Medicine and philosophy - Classical Homeopathy Online

104 Hippocratic Corpus and Diocles of Carystusfirst of all to deserve mention, separated this discipline from the study of wisdom;he was a man outstanding both for his skill [in medicine] and for his eloquence. 7In the sequel to this passage, Celsus describes a further stage in the developmentof the medical art. He presents Diocles, Praxagoras and Chrysippus,as well as Herophilus and Erasistratus, as men who exercised the art tosuch an extent that they developed different ways of healing, and he pointsout that ‘also, in the same period’ a divison of medicine took place intoregimen, pharmacology, and surgery:Post quem Diocles Carystius, deinde Praxagoras et Chrysippus, tum Herophiluset Erasistratus, sic artem hanc exercuerunt ut etiam in diuersas curandi uias processerint.(9) Isdemque temporibus in tres partes medicina diducta est ut una essetquae uictu, altera quae medicamentis, tertia quae manu mederetur. Primam, secundam , tertiam Graeci nominarunt.After him Diocles of Carystus, and later Praxagoras and Chrysippus, and thenHerophilus and Erasistratus practised the art in such a way that they even proceededinto diverse modes of treatment. (9) Also, in the same times, medicine wasdivided into three parts, so that there was one which healed by regimen, anotherby drugs, and a third manually. The Greeks named the first dietetics, the secondpharmaceutics, the third surgery.However, Celsus then seems to suggest that within dietetics (eius autemquae uictu morbos curat) a renewed interest in theoretical speculation tookplace: for he says that there were ‘famous authorities’ who, out of a desire fordeeper understanding, claimed that for this purpose knowledge of naturewas indispensable, because without it medicine was truncated and impotent(trunca et debilis).Eius autem quae uictu morbos curat longe clarissimi auctores etiam altius quaedamagitare conati rerum quoque naturae sibi cognitionem uindicarunt, tamquam sineea trunca et debilis medicina esset. (10) Post quos Serapion, primus omnium nihilhanc rationalem disciplinam pertinere ad medicinam professus, in usu tantum etexperimentis eam posuit. Quem Apollonius et Glaucias et aliquanto post HeraclidesTarentinus et aliqui non mediocres uiri secuti ex ipsa professione se empiricosappellauerunt. (11) Sic in duas partes ea quoque quae uictu curat medicina diuisaest, aliis rationalem artem, aliis usum tantum sibi uindicantibus, nullo uero quicquampost eos qui supra comprehensi sunt agitante nisi quod acceperat donecAsclepiades medendi rationem ex magna parte mutauit.Yet as for that part of medicine which cures diseases by regimen, by far the mostfamous authorities also tried to deal with some things at even greater depth andalso claimed for themselves a knowledge of the nature of things as if, without this,7 Translation according to van der Eijk (2000a) 3–5.