Chapter LXXII: Part 72

"Medicine is practised among them [the Egyptians] on a plan of
separation; each physician treats a single disorder, and no
more: thus the country swarms with medical practitioners, some
undertaking to cure diseases of the eye, others of the head,
others again of the teeth, others of the intestines, and some
those which are not local."

_Herodotus,
History,
translated by Rawlinson,
book 2, chapter 84._

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"Not only was the study of medicine of very early date in
Egypt, but medical men there were in such repute that they
were sent for at various times from other countries. Their
knowledge of medicine is celebrated by Homer (Od. iv. 229),
who describes Polydamna, the wife of Thonis, as giving
medicinal plants 'to Helen, in Egypt, a country producing an
infinite number of drugs … where each physician possesses
knowledge above all other men.' 'O virgin daughter of Egypt,'
says Jeremiah (lxvi. 11), 'in vain shalt thou use many
medicines.' Cyrus and Darius both sent to Egypt for medical
men (Her. iii. 1, 132): and Pliny (xix. 5) says post mortem
examinations were made in order to discover the nature of
maladies. Doctors received their salaries from the treasury;
but they were obliged to conform in the treatment of a patient
to the rules laid down in their books, his death being a
capital crime, if he was found to have been treated in any
other way. But deviations from, and approved additions to, the
sacred prescriptions were occasionally made; and the
prohibition was only to prevent the experiments of young
practitioners, whom Pliny considers the only persons
privileged to kill a man with impunity. Aristotle indeed says
'the Egyptian physicians were allowed after the third day to
alter the treatment prescribed by authority, and even before,
taking upon themselves the responsibility' (Polit. iii. 11).
Experience gradually taught them many new remedies; and that
they had adopted a method (of no very old standing in modern
practice) of stopping teeth with gold is proved by some
mummies found at Thebes. Besides the protection of society
from the pretensions of quacks, the Egyptians provided that
doctors should not demand fees on a foreign journey or on
military service, when patients were treated free of expense
(Diod. i. 82); and we may conclude that they were obliged to
treat the poor gratis, on consideration of the allowance paid
them as a body by government. … Poor and superstitious
people sometimes had recourse to dreams, to wizards, to
donations to sacred animals, and to exvotos to the gods. …
Charms were also written for the credulous, some of which have
been found on small pieces of papyrus, which were rolled up
and worn as by the modern Egyptians. Accoucheurs were women;
which we learn from Exodus i. 15, and from the sculptures, as
in modern Egypt. … The Egyptian doctors were of the
sacerdotal order, like the embalmers, who are called (in
Genesis l. 2) 'Physicians,' and were' commanded by Joseph to
embalm his father.' They were of the class called Pastophori,
who, according to Clemens (Strom. lib. 6), being physicians,
were expected to know about all things relating to the body,
and diseases, and remedies, contained in the six last sacred
books of Hermes. Manetho tells us that Athothes, the second
king of Egypt, who was a physician, wrote the anatomical
books; and his name, translated Hermogenes, may have been the
origin of the tradition that ascribed them to Hermes, the
Egyptian Thoth. Or the fable may mean that they were the
result of intellect personified by Thoth, or Hermes."

_Herodotus,
History,
translated by Rawlinson,
Note._

"The ancient Egyptians, though medical science was zealously
studied by them, also thought that the efficacy of the
treatment was enhanced by magic formulæ. In the Ebers Papyrus,
an important and very ancient manual of Egyptian medicine, the
prescriptions for various medicaments are accompanied by the
forms of exorcism to be used at the same time, and yet many
portions of this work give evidence of the advanced knowledge
of its authors."

_G. Ebers,
Egypt,
volume 2, pages 61-62._

"Works on medicine abounded in Egypt from the remotest times,
and the great medical library of Memphis, which was of
immemorial antiquity, was yet in existence in the second
century before our era, when Galen visited the Valley of the
Nile. … Ateta, third king of the First Dynasty, is the
reputed author of a treatise on anatomy. He also covered
himself with glory by the invention of an infallible
hair-wash, which, like a dutiful son, he is said to have
prepared especially for the benefit of his mother. No less
than five medical papyri have come down to our time, the
finest being the celebrated Ebers papyrus, bought at Thebes by
Dr. Ebers in 1874. This papyrus contains one hundred and ten
pages, each page consisting of about twenty-two lines of bold
hieratic writing. It may be described as an Encyclopædia of
Medicine as known and practised by the Egyptians of the
Eighteenth Dynasty; and it contains prescriptions for all
kinds of diseases—some borrowed from Syrian medical lore, and
some of such great antiquity that they are ascribed to the
mythologic ages, when the gods yet reigned personally upon
earth. Among others, we are given the recipe for an
application whereby Osiris cured Ra of the headache. The
Egyptians attached great importance to these ancient medical
works, which were regarded as final. The physician who
faithfully followed their rules of treatment might kill or
cure with impunity; but if he ventured to treat the patient
according to his own notions, and if that patient died, he
paid for the experiment with his life. Seeing, however, what
the canonical remedies were, the marvel is that anybody ever
recovered from anything. Raw meat; horrible mixtures of nitre,
beer, milk, and blood, boiled up and swallowed hot; the bile
of certain fishes; and the bones, fat, and skins of all kinds
of unsavory creatures, such as vultures, bats, lizards and
crocodiles, were among their choicest remedies."

_A. B. Edwards,
Pharaohs, Fellahs and Explorers,
chapter 6._

"In Egypt … man does not die, but some one or something
assassinates him. The murderer often belongs to our world, and
can be easily pointed out. … Often, though, it belongs to
the invisible world, and only reveals itself by the malignity
of its attacks: it is a god, a spirit, the soul of a dead man,
that has cunningly entered a living person, or that throws
itself upon him with irresistible violence. … Whoever treats
a sick person has therefore two equally important duties to
perform. He must first discover the nature of the spirit in
possession, and, if necessary, its name, and then attack it,
drive it out, or even destroy it. He can only succeed by
powerful magic, so he must be an expert in reciting
incantations, and skilful in making amulets. He must then use
medicine to contend with the disorders which the presence of
the strange being has produced in the body; this is done by a
finely graduated régime and various remedies. The cure-workers
are therefore divided into several categories.
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Some incline towards sorcery, and have faith in formulas and
talismen only; they think they have done enough if they have
driven out the spirit. Others extol the use of drugs; they
study the qualities of plants and minerals, describe the
diseases to which each of the substances provided by nature is
suitable, and settle the exact time when they must be procured
and applied: certain herbs have no power unless they are
gathered during the night at the full moon, others are
efficacious in summer only, another acts equally well in
winter or summer. The best doctors carefully avoid binding
themselves exclusively to either method."

_G. Maspéro,
Life in Ancient Egypt and Assyria,
chapter 7._

"The employment of numerous drugs in Egypt has been mentioned
by sacred and profane writers; and the medicinal properties of
many herbs which grow in the deserts, particularly between the
Nile and Red Sea, are still known to the Arabs, though their
application has been but imperfectly recorded and preserved.
… Homer, in the Odyssey, describes the many valuable
medicines given by Polydamna, the wife of Thonis, to Helen,
while in Egypt, 'a country whose fertile soil produces an
infinity of drugs, some salutary and some pernicious, where
each physician possesses knowledge above all other men'; and
Pliny makes frequent mention of the productions of that
country, and their use in medicine. He also notices the
physicians of Egypt; and as if their number was indicative of
the many maladies to which the inhabitants were subject, he
observes that it was a country productive of numerous
diseases. In this, however, he does not agree with Herodotus,
who affirms that, 'after the Libyans, there are no people so
healthy as the Egyptians, which may be attributed to the
invariable nature of the seasons in their country.' In Pliny's
time the introduction of luxurious habits and excess had
probably wrought a change in the people; and to the same cause
may be attributed the numerous complaints among the Romans,
'unknown to their fathers and ancestors.' The same author
tells us that the Egyptians examined the bodies after death,
to ascertain the nature of the diseases of which they had
died; and we can readily believe that a people so far advanced
in civilization and the principles of medicine as to assign
each physician his peculiar branch, would have resorted to
this effectual method of acquiring knowledge and experience
for the benefit of the community. It is evident that the
medical skill of the Egyptians was well known even in foreign
and distant countries; and we learn from Herodotus, that Cyrus
and Darius both sent to Egypt for medical men. … The
Egyptians, according to Pliny, claimed the honour of having
invented the art of curing diseases."

_Sir J. G. Wilkinson,
Manners and Customs of the Ancient Egyptians,
chapter 10 (volume 2)._

"The Ptolemies, down to the very termination of their dominion
over Egypt, appear to have encouraged the curative art, and
for the purpose of restoring declining health, surrounded
themselves with the most illustrious physicians of the age.
… The science of medicine of the period was fully
represented at the Museum by distinguished professors, who,
according to Athenæus, restored the knowledge of this art to
the towns and islands of the Grecian Archipelago. … About
the period of the absorption of the Egyptian kingdom into the
expanding dominion of the Romans, the schools of Alexandria
still continued to be the centre of medical studies; and
notwithstanding the apparent dissidence between the demands of
a strict science and public affairs, its professors exhibited,
equally with their brother philosophers, a taste for
diplomacy. Dioscorides and Serapion, two physicians of
Alexandria, were the envoys of the elder Ptolemy to Rome, and
at a later date were bearers of dispatches from Cæsar to one
of his officers in Egypt."

_G. F. Fort,
Medical Economy During the Middle Ages,
chapter 3._

MEDICAL SCIENCE:
Babylonian.

The Babylonians "have no physicians, but when a man is ill,
they lay him in the public square, and the passers-by come up
to him, and if they have ever had his disease themselves or
have known anyone who has suffered from it, they give him
advice, recommending him to do whatever they found good in
their own case, or in the case known to them. And no one is
allowed to pass the sick man in silence without asking him
what his ailment is."

_Herodotus,
History,
translated by G. Rawlinson,
book 1, chapter 197 (volume 1)._

"The incantations against diseases describe a great variety of
cases. … But the most numerous are those which aim at the
cure of the plague, fever, and 'disease of the head;' this
latter, judging from the indications which are given of its
symptoms and its effects, appears to have been a sort of
erysipelas, or cutaneous disease. … These are the principal
passages of a long incantation against 'the disease of the
head:' the tablet on which we find it bears six other long
formulæ against the same evil. 'The disease of the head exists
on man. The disease of the head, the ulceration of the
forehead exists on man. The disease of the head marks like a
tiara, the disease of the head from sunrise to sunset. In the
sea and the vast earth a very small tiara is become the tiara,
the very large tiara, his tiara. The diseases of the head
pierce like a bull, the diseases of the head shoot like the
palpitation of the heart. … The diseases of the head, like
doves to their dove-cotes, like grasshoppers into the sky,
like birds into space may they fly away. May the invalid be
replaced in the protecting hands of his god!' This specimen
will give the reader an idea of the uniform composition of
these incantations against diseases, which filled the second
book of the work under consideration. They all follow the same
plan throughout, beginning with the definition of the disease
and its symptoms, which occupies the greater part of the
formula; and ending with a desire for deliverance from it, and
the order for it to depart. Sometimes, however, the
incantation of the magician assumes a dramatic form at the
end. … We must add … the use of certain enchanted drinks,
which, doubtless, really contained medicinal drugs, as a cure
for diseases, and also of magic knots, the efficacy of which
was so firmly believed in, even up to the middle ages. Here is
a remedy which one of the formulæ supposes to have been
prescribed by Hea against a disease of the head: 'Knot on the
right and arrange flat in regular bands, on the left a woman's
diadem; divide it twice in seven little bands; … gird the
head of the invalid with it; gird the forehead of the invalid
with it; gird the seat of life with it; gird his hands and his
feet: seat him on his bed; pour on him enchanted waters. Let
the disease of his head be carried away into the heavens like
a violent wind; … may the earth swallow it up like passing
waters!' Still more powerful than the incantations were
conjurations wrought by the power of numbers."

_F. Lenormant,
Chaldean Magic,
chapters 1 and 3._

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MEDICAL SCIENCE:
Finnish.

"The Finnish incantations for exorcising the demons of
diseases were composed in exactly the same spirit, and founded
upon the same data, as the Accadian incantations destined for
the like purpose. They were formulæ belonging to the same
family, and they often showed a remarkable similarity of
language; the Egyptian incantations, on the contrary, having
been composed by people with very different ideas about the
supernatural world, assumed quite another form. This is an
incantation from one of the songs of the Kalevala: 'O malady,
disappear into the heavens; pain, rise up to the clouds;
inflamed vapour, fly into the air, in order that the wind may
take thee away, that the tempest may chase thee to distant
regions, where neither sun nor moon give their light, where
the warm wind does not inflame the flesh. O pain, mount upon
the winged steed of stone, and fly to the mountains covered
with iron. For he is too robust to be devoured by disease, to
be consumed by pains. Go, O diseases, to where the virgin of
pains has her hearth, where the daughter of Wäinämöinen cooks
pains, go to the hill of pains. There are the white dogs, who
formerly howled in torments, who groaned in their
sufferings.'"

_F. Lenormant,
Chaldean Magic,
chapter 17._

MEDICAL SCIENCE:
Hindu.

"There is reason to … conclude, from the imperfect
opportunities of investigation we possess, that in medicine,
as in astronomy and metaphysics, the Hindus once kept pace
with the most enlightened nations of the world; and that they
attained as thorough a proficiency in medicine and surgery as
any people whose acquisitions are recorded, and as indeed was
practicable, before anatomy was made known to us by the
discoveries of modern enquirers. It might easily be supposed
that their patient attention and natural shrewdness would
render the Hindus excellent observers; whilst the extent and
fertility of their native country would furnish them with many
valuable drugs and medicaments. Their Nidana or Diagnosis,
accordingly, appears to define and distinguish symptoms with
great accuracy, and their Dravyabhidhana, or Materia Medica,
is sufficiently voluminous. They have also paid great
attention to regimen and diet, and have a number of works on
the food and general treatment, suited to the complaint, or
favourable to the operation of the medicine administered. This
branch they entitle Pathyapathya. To these subjects are to be
added the Chikitsa, or medical treatment of diseases—on which
subject they have a variety of compositions, containing much
absurdity, with much that is of value; and the Rasavidya, or
Pharmacy, in which they are most deficient. All these works,
however, are of little avail to the present generation, as
they are very rarely studied, and still more rarely
understood, by any of the practising empirics. The divisions
of the science thus noticed, as existing in books, exclude two
important branches, without which the whole system must be
defective—Anatomy and Surgery. We can easily imagine, that
these were not likely to have been much cultivated in
Hindustan. … The Ayur Veda, as the medical writings of
highest antiquity and authority are collectively called, is
considered to be a portion of the fourth or Atharva Veda, and
is consequently the work of Brahma—by him it was communicated
to Daksha, the Prajapati, and by him the two Aswins, or sons
of Surya, the Sun, were instructed in it, and they then became
the medical attendants of the gods—a genealogy that cannot
fail recalling to us the two sons of Esculapius, and their
descent from Apollo. Now what were the duties of the Aswins,
according to Hindu authorities?—the gods, enjoying eternal
youth and health, stood in no need of physicians, and
consequently they held no such sinecure station. The wars
between the gods and demons, however, and the conflicts
amongst the gods themselves, in which wounds might be
suffered, although death might not be inflicted, required
chirurgical aid—and it was this, accordingly, which the two
Aswins rendered. … The meaning of these legendary
absurdities is clear enough, and is conformable to the tenor
of all history. Man, in the semi-barbarous state, if not more
subject to external injuries than internal disease, was at
least more likely to seek remedies for the former, which were
obvious to his senses, than to imagine the means of relieving
the latter, whose nature he could so little comprehend.
Surgical, therefore, preceded medicinal skill; as Celsus has
asserted, when commenting on Homer's account of Podalirius and
Machaon, who were not consulted, he says, during the plague in
the Grecian camp, although regularly employed to extract darts
and heal wounds. … We may be satisfied that Surgery was once
extensively cultivated, and highly esteemed by the Hindus. Its
rational principles and scientific practice are, however, now,
it may be admitted, wholly unknown to them. … It would be an
enquiry of some interest to trace the period and causes of the
disappearance of Surgery from amongst the Hindus: it is
evidently of comparatively modern occurrence, as operative and
instrumental practice forms so principal a part of those
writings, which are undeniably most ancient; and which, being
regarded as the composition of inspired writers, are held of
the highest authority."

_H. H. Wilson,
Essays on Sanskrit Literature,
pages 269-276, and 391._

"The number of medical works and authors is extraordinarily
large. The former are either systems embracing the whole
domain of the science, or highly special investigations of
single topics, or, lastly, vast compilations prepared in modern
times under the patronage of kings and princes. The sum of
knowledge embodied in their contents appears really to be most
respectable. Many of the statements on dietetics and on the
origin and diagnosis of diseases bespeak a very keen
observation. In surgery, too, the Indians seem to have
attained a special proficiency, and in this department
European surgeons might perhaps even at the present day still
learn something from them, as indeed they have already
borrowed from them the operation of rhinoplasty. The
information, again, regarding the medicinal properties of
minerals (especially precious stones and metals), of plants,
and animal substances, and the chemical analysis and
decomposition of these, covers certainly much that is
valuable. Indeed, the branch of Materia Medica generally
appears to be handled with great predilection, and this makes
up to us in some measure at least for the absence of
investigations in the field of natural science. On the
diseases, &c., of horses and elephants also there exist very
special monographs.
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For the rest, during the last few centuries medical science
has suffered great detriment from the increasing prevalence of
the notion, in itself a very ancient one, that diseases are
but the result of transgressions and sins committed, and from
the consequent very general substitution of fastings, alms,
and gifts to the Brahmans, for real remedies. … The
influence … of Hindu medicine upon the Arabs in the first
centuries of the Hijra was one of the very highest
significance; and the Khalifs of Bagdad caused a considerable
number of works upon the subject to be translated. Now, as
Arabian medicine constituted the chief authority and guiding
principle of European physicians down to the seventeenth
century, it directly follows—just as in the case of
astronomy—that the Indians must have been held in high esteem
by these latter; and indeed Charaka is repeatedly mentioned in
the Latin translations of Avicenna (Ibn Sina), Rhazes (Al
Rasi), and Serapion (Ibn Serabi)."

_A. Weber,
History of Indian Literature,
pages 269-271._

MEDICAL SCIENCE:
Jewish.

"If we are to judge from the frequent mention of physicians
(Exodus xv. 26; Isaiah iii. 7; Jeremiah viii. 22; Sirach x.
11, xxxviii. 1 ff.; Matthew ix. 12; Mark v. 26; Luke iv. 23,
etc.), the Israelites must have given much attention to
medicine from ancient times. The physicians must have
understood how to heal wounds and external injuries with
bandaging, mollifying with oil (Isaiah i. 6; Luke x. 34),
balsam (Jeremiah xlvi. 11, li. 8), plasters (2 Kings xx. 7),
and salves prepared from herbs (Sirach xxxviii. 8; Exodus xxi.
19; 2 Kings viii. 29; Ezekiel xxx. 21). The ordinances
respecting leprosy also show that the lawgiver was well
acquainted with the various kinds of skin eruptions (comp.
section 114). And not only Moses, but other Israelites also
may have acquired much practical knowledge of medicine in
Egypt, where the healing art was cultivated from high
antiquity. But as to how far the Israelitish physicians
advanced in this art, we have not more exact information. From
the few scattered hints in the Old and New Testaments, so much
only is clear, that internal diseases were also treated (2
Chronicles xvi. 12; Luke viii. 43), and that the medicinal
springs which Palestine possesses were much used by invalids.
It by no means follows from the fact that the superintendence
of lepers and the pronouncing of them clean are assigned by
the law to the priests, that these occupied themselves chiefly
with medicine. The task which the law laid on them has nothing
to do with the healing of leprosy. Of the application of
charms, there is not a single instance in Scripture."

_C. F. Keil,
Manual of Biblical Archæology,
volume 2, pages 276-277._

The surgery of the Talmud includes a knowledge of dislocations
of the thigh, contusions of the head, perforation of the lungs
and other organs, injuries of the spinal cord and trachea, and
fractures of the ribs. Polypus of the nose was considered to
be a punishment for past sins. In sciatica the patient is
advised to rub the hip sixty times with meat-broth. Bleeding
was performed by mechanics or barbers. The pathology of the
Talmud ascribes diseases to a constitutional vice, to evil
influences acting on the body from without, or to the effect
of magic. Jaundice is recognized as arising from retention of
the bile, dropsy from suppression of the urine. The Talmudists
divided dropsy into anasarca, ascites, and tympanites. Rupture
and atrophy of the kidneys were held to be always fatal.
Hydatids of the liver were more favourably considered.
Suppuration of the spinal cord, induration of the lungs, etc.,
are incurable. Dr. Baas says that these are 'views which may
have been based on the dissection of (dead) animals, and may
be considered the germs of pathological anatomy.' Some
critical symptoms are sweating, sneezing, defecation, and
dreams, which promise a favourable termination of the disease.
Natural remedies, both external and internal, were employed.
Magic was also Talmudic. Dispensations were given by the
Rabbis to permit sick persons to eat prohibited food. Onions
were prescribed for worms; wine and pepper for stomach
disorders; goat's milk for difficulty of breathing; emetics in
nausea; a mixture of gum and alum for menorrhagia (not a bad
prescription); a dog's liver was ordered for the bite of a mad
dog. Many drugs, such a assafœtida, are evidently adopted from
Greek medicine. The dissection of the bodies of animals
provided the Talmudists with their anatomy. It is, however,
recorded that Rabbi Ishmael, at the close of the first
century, made a skeleton by boiling the body of a prostitute.
We find that dissection in the interests of science was
permitted by the Talmud. The Rabbis counted 252 bones in the
human skeleton."

_E. Berdoe,
The Origin and Growth of the Healing Art,
book 2, chapter 2._

MEDICAL SCIENCE:
Greek.

"It is well known that the oldest documents which we possess
relative to the practice of Medicine, are the various
treatises contained in the Collection which bears the name of
Hippocrates. Their great excellence has been acknowledged in
all ages, and it has always been a question which has
naturally excited literary curiosity, by what steps the art
had attained to such perfection at so early a period. … It
is clearly established that, long before the birth of
philosophy, medicine had been zealously and successfully
cultivated by the Asclepiadæ, an order of priest-physicians
that traced its origin to a mythical personage bearing the
distinguished name of Æsculapius. Two of his sons, Podalirius
and Machaon, figure in the Homeric poems, not however as
priests, but as warriors possessed of surgical skill in the
treatment of wounds, for which they are highly complimented by
the poet. It was probably some generations after this time (if
one may venture a conjecture on a matter partaking very much
of the legendary character) that Æsculapius was deified, and
that Temples of Health, called 'Asclepia,' presided over by
the Asclepiadæ, were erected in various parts of Greece, as
receptacles for the sick, to which invalids resorted in those
days for the cure of diseases, under the same circumstances as
they go to hospitals and spas at the present time. What
remedial measures were adopted in these temples we have no
means of ascertaining so fully as could be wished, but the
following facts, collected from a variety of sources, may be
pretty confidently relied upon for their accuracy. In the
first place, then, it is well ascertained that a large
proportion of these temples were built in the vicinity of
thermæ, or medicinal springs, the virtues of which would no
doubt contribute greatly to the cure of the sick. At his
entrance into the temple, the devotee was subjected to
purifications, and made to go through a regular course of
bathing, accompanied with methodical frictions, resembling the
oriental system now well known by the name of shampooing.
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Fomentations with decoctions of odoriferous herbs were also
not forgotten. A total abstinence from food was at first
prescribed, but afterwards the patient would no doubt be
permitted to partake of the flesh of the animals which were
brought to the temples as sacrifices. Every means that could
be thought of was used for working upon the imagination of the
sick, such as religious ceremonies of an imposing nature,
accompanied by music, and whatever else could arouse their
senses, conciliate their confidence, and, in certain cases,
contribute to their amusement. … It is also well known that
the Asclepiadæ noted down with great care the symptoms and
issue of every case, and that, from such observations, they
became in time great adepts in the art of prognosis. … The
office of priesthood was hereditary in certain families, so
that information thus acquired would be transmitted from
father to son, and go on accumulating from one generation to
another. Whether the Asclepiadæ availed themselves of the
great opportunities which they must undoubtedly have had of
cultivating human and comparative anatomy, has been much
disputed in modern times. … It is worthy of remark, that
Galen holds Hippocrates to have been a very successful
cultivator of anatomy. … Of the 'Asclepia' we have mentioned
above, it will naturally be supposed that some were in much
higher repute than others, either from being possessed of
peculiar advantages, or from the prevalence of fashion. In the
beginning of the fifth century before the Christian era the
temples of Rhodes, Cnidos, and Cos were held in especial
favour, and on the extinction of the first of these, another
rose up in Italy in its stead. But the temple of Cos was
destined to throw the reputation of all the others into the
background, by producing among the priests of Æsculapius the
individual who, in all after ages, has been distinguished by
the name of the Great Hippocrates. … That Hippocrates was
lineally descended from Æsculapius was generally admitted by
his countrymen, and a genealogical table, professing to give a
list of the names of his forefathers, up to Æsculapius, has
been transmitted to us from remote antiquity. … Of the
circumstances connected with the life of Hippocrates little is
known for certain. … Aulus Gellius, … in an elaborate
disquisition on Greek and Roman chronology, states decidedly
that Socrates was contemporary with Hippocrates, but younger
than he. Now it is well ascertained that the death of Socrates
took place about the year 400 A. C., and as he was then nearly
seventy years old, his birth must be dated as happening about
the year 470 A. C. … It will readily occur to the reader,
then, that our author flourished at one of the most memorable
epochs in the intellectual development of the human race. …
From his forefathers he inherited a distinguished situation in
one of the most eminent hospitals, or Temples of Health, then
in existence, where he must have enjoyed free access to all
the treasures of observations collected during many
generations, and at the same time would have an opportunity of
assisting his own father in the management of the sick. Thus
from his youth he must have been familiar with the principles
of medicine, both in the abstract and in the concrete. …
Initiated in the theory and first principles of medicine, as
now described, Hippocrates no doubt commenced the practice of
his art in the Asclepion of Cos, as his forefathers had done
before him. Why he afterwards left the place of his nativity,
and visited distant regions of the earth, whither the duties
of his profession and the calls of humanity invited him,
cannot now be satisfactorily determined. … According to all
the accounts which have come down to us of his life, he spent
the latter part of it in Thessaly, and died at Larissa, when
far advanced in years. … As a medical author the name of
Hippocrates stands pre-eminently illustrious. … Looking upon
the animal system as one whole, every part of which conspires
and sympathises with all the other parts, he would appear to
have regarded disease also as one, and to have referred all
its modifications to peculiarities of situation. Whatever may
now be thought of his general views on Pathology, all must
admit that his mode of prosecuting the cultivation of medicine
is in the true spirit of the Inductive Philosophy; all his
descriptions of disease are evidently derived from patient
observation of its phenomena, and all his rules of practice
are clearly based on experience. Of the fallaciousness of
experience by itself he was well aware, however. … Above all
others Hippocrates was strictly the physician of experience
and common sense. In short, the basis of his system was a
rational experience, and not a blind empiricism, so that the
Empirics in after ages had no good grounds for claiming him as
belonging to their sect. What he appears to have studied with
particular attention is the natural history of diseases, that
is to say, their tendencies to a favorable or fatal issue. …
One of the most distinguishing characteristics, then, of the
Hippocratic system of medicine, is the importance attached in
it to prognosis, under which was comprehended a complete
acquaintance with the previous and present condition of the
patient and the tendency of the disease. … In the practice
of surgery he was a bold operator. He fearlessly, and as we
would now think, in some cases unnecessarily, perforated the
skull with the trepan and the trephine in injuries of the
head. He opened the chest also in empyema and hydrothorax. His
extensive practice, and no doubt his great familiarity with
the accidents occurring at the public games of his country,
must have furnished him with ample opportunities of becoming
acquainted with dislocations and fractures of all kinds; and
how well he had profited by the opportunities which he thus
enjoyed, every page of his treatises 'On Fractures,' and 'On
the Articulations,' abundantly testifies."

_F. Adams,
Preliminary Discourse (Genuine Works of Hippocrates),
section 1._

"The school of the Asclepiadæ has been responsible for certain
theories which have been more or less prominent during the
earlier historical days. One of these which prevailed
throughout the Hippocratic works is that of Coction and
Crisis. By the former term is meant thickening or elaboration
of humors in the body, which was supposed to be necessary for
their elimination in some tangible form. Disease was regarded
as an association of phenomena resulting from efforts made by
the conservative principles of life to effect a coction, i.
e., a combination, of the morbific matter in the economy, it
being held that the latter could not be properly expelled until
thus united and prepared so as to form excrementious material.
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This elaboration was supposed to be brought about by the vital
principles which some called nature (Phusis), some spirit
(Psyche), some breath (Pneuma), and some heat (Thermon). The
gradual climax of morbid phenomena has, since the days of
Hippocrates, been commonly known as Crisis. All this was
regarded as the announcement of the completion of this union
by coction. The day on which it was accomplished was termed
'critical,' as were also the signs which preceded or
accompanied it, and for the crisis the physician anxiously
watched. Coction having been effected and crisis occurring, it
only remained to evacuate the morbific material, which nature
sometimes spontaneously accomplished by the critical sweat,
urination, or stools; or sometimes the physician had to come
to her relief by the administration of diuretics, purgatives,
et cetera. The term 'critical period' was given to the number
of days necessary for coction, which in its perfection was
supposed to be four, the so-called quaternary, while the
septenary was also held in high consideration. … This
doctrine of crisis in disease left an impress upon the medical
mind not yet fully eliminated."

_Roswell Park,
Lectures on the History of Medicine (in MS.)._

"Making no pretension … to describe the regular medical
practice among the Greeks, I shall here, nevertheless,
introduce some few particulars more or less connected with it,
which may be regarded as characteristic of the age and people.
Great were the virtues which they ascribed to the herb
alysson, (biscutella didyma,) which, being pounded and eaten
with meat cured hydrophobia. Nay, more, being suspended in the
house, it promoted the health of its inhabitants; it protected
likewise both man and cattle from enchantment; and, bound in a
piece of scarlet flannel round the necks of the latter, it
preserved them from all diseases. Coriander-seed, eaten in too
great quantity, produced, they thought, a derangement of the
intellect. Ointment of saffron had an opposite effect, for the
nostrils and heads of lunatics being rubbed therewith they
were supposed to receive considerable relief. Melampos the
goatherd was reported to have cured the daughters of Prætos of
their madness by large doses of black hellebore, which
thereafter received from him the name of Melampodion.
Sea-onions suspended over the doors preserved from
enchantment, as did likewise a branch of rhamnus over doors or
windows. A decoction of rosemary and of the leaves and stems
of the anemone was administered to nurses to promote the
secretion of milk, and a like potion prepared from the leaves
of the Cretan dittany was given to women in labour. This herb,
in order to preserve its virtues unimpaired, and that it might
be the more easily transported to all parts of the country,
was preserved in a joint of a ferula or reed. A plaster of
incense, Cimolian earth, and oil of roses, was applied to
reduce the swelling of the breasts. A medicine prepared from
mule's fern, was believed to produce sterility, as were
likewise the waters of a certain fountain near Pyrrha, while
to those about Thespiæ a contrary effect was attributed, as
well as to the wine of Heraclea in Arcadia. The inhabitants of
this primitive region drank milk as an aperient in the Spring,
because of the medicinal herbs on which the cattle were then
supposed to feed. Medicines of laxative properties were
prepared from the juice of the wild cucumber, which were said
to retain their virtues for two hundred years, though simples
in general were thought to lose their medicinal qualities in
less than four. The oriental gum called kankamon was
administered in water or honeyed vinegar to fat persons to
diminish their obesity, and also as a remedy for the
toothache. For this latter purpose the gum of the Ethiopian
olive was put into the hollow tooth, though more efficacy
perhaps was attributed to the root of dittander which they
suspended as a charm about the neck. A plaster of the root of
the white thorn or iris roots prepared with flour of copper,
honey, and great centaury, drew out thorns and arrow heads
without pain. An unguent procured from fern was sold to
rustics for curing the necks of their cattle galled by the
yoke. A decoction of marsh-mallow leaves and wine or honeyed
vinegar was administered to persons who had been stung by bees
or wasps or other insects; bites and burns were healed by an
external application of the leaf smeared with oil, and the
powdered roots cast into water caused it to freeze if placed
out during the night in the open air; an unguent was prepared
with oil from reeds, green or dry, which protected those who
anointed themselves with it from the stings of venomous
reptiles. Cinnamon unguent, or terebinth and myrtle-berries,
boiled in wine, were supposed to be a preservative against the
bite of the tarantula or scorpion, as was the pistachio nut
against that of serpents. Some persons ate a roasted scorpion
to cure its own bite; a powder, moreover, was prepared from
sea-crabs supposed to be fatal to this reptile. Vipers were
made to contribute their part to the materia medica; for,
being caught alive, they were enclosed with salt and dried
figs in a vase which was then put into a furnace till its
contents were reduced to charcoal, which they esteemed a
valuable medicine. A. considerable quantity of viper's flesh
was in the last century imported from Egypt into Venice, to be
used in the composition of medicinal treacle. From the flowers
of the sneezewort, a sort of snuff appears to have been
manufactured, though probably used only in medicines. The
ashes of old leather cured burns, galls, and blistered feet.
The common remedy when persons had eaten poisonous mushrooms
was a dose of nitre exhibited in vinegar and water; with water
it was esteemed a cure for the sting of a burncow, and with
benzoin it operated as an antidote against the poison of
bulls' blood."

_J. A. St. John,
The Hellenes,
book 6, chapter 6 (volume 3)._

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MEDICAL SCIENCE:
The Hippocratic Oath.

"Medical societies or schools seem to have been as ancient as
Hippocrates. The Hippocratic oath, as it is called, has been
preserved, and is one of the greatest curiosities we have
received from antiquity:

'I swear by Apollo the physician, by Æsculapius, by Hygeia, by
Panacea, and by all gods and goddesses, that I will fulfil
religiously, according to the best of my power and judgment,
the solemn vow which I now make.

I will honour as my father the master who taught me the art of
medicine; his children I will consider as my brothers, and
teach them my profession without fee or reward.

I will admit to my lectures and discourses my own sons, my
master's sons, and those pupils who have taken the medical
oath; but no one else.

I will prescribe such medicines as may be best suited to the
cases of my patients, according to the best of my judgment;
and no temptation shall ever induce me to administer poison.

I will religiously maintain the purity of my character and the
honour of my art.

I will not perform the operation of lithotomy, but leave it to
those to whose calling it belongs.

Into whatever house I enter, I will enter it with the sole
view of relieving the sick, and conduct myself with propriety
towards the women of the family.

If during my attendance I happen to hear of anything that
should not be revealed, I will keep it a profound secret.

If I observe this oath, may I have success in this life, and
may I obtain general esteem after it; if I break it, may the
contrary be my lot.'"

_Ancient Physic and Physicians
(Dublin University Magazine, April, 1856)._

MEDICAL SCIENCE: 1st Century.
Greek physicians in Rome.
Pliny's Picture.

Pliny's account of the Greek physicians in Rome in his time
(first century) is not flattering to the profession. He says:
"For the cure of King Antiochus—to give our first
illustration of the profits realized by the medical
art—Erasistratus received from his son, King Ptolemæus, the
sum of one hundred talents. … I pass over in silence many
physicians of the very highest celebrity, the Cassii, for
instance, the Calpetani, the Arruntii, and the Rubrii, men who
received fees yearly from the great, amounting to no less than
250,000 sesterces. As for Q. Stertinius, he thought that he
conferred an obligation upon the emperors in being content
with 500,000 sesterces per annum; and indeed he proved, by an
enumeration of the several houses, that a city practice would
bring him in a yearly income of not less than 600,000
sesterces. Fully equal to this was the sum lavished upon his
brother by Claudius Cæsar; and the two brothers, although they
had drawn largely upon their fortunes in beautifying the
public buildings at Neapolis, left to their heirs no less than
30,000,000 of sesterces! such an estate as no physician but
Arruntius had till then possessed. Next in succession arose
Vettius Valens, rendered so notorious by his adulterous
connection with Messalina, the wife of Claudius Cæsar, and
equally celebrated as a professor of eloquence. When
established in public favour, he became the founder of a new
sect. It was in the same age, too, during the reign of the
Emperor Nero, that the destinies of the medical art passed
into the hands of Thessalus, a man who swept away all the
precepts of his predecessors, and declaimed with a sort of
frenzy against the physicians of every age; but with what
discretion and in what spirit, we may abundantly conclude from
a single trait presented by his character—upon his tomb,
which is still to be seen on the Appian Way, he had his name
inscribed as the 'Iatronices'—the 'Conqueror of the
Physicians.' No stage-player, no driver of a three-horse
chariot, had a greater throng attending him when he appeared
in public: but he was at last eclipsed in credit by Crinas, a
native of Massilia, who, to wear an appearance of greater
discreetness and more devoutness, united in himself the
pursuit of two sciences, and prescribed diets to his patients
in accordance with the movements of the heavenly bodies, as
indicated by the almanacks of the mathematicians, taking
observations himself of the various times and seasons. It was
but recently that he died, leaving 10,000,000 of sesterces,
after having expended hardly a less sum upon building the
walls of his native place and of other towns. It was while
these men were ruling our destinies, that all at once,
Charmis, a native also of Massilia, took the City by surprise.
Not content with condemning the practice of preceding
physicians, he proscribed the use of warm baths as well, and
persuaded people, in the very depth of winter even, to immerse
themselves in cold water. His patients he used to plunge into
large vessels filled with cold water, and it was a common
thing to see aged men of consular rank make it a matter of
parade to freeze themselves; a method of treatment, in favour
of which Annæus Seneca gives his personal testimony, in
writings still extant. There can be no doubt whatever, that
all these men, in the pursuit of celebrity by the introduction
of some novelty or other, made purchase of it at the downright
expense of human life. Hence those woeful discussions, those
consultations at the bedside of the patient, where no one
thinks fit to be of the same opinion as another, lest he may
have the appearance of being subordinate to another; hence,
too, that ominous inscription to be read upon a tomb, 'It was
the multitude of physicians that killed me.' The medical art,
so often modified and renewed as it has been, is still on the
change from day to day, and still are we impelled onwards by
the puffs which emanate from the ingenuity of the Greeks. …
Cassius Hemina, one of our most ancient writers, says that the
first physician that visited Rome was Archagathus, the son of
Lysanias, who came over from Peloponnesus, in the year of the
City 535, L. Æmilius and M. Livius being consuls. He states
also, that the right of free citizenship was granted him, and
that he had a shop provided for his practice at the public
expense in the Acilian Cross-way; that from his practice he
received the name of 'Vulnerarius'; that on his arrival he was
greatly welcomed at first, but that soon afterwards, from the
cruelty displayed by him in cutting and searing his patients,
he acquired the new name of 'Carnifex,' and brought his art
and physicians in general into considerable disrepute. That
such was the fact, we may readily understand from the words of
M. Cato, a man whose authority stands so high of itself, that
but little weight is added to it by the triumph which he
gained, and the Censorship which he held. I shall, therefore,
give his own words in reference to this subject. 'Concerning
those Greeks, son Marcus, I will speak to you more at length
on the befitting occasion. I will show you the results of my
own experience at Athens, and that, while it is a good plan to
dip into their literature, it is not worth while to make a
thorough acquaintance with it. They are a most iniquitous and
intractable race, and you may take my word as the word of a
prophet, when I tell you, that whenever that nation shall
bestow its literature upon Rome it will mar everything; and
that all the sooner, if it sends its physicians among us. They
have conspired among themselves to murder all barbarians with
their medicine; a profession which they exercise for lucre, in
order that they may win our confidence, and dispatch us all
the more easily. They are in the common habit, too, of calling
us barbarians, and stigmatize us beyond all other nations, by
giving us the abominable appellation of Opici.
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I forbid you to have anything to do with physicians.' Cato,
who wrote to this effect, died in his eighty-fifth year, in
the year of the City 605; so that no one is to suppose that he
had not sufficient time to form his experience, either with
reference to the duration of the republic, or the length of
his own life. Well then—are we to conclude that he has
stamped with condemnation a thing that in itself is most
useful? Far from it, by Hercules! … Medicine is the only one
of the arts of Greece, that, lucrative as it is, the Roman
gravity has hitherto refused to cultivate. It is but very few
of our fellow-citizens that have even attempted it."

_Pliny,
Natural History
(Bohn's translation),
book 29, chapters 3-8 (volume 5)._

MEDICAL SCIENCE: 2d Century.
Galen and the development of Anatomy and Pathology.