HIPPOCRATES, the greatest physician of antiquity, was born in the island of Cos, in the eightieth Olympiad, and flourished during the Peloponnesian war. He was the first who laid down precepts concerning physic; and, if we may believe the author of the life, which goes under the name of Soranus, he derived his materials from Hercules and Aesculapius. He was first a pupil of his father Heraclides, then of Herodicus, then of Gorgias of Leontium, the orator, and, according to some, of Democritus of Abdera. After being instructed in physic and in the liberal arts, he lost his parents, upon which he left his own country 7 , and practised physic all over Greece, where he was much admired on account of his skill. He was publicly sent for, along with Euryphon, a man superior to him in years, to Perdiccas, king of Macedonia, who was then thought to be consumptive; but Hippocrates, as soon as he arrived, pronounced the disease to be entirely mental, as in truth it proved. Upon the death of his father Alexander, Perdiccas fell in love with Philas, his father’s mistress; and this Hippocrates discerned by the great change which her presence always wrought upon him. The cause of his malady being thus ascertained, a cure was soon effected.

Being entreated by the people of Abdera to come and cure Democritus of a supposed madness, he proceeded thither; but, upon his arrival, instead of finding Democritus mad, he discovered that all his fellow-citizens were so, and that Democritus was the only wise man amongst them. From this philosopher he heard much, and learned a great deal of philosophy; a circumstance which has led Cornelius Celsus and some others to imagine that Hippocrates was the disciple of Democritus, though it is probable they never saw each other till this interview, occasioned by the Abderites. Hippocrates also received public invitations to other countries. Thus, when a plague attacked the Illyrians and Paeonians, the kings of those countries begged him to come to their assistance. He did not comply with their request; but learning from the messengers the prevailing direction of the winds, he concluded that the distemper would at length reach Athens; and having foretold what would happen, he applied himself to devise means for mitigating the evil when it should occur. So ardent indeed was his love of Greece, that when his fame had reached Persia, and Artaxerxes entreated him through the Persian governor of the Hellespont to come to him," at the same time promising him great rewards, he refused to go. He also delivered his country from a war which was just ready to break out, by prevailing upon the Thessalians to come to the assistance of his countrymen, a service for which he received the sincere acknowledgments of the Coans. The Athenians also conferred great honours upon him. They admitted him next to Hercules in the Eleusinian ceremonies, conferred on him the freedom of the city, and voted a public maintenance for himself and his family in the Prytaneum or<ouncil-house at Athens, where none were maintained at the public charge excepting such as had done public service to the state. He died amongst the Laris-saeans, at a very advanced age, having, according to some, outlived the usual term of human life, and attained upwards of a hundred years of age.

A complete bibliographical account of the editions, general and partial, of the works of Hippocrates, would occupy many pages; for, independently of the numerous Greek and Latin editions, almost all the modern languages have been enriched with translations of the different treatises of the Greek physician. The number of special editions of his principal works is prodigious. Thus, there have been more than thirty of the Protestation, as many of the book on the Nature of Man, and of that on Airs, Waters, and Places; about fifty on the Books of Epidemics; more than seventy of the Prognostics, and upwards of three hundred editions, with almost as many commentaries in all languages, of his Aphorisms, “ce chef-d’oeuvre de ľésprit humain.” The following classification is made on the principle recommended by Erotian, the eldest glossator of Hippocrates, and adopted and improved by Foes: 1. Greek Editions, Venice, 1526, in folio, Aldus and Asulanus; Basil, 1538, in folio, Frohen, a more complete and exact edition than the preceding: 2. Greek and Latin Editions, Venice, 1588, in folio, Mercuriali; Frankfort, 1595, 1621, 1624, and 1645, in folio; Geneva, 1657, in two vols. folio; Leyden, 1665, in two vols. 8vo; the Variorum edition, Vienna, 1743-1749. in two vols. folio, Stephen Mack: 3. Latin Editions, Rome, 1525, in folio, Calvo; Rome, 1549, 1610, 1619, in folio; Basil, 1526, in folio; Venice, 1545, in folio, the version of Cornarius; Basil, 1588, in folio; Venice, 1575, in folio, Marinelli; Frankfort, 1596, in 8vo, Foes; Altenburg, 1806, in three vols. 8vo, Pierer, with a learned dissertation on the state of medicine before the time of Hippocrates: 4. Greek and French Edition, Paris, 1811, 1815, in four vols. 12mo.∙ 5. Numerous editions in French and other modern languages.