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584 MONTAIGNE'S ESSAYES
wee have an example of the ancient debate of physicke ?
Herophilus placeth the originall cause of sickenesse in
the humours : Erasistratus, in the blood of the arteries:
Asclepiades, in the invisible atomes that passe into
our pores Alcmeon, in the abundance or defence of
corporall forces : Diodes, in the inequality of the
bodies elements, and in the quality of the aire wee
breathe : Strabo, in the abundance, cruditie, and corruption
of the nourishment wee take: Hipocrates doth
place it in the spirits. There is a friend of theirs,
whom they know better than I, who to his purpose
crieth out that the most important science in use
amongst us (as that which hath charge of our health
and preservation) is by il hap the most uncertaine, the
most confused, and most agitated with infinite changes.
There is no great danger to mistake the height of the
sunne, or missereckon the fraction of some astronomical
supputation ; but herein, whereon our being and cliiefe
freehold doth wholly depend, it is no wisedome to
abandon ourselves to the mercy of the agitation of so
manifold contrary windes. Before the Peloponnesian
war there was no great newes of this science. Hipocrates
brought it into credite. Whatsoever he established,
Chrysippus overthrew. Afterward Erasistratus,
grande-childe to Aristotle, re-enverst what ever Chrysippus
had written of it. After these, start up the
Emperikes, who concerning the managing of this arte,
tooke a new course altogether different from those
ancient fathers. And when their credit began to growe
stale, Herophilus brought another kinde of physicke
into use, which Asclepiades, when his turne came, impugned,
and in the end subverted. Then came the
opinions of Themison to bee in great authority, then
those of Musa, and afterward those of Vectius Valens,
a famous physitian, by reason of the acquaintance he
had with Messalina. During the time of Nero, the
soveraigntie of physick fel to the hands of Thessalus,
who abolished and condemned whatsoever had been
held of it before his time. This mans doctrine was
afterward wholly overthrowne by Crinas of Marseilles,