Page:Chronicles of pharmacy (Volume 1).djvu/101

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is reputed to be the originator of the theory of the humours, he does not allow the doctrine to influence his treatment, which is based on experience.

This portrait of Hippocrates, which is given in Leclerc's "History of Medicine," is stated to be copied from a medal in the collection of Fulvius Ursinus, a celebrated Italian connoisseur. It is believed that the medal was struck by the people of Cos at some long distant time in honour of their famous compatriot. A bust in the British Museum, found near Albano, among some ruins conjectured to have been the villa of Marcus Varro, is presumed to represent Hippocrates on the evidence of the likeness it bears to the head on this medal.


The medical views of Hippocrates do not concern us here except as they affect his pharmaceutical practice; but a very long chapter might be written on his pharmacy, that is to say, on the use he made of drugs in the treatment of disease. Galen believed that he made his preparations with his own hand, or at least