to the refusal of
the venerable physician to comply with the king's request, one cannot
lose sight of the fact that such refusal was the only course consistent
with the opinions he professed of a monarchical form of government.

After his various travels Hippocrates, as seems to be pretty generally
admitted, spent the latter portion of his life in Thessaly, and died at
Larissa at a very advanced age.

It is difficult to speak of the skill and painstaking perseverance of
Hippocrates in terms which shall not appear exaggerated and
extravagant. His method of cultivating medicine was in the true spirit
of the inductive philosophy. His descriptions were all derived from
careful observation of its phenomena, and, as a result, the greater
number of his deductions have stood unscathed the test of twenty
centuries.

Still more difficult is it to speak with moderation of the candour which
impelled Hippocrates to confess errors into which in his earlier
practice he had fallen; or of that freedom from superstition which
entitled him to be spoken of as a man who knew not how to deceive or be
deceived ("qui tam fallere quam falli nescit"); or, lastly, of that
purity of character and true nobility of soul which are brought so
distinctly to light in the words of the oath translated below:--

"I swear by Apollo the Physician and AEsculapius, and I call Hygeia
and Panacea and all the gods and goddesses to witness, that to the
best of my power and judgment I will keep this oath and this
contract; to wit--to hold him, who taught me this Art, equally dear
to me as my parents; to share my substance with him; to supply him
if he is in need of the necessaries of life; to regard his offspring
in the same light as my own brothers, and to teach them this Art, if
they shall desire to learn it, without fee or contract; to impart
the precepts, the oral teaching, and all the rest of the instruction
to my own sons, and to the sons of my teacher, and to pupils who
have been bound to me by contract, and who have been sworn according
to the law of medicine.

"I will adopt that system of regimen which, according to my ability
and judgment, I consider for the benefit of my patients, and will
protect them from everything noxious and injurious. I will give no
deadly medicine to any one, even if asked, nor will I give any such
counsel, and similarly I will not give to a woman the means