FORMERLY SCHOLAR OF EXETER COLLEGE, OXFORD
PERCIVAL & CO.
KING STREET, COVENT GARDEN
London
1890
It is hoped that the account given, in the followingpages, of the lives of five great naturalists maynot be found devoid of interest. The work ofeach one of them marked a definite advance inthe science of Biology.
There is often among students of anatomy andphysiology a tendency to imagine that the factswith which they are now being made familiar haveall been established by recent observation andexperiment. But even the slight knowledge of thehistory of Biology, which may be obtained froma perusal of this little book, will show that, so farfrom such being the case, this branch of scienceis of venerable antiquity. And, further, if in theplace of this misconception a desire is arousedin the reader for a fuller acquaintance with thewritings of the early anatomists the chief aimof the author will have been fulfilled.
Owing to the lapse of centuries, very little is knownwith certainty of the life of Hippocrates, who was calledwith affectionate veneration by his successors "thedivine old man," and who has been justly known toposterity as "the Father of Medicine."
He was probably born about 470 B.C., and, accordingto all accounts, appears to have reached the advancedage of ninety years or more. He must, therefore, havelived during a period of Greek history which was characterizedby great intellectual activity; for he had, ashis contemporaries, Pericles the famous statesman; thepoets Æschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, Aristophanes,and Pindar; the philosopher Socrates, with his disciplesXenophon and Plato; the historians Herodotus andThucydides; and Phidias the unrivalled sculptor.
In the island of Cos, where he was born, stood one ofthe most celebrated of the temples of Æsculapius, andin this temple—because he was descended from theAsclepiadæ—Hippocrates inherited from his forefathers[4]an important position. Among the Asclepiads the habitof physical observation, and even manual training indissection, were imparted traditionally from father toson from the earliest years, thus serving as a preparationfor medical practice when there were no written treatisesto study.[1]<