Hippocrates, the most celebrated physician of antiquity, was the son of Heracleides, who was also a physician, and belonged to the family of the Asclepiadæ, Hippocrates himself being either nineteenth or seventeenth in descent from Esenapius. His mother, whose name was Phænarete, was said to be descended from Hereules. He was born in the island of Cos, probably about 460 B.C. He is said to have been instructed in medicine by his father and by Herodius, and in philosophy by Gorgias of Leontini, the celebrated sophist, and Democritus of Abdera, whose cure, when he was mentally deranged, he afterwards effected. After visiting some parts of Greece, particularly Athens, then at its intellectual zenith, he settled in practice at Cos. He died at Larissa, in Thessaly, but at what age is uncertain, different ancient authors stating it to have been at 85, 90, 104, and 109 years. Clinton (Fasti Hell.) places his death 357 B.C., at the age of 104. We know little more of his personal history than that he was greatly esteemed as a physician and an author, and that he raised the medical school of Cos to a very high reputation.
His works were quoted by Plato, who compared him to Polycletus and Phidias, and by Aristotle, who called him 'the great.' Various stories are recorded of him by Greek writers, to which, being undoubtedly fabulous, it is unnecessary to advert; and we find legends regarding him in the works of Arabic writers, who term him 'Bokrât,' while the European story-tellers of the middle ages celebrate him under the name of 'Ypocras,' and, in defiance of chronology, make him professor of medicine at Rome, with a nephew of wondrous medical skill, whom he despatched in his own stead to the king of Hungary.
The works bearing the name of Hippocrates, and termed the Hippocratic Collection, are more than sixty in number, and were divided by Dr Greenhill into eight classes. The first class comprises works certainly written by Hippocrates, including Prognostica; Aphorismi; Dc Morbis Popularibus; Dc Ratione Victus in Morbis Acutis; De Aëre, Aquis, et Locis; and De Capitis Vulneribus. Some eminent critics doubt the genuineness of some portions of the Aphorismi, the work by which Hippocrates is most popularly known. The second class is composed of works perhaps written by Hippocrates. They are eleven in number, and one of them is the well-known Jusjurandum, or 'Hippocratic Oath.' The others consist of works written before Hippocrates, works whose author is conjectured, works by quite unknown authors, wilful forgeries, &c.
For anything like a full account of his views we must refer to the various writers who have treated of the history of medicine. We can here only mention that he divides the causes of disease into two principal classes: the first consisting of the influence of seasons, climates, water, situation, &c.; and the second of more personal causes, such as the food and exercise of the individual patient. To the influence which different climates exert on the human constitution he confidently ascribes both the conformation of the body and the disposition of the mind, and hence accounts for the differences between the Greek and the less hardy Asiatic. The four fluids or humours of the body (blood, phlegm, yellow bile, and black bile) were regarded by him as the primary seats of disease; health was the result of the due combination (or crasis) of these, the disturbance of which produced illness. When a disease was proceeding favourably these humours underwent a certain change (or coction), which was the sign of returning health, as preparing for the expulsion of morbid matter, or crisis, these crises having a tendency to occur at definite periods, which were thence called 'critical days.' His treatment of diseases was cautious, and what we now term expectant; it consisted chiefly and often solely in attention to diet and regimen; and he was sometimes reproached with letting his patients die by doing nothing to keep them alive.
The works of Hippocrates were translated at an early period into Arabic. They were first printed in a Latin translation in 1525 at Rome. The first Greek edition (the Aldine) appeared the following year at Venice; an edition by Mercuriali appeared in 1588, one by Foes in 1595, and one by Van der Linden in 1665. Others have appeared under the editorship of Chartier, Kühn, &c. The best edition, with an admirable French translation, is that of Littré (10 vols. 1839-61). A scholarly edition by Ermerius, with a Latin rendering, was published in 1859-65 at Utrecht, at the expense of the university of Amsterdam. An excellent English translation of the Genuine Works of Hippocrates was published in 1849, in 2 vols., by Dr Adams of Banchory, Aberdeenshire.