He declares the loss of hair and the diarrhœa of phthisis to be fatal signs, and his description of hydrothorax, or dropsy of the chest, has been highly praised by the greatest authorities. He says that phthisis is most common between the ages of eighteen and thirty-six (see _Hippoc. de Morbis_, ii. 45; _Coacæ Prænat., et alibi_). For pleurisy his treatment is practically the same as that followed at the present day. He advised the administration of flour and milk in diarrhœa—an exceedingly useful remedy—and treated the pains of colic by warm injections, warm baths, fomentations, soporifics and purgatives, as the case might require. He was wise enough to know that stone of the bladder was a product of a morbid condition of the urine, and said that when it had fairly formed nothing but an operation for its removal was of any value. He recognised the disease known as hydatids of the liver, and directed that abscesses of that organ should be opened by the cautery. His account of the causes and treatment of dropsy is fairly accurate according to our present knowledge. He approved of paracentesis abdominis (tapping) in cases of ascites, and describes the operation. He recognised the incurability of true cancer. Many of his treatises on the disorders of women prove that they were well understood in his day, and on the whole were properly treated. Difficult labour was managed not so differently from our modern methods as might be supposed. His account of hip-joint disease is remarkably accurate. Gout was well understood by our author, and probably his treatment by purgation and careful dieting was on the whole as successful as our own.
Hippocrates speaks of leprosy as more a blemish than a disease; it is probable, however, that the works in which he is supposed to allude to it are not genuine. He points out the danger of opening the round tumour on tendons, called a ganglion. In his book called _Prognostics_, he refers to the danger of an erysipelas being translated to an internal part. Cold applications, he says, are useful in this disease when there is no ulceration, but prejudicial when ulceration is present. Struma or scrofula is described by Hippocrates (_De Glandulis_) as being one of the worst diseases of the neck. In the treatise (_De Ulceribus_) on ulcers, he particularly praises wine as a lotion for ulcers, and there is good reason to believe that we might advantageously revert to this treatment. Some of the drugs which he recommends for foul ulcers, such as frankincense and myrrh, are excellent, and owe their efficacy to their “newly discovered” antiseptic action. He recommends also arsenic and verdigris. The actual cautery or burning applied freely to the head is recommended in diseases of the eyes and other complaints. He describes water on the brain in the treatise _De Morbis_, ii. 15, and even recommends perforation of the skull or trephining quite in the modern way. Opening the temporal veins is advised for obstinate headaches. Although no express treatise on bleeding is found amongst the works of Hippocrates, he practised venesection freely in various diseases. He forbids the surgeon to interfere with non-ulcerated cancers, adding that if the cancer be healed the patient soon dies, while if let alone he may live a long time (_Aph._, vi. 38). He warns us that the sudden evacuation of the matter of empyema or of the water in dropsy proves fatal. He speaks of evacuating the fluid with an instrument similar to that which we call a trochar. He approves of scarification of the ankles in dropsy of the lower extremities; this is quite modern treatment. In cases of dislocation of the hip-joint from the formation of a collection of humours, he recommends burning so as to dry up the redundant humours. He minutely describes the cure of fistula with the ligature in his work _De Fistulis_, which, even if not a genuine treatise of Hippocrates, is extremely ancient, and was considered authentic by Galen. Hæmorrhoids or piles are to be ligatured with very thick thread, or destroyed with red-hot irons. Varicose veins are to be treated by small punctures, not freely opened (_De Ulceribus_, 16). Hippocrates considered the extraction of weapons to be one of the most important departments of surgery. In his treatise _De Medico_, he says that surgery can only be properly learned by attaching one’s self to the army. Homer said,—