Epidemiological essays / by F.G. Crookshank.

  • Francis Graham Crookshank
Date:
1930
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Epidemiological essays / by F.G. Crookshank. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    belief in the essential simplicity and unity of that nature which, as Bordeu, the French Hippocrates, declared, is yet so much more profound than is the most sublime mathematician or physicist. Unfortunately, almost without exception, every English translator of Hippocrates has thought fit to employ a peculiar jargon that, however useful to the Greek student, fails to convey, to those who are not classical scholars, the force and directness of the original. The French translation by Littre is, however, beautiful in itself, and may perhaps account for the great apprecia¬ tion shown in France for the Hippocratic teachings. “ In the beginning,” says the ancient writer, “ whoever would wish to pursue properly the science of medicine must in the first place consider the characteristic effects produced by the seasons of the years, remembering that not only does each season in any year differ from the others, but that the same seasons differ in successive years. And then the airs and winds; such qualities as are common to all countries and such as pertain to particular localities. And then the properties and qualities of waters ; for, as these differ in their physical characters, so do they differ in their action upon the body. So, too, must be considered the situation of towns, with regard to the prevailing winds, and to the rising sun. And the waters used by the inhabitants : whether marshy and soft, or hard, and from rocks, or salt, and unfit for cooking. And the habits of the inhabitants : their avocations, and whether they be eaters and drinkers to excess, and indolent; or industrious, vigorous, frugal, and abstemious. From these things must he proceed to investigate certain others in partic¬ ular, so that, when he come into a strange city he will understand the diseases there endemic, and the modifications of common maladies that there obtain.” Later, after some further detailed discussion of airs and waters, the writer passes on to the enunciation of what
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