Harvard Classics, vol 38 | Page 2

of my teachers, and to
disciples bound by a stipulation and oath according to the law of
medicine, but to none others. I will follow that system of regimen
which, according to my ability and judgment, I consider for the benefit
of my patients, and abstain from whatever is deleterious and
mischievous. I will give no deadly medicine to any one if asked, nor
suggest any such counsel; and in like manner I will not give to a
woman a pessary to produce abortion. With purity and with holiness I
will pass my life and practice my Art. I will not cut persons labouring
under the stone, but will leave this to be done by men who are
practitioners of this work. Into whatever houses I enter, I will go into
them for the benefit of the sick, and will abstain from every voluntary
act of mischief and corruption; and, further, from the seduction of
females or males, of freemen and slaves. Whatever, in connection with
my professional practice, or not in connection with it, I see or hear, in
the life of men, which ought not to be spoken of abroad, I will not
divulge, as reckoning that all such should be kept secret. While I
continue to keep this Oath unviolated, may it be granted to me to enjoy
life and the practice of the art, respected by all men, in all times. But
should I trespass and violate this Oath, may the reverse be my lot.

THE LAW OF HIPPOCRATES
Medicine is of all the arts the most noble; but, owing to the ignorance
of those who practice 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 advantages: a natural disposition;
instruction; a favorable position for the study; early tuition; love of
labour; leisure. First of all, a natural talent is required; for, when Nature
leads the way to what is most excellent, instruction in the art takes
place, which the student must try to appropriate to himself by reflection,
becoming an early pupil in a place well adapted for instruction. He
must also bring to the task a love of labour and perseverance, so that
the instruction taking root may bring forth proper and abundant fruits.
3. Instruction in medicine is like the culture of the productions of the
earth. For our natural disposition, is, as it were, the soil; the tenets of
our teacher are, as it were, the seed; instruction in youth is like the
planting of the seed in the ground at the proper season; the place where
the instruction is communicated is like the food imparted to vegetables
by the atmosphere; diligent study is like the cultivation of the fields;
and it is time which imparts strength to all things and brings them to
maturity.
4. Having brought all these requisites to the study of medicine, and
having acquired a true knowledge of it, we shall thus, in travelling
through the cities, be esteemed physicians not only in name but in
reality. But inexperience is a bad treasure, and a bad fund to those who
possess it, whether in opinion or reality, being devoid of self-reliance
and contentedness, and the nurse both of timidity and audacity. For
timidity betrays a want of powers, and audacity a lack of skill. They are,
indeed, two things, knowledge and opinion, of which the one makes its
possessor really to know, the other to be ignorant.
5. Those things which are sacred, are to be imparted only to sacred
persons; and it is not lawful to impart them to the profane until they
have been initiated in the mysteries of the science.

JOURNEYS IN DIVERSE PLACES
BY AMBROISE PARE
TRANSLATED BY STEPHEN PAGET
Ambroise Pare was born in the village of Bourg-Hersent, near Laval, in
Maine, France, about 1510. He was trained as a barber- surgeon at a
time when a barber-surgeon was inferior to a surgeon and the
professions of surgeon and physician were kept apart by the law of the
Church that forbade a physician to shed blood. Under whom he served

his apprenticeship is unknown, but by 1533 he was in Paris,