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Copyright, 1897

By G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS
Entered at Stationers' Hall, London

Copyright, 1861, 1862, 1883, 1889, 1890, 1891
BY OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES

Copyright, 1892

BY HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN & COMPANY
All Rights Reserved

Copyright, 1910

By P. F. COLLIER & SON

MANUFACTURED IN U. S. A.

449430

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ON THE MOTION OF THE HEART AND BLOOD IN ANIMALS

WILLIAM HARVEY.

75

TRANSLATED BY ROBERT WILLIS

THE THREE ORIGINAL PUBLICATIONS ON VACCINATION AGAINST
SMALLPOX

THE CONTAGIOUSNESS OF PUERPERAL FEVER.

EDWARD JENNER 145

223

O. W. HOLMES

ON THE ANTISEPTIC PRINCIPLE OF THE PRACTICE OF SURGERY.

LORD LISTER

THE PHYSIOLOGICAL THEORY OF FERMENTATION

LOUIS PASTEUR

TRANSLATED BY F. FAULKNER AND D. C. ROBB (Revised)

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THE GERM THEORY AND ITS APPLICATIONS TO MEDICINE AND SURGERY (Revised).. . LOUIS PASTEUR 364

TRANSLATED BY H. C. ERNST

ON THE EXTENSION of the GERM THEORY TO THE ETIOLOGY OF CER

TAIN COMMON DISEASES (Revised) . . . LOUIS PASTEUR 371

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TRANSLATED BY H. C. ERNST

PREJUDICES WHICH HAVE RETARded the Progress of GEOLOGY

SIR CHARLES LYELL

UNIFORMITY IN THE SERIES OF PAST CHANGES IN THE ANIMATE AND
INANIMATE WORLD

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SIR CHARLES LYELL 398

INTRODUCTORY NOTE

HIPPOCRATES, the celebrated Greek physician, was a contemporary of the historian Herodotus. He was born in the island of Cos between 470 and 460 B.C., and belonged to the family that claimed descent from the mythical Esculapius, son of Apollo. There was already a long medical tradition in Greece before his day, and this he is supposed to have inherited chiefly through his predecessor Herodicus; and he enlarged his education by extensive travel. He is said, though the evidence is unsatisfactory, to have taken part in the efforts to check the great plague which devastated Athens at the beginning of the Peloponnesian war. He died at Larissa between 380 and 360 B.C.

The works attributed to Hippocrates are the earliest extant Greek medical writings, but very many of them are certainly not his. Some five or six, however, are generally granted to be genuine, and among these is the famous "Oath." This interesting document shows that in his time physicians were already organized into a corporation or guild, with regulations for the training of disciples, and with an esprit de corps and a professional ideal which, with slight exceptions, can hardly yet be regarded as out of date.

One saying occurring in the words of Hippocrates has achieved universal currency, though few who quote it to-day are aware that it originally referred to the art of the physician. It is the first of his "Aphorisms": "Life is short, and the Art long; the occasion fleeting; experience fallacious, and judgment difficult. The physician must not only be prepared to do what is right himself, but also to make the patient, the attendants, and externals cooperate."

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