite literature and eloquence under Gorgias of Leontium, a celebrated rhetorician. He is said to have studied the physical sciences under Democritus ; but it rather appears that he was not acquainted with that philo sopher till he was more advanced in life, and already cele brated as a medical practitioner. He enjoyed, from the circumstances of his ancestors, and the spirit of the place of his nativity, great incitements to medical studies, and great advantages for the prosecution of them. Under these favourable auspices, he acquired an early relish for the medical profession, and devoted himself to it ever after, with ardour and assiduity. Besides studying in the school be longing to his native islands, he studied the gymnastic medi cine under Herodicus, by whom it was invented, and he travelled much in Greece, Thessaly, and Thrace, where he made many observations on the history of epidemic diseases. The greater part of his professional life seems to have been spent at Larissa, in Thessaly. One Andreas, who wrote on the history of medicine, assigns a less honourable mo tive for his peregrinations. He says that he absented him
self, in order to escape from the punishment due to some larcenies which he had committed in the library of the me dical school of Cnidos, where he was said to have transcrib ed some of the books, and then burned the originals. This account, however, entirely originated in the jealsousy of the Cnidian school, to which Andreas belonged, and the precepts of which were controverted by Hippocrates. It is inconsistent with the sentiments of high honour which were conspicuous in all the conduct of Hippocrates. Others said that he fled, because he had copied some inscriptions in the temple of lEsculapius, detailing the cures of sick persons, who thus recorded their acknowledgments to that deity. This report is equally groundless with the other, and does not correspond with any thing that we know of the tendencies of ancient prejudice. He seems to have also travelled in Africa and Asia ; but the chief scenes of his travels were on the European continent, where he frequently visited different cities and countries, for the purpose of relieving epidemic distempers, with which they were occasionally afflicted. While a dreadful pestilence prevailed among the Illyrians, he was earnestly invited by that people to favour them with the advantages of his medical skill ; but, on inquiring into various circum stances attending that epidemic, lie concluded that hiS ser vices would be ineffectual. He declined the journey ; and finding reason of apprehension that the same disease would extend to Thessaly and Greece, he sent his sons to these countries, for the purpose of preparing them to meet the visitation with proper precautions. In a plague at Athens, he is said to have contributed much to the health of the city, by ordering large fires to be lighted for purifying the air, and by burning various perfumes in private houses, in the manner of the Egyptians. his sons, also, gave material as sistance. These accounts, however, do not well correspond with historical dates. The great plague of Athens, describ ed by Thucydides, happened when Hippocrates was only thirty years of age, and could not have sons capable of giv ing medical directions. The inhabitants of Abdera, ob serving that their fellow-citizen Democritus had contract ed much singularity of manners, that he had become ad dicted to immoderate and ill-timed laughter, and secluded himself from society, conceived him to be insane, and invit ed Hippocrates to go and pronounce a judgment on his case, and take him under his medical care. Hippocrates went, and finding Democritus a man of deep research, who, engaged himself with unwearied assiduity in philosphical pursuits, pronounced him the wisest man in Abdera. Ten talents were offered to him on this occasion, but he declin ed accepting of any recompense.