Dr. Taylor's volume on "Greek Biology and Medicine" is the third to appear in the new Library, "Our Debt to Greece and Rome." The author has drawn his sketch in such a way as to make clear the influence of ancient biological and medical theories and of the ancient medical practice upon our intellectual life, to-day, giving frequent allusions to that influence as it affected distinguished biologists and men of medicine during the intervening centuries. This is part of the larger plan of the Library as a whole to show in some detail the vitality of the ancient thought and to make more articulate the significance it possesses for us. We all too unconsciously accept a heritage-scientific, intellectual, spiritual which lies at the very core of our being and is the real hope of an orderly future. This book takes no formal account of the famous Pompeian medical instruments, and only further study of the Ebers papyrus and in particular of the Edwin Smith papyrus may lead to a new estimate of the progress of medicine in ancient Egypt; but we are not yet in a position to estimate the truth contained in these venerable documents. And, for us, Greece still stands as the pioneer in a science which will progress to its greatest victories as it is quickened with the nobility of spirit that touched the heart and mind of Hippocrates. His words find an eloquent echo in the lines of Goethe: Ach Gott! die Kunst ist lang Und kurz ist unser Leben, which are an immortal commentary on the inner essence of the Greek's aspiration. T PREFACE HE OBJECT of this little monograph is to indicate the debt of the modern world to the ancient biology and medicine. One might as well say simply Greek biology and medicine, since whether pursued or practiced in Ionia, in Attica, or in Rome, the biology and medicine worthy of our attention were Greek in their origin and progress, and owed little to the Romans. The scientific spirit was an endowment of Hellas, and alien from the genius of Rome; nor did the Romans capture much of it from the gifted race whom they subdued politically, and by whose art and literature they were captivated in turn. The task before us might make the labor of a lifetime for any writer, and the resulting volume would inevitably lead the reader into long winding avenues. I offer but a sketch, a slight sketch as it were, of Greek biology and medicine. I have endeavored to draw it in such a way as to make clear the nature of their influence upon our intellectual life today. So |