He is said to have been the discoverer of the principles of derivation and revulsion in the treatment of diseases.[392]
Sydenham called Hippocrates “the Romulus of medicine, whose heaven was the empyrean of his art. He it is whom we can never duly praise.” He terms him “that divine old man,” and declares that he laid the immovable foundations of the whole superstructure of medicine when he taught that _our natures are the physicians of our diseases_.[393]
He was Father of Surgery as well as of medicine. Eight of his seventeen genuine works are strictly surgical. By an ingenious arrangement of apparatus he was enabled to practise extension and counter-extension. He insisted on the most exact co-aptation of fractured bones, declaring that it was disgraceful to allow a patient to recover with a crooked or shortened limb. His splints were probably quite as good as ours, and his bandaging left nothing to be desired. When the ends of the bones projected in cases of compound fractures, they were carefully resected. In fracture of the skull with depressed bone the trepan was used, and in cases where blood or pus had accumulated they were skilfully evacuated. He boldly and freely opened abscesses of the liver and kidneys. The thoracic cavity was explored by percussion and auscultation for detection of fluids, and when they were discovered paracentesis (tapping) was performed. This was also done in cases of abdominal dropsies. The rectum was examined by an appropriate speculum, fistula-in-ano was treated by the ligature, and hæmorrhoids were operated upon. Stiff leather shoes and an admirable system of bandaging were employed in cases of talipes. The bladder was explored by sounds for the detection of calculi; gangrenous and mangled limbs were amputated; the dead fœtus was extracted from the mother. Venesection, scarification, and cupping were all employed.[394]
He resected bones at the joints. In the treatment of ulcers he used sulphate of copper, sulphate of zinc, verdigris, lead, sulphur, arsenic, alum, etc. He came very near indeed to the antiseptic system in surgery when he made use of “raw tar water” (a crude sort of carbolic acid, in fact) in the treatment of wounds. Suppositories were employed.