They appear to have been cases of remittent fever rather than true inflammation of the brain. We may estimate the wonderful extent of the medical science of Hippocrates by the fact that he vigorously opposed the popular belief of the period, that epilepsy was due to demoniacal influence. He explains that the lower animals are subject to the same disorder, and that in them it is often associated with water in the brain. There is really no doubt that the _morbus sacer_ of the ancients and the cases of demoniacal possession of which we read were cases of epilepsy (_Hippoc. de Morbo Sacro_). Concerning apoplexy he says that a slight attack is difficult to cure, and a severe one utterly incurable. The cause of the attack he considered was turgidity of the veins. We know it to be often associated with cerebral hæmorrhage or sanguineous apoplexy and sometimes with effusion of serum = serous apoplexy. Hippocrates therefore came very near the truth. He advised bleeding, which is still recommended but is not often practised in England; and he very justly said that the malady occurs most frequently between the age of forty and sixty (_Aphoris._, ii. 42). In certain forms of ophthalmia he advises free purgation, bleeding, and the use of wine; and this accords with the best modern practice, if for venesection, we substitute vesication. His treatment of nasal polypus by the ligature is not unlike our own; and nothing could be better than his plan for dealing with quinsey and allied complaints, viz., hot fomentations, warm gargles and tinctures, with free purgation. He disapproves of a practice too often followed by surgeons to-day, of scarifying the tonsils when swollen and red. In cases of inflammation of the lungs he advised bleeding, purging, and cooling drinks. Laënnec, the great French physician, who invented the stethoscope, highly praises Hippocrates for his knowledge of phthisis, and the diagnostic value of his tests of the nature of the sputa in that disease. In cases of empyema, or the formation and accumulation of pus in the chest, he directs us to make an incision into the pleural cavity—an operation which has been revived in modern times under the name of “paracentesis thoracis.”