To engage, however, in any extensive enquiry respecting the physiological doctrines of the Coan sage would be idle, since much was fancy and more probably conjecture; but above all, on account of the latitude of expression which he employs. Thus signifies not only nerve, but ligament and tendon; not only a vein, but an artery, or an excretory duct; and means not only blood, but any watery fluid; and the nervous fluid the air inspired, which mixes ultimately with all the fluids of the body.

It is more clear, that he supposed the existence of four fluids in the body, blood, phlegm, yellow and black bile. Their common source he supposed to be the stomach, but each had also its peculiar origin, viz. blood from the heart, phlegm from the head, yellow bile from the gall duct, and black bile from the spleen. The last organ, in his opinion, attracts not only the black bile, but water also, which it conveys to the urinary organs or to the belly. This doctrine of the four humours has been the foundation of the system of Galen, and still infects the theory of medicine. See Temperamenta.

The Hippocratic pathology might be offered in a neat compacted system, were the book De Flatibus certainly written by the father of medicine. It is, however, generally and deservedly removed to a later aera; yet Galen employs the flatus when mixed with the bile, as the cause of fever. The cause of epilepsy, as assigned by Hippocrates, is so recondite, and so totally at variance with what anatomy teaches, that it would be useless labour to enlarge on it. Yet this, and some other of this author's disquisitions, show with what eagerness he endeavoured to transfer his observations on the appearances found in the dissection of brutes to the human system. We may here remark what an exami-nation of the works of Hippocrates for this purpose has suggested, that the boasted is introduced hastily and abruptly, greatly resembling an interpolation. In other parts of our work we have followed the herd of authors, and attributed it to a fixed systematic opinion.

As Hipprocates speaks of the rising and setting of the dog star, of the pleiades, etc. it has been supposed that he attributes diseases to their influence. If, however, his works be examined, it will appear that, in such places, he only endeavours to fix the seasons with greater accuracy. It is evident, indeed, that he examines the influence of different seasons, the prevailing winds. the situation of marshes and mountains, with great precision, and pays peculiar attention to the age, mode of life, constitution, and diet of his patient. The histories or daily progress of diseases he has described with great accuracy and perspicuity; nor are his remarks, though not strictly applicable in our climate, and in constitutions so totally differing by a very opposite mode of life, wholly useless at present. Observation seems to have suggested what have been styled critical days; nor, though he hints at a supposed harmony of numbers, is there any real evidence that the doctrine was suggested by it. His observations on the pulse are few and indistinct; on the urine, numerous and minute; on the excretions either from the lungs, from the stomach, or bowels, peculiarly distinct and pointed; on the appearance of the features and the state of the body, full and discriminated. Yet, with all these aids, he stills considers the prognosis in acute diseases as uncertain.

The practice of Hippocrates must be divided into his diaetetic. his surgical, and his medical system. The chief diaetetic work under his name is attributed by the critics to Polybius, his son in law; but there is much reason to think, that the rules are derived from the sage himself. In general, in this work, as in other parts of his writings, he commends moderation, and a quantity of aliment in proportion to the exercise used. In some of the tracts attributed to him he speaks of the comparative utility and effects of horses, asses, foxes, and hedge hogs flesh. Where excess has been indulged, he mentions the advantages of vomits, purgatives, clysters, frictions, baths, etc. When persons were seized with acute diseases, he employed low diet, and forbad exercise: we find it injurious at this moment.

His practical rules are sound and judicious; yet, perverted by fashionable systems, they have been found most fatal. Acute diseases are, he thinks, cured by nature, and the physician must look on and attend: those which have a fair proper crisis we must not disturb. What ought to be discharged must be discharged at the most convenient outlets, and at those where the tendency to evacuation is perceived; but concocted fluids only must be attacked by medicines, not crude ones, unless they are turgid. It is impossible to convey more sound and judicious practice in fewer words, yet it has been mistaken so much, that evacuations have been forbid in the beginning of diseases, and volumes have been written to explain the meaning of turgid matter, or rather to conceal it. The real meaning of the rules, examined in their literal sense, or in comparison with the other passages of his undisputed works, Is this: What must be discharged will be properly evacuated by the most convenient outlets. We are not, for instance, to urge purgatives when there is a tendency to perspiration, or sudorifics when expectoration is necessary. Concocted fluids are only to be evacuated, not crude ones, unless they are turgid. This is the fatal sentence; for the term concocted has been applied to the state of the fluids only after a long continuance of fever, and it has been supposed that fever must continue before evacuations are attempted. Whatever be the meaning, however, the interpretation must be limited by the term turgid, which in fact means only full. Thus a fullness of the epigastrum,of the abdomen in general, bilious vomitings and diarrhoeas, redness of the eyes, and a heaviness of the head, are distinctly noted as marks of turgescence. These are the cases in which modern practice employs evacuations, and these are the symptoms which, even with Hippocratic rigour, would be truly found to indicate them. Yet to wait for concoction has been the fatal rule, which has kept febrile patients in bed with closed windows and curtains, with fire in the dog days, the addition of blankets, and the most heating' medicines for many weeks. At the moment of our commencing practice his plan was not wholly exploded.