PREFACE

The works—some seventy in all—which are attributed to Hippocrates in our various manuscripts, make up what is known as the "Hippocratic collection." For nearly three centuries, many editions of these works (either in part or in whole) appeared, intended to instruct medical students and practitioners. While the birth of modern medical science in the nineteenth century finally brought this long series of editions to an end, a few scholars continued to study the treatises from an historical perspective. However, the literary quality of the Hippocratic writings—at least for the majority of them—is not particularly high. It is only within the last few years that they have been subjected to the rigorous scholarship that has shed so much light on most other classical authors. Even now, little has been done regarding the text, dialect, grammar, and style, although the growing recognition of the collection’s value to the history of philosophy is rapidly improving matters. Therefore, for the present, a translator must also act, in part, as an editor. He has no scholarly tradition upon which to build and must lay his own foundations.

It will be many years before this task is finished, but in the meantime, there is work for less ambitious students. My own endeavor has been to produce as clear and accurate a translation as the state of