APHORISM(άφορατμός, from άφορίζω, to define) is a terse and definite statement of a principle or important doctrine in science or philosophy. The word has been used as the title of some well-known works—as the Aphorisms of Hippocrates, the Aphorisms of the School of Salerno, and the Aphorisms of Boerhaave, which represent respectively the medical doctrines of the 5th century B.C., and the 12th and 17th centuries of the Christian era. One of the best specimens of a philosophical treatise wholly written in aphorisms is the Novum Organum of Lord Bacon.