Epidemics 2 and 4–7

Edited and translated by Wesley D. Smith

Hardcover

ISBN 9780674995260

Publication date: 12/31/1994

The medical treatises collected under Hippocrates' name are essential sources of information about the practice of medicine in antiquity and about Greek theories concerning the human body. In this seventh volume of the ongoing Loeb edition of the Hippocratic Collection, Wesley Smith presents the first modern English translation of Books 2 and 47 of the Epidemics (the other two books are available in the first volume).

In the casebooks and notes that make up the seven books called Epidemicsthe title originally meant 'visits'we can watch ancient physicians observing patients, noting and pondering symptoms, evaluating treatments, and developing theories about the body. They appear to be physicians' notebooks from several areas of the Aegean basin. Smith supplements his clear translation with explanatory notes.

The other works available in the Loeb Classical Library edition of Hippocrates are the following. Volume I: Ancient Medicine. Airs, Waters, Places. Epidemics 1 and 3. The Oath. Precepts. Nutriment. Volume II: Prognostic. Regimen in Acute Diseases. The Sacred Disease. The Art. Breaths. Law. Decorum. Physician (Ch. 1). Dentition. Volume III: On Wounds in the Head. In the Surgery. On Fractures. On Joints. Mochlicon. Volume IV: Nature of Man. Regimen in Health. Humours. Aphorisms. Regimen 13. Dreams. Volume V: Affections. Diseases 12. Volume VI: Diseases 3. Internal Affections. Regimen in Acute Diseases. Volume VIII: Places in Man. Glands. Fleshes. Prorrhetic III. Physician. Use of Liquids. Ulcers. Haemorrhoids and Fistulas. Volume IV also contains the fragments of Heracleitus, On the Universe.

Praise

Since Littré's edition...the texts of the Epidemics, with the exception of I, III and VI, had only appeared in an edition by Pournaropoulos, and this is the first complete English translation...It is thus of enormous value in making all the books of the Epidemics available to those without a sufficient knowledge of Greek or French--or without access to the Littré edition. It is also a welcome further step towards a complete Loeb Hippocrates, and therefore towards a much-needed available and affordable edition of the Hippocratic Corpus.

—C. F. Salazar, The Classical Review