the greatest physician of antiquity, was born in the island of Cos in the 8th Olympiad, and flourished at the time of the Peloponnesian war. He was the first that we know of who laid down precepts concerning physic; and, if we may believe the author of his life, who goes under the name of Soranus, drew his original from Hercules and Aesculapius. He was first a pupil of his own father Heraclides, then of Herodicus, then of Gorgias of Leontium the orator, and, according to some, of Democritus of Abdera. After being instructed in physic, and in the liberal arts, and losing his parents, he left his own country, and practised physic all over Greece; where he was so much admired for his skill, that he was publicly sent for with Euryphon, a man superior to him in years, to Perdiccas king of Macedonia, who was then thought to be consumptive. But Hippocrates, as soon as he arrived, pronounced the disease to be entirely mental, as in truth it was. For upon the death of his father Alexander, Perdiccas fell in love with Philas, his father's mistress; and this Hippocrates discerning by the great change her presence always wrought upon him, a cure was soon effected.

Being intreated by the people of Abdera to come and cure Democritus of a supposed madness, he went; but, upon his arrival, instead of finding Democritus mad, he found all his fellow citizens so, and Democritus the only wise man among them. He heard many lectures, and learned much philosophy from him; which has made Cornelius Celsus and some others imagine, that Hippocrates was the disciple of Democritus, though it is probable they never saw each other till this interview which was occasioned by the Abderites. Hippocrates had also public invitations to other countries. Thus, when a plague invaded the Illyrians and Peonians, the kings of those countries begged him to come to their relief; he did not go; but learning from the messengers the course of the winds there, he concluded that the distemper would come to Athens; and foretelling what would happen, applied himself to take care of the city and the students. He was indeed such a lover of Greece, that when his fame had reached as far as Persia, and upon that account Artaxerxes had intreated him by his governor of the Hellepont, with a promise of great rewards, to come to him, he refused to go. He also delivered his own country from a war with the Athenians, that was just ready to break out, by prevailing with the Thessalians to come to their assistance, for which he received very great honours from the Coans. The Athenians also conferred great honours upon him: they admitted him next to Hercules in the Eleusinian ceremonies; gave him the freedom of the city; and voted a public maintenance for him and his family in the prytaneum or council-house at Athens, where none were maintained at the public charge, but such as had done public service to the state. He died among the Larissaeans, some say in his 90th year, some in his 85th, others in his 124th, and some in his 109th. The best edition of his works is that of Foetus in Greek and Latin. Hippocrates wrote in the Ionian dialect. His aphorisms, prognostics, and all that he has written on the symptoms of diseases, justify paps for masterpieces. See History of Medicine.