The Lagoon: How Aristotle Invented Science

by Armand Marie Leroi

Hippocrates (fl. 450 BC?) was going to school. In the plateia of Kos town there is a plane, ancient and gnarled, that is – so the label claims – the very tree under which the adult Hippocrates once sat dispensing cures and wisdom. It can’t be the same tree, but then the medical writings that are attributed to Hippocrates probably aren’t his either. Parts of the Corpus Hippocraticum, a medley of some sixty works, are old enough to have been written by him or his pupils, but others date from around the first century AD. Most of them are sober, professional texts that give naturalistic explanations for disease. Some are simple case studies, but others are more intellectually ambitious. The author of Fleshes says he wants to ‘explain how man and the other animals are formed, that is, come about, what the soul is, what health and sickness are, what is bad and good in man, and what causes death’. Profound or banal, they’re very different from Empedocles’ effusions. Here’s ‘Hippocrates’ on curing acute diseases: Often, in such cases, you will find ‘oxymel’, as a drink, extremely useful. It helps bring up sputum and promotes breathing. It is best employed under the following conditions. When strongly acidic, it is particularly effective in cases where there is difficulty in bringing up sputum. By lubricating the sputum, it facilitates expectoration thus clearing the windpipe as if with a feather. This is soothing to the lung and brings relief. And if, in combination, it achieves t...