... We have already made
acquaintance with two of the sources from which the spirit of criticism
derived its nourishment--the metaphysical and dialectical discussions
practiced by the Eleatic philosophers, and the semi-historical method
which was applied to the myths by Hecataeus and Herodotus. A third
source is to be traced to the schools of the physicians. These aimed at
eliminating the arbitrary element from the view and knowledge of nature,
the beginnings of which were bound up with it in a greater or less
degree, though practically without exception and by the force of an
inner necessity. A knowledge of medicine was destined to correct that
defect, and we shall mark the growth of its most precious fruits in the
increased power of observation and the counterpoise it offered to hasty
generalizations, as well as in the confidence which learnt to reject
untenable fictions, whether produced by luxuriant imagination or by
a priori speculations, on the similar ground of self-reliant
sense-perception."(3)
(3) Gomperz: Greek Thinkers, Vol. I, p. 276.
The nature philosophers of the Ionian days did not contribute much
to medicine proper, but their spirit and their outlook upon nature
influenced its students profoundly.
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