“I shall prescribe to my patients, such a course of regimen as I may consider best suited to their condition, according to the best of my judgment and capacity, seeking to preserve them from any thing that might prove injurious.
“No inducement shall ever lead me to administer poison, nor shall I ever give a criminal advice, or contribute to an abortion.
“My sole end shall be to relieve and cure my patients, to render myself worthy of their confidence, and not to expose myself, even to the suspicion of having abused this influence, more especially when a woman is in the case.
“I shall seek to maintain religiously both the integrity of my conduct, and the honour of my art.
“I will not operate for the stone, but leave that operation to those who cultivate it.
“To whatever dwelling I may be called, I shall cross its threshold with the sole view of succouring the sick, abstaining from all injurious views and corruption, especially from any immodest action.
“If during my attendance, or even after a recovery, I happen to become acquainted with any circumstances of the patient’s life which should not be revealed, I shall consider this knowledge a profound secret, and observe on the subject a religious silence.
“May I as a rigid observer of this my oath, reap the fruit of my labours, enjoy a happy life, and obtain general esteem—should I become a perjurer, may the reverse be my lot.”
At this period the physician who founded a school taught every branch of the science, and after examining his disciples, gave them a permission to practise the profession when properly qualified. Hippocrates was succeeded by his sons Thessalus and Draco.
The school of Hippocrates was followed by that of Plato who founded the dogmatic sect, but his speculative views were succeeded by the more sound doctrines of Aristotle, who was one of the first philosophers who applied himself to practical anatomy in the frequent dissections of various animals, and he struck out the important path which his successor Herophilus was fortunate enough to follow for the welfare of mankind, by submitting human bodies to the scrutinizing scalpel under the protection of Ptolemy Lagus, a protection which became the more necessary as he had been actually accused of having dissected living subjects. Tertullian affirms that he had thus sacrificed six hundred victims; but what faith can we place in such an absurd charge, which very probably arose from envy or prejudice; although his successor Erasistratus, was accused of a similar offence, and in more modern times Mondini, who was the first to reintroduce human dissections was exposed to a like charge. It was Herophilus who founded the celebrated school of Alexandria, where under the auspices of Ptolemy Philadelphus, Erasistratus succeeded him, followed by Strabo of Berytus, Strabo of Lampsacus, Lycon of Troas, Apollonius of Memphis, and many other distinguished philosophers.