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Philosophy and Medicine in Ancient Greece,

with an edition of Περì xs1F00ρχαíης ’ιητρıκ
S0017383500009906_inline1ς. By W. H. S.
Jones. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins Press,
1946. Pp. 100. \$2.00.

Greece and Rome / Volume 17 / Issue 49 / January 1948, pp 45 - 45

DOI: 10.1017/S0017383500009906, Published online: 05 January 2009

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abstract_S0017383500009906

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(1948). Greece and Rome, 17, pp 45-45 doi:10.1017/S0017383500009906

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 REVIEWS 45
During the last ten years, however, the well-known Danish historian Westrup has
made a fresh attempt to profit from the comparative method. The present volumes
introduce the subject, which presumably will become a magnum opus. Already Fritz
Schulz (in a review of vol. iii. i, in jf.R.S. vol. xxxii, pts. i and 2, 1942) has pointed out
certain discrepancies in the author's arguments and warns us that, although the books
must be read and studied, they need critical readers.
Despite the somewhat forbidding titles, they are eminently stimulating and clear.
Readers with no legal qualifications will discover plenty of interest, for the writer ranges
over the whole Indo-European field, with numerous quotations from Sanskrit, Greek,
Roman, and Germanic sources. The printing, by the way, is excellent.

Philosophy and Medicine in Ancient Greece, with an edition of TTepi dp

MryrpiKfis. By W. H. S. JONES. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins Press, 1946.
P p . 100. $2.00.
T o get the most out of this book one cannot do better than read as a prolegomenon the
article by the late Professor Cornford 'Was the Ionian Philosophy Scientific?' (J.H.S.,
1942). He brings out clearly the a priori approach of the philosophers, and contrasts
with it the empirical methods of ancient physicians. The former began with hypotheses
and proceeded, by deductions based on insecure premisses, to nothing: the medical
schools, on the contrary, started from phenomena and proceeded by induction to con-
clusions which, if not certain, were at least probable.
Let it be said at once that the anonymous TTepl dpxorftis 'IriTpiKtis is a most important
document. It consists of a polemic directed against those who introduced CnroSkreis
(i.e. postulates which are unverifiable) into medical thought, and an exposition of
medical method. The question of the 0TT66E<JIS in relation to fmcnrfimi raises a host of
queries which affect our whole outlook upon Greek theories of knowledge. In brief,
the author, who according to many commentators is none other than Hippocrates him-
self, follows Alcmaeon of Croton and the Pythagoreans, for he believes that health is
a harmonious blend, or equal balancing of an indefinite number of simple 'opposites'.
Disease results from any disturbance of this harmony. Consequently, to restore the
patient to health, careful attention must be paid to diet and regimen. Accurate measure-
ment of the effect of certain foods on persons in various degrees of health or sickness
is stressed by the author, so that here we have one of the earliest examples of scientific
method.
In the limited space of this review it is impossible to do justice to Dr. Jones's valu-
able introduction, where he treats of the Pre-Hippocratics and Plato, followed by two
chapters on Hypotheses in Greek Thought and Philosophy, and Medical Etiquette.
Readers will find them of absorbing interest. The text, translation, and commentary
on the dissertation, with some additional notes and a bibliography, complete the book.
Altogether a most valuable addition to our knowledge of this important subject.