Alphabet of History, An

<p><br/><br/><SPAN name="HIPPOCRATES" id="HIPPOCRATES"></SPAN></p> <ins class="caption">HIPPOCRATES</ins> <div class="figright"> <ANTIMG src="images/i_012.jpg" height-obs="640" width-obs="229" alt="Hippocrates with surgical tools." /></div> <div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> <span class="i0">Hippocrates was father to an awful lot of bother, for 'tis claimed that as to medicine he was the pioneer,<br/></span> <span class="i0">That but for him the surgeon or the latter-day chirurgeon might never have been tinkering the human running gear.<br/></span></div> <div class="stanza"> <span class="i0">Hippocrates' diploma never threw him into coma in his efforts to decipher what its classic diction said,<br/></span> <span class="i0">For when he was seeking practice&mdash;long ago&mdash;the simple fact is that the Latin tongue was common and was very far from dead.<br/></span></div> <div class="stanza"> <span class="i0">He often growled, "Dad gum it!" when he felt the glossy summit of his head, which was as bald as any shiny billiard ball&mdash;<br/></span> <span class="i0">But old Hip had to endure it, for he knew he couldn't cure it, and that once his hair was falling, why, he had to let it fall.<br/></span></div> <div class="stanza"> <span class="i0">He was written up by Plato (who was quite a hot potato when it came to mental effort, for you know he reasoned well);<br/></span> <span class="i0">Plato praised his diagnosis, called him healing's patient Moses, and though facts were hard to gather, found a goodly lot to tell.<br/></span></div> <div class="stanza"> <span class="i0">Hippocrates had knowledge, though he didn't go to college; he could speak of all diseases that he knew, in Latin terms<br/></span> <span class="i0">(Still, 'twas only second nature to affect that nomenclature), but he never even thought of, much less heard of, any germs.<br/></span></div> <div class="stanza"> <span class="i0">Streptococcus or bacillus such as get in us and kill us to Hippocrates were always undiscovered and unknown,<br/></span> <span class="i0">And the grim appendicitis which today is sure to fright us, was by Dr. Hip considered but a stomach-achic groan.<br/></span></div> <div class="stanza"> <span class="i0">Were he living at this moment, would the world be in a foment? Would physicians of the present take him out to see the town?<br/></span> <span class="i0">From New Jersey clear to Joppa not a one would call him "Papa," and his theories and treatments would be greeted with a frown.<br/></span></div> <div class="stanza"> <span class="i0">We must say that he was clever, and that in one way, however, he resembled all the others who are treating human ills&mdash;<br/></span> <span class="i0">He was constantly complaining that in spite of all his training he could never cure his patients of the trait of dodging bills.<br/></span> <br/></div> </div> <div style="clear: both;"></div> <div style="break-after:column;"></div><br />