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Title: The Harvard Classics Volume 38

Scientific Papers (Physiology, Medicine, Surgery, Geology)

Author: Various

Release Date: May, 2004 [EBook #5694]

[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule]

[This file was first posted on August 9, 2002]

Edition: 10

Language: English

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*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HARVARD CLASSICS V.38 ***

Produced by David Turner, Charles Franks

and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team.

The Harvard Classics Volume 38

Scientific Papers (Physiology, Medicine, Surgery, Geology)

CONTENTS

THE OATH OF HIPPOCRATES

THE LAW OF HIPPOCRATES

JOURNEYS IN DIVERSE PLACES ... AMBROISE PARE

TRANSLATED BY STEPHEN PAGET

ON THE MOTION OF THE HEART AND BLOOD IN ANIMALS

WILLIAM HARVEY. . . TRANSLATED BY ROBERT WILLIS

THE THREE ORIGINAL PUBLICATIONS ON VACCINATION

AGAINST SMALLPOX . ... .. EDWARD JENNER

THE CONTAGIOUSNESS OF PUERPERAL FEVER

O. W. HOLMES

ON THE ANTISEPTIC PRINCIPLE OF THE PRACTICE OF SURGERY

LORD LISTER

THE PHYSIOLOGICAL THEORY OF FERMENTATION

LOUIS PASTEUR

TRANSLATED BY F. FAULKNER AND D. C. ROBB (Revised)

THE GERM THEORY AND ITS APPLICATIONS TO MEDICINE AND

SURGERY (Revised) . ... .. LOUIS PASTEUR

TRANSLATED BY H. C. ERNST

ON THE EXTENSION OF THE GERM THEORY TO THE ETIOLOGY

OF CERTAIN COMMON DISEASES (Revised) LOUIS PASTEUR

TRANSLATED BY H. C. ERNST

PREJUDICES WHICH HAVE RETARDED THE PROGRESS OF

GEOLOGY. ... . ... .. SIR CHARLES LYELL

UNIFORMITY IN THE SERIES OF PAST CHANGES IN THE

ANIMATE AND INANIMATE WORLD SIR CHARLES LYELL

INTRODUCTORY NOTE

Hippocrates, the celebrated Greek physician, was a contemporary

of the historian Herodotus. He was born in the island of Cos

between 470 and 460 B. C., and belonged to the family that

claimed descent from the mythical AEsculapius, son of Apollo.

There was already a long medical tradition in Greece before his

day, and this he is supposed to have inherited chiefly through

his predecessor Herodicus; and he enlarged his education by

extensive travel. He is said, though the evidence is

unsatisfactory, to have taken part in the efforts to check the

great plague which devastated Athens at the beginning of the

Peloponnesian war. He died at Larissa between 380 and 360 B. C.

The works attributed to Hippocrates are the earliest extant Greek

medical writings, but very many of them are certainly not his.

Some five or six, however, are generally granted to be genuine,

and among these is the famous "Oath." This interesting document

shows that in his time physicians were already organized into a

corporation or guild, with regulations for the training of

disciples, and with an esprit de corps and a professional ideal

which, with slight exceptions, can hardly yet be regarded as out

of date.

One saying occurring in the words of Hippocrates has achieved

universal currency, though few who quote it to-day are aware that

it originally referred to the art of the physician. It is the

first of his "Aphorisms": "Life is short, and the Art long; the

occasion fleeting; experience fallacious, and judgment difficult.

The physician must not only be prepared to do what is right

himself, but also to make the patient, the attendants, and

externals cooperate."

THE OATH OF HIPPOCRATES

I swear by Apollo the physician and AEsculapius, and Health, and

All-heal, and all the gods and goddesses, that, according to my

ability and judgment, I will keep this Oath and this stipulation

--to reckon him who taught me this Art equally dear to me as my

parents, to share my substance with him, and relieve his

necessities if required; to look upon his offspring in the same

footing as my own brothers, and to teach them this art, if they

shall wish to learn it, without fee or stipulation; and that by

precept, lecture, and every other mode of instruction, I will

impart a knowledge of the Art to my own sons, and those of my

teachers, and to disciples bound by a stipulation and oath

according to the law of medicine, but to none others. I will

follow that system of regimen which, according to my ability and

judgment, I consider for the benefit of my patients, and abstain

from whatever is deleterious and mischievous. I will give no

deadly medicine to any one if asked, nor suggest any such

counsel; and in like manner I will not give to a woman a pessary

to produce abortion. With purity and with holiness I will pass my

life and practice my Art. I will not cut persons labouring under

the stone, but will leave this to be done by men who are

practitioners of this work. Into whatever houses I enter, I will

go into them for the benefit of the sick, and will abstain from

every voluntary act of mischief and corruption; and, further,

from the seduction of females or males, of freemen and slaves.

Whatever, in connection with my professional practice, or not in

connection with it, I see or hear, in the life of men, which

ought not to be spoken of abroad, I will not divulge, as

reckoning that all such should be kept secret. While I continue

to keep this Oath unviolated, may it be granted to me to enjoy

life and the practice of the art, respected by all men, in all

times. But should I trespass and violate this Oath, may the

reverse be my lot.

THE LAW OF HIPPOCRATES

Medicine is of all the arts the most noble; but, owing to the

ignorance of those who practice it, and of those who,

inconsiderately, form a judgment of them, it is at present far

behind all the other arts. Their mistake appears to me to arise

principally from this, that in the cities there is no punishment

connected with the practice of medicine (and with it alone)

except disgrace, and that does not hurt those who are familiar

with it. Such persons are like the figures which are introduced

in tragedies, for as they have the shape, and dress, and personal

appearance of an actor, but are not actors, so also physicians

are many in title but very few in reality.

2. Whoever is to acquire a competent knowledge of medicine, ought

to be possessed of the following advantages: a natural

disposition; instruction; a favorable position for the study;

early tuition; love of labour; leisure. First of all, a natural

talent is required; for, when Nature leads the way to what is

most excellent, instruction in the art takes place, which the

student must try to appropriate to himself by reflection,

becoming an early pupil in a place well adapted for instruction.

He must also bring to the task a love of labour and perseverance,

so that the instruction taking root may bring forth proper and

abundant fruits.

3. Instruction in medicine is like the culture of the productions

of the earth. For our natural disposition, is, as it were, the

soil; the tenets of our teacher are, as it were, the seed;

instruction in youth is like the planting of the seed in the

ground at the proper season; the place where the instruction is

communicated is like the food imparted to vegetables by the

atmosphere; diligent study is like the cultivation of the fields;

and it is time which imparts strength to all things and brings

them to maturity.

4. Having brought all these requisites to the study of medicine,

and having acquired a true knowledge of it, we shall thus, in

travelling through the cities, be esteemed physicians not only in

name but in reality. But inexperience is a bad treasure, and a

bad fund to those who possess it, whether in opinion or reality,

being devoid of self-reliance and contentedness, and the nurse

both of timidity and audacity. For timidity betrays a want of

powers, and audacity a lack of skill. They are, indeed, two

things, knowledge and opinion, of which the one makes its

possessor really to know, the other to be ignorant.

5. Those things which are sacred, are to be imparted only to

sacred persons; and it is not lawful to impart them to the

profane until they have been initiated in the mysteries of the

science.

JOURNEYS IN DIVERSE PLACES

BY AMBROISE PARE

TRANSLATED BY STEPHEN PAGET

Ambroise Pare was born in the village of Bourg-Hersent, near

Laval, in Maine, France, about 1510. He was trained as a barber-

surgeon at a time when a barber-surgeon was inferior to a surgeon

and the professions of surgeon and physician were kept apart by

the law of the Church that forbade a physician to shed blood.

Under whom he served his apprenticeship is unknown, but by 1533

he was in Paris, where he received an appointment as house

surgeon at the Hotel Dieu. After three or four years of valuable

experience in this hospital, he set up in private practise in

Paris, but for the next thirty years he was there only in the

intervals of peace; the rest of the time he followed the army. He

became a master barber-surgeon in 1541.

In Pare's time the armies of Europe were not regularly equipped

with a medical service. The great nobles were accompanied by

their private physicians; the common soldiers doctored

themselves, or used the services of barber-surgeons and quacks

who accompanied the army as adventurers. "When Pare joined the

army" says Paget, "he went simply as a follower of Colonel

Montejan, having neither rank, recognition, nor regular payment.

His fees make up in romance for their irregularity: a cask of

wine, fifty double ducats and a horse, a diamond, a collection of

crowns and half-crowns from the ranks, other honorable presents

and of great value'; from the King himself, three hundred crowns,

and a promise he would never let him be in want; another diamond,

this time from the finger of a duchess: and a soldier once

offered a bag of gold to him."

When Pare was a man of seventy, the Dean of the Faculty of

Medicine in Paris made an attack on him on account of his use of

the ligature instead of cauterizing after amputation. In answer,

Pare appealed to his successful experience, and narrated the

"Journeys in Diverse Places" here printed. This entertaining

volume gives a vivid picture, not merely of the condition of

surgery in the sixteenth century, but of the military life of the

time; and reveals incidentally a personality of remarkable vigor

and charm. Pare's own achievements are recorded with modest

satisfaction: "I dressed him, and God healed him," is the

refrain. Pare died in Paris in December, 1590.

JOURNEYS IN DIVERSE PLACES

[Footnote: The present translation is taken from Mr. Stephen

Paget's "Ambroise Pare and His Times" by arrangement with Messrs.

G. P. Putnam's Sons.]

1537-1569

THE JOURNEY TO TURIN. 1537

I will here shew my readers the towns and places where I found a

way to learn the art of surgery: for the better instruction of

the young surgeon.

And first, in the year 1536, the great King Francis sent a large

army to Turin, to recover the towns and castles that had been

taken by the Marquis du Guast, Lieutenant-General of the Emperor.

M. the Constable, then Grand Master, was Lieutenant-General of

the army, and M. de Montejan was Colonel-General of the infantry,

whose surgeon I was at this time. A great part of the army being

come to the Pass of Suze, we found the enemy occupying it; and

they had made forts and trenches, so that we had to fight to

dislodge them and drive them out. And there were many killed and

wounded on both sides,--but the enemy were forced to give way and

retreat into the castle, which was captured, part of it, by

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