THE ARGUMENT.
Dr. Coray, in his excellent edition of this treatise, divides it into six chapters, as follows: first, the Introduction (from § 1–3) comprehends some general observations on the importance of cultivating a knowledge of the effects which the different seasons, the winds, the various kinds of water, the situation of cities, the nature of soils and the modes of life, exercise upon the health, and the necessity of a physician’s making himself well acquainted with all these matters, if he would wish to practise his profession successfully. The author insists, with particular earnestness, on the utility of studying the constitution of the year and the nature of the seasons, and refutes the opinions of those persons, in his days, who held that a knowledge of all these things belongs to meteorology rather than to medicine. The second chapter (§ 3–7) treats of climate, and the diseases prevalent in localities characterized by their exposure to particular winds. Those winds being peculiar to Greece, their names occasion some trouble in order to understand them correctly, and we shall give below a summary of what the modern Greek Coray says in illustration of them. This part of the present treatise appears to have been highly elaborated, and contains much important information. The third chapter (§ 7–10) treats of the various kinds of water, and their effects in different states of the human constitution. The remarks contained here are of an eminently practical nature, and evidently must have been the results of patient observation and experiment, so that, even at the present day, it would be difficult to detect our author in a single error of judgment. In this place he has occasion to deliver his opinions on the formation of urinary calculi, which he does at considerable length; and I may be permitted to remark, whatever may be thought of his etiology of the disease, it will be admitted that his theory is plausible, and the best that could well have been framed in the state of knowledge which then prevailed on that subject. Indeed, even at the present day, it must be allowed that this is a dark subject; we have acquired, it is true, many new and curious facts connected with the minute structure of these concretions, but it can hardly be affirmed that we have been able to evolve from them any general principles, or certain rules of practice. In the fourth chapter (§ 10–12), the nature of the seasons is treated of, and their influence on the health circumstantially stated. Some of the observations contained in this part of the work are remarkable for their acuteness and originality, such as the following, that, in estimating the effects of a season on the health, we ought to take into account the seasons which preceded it. This is well expressed by Celsus, as follows: “neque solum interest quales dies sint sed etiam quales præcesserint.” (Præfat.) See also Hippocrates (de Humoribus, § 8); and Coray (ad h. 1. § cix.) It will be seen in our annotations that a considerable number of the Aphorisms are abstracted from this part of the present treatise. In the fifth chapter (§ 12–17), the effects of climate and the institutions of society on the inhabitants of Asia are treated of at considerable length. Our author, in this place, evinces a great acquaintance with human life, and a most philosophical spirit in contemplating the subject which he is handling. Indeed few works in any language display so much accurate observation and originality of thought. The varieties of disposition, and of intellectual and moral development among mankind, are set down as being derived, in a great measure, from differences of climate and modes of government. Thus the Asiatics are of an effeminate and slavish disposition, because they live in a soft climate, on a rich soil, where they are little exposed to hardships or labor, and under a despotic form of government, which arrests the development of their mental energies.[369] This part also contains some interesting observations on the Macrocephali and the inhabitants of Phasis. In the sixth and last chapter (§ 17 to the end), the peculiar traits of the European character, as connected with climate and institutions, are described in a very interesting manner. Here the observations on the Amazons, Sauromatæ, and Scythians are well deserving of an attentive perusal, and more particularly the description of the disease induced by continual riding on horseback, the probable nature of which we shall consider presently. Here, too, are given our author’s remarks on diseases supposed to be divine, which, as we have stated in the Preliminary section on his life, evince a wonderful exemption from the superstitious belief of his age, and indicate an extraordinary depth of thought.
This is a general outline of the contents of this treatise, which is one of the most celebrated in the whole Collection. From what we have stated, it will at once be seen that it relates to a subject of commanding interest, and deserves to be carefully studied, as containing the oldest exposition which we possess of the opinions entertained by an original and enlightened mind on many important questions connected with Public Hygiene and Political Economy, two sciences which, of late years, have commanded a large amount of professional attention. Whether or not modern experience may confirm our author’s judgment in every particular case, it surely can neither be unprofitable nor uninteresting to ascertain what his opinions on these subjects actually were. Let us be thankful, then, that the destroying hand of time has spared us so valuable a relic of antiquity; and, instead of undervaluing our ancient instructor because he shows himself ignorant of many truths which we are now familiar with, let us be grateful to him for the amount of information which he has supplied to us, and for setting us an example which it must be both safe and profitable for us to follow. Surely great praise is due to the man who first mooted so many important questions, and stated their bearings in distinct terms, although he did not always succeed in solving them.[370]
I may take the present opportunity of mentioning that M. Littré, with some appearance of truth, blames Hippocrates for having rather overrated the influence of climate and institutions, in producing military valor, which, as he justly remarks, has been proved by modern examples to be most intimately connected with discipline, and a knowledge of the arts of war. But if Hippocrates was wrong on this point, it was because he did not avail himself properly of the lights of his own age; for he might have learned from his contemporary, Socrates, the very doctrine which M. Littré here inculcates. “The question being put to him,” says Xenophon, “whether valor was a thing that could be taught, or was natural? I am of opinion, he said, that as one body is born with greater powers than another for enduring labor, so is one soul produced by nature stronger than another for enduring dangers. For I see persons brought up under the same institutions and habits differing much from one another in courage. But I think that every nature may be improved in valour by learning and discipline. For it is obvious that the Scythians and Thracians would not dare to contend with the Lacedemonians with bucklers and spears; and it is clear that, the Lacedemonians would not be willing to contend with the Thracians with small targets and javelins, or with the Scythians with bows and arrows.” (Memorab. iii., 9.) The same doctrine is taught with remarkable subtlety of argument and originality of thought in the “Protagoras” of Plato, (see § 97). If, then, Hippocrates was wrong on this head, (which, however, may be doubted), it is clear that he is not to be screened by the alleged ignorance of his age, and that he might have put himself right by attending to the instructions of a contemporary with whom he, in all probability, was familiar, and who undoubtedly was the greatest master of human nature that ever existed.
As there are certain matters connected with this treatise which will require a more lengthened discussion than can well suit with foot notes, I think it advisable to treat of them in this place:—
1. With regard to the seasons of the year, as indicated try the risings and settings of the stars. the following observations, taken in a great measure from Clifton’s Preface will supply, in as brief a space as possible, all the information that will be required; “As the reader will find frequent mention of seasons, equinoxes, solstices, risings and settings of the sun and stars (particularly Arcturus, the Dog-star, and the Pleiades), it may not be amiss to premise, in the first place, that a year was divided by the ancients into four parts, every one of these was distinguished astronomically.
“Thus, for instance, the winter began at the setting of the Pleiades, and continued to the vernal equinox.
“The spring began at the vernal equinox, and ended at the rising of the Pleiades.
“The summer began at the rising of the Pleiades, and ended at the rising of Arcturus.
“The autumn began at the rising of Arcturus, and ended at the setting of the Pleiades.
“The rising and setting of the stars is always to be understood of what astronomers call the heliacal rising or setting, i. e. when a star rises or sets with the sun.
“The rising and setting of the sun in summer or winter (an expression which often occurs in this treatise), implies those points of the compass the sun rises and sets at.”[371]
II. On the winds, of which frequent mention is made by our author, Coray has treated with a degree of prolixity and earnestness for which it is difficult to recognize the necessity. The figure given above, if properly studied and understood, will supply the professional reader with all the information he will require on this head.
III. One of the most singular diseases noticed in this work is the effeminacy with which the Scythians are said to have been attacked in consequence of spending the greater part of their time on horseback. (See § 22.) As the subject has attracted a good deal of attention lately, I will give a summary of the information which has been collected respecting it. See Coray, etc., t. ii., p. 331; Littré, t. ii., p. 5, 6; and Avert., xxxix., p. 47; t. iv., p. 9.
In the first place, then, it can scarcely admit of doubt that the disease is the same as that which Herodotus describes in the following passage: “Venus inflicted upon the Scythians, who pillaged her temple at Ascalon, and on their descendants, the feminine disease; at least it is to this cause that they attribute their disease; and travellers that go to the land of Scythia see how these persons are affected whom the Scythians called accursed (ἐναρεες).”[372]
All the opinions which have been entertained respecting this affection are referred by M. Littré to the three following categories:
I. A vice, namely (A), Pederasty, which, he says is the most ancient opinion we have respecting it, as indicated by Longinus[373] (on the Sublime, 25), and defended by his commentators, Toll and Pearce, and by Casaubon and Coster.[374] (B), Onanism, the opinion to which Sprengel inclines in his work on Hippocrates.
2. A bodily disease, to wit: (A), Hemorrhoids, as maintained by Paul Thomas de Girac,[375] by Valkenäer, by Bayer,[376] and by the Compilers of the ‘Universal History.’[377] (B), A true menstruation, as appears to be maintained by Lefevre and Dacier,[378] and by others. (C), Blenorrhagia, as Guy Patin[379] and others suppose. (D), A true impotence, as held by Mercuriali and others.
3. A mental disease, as maintained by Sauvages,[380] Heyne,[381] Coray,[382] and others.
M. Rosenbaum is at great pains to make out that the affection in question was pederasty, and that the accursed (ἐνάρεες) of Herodotus were the same as the pathici of the Romans. I must say, that in my opinion Rosenbaum makes out a strong case in support of this opinion. In particular it will be remarked, that Herodotus says, the descendants of these Scythians were also afflicted with this complaint. Now Celsus Aurelianus says expressly, that the affection of the pathici was hereditary.[383] Taking everything into account, I must say that my own opinion has always been that the disease in question must have been some variety of spermatorrhœa. I need scarcely remark that this affection induces a state, both of body and mind, analogous to that of the pathici, as described by ancient authors.
Before leaving this subject, however, I should mention that M. Littré, in the fourth volume of his Hippocrates (p. xi.), brings into view a thesis by M. Graff, the object of which is to prove that the disease of the Scythians was a true sort of impotence; and in illustration of it, he cites a passage from the memoirs of M. Larrey, containing a description of a species of impotence, attended with wasting of the testicle, which attacked the French army in Egypt. But, as far as I can see, this disease described by Larrey had nothing to do with riding on horseback, and I cannot see any relation between it and the diseases described by Herodotus and Hippocrates.
IV. Of all the legendary tales of antiquity, there is probably no one which was so long and so generally credited by the best informed historians, critics, geographers, poets, and philosophers, as the story of the Amazons. They are noticed historically by Homer (Iliad, iii., 186; vi., 152); Apollonius Rhodius (ii., 196); Pindar (Olymp. xiii., 84); Herodotus (ix., 27); Lysias (Epitaph. 3); Plato (Menex.); Isocrates (Panyg.); Ctesias (Persic.); Plutarch (Theseus); Strabo (Geogr. ix.); Pausanias (iv., 31, 6; vii., 2, 4); Arrian (Exped. Alexand.); Quintus Curtius (vi., 4). Now it is singular that in all this list of authorities, which, it will be remarked, comprehends the élite of ancient scholars, no one, with the exception of Strabo, ventures to express the slightest doubt respecting the actual existence of the Amazons. Some of them, indeed, admit that the race had become extinct in their time; but they all seem satisfied that the Amazons had truly existed in a bygone age, and consequently they acknowledge them as real historical personages. See, in particular, Arrian, who, although compelled by his respect for truth to acknowledge that they did not exist in the days of Alexander the Great, still does not hesitate to declare that it appeared incredible that this race of women, celebrated as they were by the most eminent authors, should never have existed at all. Yet, notwithstanding the mass of evidence in support of their actual existence, I suppose few scholars nowadays will hesitate to agree with Heyne (Apollodor. ii., 5, 9), and with Grote (Hist. of Greece, i., 2), in setting down the whole story as mere myth. But, considering how generally it had been believed, we need not wonder that Hippocrates in this treatise should appear to entertain no doubt of their actual existence. The reader will remark that he makes the locality of the Amazons to be in Europe, among the Sarmatians, on the north side of the Euxine. It is generally taken for granted, however, in the ancient myths, that their place of residence was on the banks of the Thermodon, in Cappadocia, and they are described as having afterwards crossed to the opposite side of the Euxine, when expelled from this locality. But, in fact, they are remarkable so much for nothing as their ubiquity, being sometimes located in Asia, sometimes in Africa, and at other times in Athens. I may remark, before concluding, that Mr. Payne Knight (Symbolical Language, etc., Classical Journal, 23), and Creuzer (Symbolik. etc.), give a symbolical interpretation to the story of the Amazons; but this mode of explaining the myths of antiquity is altogether fanciful and unsatisfactory. It seems safer and more judicious to deal with them as Mr. Grote has done,[384] that is to say, to receive them as tales in which the ancients believed, without having any rational foundation for their faith. That there may have been a certain basis of truth in the story of the Amazons need not be denied; but in this, as in all the ancient myths, it is a hopeless task to attempt to separate truth from fiction.