PREFACE

THE works, some seventy in all, which in any of our manuscripts are assigned to Hippocrates, comprise what is called the " Hippocratic collection." During nearly three centuries there appeared many editions, of some or of all of these works, intended to instruct medical students or practitioners. The birth of modern medical science in the nineteenth century stopped finally this long series, but a few scholars still worked at the treatises from an historical standpoint. The literary merit, however, of the Hippocratic writings, at least of the majority, is not great, and it is only within the last few years that they have been subjected to the exact scholarship which has thrown such a flood of new light upon most of the classical authors. Even now very little has been done for text, dialect, grammar and style, although the realization of the value of the collection for the history of philosophy is rapidly improving matters. So for the present a translator must also be, in part, an editor. He has no scholarly tradition behind him upon which to build, but must lay his own foundations.

It will be many years before the task is finished, but in the meanwhile there is work for less ambitious students. My own endeavour has been to make as clear and accurate a translation as the condition of