Page:Greek Biology and Medicine.djvu/43

 THE HIPPOCRATICS hypotheses, which the true scientist or the good physician holds himself in readiness to abandon, are the most serviceable and least fatal. We return to our illustrations of Hippoc- rates. Very typical is the treatment of the patient's regimen. Its method and humane wisdom are shown in the tract On Regimen in Acute Diseases. It opens somewhat warmly in a polemic against the Cnidian school for their fine-spun diagnoses and meticulous dis- tinctions between diseases, which went beyond their knowledge of the course and nature of disease and far beyond their too restricted remedies. Not every variation of symptom means a different disease; and the Cnidians fail to consider those profounder indications of which the patient is not aware, but the physician must discern and understand if he would foresee the course and crisis of the sick- ness with which he must cope. Diet is most important in acute diseases, and has not been sufficiently determined; its effect upon the sick must be carefully considered and compared. The tract proceeds to do this specifically and most wisely; comparing, for instance, the re- sults obtained from a diet of barley broth with those from strained barley water, and discuss- [21]