SECOND EPOCH: _The medicine of the East_--that is, of the cultivated oriental races of whose history we possess only a very fragmentary knowledge. THIRD EPOCH: _The medicine of the classical period of antiquity_--the pre-Hippocratic period of Greek medicine. FOURTH EPOCH: _The medicine of the Hippocratic writings_--the most flourishing period of Greek medicine. FIFTH EPOCH: _The medicine of the period during which the centre of greatest intellectual activity was located at Alexandria, Egypt_. SIXTH EPOCH: _The medicine of Galen_--an author whose teachings exerted a preponderating influence upon the thought and practice of physicians in every part of the civilized world up to the seventeenth century of the Christian era. This period is also characterized by the gradual diminution of the influence of Greek medicine. SEVENTH EPOCH: _The medicine of the Middle Ages_--a period which includes a large part of the preceding epoch. Its most characteristic feature is the important part played by the Arabs in moulding the teachings and practice of the medical men of that time (ninth to fifteenth century). EIGHTH EPOCH (fifteenth and sixteenth centuries): _The medicine of the Renaissance period_--characterized chiefly by the adoption of the only effective method of studying the anatomy of man--the actual dissection of human bodies. NINTH EPOCH (from the beginning of the seventeenth century to the present time): _Modern medicine_.--This epoch may with advantage be divided into two periods--the first extending to about the year 1775, soon after which time Jenner began his important work on the subject of vaccination; and the second to the present time. No attempt will be made in the following account to cover this second period.