], to define), literally a
distinction or a definition, a term used to describe a principle
expressed tersely in a few telling words or any general truth conveyed
in a short and pithy sentence, in such a way that when once heard it is
unlikely to pass from the memory. The name was first used in the
_Aphorisms_ of Hippocrates, a long series of propositions concerning the
symptoms and diagnosis of disease and the art of healing and medicine.
The term came to be applied later to other sententious statements of
physical science, and later still to statements of all kinds of
principles. Care must be taken not to confound _aphorisms_ with
_axioms_. Aphorisms came into being as the result of experience, whereas
axioms are self-evident truths, requiring no proof, and appertain to
pure reason. Aphorisms have been especially used in dealing with
subjects to which no methodical or scientific treatment was applied till
late, such as art, agriculture, medicine, jurisprudence and politics.
The _Aphorisms_ of Hippocrates form far the most celebrated as well as
the earliest collection of the kind, and it may be interesting to quote
a few examples. "Old men support abstinence well: people of a ripe age
less well: young folk badly, and children less well than all the rest,
particularly those of them who are very lively." "Those who are very fat
by nature are more exposed to die suddenly than those who are thin."
"Those who eject foaming blood, eject it from the lung." "When two
illnesses arrive at the same time, the stronger silences the weaker."
The first aphorism, perhaps the best known of all, which serves as a
kind of introduction to the book, runs as follows:--"Life is short, art
is long, opportunity fugitive, experimenting dangerous, reasoning
difficult: it is necessary not only to do oneself what is right, but
also to be seconded by the patient, by those who attend him, by external
circumstances." Another famous collection of aphorisms is that of the
school of Salerno in Latin verse, in which Joannes de Meditano, one of
the most celebrated doctors of the school of medicine of Salerno, has
summed up the precepts of this school. The book was dedicated to a king
of England. It is a disputed point as to which king, some authorities
dating the publication as at 1066, others assigning a later date. The
dedication gives the following excellent advice:--

"Anglorum regi scribit schola tota Salernae.
Si vis incolumem, si vis te redder