Aphorisms of Hippocrates

medicine is given in the wintertime (unless the material is prepared: for if you act in this manner, in that body, winter will be turned into summer), it is an experiment, even if it brings help; since such a medicine desires summer, as was explained by us elsewhere. The same must be brought to bear regarding the remaining circumstances. Therefore, if the physician is ignorant of the nature of the medicine and other things which are objects of the medicine, it will not be named medicine, but an experiment. A surgical operation is also called an experiment if the physician does not know the nature of the operation itself, the nature of the man in whom it is to be done, the disease on account of which it is done, and the cause of the disease, the concauses or circumstances, and the symptoms of the disease. I think it is superfluous to repeat these same things. And let these things be said regarding the experiment, and let us pass on to judgment: which judgment Hippocrates judges to be difficult on account of the difficult cognition of the matter: for judgment is the method of knowing something. But let the judgment of the physician be such that he may most fully understand and know the nature of the disease, from where it begins, what end it is going to have, and all other things which precede, accompany, and follow the disease. Then let him know the nature of the patient and the circumstances. Since all these things to be known demand a great deal of time and a great deal of diligence, study, and discipline, he therefore called the judgment difficult. Since, therefore, Life is short, art long, opportunity fleeting, and momentary, the experiment dangerous, and the judgment difficult; and on account of this, Hippocrates adds: Nor is it only necessary for the physician himself to provide those things that are opportune; but also the patient, and the assistants, and external things, that is, it is necessary not only for the physician to do those things which are appropriate for curing the sickness, but also the patient, the assistants, and external things. But almost the whole work of the physician lies not only in acting rightly, but also in