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

Date:
1892
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

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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    the other two; and as the Prognostics are universally admitted to be by Hippocrates, we have very probably, in these other two, specimens of the work of earlier observers, by whose labours Hippocrates could profit, and in doing so could fairly enough rear for himself such a surpassing reputa- tion as the Father of Medicine ; for then, as now, acuteness of personal observation and independence of thought were quite compatible with profiting by the labours of others and the experience of the past. I have already read a short extract to you from the Prognostics, describing the Facies Hippocratica. This work is undoubtedly one of the greatest and most celebrated of the Hippocratic writings. Aphorisms. Another equally famous is the Aphorisms. I have selected the first and the last aphorisms as specimens. The translations which I propose reading to you are from Dr. Adams' admirable rendering ; but I avail myself of two of his alternative translations in the first aphorism, as some- what more impressive, in my view, than those in his text:— I. 1. Life is short, and the art long ; the time is urgent; experi- ment is dangerous, and decision is difficult. The physician must not only be prepared to do what is right himself, but also to make the patient, the attendants, and externals co-operate. The first clause, familiar to so many, is recognised by com- paratively few, even of the cultured, as being in the works of Hippocrates. The first portion of the aphorism has the gravity of the philosopher ; the second shows the practical experience of the physician; I am sure you will find as you go on in the profession that all the difference between success and failure often depends on whether the physician possesses this invalu- able power of compelling patient, attendants, and even external circumstances to co-operate with him in the proper manage- ment of the illness. Mere knowledge and skill often fail for the want of some measure of this power.
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