When we examine the Hippocratic corpus more closely, we discern that not only are the treatises by many hands, but there is not even a uniform opinion and doctrine running through them. This is well brought out by some of the more famous of the phrases of this remarkable collection. Thus a well-known passage from the _Airs, Waters, and Places_ tells us that the Scythians attribute a certain physical disability to a god, 'but it appears to me', says the author, 'that these affections are just as much divine as are all others and that no disease is either more divine or more human than another, but that all are equally divine, for each of them has its own nature, and none of them arise without a natural cause.' But, on the other hand, the author of the great work on _Prognostics_ advises us that when the physician is called in he must seek to ascertain the nature of the affections that he is treating, and especially 'if there be anything divine in the disease, and to learn a foreknowledge of this also.'[72] We may note too that this sentence almost immediately precedes what is perhaps the most famous of all the Hippocratic sentences, the description of what has since been termed the _Hippocratic facies_. This wonderful description of the signs of death may be given as an illustration of the habitual attitude of the Hippocratic school towards prognosis and of the very careful way in which they noted details: 'He [the physician] should observe thus in acute diseases: first, the countenance of the patient, if it be like to those who are in health, _and especially if it be like itself, for this would be the best_; but the more unlike to this, the worse it is; such would be these: _sharp nose, hollow eyes, collapsed temples; ears cold, contracted, and their lobes turned out; skin about the forehead rough, distended, and parched; the colour of the whole face greenish or dusky_. If the countenance be so at the beginning of the disease, and if this cannot be accounted for from the other symptoms, inquiry must be made whether he has passed a sleepless night; whether his bowels have been very loose; or whether he is suffering from hunger; and if any of these be admitted the danger may be reckoned as less; and it may be judged in the course of a day and night if the appearance of the countenance proceed from these. But if none of these be said to exist, and the symptoms do not subside in that time, be it known for certain that death is at hand.'[73] [72] Kühlewein, i. 79, regards this as an interpolated passage. [73] Littré, ii. 112; Kühlewein, i. 79. The texts vary: Kühlewein is followed except in the last sentence.