“Nec mea dona tibi studio comporta fideliIntellecta prius quam sint, contempta relinquas.”[353]
“Nec mea dona tibi studio comporta fideliIntellecta prius quam sint, contempta relinquas.”[353]
“Nec mea dona tibi studio comporta fideliIntellecta prius quam sint, contempta relinquas.”[353]
“Nec mea dona tibi studio comporta fideli
Intellecta prius quam sint, contempta relinquas.”[353]
I am sensible, too, that I may have just reason to suspect that I still retain a too partial fondness for the fascinating studies in which I indulged at one period, beyond what, perhaps, was prudent in a physician, and that it would have been better for me if I had taken a lesson from the mythical hero of the “Odyssey,” and had resisted the enchanting voice of the ancient Siren when she sought to allure me from the active duties of a professional life, with the confident assurance that I should leave her “much delighted, and with an increase of knowledge.”[354]
Before concluding, I will briefly recapitulate the results to which our present inquiry has conducted us:—
1st. That many of the medical theories which occur in the Hippocratic treatises are founded on the physical philosophy of the ancients, and more particularly on their doctrines, with regard to the elements of things.
2d. That all the great sects of the ancient philosophers held that the four elements, namely, fire, air, earth, and water, are transmutable into one another, being all of a homogeneous nature, and based on one common substratum, namely, the primary matter.
3d. That, by reasoning from observation and analogy, the ancient philosophers arrived at the conclusion that this primary matter is a substance devoid of all qualities and forms, but susceptible of all forms and qualities.
4th. That although certain of the philosophers, the contemporaries and predecessors of Hippocrates, appear to hold that some one of the elements, such as fire and water, was the original of all things, even these had an idea, although not expressed by them in a definite manner, of a first matter, which serves as a basis to all the elements.
5th. That these doctrines of the ancient philosophers, whether well founded or not, are countenanced by many eminent names in modern literature and philosophy.
6th. That the opinion generally entertained regarding the doctrines of the ancient philosophers on this subject is altogether erroneous.