[44] This is the more remarkable, as it does not appear to have been the established creed of the greatest literary men and philosophers of the age, who still adhered or professed to adhere to the popular belief in the extraordinary interference of the gods with the works of Nature and the affairs of mankind. This at least was remarkably the case with Socrates, whose mind, like that of most men who make a great impression on the religious feelings of their age, had evidently a deep tinge of mysticism. See Xenoph. Memor., i., 1, 6–9; Ibid. iv., 7, 7; also Grote’s History of Greece, vol. i., p. 499. The latter remarks, “Physical and astronomical phenomena are classified by Socrates among the divine class, interdicted to human study.” (Mem., i. 1, 13.) He adds, in reference to Hippocrates, “On the other hand, Hippocrates, the contemporary of Socrates, denied the discrepancy, and merged into one the two classes of phenomena—the divine and the scientifically determinable,—which the latter had put asunder. Hippocrates treated all phenomena as at once both divine and scientifically determinable.” (p. 499.) He then quotes the memorable passage in the treatise “On Airs,” etc. It does not appear, however, that in ancient times the charge of Atheism was ever brought against him. It has been urged against him by modern fanatics, but scarcely deserves a serious refutation. See Schulze (Hist. Med., i., 3, 2), and Ackerman (Hist. Lit. Hippocr., pp. xii, xiii; ed. Kühn). By such persons, whoever does not join in their anthropomorphical notions of a first cause is held up for an Atheist.
[45] For the medicine of the ancient Jews, Egyptians, and Babylonians, see the introductory chapters of Sprengel’s Hist. de la Méd. The medicine of the Hindoos, as given in the “Susruta” of D’Hanvantare, abounds in superstitious practices.
[46] Epidem., vi.
[47] Epidem., i.
[48] De Diæta in Morb. Acut., Prognost., 15. See the argument to the Appendix to the former work.
[49] See Galen, Oper. tom. v., p. 106; ed. Basil.
[50] See De Morbis, pluries; de Prisca, Med., 22.
[51] De Superfœt. et pluries.
[52] De Ratione Victus in Acut. There is some doubt, however, whether the σκαμμώνιον of Dioscorides be the Convolvulus scammonia. Some rather take it for the C. sagittifolius.
[53] De Superfœt. et alibi.