Published 30 June 2009, doi:10.1136/bmj.b2410
Cite this as: BMJ 2009;338:b2410

Views & Reviews

Between the Lines

Ancients or moderns?

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

It is a melancholy reflection (but also a testimony to the fact of more recent progress) that the question of whether the ancients or moderns were best was a live one in the first half of the 18th century, with regard not only to literature, where progress is perhaps rather difficult to assess or measure, but also to medicine, where progress is rather less difficult to recognise.

Francis Clifton, who had an MD from Leiden and was physician to the Prince of Wales, wrote his book The State of Physick, Ancient and Modern, Briefly Consider’d: With a Plan for the Improvement of It in 1732. He had no doubts on the matter: the ancients, particularly Hippocrates, were superior to the moderns. This was largely because they observed better and treated less.

The superiority of Hippocrates’ knowledge of diseases was made manifest in the superiority of his prognoses; and prognostication was, . . . [Full text of this article]

CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    StumbleUpon    Technorati    What's this?

Relevant Article

The rhythm method

Jane Smith
BMJ 2009 339: b2668. [Extract] [Full Text]

Online poll

Find out more>>