sease of the ovum for hydatid
disease of the womb. In the books which are considered genuine the
references to diseases of women are meagre, and it is likely that the
author had little special knowledge of the subject. That part of the
Hippocratic collection which is not considered genuine deals rather
fully with the subject of gynaecology.[5] In it are described sounds
made of wood and of lead, dilators and uterine catheters. Sitz baths
were in use, and fumigations were very extensively employed in
gynaecological practice. Pessaries were made by rolling lint or wool into
an oblong shape, and were medicated to be emollient, astringent or
purgative in their local action. The half of a pomegranate was used as a
mechanical pessary, and there are also references to tents, and to
suppositories for the bowel.

In dealing with _Dietetics_, Hippocrates displays close observation and
sound judgment. The views held generally at the present day coincide
closely with his instructions on food and feeding. In the treatise on
Ancient Medicine, he states that men had to find from experience the
properties of various vegetable foods, and discovered that what was
suitable in health was unsuitable in sickness, and that the accumulation
of these discoveries was the origin of the art of medicine.

The Sydenham Society initiated, and Dr. Adams brilliantly accomplished,
a noble work in the publication in 1849 of "The Genuine Works of
Hippocrates," from which "The Law," and "The Oath" are here quoted. The
former is the view of Hippocrates of the standards which should govern
the practice of medicine; the latter is that by which all the
AEsculapians were bound.

"THE LAW.

"(1) Medicine is of all the arts the most noble; but, owing to the
ignorance of those who practise 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 adva