documents in question was completely disproved by the falsity of the narrative upon which they are founded. Seeing, then, that these letters are admitted on all hands to be very ancient, that is to say, of a date not much later than the time of Hippocrates, we may rest assured that the main facts to which they allude were believed at the time to be of an authentic nature. For the like reasons I am disposed to think that, although the letters in the Collection which refer to a pretended correspondence between him and Democritus are most probably to be regarded as spurious, it is far from being improbable that the physician may have rendered the services of his profession to the philosopher. Had there been no grounds whatever for this story, why so many ancient authors should have agreed in giving credit to it I cannot imagine. According to all the accounts which have come down to us of his life, he spent the latter part of it in Thessaly, and died at Larissa, when far advanced in years. The corruptions with regard to numbers which, in the course of transcription, have crept into all works of great antiquity, sufficiently account for the differences already mentioned in the statements respecting his age at the time of his death. These are all the particulars of any importance which can now be gathered regarding the life of him who has been venerated in all ages as “The Father of Medicine.” That they are scanty and rather unsatisfactory, must be admitted; but yet what more, in general, can we desire to know respecting the biography of a physician than the manner in which he was educated, how he was esteemed by his contemporaries, and what he did and wrote to reflect credit on his profession? The approbation and gratitude of those who have consulted him for the cure of their maladies are the best testimony to the public character of a physician, and the estimation in which his writings are held by the members of his own profession is what constitutes his professional reputation. I need scarcely say that, as a medical author, the name of Hippocrates stands pre-eminently illustrious. In this way he has left monuments of his genius more durable than the marble statues of Phidias, his contemporary, and as enduring as the tragedies of Sophocles, or the Olympian odes of Pindar.