Hippocrates : a bibliographical demonstration in the Library of the Faculty of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow, 23rd November, 1891 / by James Finlayson.

Date:: 1892

Credit: Hippocrates : a bibliographical demonstration in the Library of the Faculty of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow, 23rd November, 1891 / by James Finlayson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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$Hippocrates, (about) 460-357 B.C. Socrates, . . . . . . 469-399 „ Zeno, the Eleatic philosopher, born, . 488 ,, Plato, . . . . . . . 428-389 „ Aristotle, . . . . . 384-322 „ Roman Decemviri created, . . . 451 ,, Virginius killed his daughter, . . . 458 ,, Second return of the Jews under Ezia, . 458 ,, But on looking at such a table one is reminded of important preliminary questions which have been raised—viz., Was there such a man ? Were not the Hippocratic writings merely a miscellaneous collection, issued under a traditional name ? The first question seems capable of a satisfactory answer in the affirmative. M. Littr^, in his valuable edition of Hippo- crates, in the ten volumes now before you, has gone into .this matter critically in the elaborate introduction contained in the first volume. M. Littre was a learned member of our profession; he is the same of whom you have all heard as the author of this great French dictionary, in four large volumes, which I show you here. Some of you may also have heard of him as an exponent of the positive philosophy of Comte. M. Littre (vol. i, p. 29) quotes a passage from one of the dialogues of Plato {Protagoras), where Socrates is represented as saying to one of his auditors, who happened to be called Hippocrates— If for example you had thought of going to Hippocrates of Cos, the Asclepiad, and were about to give him your money, and some one had said to you : You are paying money to your namesake Hippocrates, O Hippocrates : tell me, what is he that you give him money ? How should you have answered ?— I should say, he replied, that I give money to him as a physician.— And what will he make of you ?— A physician, he said. *—(Jowett's Translation, second edition, vol. i. Oxford, 1875.) * M. Littrd quotes another passage from Plato (Ph^drds) where Hi])po- crates is spoken of as an individual and a.s a writer of authority. The passage is quoted also by Dr. Warburton Begbie {Selections from the Works of): London, 1882, p. 385.$