FIRST [BOOK]

A ...passed a creature with many feet while urinating. In the same way, a youth at Athens expelled, along with much semen, a small, hairy serpent with many feet that began to walk immediately. So too, it is recorded that the grandmother of Timon in Cilicia lay hidden in caves for two months out of every year, known to be alive only by her breathing. Likewise, in the writings of Melonius, a sign of a certain
From Book 1 of On Abstinence from Animal Food. liver condition is described, in which those who were afflicted would carefully observe and pursue domestic mice. Similarly, according to Porphyry Porphyry (c. 234–305 AD), a Neoplatonist philosopher who wrote on various scientific and ethical subjects., a slave of the physician Craterus was seized by a new kind of disease, such that his flesh fell away from his bones. In our own times, that cursed and almost fatal French plague original: "gallica... lues"; a common 16th-century term for syphilis. began to harass every region. Thus, in no way should the blame be cast upon Hippocrates for things that happened either through the fault of later men, by chance, or by the will of God. For since these two previously mentioned
B parts of medicine were advanced to the highest perfection by him, immortal thanks must always be given to his divine hands.

Furthermore, it should be committed to eternal memory that both branches of medicine, just as they are truly distinct, equally possessed different names. One was called preventive original Greek: φυλακτική (phylaktikē), or hygienic original Greek: ὑγιεινή (hygieinē), and the other was called therapeutic original Greek: θεραπευτική (therapeutikē). These names were adopted based both on the work performed and the subject matter they deal with. Because these terms were chosen wisely and truly, they have never undergone any change among any people. Just as even down to later times, this long-standing custom remained among physicians: that they all establish two primary parts of medicine, calling one curative and the other preservative. For this reason, they usually encompass both under the common name of "medicine."

C The curative part, which was discovered first due to greater necessity, obtained that name [of medicine] for itself. The preservative part, having been joined to it later, not only shared that name but also acquired such authority among some people that they judged that this alone should be called "true medicine." They argued that the curative part was uncertain, false, or a mere imposture of men striving to deceive others—namely, because it first uses bare conjectures and the lowest sorts of arguments to recognize diseases. Furthermore, they claimed that in this branch, almost everyone employs accidental remedies and unknown medications for the most part, and finally, they are not infrequently deceived in both judgment and treatment.

However, anyone who wishes to calmly consider the nature of human calamities and the hardships of diseases—and what they would be like if the curative art did not provide relief—will easily recognize that those people are wandering in the gravest error. It seems it was not without the highest reason that the Emperor Julian Julian the Apostate (reigned 361–363 AD), who issued various edicts regarding the status and education of physicians. appears to have promulgated this law in favor of physicians.