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This little book is an attempt to compress into a few pages an account of the general evolution of Greek biological and medical knowledge. The section on Aristotle appears here for the first time.

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1922 edition. Excerpt: ... III. ARISTOTLE'S BIOLOGY UR DEBT to Greek biology is not to be appraised through any attempt to trace a causal continuity between Greece and the modern world in the development of this science, or group of sciences. The continuity is problematical and lacking in causality. Modern biological science sprang from the direct investigation of the natural objects forming its provinces. Modern anatomy for instance, arose with Leonardo and Vesalius from dissections of human bodies and not from study of books. It is not to be regarded as a graft upon the ancient stock. The fundamental aim of biology, with the Greeks and with ourselves, has been to learn about living organisms. Nevertheless, Greek biology differed from the modern biological sciences in origins and associations, in method and in temperament. Our present debt to the ancient time is owing not a little to these differences. Let us see. In origins;--Greek science began in the large unity of the grand desire to know the As constituents and processes of the world. It was pursued by men whom we have been taught to call philosophers; and in fact only gradually did philosophy, more properly speaking, differentiate itself from physics, that is, from the elemental attempt to observe and know the physical world. Greek philosophy was to consist of logical and metaphysical conceptions; Greek physical, or let us say specifically biological, science was to continue as observation and induction. Yet it did not part company from philosophy, and occasionally employed the same processes of logic and even metaphysics. The same men might still be both scientists and philosophers--or metaphysicians. The greatest of Greek biologists was very nearly the greatest of Greek philosophers; and Aristotle the...

Excerpt from Greek Biology and Medicine Many Readers will find in the pages of Doctor Taylor a revelation in the amazing advance made by Greek Biology and Medicine and in the extent of our indebtedness to Hippocrates, Aristotle and Galen. The subject is one not so well known as some other aspects of the Greek and Roman civilizations. We are apt to think of magic and superstition in the medical practice of the ancients, in spite of our Celsus and the oracular Pliny. The specialist may have followed the expositions of Sir William Osier, Dr. Charles Singer, Sir Clifford Allbutt and Dr. Arthur J. Brock, but this book is addressed to the layman. It is our hope that a wider and deeper interest will result in the achievements of those Greeks who laid the foundations, permanent and secure, for the sciences of Biology and Medicine. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

The ancient Greek medical thinkers were profoundly influenced by Ionian natural philosophy. This philosophy caused them to adopt a radically new attitude towards disease and healing. James Longrigg shows how their rational attitudes ultimately resulted in levels of sophistication largely unsurpassed until the Renaissance. He examines the important relationship between philosophy and medicine in ancient Greece and beyond, and reveals its significance for contemporary western practice and theory.