Hippocrates:
“Whoever wished to investigate medicine properly should proceed thus: in the first place
to consider the seasons of the year, and what effects each of them produces. Then the
winds, the hot and the cold, especially such as are common to all countries, and then such
as are peculiar to each locality. In the same manner, when one comes into a city to which
he is a stranger, he should consider its situation, how it lies as to the winds and the
rising of the sun; for its influence is not the same whether it lies to the north or the
south, to the rising or to the setting sun. One should consider most attentively the
waters which the inhabitants use, whether they be marshy and soft, or hard and running
from elevated and rocky situations, and then if saltish and unfit for cooking; and the
ground, whether it be naked and deficient in water, or wooded and well watered, and
whether it lies in a hollow, confined situation, or is elevated and cold; and the mode in
which the inhabitants live, and what are their pursuits, whether they are fond of drinking
and eating to excess, and given to indolence, or are fond of exercise and labor.”
Graunt: Noted excess of men compared with women in births and deaths,
high infant mortality rate, and seasonal variations alluded to by Hippocrates. Also
attempted a numerical assessment of the impact of the plague on the population, and the
characteristics of years in which such outbreaks occurred.