Page:Greek Biology and Medicine.djvu/112

 GREEK BIOLOGY AND MEDICINE immediately following the death of the two masters. Soon, however, tendencies to simplify principles and practice intervened; and practi- tioners were ready enough to disburden them- selves of useless knowledge. Either through legitimate descent or from reaction, divergent medical attitudes became apparent. One must not, however, infer such opposite practices as the opposing names of these medical sects might seem to indicate, for they had much in common and tended to ex- emplify Greek temperance and reasonableness in the treatment of patients. Whatever was the theoretical position of his school, " there were for the wiser Greek physician three factors of safety: he was free from magic; he was a master of hygiene; and, whatever his abstract notions, he never forgot to treat the individual." (Allbutt.) Naturally the various phases of Greek medical theory were colored, temperamentally, by the current attitudes of Greek philosophy toward nature and human life and man's knowl- edge of the same. So completely had Greek natural philosophy boxed the compass of pos- sible opinion, that no medical theory could avoid adopting as its ultimate base some recog- [90]