Chapter 4: On the three schools (haereses) of medicine

1. And so these three men founded as many schools. The first, _Methodica_,[281] was established by Apollo, and it follows remedies and charms. The second, _Empirica_,[282] that is, relying on experience, was established by Aesculapius, which depends not on the interpretation of symptoms, but on experience alone. The third, _Logica_,[283] that is, rational, was invented by Hippocrates.

[281] This school was really founded in the first century B.C.
According to it disease consists in a contraction or relaxation
of the pores (_strictus status_ or _laxus status_). Nothing but
the supposed general condition of the body was of importance.
Neuberger, _Geschichte der Medizin_, vol. 1, pp. 303–309.

[282] A school that appeared in the third century B.C., and
corresponded in medicine to the skeptical movement in philosophy.
All _a priori_ reasoning was rejected. _Ibid._, vol. 1, pp.
276–284.

[283] The classical school of medicine founded by Hippocrates.
Isidore fails to mention the Pneumatici and the Eclectici
(_ibid._, vol. 1, pp. 327–336), other prominent schools of
medicine.

2. For the latter, separating the qualities of ages, districts, and diseases, examined the practice of the art in a rational way. The _Empirici_, then, follow experience alone; the _Logici_ add reason to experience; the _Methodici_ observe neither the elements, nor seasons, nor ages, nor causes, but the substances of diseases alone.