PREFACE
THE works, some seventy in all, which in any
of our manuscripts are assigned to Hippocrates,
comprise what is called the " Hippocratic collection."
During nearly three centuries there appeared
many editions, of some or of all of these works,
intended to instruct medical students or practitioners.
The birth of modern medical science
in the nineteenth century stopped finally this
long series, but a few scholars still worked at
the treatises from an historical standpoint. The
literary merit, however, of the Hippocratic writings,
at least of the majority, is not great, and it is
only within the last few years that they have been
subjected to the exact scholarship which has thrown
such a flood of new light upon most of the classical
authors. Even now very little has been done for
text, dialect, grammar and style, although the
realization of the value of the collection for the
history of philosophy is rapidly improving matters.
So for the present a translator must also be, in part,
an editor. He has no scholarly tradition behind
him upon which to build, but must lay his own
foundations.
It will be many years before the task is finished,
but in the meanwhile there is work for less ambitious
students. My own endeavour has been to make as
clear and accurate a translation as the condition of
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the text permits, introducing as few novelties of my
own as possible, and to add such comment as may
bring out the permanent value of the various treatises.
They are no longer useful as text-books, but all of
us, whether medical or lay, may learn a lesson from
the devotion to truth which marked the school of
Cos, and from the blunders committed by theorizers
who sought a short cut to knowledge without the
labour of patient observation and careful experiment.
The present volume has been in preparation since
1910, and the actual writing has occupied all my
leisure for the past three years. The time would
have been longer, had it not been for the great kindness
of Dr. E. T. Withington, whose name will
probably appear on the title-page of one of the
succeeding volumes.
My thanks are also due to the Rev. H. J. Chaytor
for his helpful criticisms.
W. H. S. JONES.
