Page:The Hunterian Oration, delivered before the Royal College of Surgeons ... February 14, 1817 (IA b22009358).pdf/12

4 nions were the price. The very eloquent and glowmg manner in which this was illustrated last year, from this Chair, in an extempore Oration, by reference to Grecian history, renders it unnecessary at present to add any thing in praise of the Art itself; and therefore, in the short space which is allowed for this commeniorative Tribute, the time will be best employed in taking a cursory notice of a few of its principal professors and ornaments.

Authentic history does not inform us of any great medical or chirurgical character before the time of Hippocrates; but legendary accounts are not wanting which trace his pedigree, and his gradually acquired knowledge, through the family of the Asclepiades, up to Aésculapius. This circum- �