THE LAW. THE ARGUMENT. It is not easy to define accurately what the object of this little tract is, nor the exact sense in which the term "Law" is to be here taken. The writer, apparently, wishes to sketch the beau ideal of a perfect physician, and in this point of view the title of the work would rather deserve to be rendered "the Standard" than "the Law." Zuinger, in his annotations on it, remarks that, as in civil society there is an universal precept, applying to all the citizens, the arbiter of right and wrong, so in the medical commonwealth, there is a certain law which serves as a rule, or gnomon, by which true physicians are distinguished from the false. This piece, then, as I have said, is apparently meant as an ideal sketch of what a true physician ought to be, and it gives the traits by which the real are to be distinguished from the false. No one will venture to deny that the outline is drawn with great ability, and therefore the work cannot fail to be read with interest, whether it be regarded as the production of Hippocrates himself or of one of his immediate successors. THE LAW. 1. MEDICINE is of all the Arts the most noble; but, owing to the ignorance of those who practice it, and of those who, inconsiderately, form a judgment of them, it is at present far behind all the other arts. Their mistake appears to me to arise principally from this, that in the cities there is no punishment connected with the practice of medicine (and with it alone) except disgrace,' and that does not hurt those who are. familiar with it. Such persons are like the figures which are introduced 'In this passage it would seem to be asserted, that in the time of the writer there was no punishment of mala praxis except the disgrace which it entailed. Many other passages in the Hippocratic treatises would lead to the inference that a more severe responsibility attached to the physician for unfortunate practice; as we often find the practitioner warned not to have anything to do with certain cases. Here the author of this treatise seems to regret the want of a proper medical police. 2 It is not quite clear what is meant by figures (πроσάяоσ) in this place. Zuin in tragedies, for as they have the shape, and dress, and personal appearance of an actor, but are not actors, so also physicians are many in title but very few in reality. 2. Whoever is to acquire a competent knowledge of medicine, ought to be possessed of the following advantages: a natural disposition; instruction; a favorable position for the study; early tuition; love of labor; leisure. First of all, a natural talent is required; for, when Nature opposes, everything else is in vain; but when Nature leads the way to what is most excellent, instruction in the art takes place, which the student must try to appropriate to himself by reflection, becoming an early pupil in a place well adapted for instruction. He must also bring to the task a love of labor and perseverance, so that the instruction taking root may bring forth proper and abundant fruits.' 3. Instruction in medicine is like the culture of the productions of the earth. For our natural disposition is, as it were, the soil; the tenets of our teacher are, as it were, the seed; instruction in youth is like the planting of the seed in the ground at the proper season; the place where the instruction is communicated is like the food imparted to vegetables by the atmosphere; diligent study is like the cultivation of the fields; and it is time which imparts strength to all things and brings them to maturity.2 4. Having brought all these requisites to the study of medicine, and having acquired a true knowledge of it, we shall thus, in traveling through the cities, be esteemed physicians not only in name but in reality. But ger understands by it the mutes introduced on the stage along with the real actors who spoke their part. Foës rather understands it as applying to masks, or inanimate figures, and this seems to me the most natural interpretation of the term. 3 The requisite advantages towards acquiring eminence in the art of medicine are here given with much precision. There is a manifest resemblance between this passage and the description given by Quintilian of the requisites which the student of rhetoric ought to possess in order to attain eminence in his art. The passage in question is so striking, that I shall not scruple to introduce it here, and shall only remark beforehand, that as Quintilian was certainly not unacquainted with the works of Hippocrates (Inst. Orat. III., 6), he may have had the present tract in view when he wrote as follows: "Illud tamen in primis testandum est, nihil præcepta atque vires valere, nisi adjuvante natura. Quapropter ei cui deerit ingenium, non magis hæc scripta sunt, quam de agrorum cultu sterilibus agris. Sunt et alia ingenita quidem adjumenta, vox, latus patiens laboris, valetudo, constantia, decor: quæ si modica obtigerunt, possunt ratione ampliari; sed nonnunquam ita desunt, ut bona etiam ingenii studiique corrumpant: sicut et hæc ipsa sine doctore perito, studio pertinaci, scribendi, legendi, dicendi multa et continua exercitatione, per se nihil prosunt." Inst. Orat. Proem. (6.) 2 The points of comparison in this paragraph are placed in a striking point of view, but the style of writing rather savors of a later age than that of our author. 3 The author here evidently refers to the practice of the periodeutæ, or traveling physicians. inexperience is a bad treasure, and a bad fund to those who possess it, whether in opinion or reality,' being devoid of self-reliance and contentedness, and the nurse both of timidity and audacity. For timidity betrays a want of powers, and audacity a want of skill. There are, indeed, two things, knowledge and opinion, of which the one makes its possessor really to know, the other to be ignorant. 5. Those things which are sacred, are to be imparted only to sacred persons; and it is not lawful to impart them to the profane until they have been initiated in the mysteries of the science. 1 See Foës, Ec. Hipp. in voсе vжар. |