HISTORY OF MEDICINE 
 
 EARLIEST AGES TO THE COMMENCEMENT 
 
 OF THE 
 
 NINETEENTH CENTURY. 
 
 BY 
 
 ROBLEY DUNGLISON, M.D., LL.D., 
 
 LATE PROFESSOR OF THE INSTITUTES OF MEDICINE AND MEDICAL JURISPRUDENCE 
 
 IN THE JEFFERSON MEDICAL COLLEGE OF PHILADELPHIA, 
 
 ETC. ETC. 
 
 ARRANGED AND EDITED BY 
 
 RICHARD J. DUNGLISOX, M.D. 
 
 PHILADELPHIA: 
 LINDSAY AND BLAKISTON, 
 
 1872.
 
 Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1872, by 
 RICHAKD J. DUNGLISON, M.D., 
 
 in the Office of the Librarian of Congress. All rights reserved. 
 
 PHILADELPHIA: 
 COLLIXS, PRINTER, 705 JAYXE STREET.
 
 Hmit 
 
 PREFACE 
 
 The history of the progressive steps in the develop- 
 ment of medicine, embraced in these pages, is an em- 
 bodiment of the course of lectures delivered by my father 
 at tlie University of Virginia many years since. The 
 arduous duties devolved upon him in that institution 
 covered a much more comprehensive field than would be 
 possible or practicable at the present day. The labor 
 now usually allotted to almost an entire faculty of pro- 
 fessors was there assigned to him alone ; for, according 
 to the terms of his appointment, he was expected " to 
 teach to the best of his ability, and with due diligence, 
 Anatomy, Surgery, The History of the Progress and 
 Theories of Medicine, Physiology, Materia Medica, and 
 Pharmacy." Such an aggregation of branches of instruc- 
 tion must have severely taxed the energies, while it 
 doubtless stimulated the ambition, of the then young 
 professor. 
 
 It seemed to be the desire of Thomas Jefferson, at that 
 time Rector of the University, and of those associated 
 with that illustrious personage in its government, that 
 the student should learn something of the earlier pro- 
 gress of the science and the art, while he was at the same 
 time pursuing a course of instruction in the usual tech- 
 nical details of a collegiate medical education. It was 
 a wise provision that thus incorporated with the other
 
 iv PREFACE, 
 
 features of a didactic course a knowledge of medical 
 literature, which, however valuable, is generally con- 
 sidered as an accomplishment rather than as an indis- 
 pensable necessit}'. The students of those times were 
 therefore, in this particular, a step in advance of the 
 condition of their successors of the present day, who are 
 left to gather their information on the previous state of 
 medicine in whatever manner the}' maj' find it practicable 
 or convenient to do so, after graduation. Even at this 
 period, however, the difficult}' arises that there is scarcely 
 a convenient congenial work on the history of medicine 
 to which they can have access, and the study of this 
 subject is therefore usually wholl}' neglected. 
 
 It is believed that the present work will supph' the 
 want, long felt b}" the profession, of a condensed history 
 of the progress of medicine, presenting all the main facts 
 in systematic order, avoiding, as much as possible, pro- 
 lixity or unnecessar}' discussion of the merits of men 
 and theories, and not laying an}' claim whatever to the 
 title of an exhaustive treatise. When these lectures were 
 delivered, the works of Freind, Sprengel, and a few other 
 foreign authors, were the main reliance of the medical 
 historiographer. It is but just to state that some of 
 the material used in the lectures, on which this volume 
 is based, were derived from these trustworthy sources. 
 Some portions, especially those referring to the history 
 of the progress of medicine among the most primitive 
 nations, are translated or condensed from the celebrated 
 Geschichte der Arzneykunde of Kurt Sprengel, published 
 near the beginning of this century. 
 
 The section included in brackets, relating to American 
 medical history, has been added by the Editor, to give 
 greater completeness to the work. 
 
 K. J. D.
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 ORIGIN OF MEDICINE. 
 
 PAGK 
 
 Introduction— Early history involved in obscurity— Super- 
 stitious practices— First treatment of the sick . . .17 
 
 CHAPTER 11. 
 
 MEDICINE OF THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. 
 
 Medical powers of Isis and of other deities— First books on 
 medicine — Early works on anatomy, diseases of females, 
 &c. — Priest-practitioners, their manners and customs, 
 dietetic rules, &c. — Practitioners of specialties — Treatment 
 of various diseases — Medicines used by the ancient Egyp- 
 tians — Description of the process of embalming — Early 
 aversion to dissection — Ignorance of anatomy, physiology, 
 &c .28 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 MEDICINE OF THE ANCIENT GREEKS. 
 
 Medical mythology— Orpheus— ^sculapius ; his life and 
 medical opinions — The sons of ^sculapius — First recorded 
 operation of bloodletting — Practice of medicine in the tem- 
 ples—Votive tablets— Early medicines— First notions on 
 
 anatomy, &c 36 
 
 *
 
 vi CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTEK IV. 
 
 MEDICINE OF THE ROMANS TO THE TIME OF CATO THE 
 
 CENSOR. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Tiieir early knowledge derived from the Greeks— Establish- 
 ment of medicinse or shops by the freedmen — Medical 
 practitioners exempted from banishment — Archagathus, 
 the executioner — Porcius Cato, censor and physician . 53 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 MEDICINE OF THE JEWS TP TO THE CAPTIVITY OF 
 BABYLON. 
 
 Egyptian origin of their medical knowledge — Medical attain- 
 ments of Moses and the lawgivers — Cure of the lepra — The 
 healing art a vocation of the prophets — Medical work of 
 Solomon — Recorded cases of paralysis, affections of the 
 intestines, leprosy, etc. — First origin of monks and monk 
 physicians 57 
 
 CHAPTER YI. 
 
 MEDICINE OF THE HINDOOS. 
 
 Early state of civilization — Brahmin physicians — Laws in 
 regard to poisons — Diseases caused by evil genii — Super- 
 stitions — Pathology of the Hindoos — Treatment of fevers, 
 smallpox, &c 65 
 
 CHAPTER YII. 
 
 MEDICINE OF THE CHINESE AND JAPANESE. 
 
 Causes of their imperfect civilization — Ancient code of the 
 Chinese physicians — Medical schools— Chinese knowledge 
 of anatomy, physiology, &c. —Exploration of the pulse 
 — Physicians of the court of Pekin — Medical knowledge 
 and practice of the Japanese — The moxa, its preparation 
 and uses 71
 
 CONTENTS. Vll 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 MEDICINE OF THE SCYTHIANS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Progress of their civilization — Wonderful cures — Abaris, the 
 Hyperborean — Anacharsis — Toxaris 81 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 MEDICINE OF THE CELTS. 
 
 The Gauls and the Belga? — The Druids, the Eubages, and 
 the Bards — Medical sorceresses — Druidical remedies . 84 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 FIRST TRACES OF A MEDICAL THEORY IN THE PHILOSO- 
 PHIC SCHOOLS OF GREECE. 
 
 •Medicine emerging from the age of superstition — Pj^thagoras 
 and his school — His services to the cause of medicine — Die- 
 tetic and other regulations of himself and followers — Psy- 
 chological and physiological theories — Medical practice of 
 his time — Alcma^on, the first comparative anatomist — Most 
 ancient treatise on physiology — Empedocles of Agrigentum 
 — His valuable services in time of an epidemic — His views 
 on anatomy and physiology — Successors of Pythagoras — 
 Anaxagoras and his views — Democritus of Abdera — Demo- 
 cedes of Crotona — Gymnastic physicians — Political con- 
 dition of the physicians of Greece — Military surgeons — 
 Charlatans . . . ' 86 
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 THE AGE OF HIPPOCRATES. 
 
 Revolution in medical science — Important era in the history 
 of medicine — Biographical sketch of Hippocrates — His 
 medical career— The great plague at Athens— Brilliant 
 cures— Authenticity of his works— Books falsely ascribed 
 to him — His undisputed works — His knowledge and views 
 on anatomy, physiology, semeiology, pathology, thera- 
 peutics, surgery, dietetics, bloodletting, &c. . . . 104
 
 viii CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 THE IMMEDIATE SUCCESSORS OP HIPPOCRATES. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Founders of the dogmatic school— Liberal views and civili- 
 zation of the time— Aristotle— His views on anatomy, phy- 
 siology, &c.— Theophrastns— Praxagoras and his physio- 
 logical discoveries — The term arteries first employed — 
 Medical practice of the period — The age of the Ptolemies 
 — The library of Alexandria — Publication of doubtful 
 works, interpolated manuscripts, &c. — Medical school of 
 Alexandria — Herophilus and Erasistratus; their discoveries 
 and views — Their followers — Division of medicine into its 
 branches, surgery, pharmacy, &c. — The surgeons of Alex- 
 andria and their operations — Lithotomists — Surgical appa- 
 ratus — Proliibitions to young surgeons . . . .126 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 THE EMPIRICAL SCHOOL. 
 
 Origin of the empirical sect — Views and theories of the em- 
 pirics contrasted with those of their predecessors — Trau- 
 matic tlieoiy — Their neglect of anatomy and physiology 
 — Distinguished followers of this school .... 146 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 STATE OF MEDICIXE NEAR THE DAWN OF THE CHRISTIAN 
 ERA. 
 
 Royal toxicologists — Rome a centre of attraction to the world 
 — Asclepiades and his views on anatomy, patholog}^, &c. 
 — Bronchotomy first proposed — Disciples of Asclepiades 
 — Themison of Laodicea — First employment of leeching — 
 Followers of Themison — The methodic school . . . 153 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 STATE OF MEDICINE DURING THE EARLY CENTURIES OF 
 THE CHRISTIAN ERA. 
 
 Cornelius Celsus, the medical Cicero — His views on ana- 
 tomy, surgery, etc.— Elegant Latinity of his works— Con-
 
 CONTENTS. IX 
 
 PAGE 
 
 tempt of Pliny for the Roman practitioners of this age — 
 Medical pretensions of Thessahis Trallianns — Symmachns 
 and his clinics — The first medical lexicographer — The sub- 
 divisions of the methodic sect — Aretseus and his medical 
 practice— Medical writings of Soranus— Claudius Galenus 
 ■ (Galen), his life and services, writings, etc. — The imme- 
 diate successors of Galen — State of medical literature at 
 this period — School of Alexandria — Study of medicine in 
 Persia — Celebrated medical school at Edessa, and its pro- 
 fessors—Establishment of the first institution for clinical 
 instruction. . 160 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 STATE OF MEDICINE IN EUROPE AND THE EAST FKOM 
 THE MIDDLE OF THE SIXTH CENTURY. 
 
 Epidemic of the sixth century — Aetius of Amida, and his use 
 of charms — Alexander Trallian — Theophilus — Paulus 
 jEgineta, the first obstetric physician— Medical writers and 
 practitioners of the next centuries — Decay of medicine in 
 the West and its rise in the East — Arabian physicians and 
 schools — Spanish medical schools and libraries — Progress 
 of Arabian practice of medicine and surgery — First writer 
 on smallpox — First account of academic degrees conferred 
 — Serapion the elder — Rhazes and his works — Avicenna — 
 Albucasis — Avenzoar — Decline of science in Spain and the 
 East in the eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth centuries . 183 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 STATE OF MEDICINE AMONG THE MONKS OF THE MIDDLE 
 AGES. 
 
 Monk physicians of the West — Cures by prayer, relics, &c. — 
 English ecclesiastical physicians — Medidal schools estab- 
 lished by them in England and France — Schools of the 
 cathedrals — Physicians first so called — Curious laws affect- 
 ing physicians — Practice of medicine restricted to the 
 lower clergy — Eminent medical ecclesiastics of the day
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 — Medical celibacy — Practice of medicine- by the nuns — 
 The Abbess Hildegarde — Laws in regard to pregnant 
 women — Constantine the African — Influence of the Cru- 
 saders — Celebrated schools of Monte-Cassino and Saler- 
 num — Dietetical precepts of the latter — Chief physicians 
 of this school — Degrees of bachelor, licentiate, &c. first 
 granted to physicians in France — Doctors first so called . 200 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 STATE OF MEDICIXE DURING THE THIRTEENTH AND 
 FOURTEENTH CENTURIES. 
 
 Medical progress in France under St. Louis — Jean Pitard — 
 Lanfranc of Milan — Progress of surgery in Italy — The 
 school of Bologna and its followers — Encouragement of 
 medical instruction in the fourteenth century — First dissec- 
 tion of the human body — Rough modes of dissection — 
 Astrology and theosophy intermingled with medicine — 
 The Arabists — Decay of the school of Salernum . . 213 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 STATE OF MEDICINE DURING THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY. 
 
 Absurdities taught in the schools and afterwards denounced 
 by the fficulty of Paris — Distinguished medical men of the 
 day — Surgery in the hands of the barbers and bathers — ' 
 Scarcity of operators in Europe — Operation for replacing 
 the nose when lost — Basil Valentine, the monk, and his 
 experiments with antimony, &c. — Lectures of Chrysolore, 
 ambassador of the Emperor of the East — Invention of print- 
 ing — Prevalence of scurvy, lues venerea, &c. . . .217 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 STATE OF MEDICINE DURING THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY. 
 
 Improved taste and knowledge of medicine — New trans- 
 lations of Hippocrates and Galen— The Royal College of 
 Physicians founded— Multitude of editors, commentators,
 
 CONTENTS. xi 
 
 PAGE 
 
 &c. — Distinguished writers on practical medicine — Medi- 
 cal controversies of tliis century — John Argentier and his 
 principles of reform — Belief in demons as a cause of dis- 
 ease — Alchemy in medicine — Paracelsus, his life, opinions, 
 and vagaries — Chemical medicines more generally em- 
 ployed — New pharmacopoeias — Remarkable progress of 
 anatomy and surgery — Improvement in surgical operations 
 — Treatment of gunshot wounds— Study of special surgical 
 diseases — Tagliacozzi and his rhinoplastic operation — Re- 
 markable discoveries in anatomy — The daj^s of Sylvius, 
 Vesalius, Pare, Fallopius, Fabricius, and Eustachius . 223 
 
 CHAPTER XXL 
 
 STATE OF MEDICINE DURING THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 
 
 Harvey's discovery of the circulation of the blood — Advance 
 of practical medicine — Rosicrucians — Eclectic conciliators 
 — Van Helmont and his doctrines — Sympathetic powder of 
 Sir Kenelm Digby — Mathematical sect — Borelli, Bellini, 
 Willis, Keill, and other celebrated physicians and philoso- 
 phers — Humoral pathology — Malpighi, Bartholin, Steno, 
 Aselli, Wirsung, Pecquet, Wharton, and their discoveries 
 in the glandular system, &c. — The days of Sydenham, 
 Baglivi, and Boerhaave — Distinguished contributors to 
 medical science. 234 
 
 CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 STATE OP MEDICINE DURING THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. 
 
 New systems of medicine — Doctrines of Stahl — Expectant 
 medicine — Systems of Hoffmann and Boerhaave — Haller's 
 physiological theory of irritability — The Cullenian sys- 
 tem — Doctrines of Brown — Darwin and the laws of asso- 
 ciation — Brilliant progress of anatomy and physiology — 
 Interesting researches on the circulation, respiration, ner- 
 vous sj'^stem, organs of the senses, generation, surgery, 
 pathological anatomy, &c. — The concluding years of the 
 century — Jenner and the discovery of vaccination — Xavier
 
 xu CONTENTS. 
 
 * PAGE 
 
 Bichat — John Hunter — Other contributors to medical 
 science. 
 Sketch of American medical history in the eighteenth century 
 — Colonial condition of the country — Practice of medicine 
 by the clergy and others — Absence of all restrictions in its 
 exercise — Practice of midwifery by women — !Modes of 
 practice — Inoculation for smallpox — Systems of medicine 
 — Medical authorshii:) — Medical education — Medical schools 
 of this era — Conclusion 245
 
 HISTORY OF MEDICINE, 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 ORIGIN OF MEDICINE. 
 
 Introduction — Early history involved in obscurity — Superstitious 
 practices — First treatment of the sick. 
 
 As a point of history, pregnant with valuable 
 deductions, it is good to look back upon the condi- 
 tion of medicine in former times and to find that it 
 has always kept pace with the progress of the phy- 
 sical and moral sciences. Where these, however, 
 have been marked by folly and credulity, it has ex- 
 hibited the same imperfections. "When we notice, 
 in our professional ancestors, strange conceits, fan- 
 tastic reasoning, and singular confusion in tracing 
 the relation between cause and eifect, it is well to 
 reflect on the state of philosophy at the time ; and 
 if we investigate closely, we shall find that the 
 men who appear to us so defective in their powers 
 of observation and reflection were but examples of 
 the general learning of the age in which they lived. 
 
 It may not be so easy for us to trace the gradual 
 improvement in any two successive eras, which melt 
 into each other by indefinable gradations ; but if we 
 
 2
 
 1 8 HIS TOR V OF MEDICINE. 
 
 select distant periods, the evidences of mental ad- 
 vancement are signal. In ancient times, for in- 
 stance, as with rude, untutored nations of the 
 present day, the physician acted as the magician, and 
 conversely. Physic was an art which was supposed to 
 he most mysterious, and its practisers were presumed 
 to hold communion with the world of spirits. The 
 practice of medicine of those days was made up of 
 such unreliable agents as the word ahracadabra^ 
 hung around the neck as an amulet, to chase away 
 the ague ; an hexameter from the Iliad to allay the 
 agony of gout, and a verse of the Lamentations to 
 cure the rheumatism. 
 
 Many of the superstitions connected with the 
 earlier history of medicine prevail now as the}^ did 
 formerly ; but the facility for the reception of the 
 marvellous and the imperfect state of experimental 
 science at that time occasioned their prevalence 
 in the higher intellects, whilst at the present day 
 they are mainly restricted to the vulgar. Those 
 higher intellects were indeed sadly deficient in 
 wisdom. Learned they were in all the scholastic 
 knowledge of the period ; but where mystery existed 
 on any subject, instead of submitting it to the test of 
 experiment and observation, they received it as an 
 heirloom from their predecessors, and never dared 
 to dispute the Avord of the master. It has been 
 said that the delusions under which they labored 
 were inevitable — that the improvement of the world 
 is destined to proceed in cycles, and that whenever 
 a new light bursts upon the eye, it requires some 
 time before the organ can discern clearly amidst the
 
 ANTIQUITY OF MEDICINE. 19 
 
 unaccustomed blaze. In this there is truth; and, 
 as the world proceeds, successive cycles and epicycles 
 will doubtless exhibit the fruits of anterior experi- 
 ence. Ages of obscurity, bootless conjecture, and 
 dreamy enthusiasm preceded those of sound sense 
 and rational observation; but they were necessary 
 antecedents, and intimately connected with the 
 results. 
 
 The belief that some human beings could attain 
 the power of conferring good or inflicting ills on 
 their fellow-creatures, and of controlling the opera- 
 tions of nature, is one of the highest antiquity. It 
 has appeared in every region of the globe; and, from 
 its extensive prevalence, it is evident that the human 
 mind, especially in its state of ignorance and bar- 
 barism, is a soil well adapted for its reception and 
 cultivation. Life has so many evils, which the un- 
 informed mind can neither prevent nor avert, and 
 encourages so many hopes, which every age and 
 condition are anxious to realize, that we can hardly 
 be astonished to find a considerable portion of man- 
 kind become the willing prey of impostors, who, as 
 we shall see, practised on their credulity by threats 
 of evil and promises of good, greater than the usual 
 course of nature would dispense. Even the lights 
 of divine revelation, and the circumstance of their 
 being discountenanced by both civil and ecclesiasti- 
 cal laws, did not prevent such frauds and absurdities 
 from being encouraged. Their foundation seems to 
 lie deep in the heart's anxiety about futurity, in its 
 impatience for good greater than it enjoys, and in
 
 20 HIS TOR V OF MEDICINE. 
 
 its restless curiosity to penetrate the unknown, and 
 to meddle witli the forbidden. 
 
 Much time and learning have been wasted in 
 attempting to depict the first origin of medicine. 
 Thus Schulze, who was professor at Altorf in the 
 beginning of the 18th century, has traced it to the 
 fall of man, showing, with great gravit}^, what ob- 
 servations were likely to be made by Adam and Eve 
 on the subject of their natural appetites; and Bram- 
 billa, a surgeon of Vienna, has asserted that Tubal 
 Cain was the inventor of cauterizing instruments, 
 machines for the reduction of fractures, and other 
 surgical apparatus, whence he endeavors to prove 
 that surgery is of more ancient date than medicine. 
 
 Medicine, it is evident, must have had a very 
 early origin, for mankind, in the most uncivilized 
 ages, would necessarily be exposed to a variety of 
 casualties, and would gradually learn the means of 
 alleviating the pain or averting the consequences of 
 the more common external injuries. The more or 
 less agreeable and salubrious qualities of the different 
 articles of food would also cause them to form for 
 themselves certain dietetic maxims and rules for the 
 treatment of those diseases to which thej^ found 
 themselves liable. Their materia medica would pro- 
 bably, at first, consist of only a few herbs, of which 
 they fancied they had found the efficacy in internal 
 and external complaints. Unacquainted, however, 
 with the economy of the human body, and incapa- 
 ble, for the most part, of tracing the progress of 
 disease, the more fatal internal disorders would be
 
 PRIEST-PHYSICIANS. 21 
 
 ascribed to the powers of sorcery, or to the displeasure 
 of those deities whom they had been taught to fear, 
 and they would resort for their cure to those rites 
 and ceremonies by which they imagined they could 
 dispel the charm or appease the wrath of the offended 
 gods. Hence would arise various sujDcrstitious prac- 
 tices which would be handed down from generation 
 to generation. Such we may imagine to have been 
 the origin of the medical art, and such is nearly its 
 condition at the present period amongst the savages 
 of Africa, Australasia, Polynesia, Sumatra, &c. 
 
 The first individuals who raised themselves above 
 the vulgar, made a particular study of medicine, and 
 obtained success by practising it, were raised to the 
 rank of gods. Altars were erected to them, and 
 the priests who administered the duties became 
 physicians themselves from being the oracles of the 
 divinity whom the peo]3le wished to consult; so 
 that for a long time the practice of medicine was a 
 part of the priestcraft, and was taught by the minis- 
 ters of the altars with many occult and mysterious 
 ceremonies. For a long period there could have 
 been no other medical instruction than that of the 
 communication of the knowledge of the mechanical 
 means and properties of remedies which had been 
 previously employed with success in the cure of 
 wounds and diseases. The science did not then 
 exist; there were not even physicians. Each was 
 probably physician in his turn, and recommended to 
 him who was suffering the remedy which he knew 
 to have succeeded, or whose virtues were attested 
 by tradition. Herodotus informs us that even in
 
 2 2 HISTORY OF MEDICINE. 
 
 his time the Babylonians, Chaldeans, and other 
 nations had no physicians. When any one was 
 attacked with disease he was carried into the public 
 street, and the passers-by who had labored under a 
 similar affection, or had witnessed a similar case, 
 advised the individual to adopt such means as their 
 judgment and memory might suggest. [N'o one was 
 permitted to pass near a sick person without inter- 
 rogating him on the nature of his sufferings. 
 
 The first writers on medicine trace its origin, in 
 common with that of most other branches of know- 
 ledge, to the Egyptians; but its history is so in- 
 volved in fable, and so mixed with the pagan 
 mythology, that it is impossible to arrive at their 
 knowledge of this, or of any other branch of sci- 
 ence. The medicine of the Indians, Chaldeans, Chi- 
 nese, Japanese, &c., was a mere collection of receipts 
 applied at hazard by men without study and expe- 
 rience, according to vulgar, and often superstitious, 
 traditions, as it is even at present, to a great extent, 
 in those countries.
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 MEDICINE OF THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. 
 
 Medical powers of Isis and of other deities — First books on me- 
 dicine — Early works on anatomy, diseases of females, &c. — 
 Priest-practitioners, tlieir manners and customs, dietetic rules, 
 &c. — Practitioners of specialties — Treatment of various dis- 
 eases — Medicines used by the ancient Egyptians — Description 
 of the process of embalming — Early aversion to dissection — 
 Ignorance of anatomy, physiology, &c. 
 
 The Egyptians a23pear to have been the first na- 
 tion which cultivated medicine. The history of the 
 progress of the art, during the period prior to the 
 reign of King Psammetichus, who died about 617 
 years before the Christian era, is, however, wrapped 
 in mythological obscurity. To the deity Isis, the 
 wife and sister of Osiris, a peculiar medical power 
 was attributed, and a multitude of diseases were 
 regarded as the effects of her anger. She had given 
 an unequivocal proof of her power in the restoration 
 of her son Orus to life. The Egyptians attributed 
 to her the discovery of several remedies, and be- 
 lieved that she possessed considerable power in me- 
 dicine. Even at the time of Galen, the materia 
 medica contained several compound remedies which 
 bore her name. As all diseases were supposed to 
 originate from her anger, the Greeks compared her 
 to Proserpine, queen of the infernal regions, or to
 
 24 HISTORY OF MEDICINE. 
 
 the redoubtable Hecate. In the temples of Isis a 
 species of resin was burnt in the morning, myrrh at 
 noon, and in the evening a composition termed 
 eyphy, which was formed of sixteen drugs, regard 
 being had in its preparation to the quaternary num- 
 ber, which was always considered sacred. After 
 these preparations, the sick were made to sleep in 
 these temples, in order that the oracle might reveal 
 to them, during sleejD, the means which ought to be 
 had recourse to for their cure. 
 
 Orus or Horus, the son of Isis — the Apollo of the 
 Greeks — was the last Egyptian king of the mytho- 
 logical dynasty of the gods, and is said to have ac- 
 quired from his mother the knowledge of diseases 
 and of their modes of cure. Independently, how- 
 ever, of this family of the gods, the Egyptians re- 
 vered Theath, Thouth or Taaut — the Hermes Tris- 
 megistus of the Greeks — whom they regarded as the 
 inventor of arts and sciences. All ancient historians 
 accord in representing Taaut as the friend and con- 
 fidant of Osiris. He first taught the Egyptians 
 the use of writing, invented arithmetic, geometry, 
 astronomy, and music ; gave laws to the people, regu- 
 lated their religious ceremonies, and first cultivated 
 the olive. 
 
 When the Egyptians had discovered a mode of 
 forming paper from the stalk of the papyrus, the 
 knowledge of Taaut was described, engraved upon 
 the columns and collected in a book entitled Emhre^ 
 or Scientia Causalitatis. This book, according to 
 Diodorus, contained the rules of medical science, to 
 which the physicians were compelled scrupulously
 
 EARLY MEDICAL WORKS. 25 
 
 to adhere, and comprised various additions made 
 by the more immediate and celebrated successors of 
 Taaut or Hermes. When the physicians strictly con- 
 formed to the regulations, they were held free from 
 blame, should the patient even die ; but if they wan- 
 dered from them they were punished with death, 
 whatever miffht be the issue of the disorder. It is 
 by no means improbable that this book contained a 
 collection of the semeiological observations made up 
 to that period, for we are informed by Horapollo in 
 his HieroglyjyUca^ that the priests or physicians re- 
 ferred to it for the purpose of predicting whether 
 any disease would have a favorable or unfavorable 
 termination. Diodorus gives us reason to suppose 
 that their diagnosis was principally formed on the 
 position which the patient assumed in bed, a mode 
 of discrimination, as may readily be conceived, at 
 once nugatory and absurd. The blind adherence to 
 the opinions and rules of their predecessors, and the 
 criminality, as it was considered, of all innovation — 
 w^hilst they continued — effectually prevented any 
 improvement in the science, or as it might, at that 
 time, be more properly styled, the art of medicine. 
 
 At the time of lamblicus, who lived A.D. 363, the 
 priests of Egypt showed forty-two books which they 
 attributed to Hermes. Of these, according to that 
 author, thirty-six contained the history of all human 
 knowledge ; the last six of which treated of anatomy, 
 of diseases, especially those of females, of affec- 
 tions of the eyes, instruments of surgery, and medi- 
 cines. It is probable, however, that several of these 
 were of a more modern date, as lamblicus is very
 
 2 6 HISTORY OF MEDICINE. 
 
 doubtful regarding their authenticity, and Galen 
 does not hesitate to declare them apocryphal. 
 Sprengel asserts, and with some degree of proba- 
 bility, that several of these works were penned 
 about the time of the existence of the school of 
 Alexandria, when alchemy and some of its kindred 
 branches had their origin, from a wish to show that 
 these chimerical investigations were of an ancient 
 date, and consequently entitled to more considera- 
 tion than they might otherwise have received. The 
 number of works attributed by some to this Egyp- 
 tian deity is truly prodigious. Seleucus estimates 
 them at 20,000, and Manetho at 30,000! Galen, 
 however, attempts to reconcile these incredible as- 
 sertions by observing that we should read books or 
 dissertations in place of books or volumes. 
 
 Apis, another divinity of the Egyptians, was also 
 regarded as the inventor of medicine. They like- 
 wise adored as a tutelar genius, Esmun or Schemin, 
 the Pan of the Greeks; but greater influence was 
 attributed to Serapis, whose most ancient temple 
 was at Memphis, and who was worshipj^ed by both 
 Greeks and Egyptians. The history of the last dis- 
 ease of Alexander the Great shows that Serapis was 
 much revered as a medical divinity at the time of 
 that conqueror. 
 
 In whatever way these divinities may have first 
 attracted the adoration of the people, it seems clear 
 that the priests from among whom the ancient 
 kings of Egypt were chosen were the practisers of 
 the medical art. As diseases were considered to be 
 the efiects of the anger of the gods, they could not
 
 PRIES T-PRA CTITIONERS OF EGYPT. 27 
 
 be cured until the wrath of these estimated power- 
 ful beings was appeased. The awe, however, with 
 which the deities were regarded, and the weakness 
 of the diseased, required the aid of mediators who 
 might implore pardon for them. In the hands of the 
 priests, consequently, the healing art was nothing 
 more than an absurd worship paid to the different 
 divinities of the country. They concealed the medi- 
 cines which they administered by the aid of an 
 allegorical language, and medicine was esteemed a 
 secret, the knowledge of which was only vouch- 
 safed by the gods to their favorites. A description 
 of the manners of these priests and the dietetic 
 restrictions which they imposed upon themselves 
 will throw some additional light on the ars sanandi 
 of these remote ages. 
 
 The six books of the works of Hermes, just 
 referred to as being the part devoted to medicine, 
 were studied by the Pastophori or Image-bearers, 
 an inferior order of the priesthood on whom the 
 practice of common medicine devolved. The higher 
 branches, which required more magical formulse, as 
 well as a greater knowledge of the virtues of drugs, 
 were reserved for the superior priests. These latter, 
 the wise men and magicians of whom Moses speaks, 
 boasted of the power of producing a multitude of 
 supernatural effects and of possessing in themselves 
 alone all erudition. At the time of Heliodorus, 
 who lived about 167 years before the Christian era, 
 there existed, clothed in a symbolical language, 
 several works on natural history, in which the 
 plants and animals were designated by mystical
 
 HIS TOR V OF MEDICINE, 
 
 appellations. Thus the ivy was called the plant of 
 Osiris; the vervain, the tears of Isis; a species of 
 lily, death's blood ; a variety of the artemisia, the 
 heart of Bubastis ; the saffron, the blood of Hercules ; 
 the squill, the eye of Typhon, &c. The more modern 
 fanatics, and chiefly the alchemists, eagerly laid hold 
 of these symbolical names, in order to attract more 
 consideration amongst the ignorant. 
 
 The manner of living of all orders of the priest- 
 hood was subjected to very severe rules. They were 
 especially obliged to attend to the greatest cleanli- 
 ness ; were expected to wash themselves twice in 
 the day and as often during the night, and to have 
 the hair cut every three days, except in time of 
 mourning. It was likewise, according to Herodotus, 
 with views of cleanliness that the operation of cir- 
 cumcision was introduced amongst them, an opera- 
 tion to which Pythagoras himself was compelled to 
 submit. They subsisted on the produce of their 
 lands and the offerings made to their gods. Their 
 nourishment was confined to the vegetables and 
 meats which mis-ht be offered to their deities. The 
 animals intended for sacrifice were ceremoniously 
 marked with a seal of clay. It would seem that 
 this custom had its chief origin in the care which 
 it was considered necessary to take in the well dis- 
 tinguishing of the sound from the unsound meat. 
 It was, indeed, at an early period remarked that the 
 diseases of the eyes, lepra, and different other cor- 
 poreal affections, frequently supervened on the im- 
 moderate use of certain articles of food. But, 
 independently of this salutary precaution, certain
 
 DIET OF PRIESTS AND PEOPLE. 29 
 
 animals were chosen in preference to others from 
 some symbolical signification attached to them from 
 the most early period. Those were sacrificed by 
 preference, which had some similarity to the genius 
 of evil, as, for example, red oxen, because Typhon, 
 who murdered their favorite Osiris, was of that 
 complexion. 
 
 The farinaceous legumina and onions were espe- 
 cially proscribed ; the first, according to Herodotus, 
 because they are difiicult of digestion and engender 
 flatulence, or, as Plutarch supposes, because they 
 afford too much nourishment, or, perhaps, rather 
 from mystical reasons which are unknown to us. 
 Onions, according to Plutarch, were forbidden be- 
 cause they excited thirst. The regimen of the peo- 
 ple, although not so much restricted as that of the 
 priests, was nevertheless subjected to certain rules, 
 from which they were not permitted to wander, and 
 which were always intended for the preservation of 
 health. Even to the kings, according to Diodorus, 
 a fixed quantity of meat and drink was prescribed, 
 beyond which it was not permitted for them to pass. 
 On the temple at Thebes was placed an inscription 
 filled with imprecations against king Menes, who 
 first led the people from their simple and frugal life, 
 and introduced amongst them the luxury of the 
 table. Diodorus informs us that almost ever^^ func- 
 tion, even the act of generation, was regulated, and 
 had a time assigned for its performance. 
 
 The education of the children tended to fortify 
 them against fatigue and to accustom them to 
 frugality. They always ran about barefooted, and
 
 30 HISTORY OF MEDICINE. 
 
 almost wholly subsisted on fruits, roots, and the pith 
 of the papyrus. Until manhood the food was never 
 suffered to exceed twenty drachms a day, and gym- 
 nastic exercises were proscribed from a belief that 
 they occasioned but a momentary vigor. Each 
 Egyptian, according to Herodotus and Diodorus, 
 was expected ever}^ month to make use of emetics, 
 purgatives, and clysters, for it was imagined that 
 the majority of diseases originated from intem- 
 perance and crudities in the alimentary apparatus. 
 Herodotus asserts that in his time there was in 
 Egypt a particular physician for each disease ; one 
 occupjnng himself with diseases of the eyes, a second 
 with affections of the teeth, a third with those of 
 the stomach, &c. 
 
 As for the rationale of their medicine, we have 
 received too few data to judge of it with certainty; 
 it seems, however, probable that diseases were 
 principally left to nature, and that the Egyptians con- 
 tented themselves with promoting those evacuations 
 which she might endeavor to establish. If we 
 may credit Strabo, they exposed those who were 
 dangerously ill in the streets, in order that the 
 passers-by might afford them advice. Sprengel, 
 however, is of opinion that this observation applies 
 more especially to the Assyrians, as the fact respect- 
 ing them is stated by many authors, whilst Strabo 
 is the only authority on which the assertion rests as 
 regards the Egyptians. That they were not very 
 Bkilful in the cure of external diseases is evidenced 
 by their not having been able to cure Darius of a 
 simple luxation of the foot which he received whilst
 
 ART OF EMBALMING. 3 1 
 
 hunting. The prophets predicted the changes and 
 termination of diseases, and the inferior priests or 
 pastophori treated them strictly according to the 
 rules laid down in the hooks of Hermes, and were 
 personally responsible for everything which they 
 undertook in acute diseases before the fourth day of 
 their invasion. 
 
 Very few of the practical observations of the 
 Egyptians have come down to us. Amongst other 
 medicines, however, which they were in the habit 
 of prescribing, was the squill, especially in the 
 environs of Pelusium, in the dropsical affections 
 which were very common in that neighborhood. In 
 honor of this plant they erected, according to Panus, 
 a temple, where it was adored under the name of 
 Kpo^iuvoj/. By Horapollo we are informed that in 
 cases of cynanche or sore throat great use was made 
 of a species of adianthum, or maiden hair. The 
 astitrii., or eagle-stone, a species of oxide of iron, was 
 likewise successfully employed against dropsies and 
 tympanitis. Horapollo relates a case to show that 
 the dissection of rabid animals may occasion hypo- 
 chondriasis or mania. 
 
 - Two arts were practised by the Egyptians which 
 have some connection with medicine, and the per- 
 fection of which amongst them the lovers of the 
 marvellous have highly extolled. 
 
 The first is that of einhalming. If we are to credit 
 several modern writers, we ought to give the Egyp- 
 tians credit for considerable anatomical acquirements 
 from their skill in this art ; but if we carefully and 
 unprejudicedly inquire into the circumstances, we
 
 32 HISTORY OF MEDICINE. 
 
 shall find that the mode in which the operation was 
 performed was not such as to demand any of these 
 qualifications, whilst there were some feelings against 
 the dissection of the dead which must efiectually 
 have tended to the retardation of anatomical inves- 
 tigations. The mode in which the operation was 
 performed and the ceremonies attending it are thus 
 described by Herodotus : As soon as an individual 
 was dead, the persons employed for embalming him 
 repaired to the house of his relatives, and showed 
 them different cofiins of painted wood of the shape 
 of a mummy. The first or chief were of very ex- 
 quisite workmanship, the second were less beautiful 
 and costly, and the third were still more moderate. 
 -- The embalming was performed in the following 
 manner: The brain was first drawn through the 
 nose by means of an iron crotchet, or hook, and 
 aromatics and spices were then pushed into the 
 cranium. The abdomen was opened by a sharp 
 Ethiopian stone ; the intestines were removed and 
 the abdominal cavity cleaned out, and then washed 
 with palm wine, and spicy substances dissolved in 
 water poured into it. It was subsequently filled 
 with myrrh, cassia, and other aromatics, and the 
 integuments were brought together. The body was 
 now washed with a solution of salt, and suffered to 
 remain at rest for seventy days, but not longer. At 
 the expiration of this time it was again washed and 
 covered everywhere with a gum, which the Egyp- 
 tians used in the place of size, and enveloped in a 
 linen cloth. The relations then took the body, in- 
 closed it in a wooden cradle modelled after its form,
 
 ART OF EMBALMING. -^l 
 
 and deposited it in the catacombs. "With those of a 
 poorer class, they were satisfied with injecting liquid 
 resin into the abdomen through a tube, without 
 opening it. The body was then treated with the 
 solution of the salt as before, and, at the expiration 
 of the seventy days, the resin, and the viscera along 
 with it, was withdrawn, and there remained nothing 
 but the skin and bones. The third species of embalm- 
 ing, reserved for the poor, consisted in cleansing out 
 the dead body, and macerating it for seventy days 
 in the solution of the salt. 
 
 Women of unusual beauty, or of high birth, were 
 not put under the hands of the embalmers until 
 three or four days after their decease ; a precaution 
 rendered necessary, according to Herodotus, from 
 some of the pastophori having been known to vio- 
 late the dead persons of such females. The first 
 species of embalming cost a talent of silver, or about 
 three hundred dollars, and the second twenty min^e, 
 or about one hundred dollars. A holy functionary, 
 termed by them a scribe, marked on the left side 
 of the body the place where the incision should be 
 made, when the imraschistes., or operator, made the 
 incision andhastily withdrew, from a dread of being 
 assailed with imprecations, and even with stones, by 
 the assistants, so great was their horror at any one 
 who dared to inflict an injury, by means of a cutting 
 instrument, on the remains of a friend. Diodorus 
 afterwards describes the process of embalming nearly 
 in the same manner as Herodotus, with this slight 
 difference, that he makes mention of a process, by 
 3
 
 34 HISTORY OF MEDICINE. 
 
 means of which they preserved in the dead body 
 the form which the individual had during life. 
 
 The conduct of the assistants towards the para- 
 schistes strongly exemplifies the aversion which the 
 Egyptians had for dissection, and it could not con- 
 sequently be expected, whilst such sentiments pre- 
 vailed, that many discoveries would be made relating 
 to the structure, position, and connections of parts of 
 the body in states of health and of disease. More- 
 over, the process which was followed was too rude 
 to contribute to enrich the science. Besides, we have 
 historical proofs that the Egyptian priests were 
 ignorant of the first elements of anatomy and phys- 
 iology. They believed, for example, that every 
 year the weight of the heart was increased by two 
 drachms, until the age of fifty, and that afterwards 
 it diminished in the same proportion; and that a 
 small nerve or tendon had its origin in the little 
 finger which proceeded to the heart, and this was 
 the reason why they dipped that finger in the liquor 
 of their libations. 
 
 In chemistry and in metallurgy the ancient Egyp- 
 tians certainly possessed a degree of knowledge which 
 is still an inexplicable enigma to our most celebrated 
 scientists. They were acquainted with the art of 
 applying silver of a blue color to surfaces, and of 
 fabricating emeralds of a prodigious size. It was 
 formerly believed that cobalt was used in these pre- 
 parations, but Gmelin has demonstrated that there 
 was none of that metal in all Egypt, and that proba- 
 bly they made use of the blue scum which swims on 
 the surface when the hematite is melted. Finally,
 
 IMPERFE CTION OF EGYP TIA N MEDICINE. 3 5 
 
 it seems very doubtful whether even the ancient 
 Egyptians had made sufficient progress in chemistry 
 and pharmacy to have even known, as Galen and 
 Bergmaan pretend, how to prepare plasters and 
 ointments of verdigris and ceruse. 
 
 Being possessed of but a very small number of 
 data regarding Egyptian medicine prior to the 600th 
 year before the birth of Christ, the details here pre- 
 sented must necessarily be imperfect and unsatis- 
 factory, but they are sufficient to show that although 
 the healing art was cultivated by the Egyptians, it 
 never attained with them any degree of importance. 
 Confined to the priests, forming an essential part of 
 their divine worship, and not being permitted to be 
 freely exercised by every one, its progress was neces- 
 sarily insignificant. ^NTo scientific plan, no union of 
 observation with theory, formed the basis of their 
 studies, and medicine, therefore, became nothing 
 more than the art of prophesying, and was confined 
 to a blind adherence to rules for a long time adopted. 
 The son received, as a divine deposit, the knowledge 
 of his fathers, and transmitted it to his posterity 
 without it having undergone the least change.
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 MEDICINE OF THE ANCIENT GREEKS. 
 
 Medical mythology — Orpheus — ^sculapiiis ; his life and medical 
 opinions— The sons of ^sculapius — First recorded operation 
 of bloodletting — Practice of medicine in the temples — Votive 
 tablets — Early medicines — First notions on anatomy, &c. 
 
 The condition in which we find medicine amongst 
 all the rude and uncivilized nations is absolutely the 
 same as that which it originally presented in Greece, 
 a country, however, in which, at a later period, the 
 human mind developed all its resources, and where 
 the most brilliant discoveries were made. Without 
 dwelling on the medical mythology of Orpheus, 
 Musffius, Melampus, and Bacis, who are considered 
 to have been its first founders, or the history of the 
 miraculous nature of the healing powers of Apollo, 
 Diana, Ilithyia, or Chiron and his disciple Achil- 
 les, or Aristseus, we may at once direct our attention 
 to the most renowned of Chiron's pupils, and to one 
 who is deserving of the most conspicuous place in 
 the history of medicine — Asclepius or ^sculapius. 
 
 Pausanias has transmitted to us several popular 
 traditions respecting the place of his birth. Phleg- 
 yas, king of Thessaly, had a daughter named Coro- 
 nis, who became pregnant by Apollo. That prince 
 having invaded Peloponnesus and destroyed a part
 
 TRADITIONAR V HISTOR V OF ^SCULAPIUS. 3 7 
 
 of the inhabitants of the peninsula, took his daugh- 
 ter along with him. Coronis was delivered clandes- 
 tinely, and her son was left on Mount Myrtion. The 
 infant was suckled by a goat and guarded by the dog 
 of a shepherd called Aresthanas. The goatherd, ob- 
 servincf that his doo; as well as o-oat was missins;, went 
 in search of it, and discovered them with the infant, 
 which was surrounded by an areola of light. Ac- 
 cording to another tradition, says Pausanias, Coro- 
 nis, when pregnant with ^sculapius, was too fami- 
 liar with Ischys, when Apollo killed her for her 
 perfidy, but at the instant when the body, already 
 placed upon the pile, was about to become a prey to 
 the flames. Mercury drew from it the infant still 
 living, ^sculapius, like the greater part of the 
 young heroes of his time, was instructed by the 
 Centaur Chiron in all the arts, and especially in that 
 of curing external diseases. In process of time he 
 acquired so great a dexterity in the treatment of 
 those affections that he obtained the pre-eminence 
 over all his companions on the expedition of the 
 Argonauts. 
 
 Several ancient writers have described to us in 
 what his science consisted. One passage of Plato is 
 especially deserving of attention. That philosopher 
 begins by observing that medicine cannot exist 
 without luxury, and that man, in a state of nature, 
 has need only of physicians for wounds and epi- 
 demics to which he may be exposed ; that conse- 
 quently the medicine of ^sculapius must have been 
 extremely simple, and that experience must have 
 taught him the knowledge of some^useful remedies,
 
 38 HIS TON Y OF MEDICINE. 
 
 especially in external affections. At that time we 
 are told they had no idea either of catarrhs or of the 
 gout, nor of flatulency, nor, according to him, were 
 they acquainted with dietetics or gymnastics. The 
 skill of ^sculapius was, therefore, nearly confined to 
 the dressing and healing of wounds with herbs 
 proper for arresting hemorrhage and assuaging pain. 
 Plutarch asserts that such comprised the whole of 
 the ancient Grecian medicine. Pindar describes 
 nearly in the same manner the method pursued by 
 ^sculapius. He cured, we are told, persons labor- 
 ing under old ulcers, those who had been wounded, 
 or who had been indisposed from heat or cold. He 
 employed, for the restoration of health, agreeable 
 songs, drinks, and external medicines or incisions. 
 If, therefore, we except some simple remedies ob- 
 tained from the vegetable kingdom, ^sculapius had 
 almost always recourse to prayer and invocation to 
 the gods, a method of cure, as has alreadj^ been 
 observed, the most ancient of all. Pursuing such a 
 plan, however, it seems absurd to find the author of 
 an introduction to the works of Galen, ranking the 
 medical skill of ^sculapius at so high a standard. 
 " Before ^sculapius," observes that writer, " medi- 
 cine was nothing but blind empiricism, and was 
 confined to the external application of plants; but 
 that hero knew how to perfect and form it into a 
 divine art." 
 
 Various accounts have been given by authors 
 respecting the death of ^sculapius. Diodorus Si- 
 culus asserts that he restored so many people to life, 
 that Pluto beseeched Jupiter to destroy a man who
 
 THE SONS OF ^SCULAPIUS. 39 
 
 SO materially injured the population of his empire. 
 Jupiter, therefore, hurled his thunder at ^sculapius, 
 and Apollo revenged the death of his son, hy de- 
 stroying the Cyclops who forged the bolts. Sextus 
 Empiricus repeats this story in nearty the same 
 words, and almost all the writers of Greece follow 
 his example. Heraclitus, a more modern writer, 
 explains his death in a more natural manner ; being 
 occasioned, according to him, by a violent inflamma- 
 tion, the seat of which Suidas places in the chest.-' 
 
 The sons of ^sculapius also enjoy a conspicuous 
 place in the history of the healing art ; they are con- 
 sidered as the fathers of surgery. Mach aox and Pod a- 
 LiRius — so they were called — ^were as skilful in the 
 sciences and in eloquence as in the healing art. The 
 two brothers were at the siege of Troy, where they 
 distinguished themselves so much by their valor that 
 Homer always ranks them amongst the chief Greek 
 heroes. They lived together in the most perfect 
 union, attending jointly on the wounded, and they 
 acquired so great a reputation amongst their com- 
 panions that their presence in battle was dispensed 
 with, and they were not expected to take part in the 
 other fatio-ues of war. That internal medicine was 
 in a very rude state is evidenced by the observations 
 of Homer, that ^Nestor, when Machaon was wounded 
 at the siege of Troy, ordered him Pramnian wine, 
 
 * ^sciilapiiis is always painted with a staff, because the sick 
 have need of a support ; and the serpent entwined round it is the 
 sjmibol of wisdom. The figures of the sons of ^sculapius form, 
 the supporters to the arms of the Royal College of Surgeons of 
 London.
 
 40 HISTORY OF MEDICINE. 
 
 with cheese, onions, and meal, as Pope has correctly 
 rendered it, with the exception of omitting the 
 onions : — 
 
 "The nymph of form divine, 
 
 Pours a large potion of the Pramnian wine, 
 With goat's milk cheese a flavorous taste bestows, 
 And last with flour the smiling surface strows. 
 This for the wounded prince the dame prepares." 
 
 Yilloison in his Scholia considers that these sub- 
 stances presented to Machaon, — "the wounded off- 
 spring of the healing god," — were considered less as 
 remedies than as refreshments necessary in conse- 
 quence of his fatigue ; and a nearly similar observa- 
 tion is made by Eustathius in his commentaries on 
 the works of Homer. 
 
 Neither Machaon nor Podalirius seems to have 
 possessed the kingdom of their father, after the end 
 of the Trojan war. Machaon passed the remainder 
 of his days in Messenia near the sage JSTestor; he was 
 killed by Eurypylas, the son of Telephus, and his 
 bones were preserved as sacred deposits. Eurypylus 
 himself was afterwards wounded, and the surgical 
 treatment of his case is thus described by Homer : — 
 
 "Patroclus cut the forky steel away. 
 When in his hand a bitter root he bruised ; 
 The wound he washed, the styptic juice infused. 
 The closing flesh that instant ceased to glow, 
 The wound to torture, and the blood to flow." 
 
 {Iliad, Book XL) 
 
 The sons of Machaon — Alexanor, Sphyrus, Polemo- 
 CRATES, GoRGASUS, and XicoMACHUs — also practised 
 medicine. On the return of Podalirius from Troy,
 
 MEDICAL SKILL OF PODALIRIUS. 41 
 
 a tempest cast him on the coast of the Isle of Scyros, 
 where he landed, however, safe and sound. He 
 wandered alone in the peninsula of Caria, in the 
 neighborhood of this island, until a shepherd showed 
 him hospitality and took him to King Damootas. 
 At the court of that prince he soon gave proofs of 
 his medical skill by curing Syrna, his daughter, of 
 the eiFects of a fall from a roof. He bled her in 
 both arms, when her life was despaired of, and suc- 
 ceeded in restoring her to health. Damoetas, agreea- 
 bly surprised at the fortunate issue of an operation 
 which was then rarely practised, consented to the 
 marriage of Podalirius with Syrna, and gave him 
 the whole of the peninsula of Caria. Here Poda- 
 lirius founded, in honor of his wife, the town of 
 Syrna, and likewise built another to which he gave 
 the name of the shepherd who had been the first 
 cause of his good fortune. This is the first instance 
 Avhich we have upon record of the performance of 
 l)loodletting, an o^^eration regarding the origin of 
 which we know nothing certain. 
 
 The life of Podalirius is related differently in 
 another place. Lycophron asserts that he was assas- 
 sinated on the coast of Ausonia, in the country of 
 the Dauni, v/ho adored him under the name of fdfjcov 
 azfffrvjj. These people bathed in the river Althenus, 
 and listened, whilst lying under hides, to the infalli- 
 ble oracles of the god of medicine. Strabo remarks, 
 also, that the tomb of Podalirius might be seen at a 
 hundred stadia from the sea, in the country of the 
 Dauni, the capital of which, Luceria, exists at' the 
 present day in the Capitanata at the bottom of the
 
 42 HISTORY OF MEDICIXE. 
 
 Gulf of Maufredonia, and he adds that the waters 
 of the river Altheiuis (at the present day called 
 Candelaro) cured all the diseases of cattle. 
 
 Although Clemens Alexandrinus dates the origin 
 of the worship of ^sculapius at fifty-three years be- 
 fore the destruction of Troy, nothing is to be found 
 in the poetry of Homer whieli can lead us to suspect 
 that this hero had been classed amongst the gods. 
 Hesiod would also unquestionably have admitted 
 him into the Theogony, if at liis time they had 
 paid him divine honors. Pindar, indeed, far from 
 regarding him as a god. reproaches him. on the 
 contrary, with being avaricious, although he calls 
 him the hero and vanrjuislier of a great number of 
 diseases : — 
 
 " Those whom nature made to feel 
 Con-odiug ulcers gna\r the frame ; 
 Or stones far hurrd, or glittering steel, 
 All to the great physician came. 
 By summer's heat or winter's cold 
 Oppress' d, of him they sought relief. 
 Each deadly pang his skill controll'd, 
 And found a balm for every grief. 
 On some the force of charmed strains he tried, 
 To some the medicated draught applied : 
 Some limbs he placed the amulets around ; 
 Some from the trunk he cut, and made the patient sound. 
 But wisdom yields to sordid gain : 
 Hands "which the golden bribes contain 
 Are bound by them alone.'' 
 
 {Third Pyifdan Ode.) 
 
 Hygein — from whence comes hygiene, or the art of 
 preserving health — the pretended sister of ^scula- 
 pius. and also Hercules, were both worshipped by the 
 Greeks. Epilepsy was called the disease of Hercules,
 
 PRACTICE OF MEDICINE IN THE TEMPLES. 43 
 
 after the latter, as it was believed that he had been 
 aiFected with it. Several plants, as the Teucrium 
 Chamsepitjs (" Tencer," Hercules), take their names 
 from him, and there is also an entire genus called 
 Heracleum. 
 
 We need not attempt to describe the various tem- 
 ples erected to the different deities in Greece, but 
 rather refer briefly to the manner in which medicine 
 was practised in those temples. The mode there 
 adopted clearly proves that all diseases were regarded 
 as the effects of the anger of heaven ; and the gods 
 alone could consequently cure them. It was in those 
 sacred places that ^Esculapius gave the most ostensi- 
 ble marks of his power. The ceremonies and reli- 
 gious customs by means of which they endeavored to 
 obtain, as a gift from heaven, the restoration of the 
 sick, varied at different periods. They were almost 
 all, however, especially directed, in acute and simple 
 diseases, to the excitement of the imagination and to 
 the re-establishment of the health by a very strict re- 
 gimen. The entrance to the temples of ^sculapius 
 was interdicted to all those who had not previously 
 undergone purification. These preliminary processes 
 necessarily contributed to excite hope in the minds 
 of the sick, to inspire them with consoling ideas re- 
 specting the future, as well as to give them full con- 
 fidence in the important revelations about to be made 
 to them. "When permitted to appear before the idol, 
 and to present him their offerings, they found him 
 surrounded with so ,many mysterious symbols, and 
 witnessed the performance of so many imposing 
 ceremonies, that their strained imagination made
 
 44 HISTORY OF MEDICINE. 
 
 ^ them regard as infallible every oracle which ema- 
 nated from the mouth of the god. 
 
 Most of the temples too were situated in very 
 salubrious places, and had either in their interior or 
 in the environs mineral and thermal springs. It is 
 therefore easy to conceive that the purity of the 
 atmosphere and the change which the sick experi- 
 enced in their pilgrimages to consult the oracle had 
 a powerful influence on their cure. The preliminary 
 ceremonies, however, to which they were subjected, 
 and the sacrifices which were required of them, con- 
 tributed still more effectually to exalt their imagi- 
 nation and to strengthen their hope. In the first 
 instance the most rigorous abstinence was enjoined. 
 They were obliged to fast for several days before 
 they could approach the cave of Charonium. At Oro- 
 pus, in Attica, it was required of them before con- 
 sulting the oracle of Amphiaraus, to abstain from 
 wine for three days and from every kind of nourish- 
 ment for twenty-four hours. At Pergamus this absti- 
 nence from wine was equally necessary in order that 
 the ether of the soul, as Philostratus expresses it, 
 might not be sullied with that liquor. 
 
 The priests did not work less on the minds of the 
 sick by the wonders which they recited to them, as 
 they led them through all the avenues of the temple, 
 explaining to them, in considerable detail and with 
 every sort of mystical expression, the miracles which 
 the god had operated on other persons whose ofifer- 
 ings and votive inscriptions they preserved. It will 
 be readily conceived that these ceremonies made a 
 deep impression on the minds of the sick, especially
 
 MYSTICAL CEREMONIES FOR THE SICK. 45 
 
 as the priests, in relating to them so many histories of 
 extraordinary cures, had the art of dwelling particu- 
 larly on those diseases which had some relationship to 
 theirs. After these promenades in the interior of 
 the temples, sacrifices were offered to the divinity. 
 These commonly consisted of a ram, the skin of the 
 animal being reserved for another use ; but frequently 
 also a cock or hen was killed in his honor. At Gy- 
 rene a goat was offered to him, a custom which was 
 not observed at Epidaurus, and at Tithorea all kinds 
 of animals were sacrificed except goats. The sacri- 
 fice was accompanied with fervent prayers to obtain 
 the revelation. Pliny relates that no offering could 
 be made without prayers, but that, as some of the 
 principal names of the divinity might be forgotten, 
 the priest read or chanted the hymn, and the indi- 
 vidual who presented the offering repeated it in a 
 high voice. The patients were also obliged to bathe 
 before being admitted to hear the oracle, a custom 
 to which Euripides alludes : — 
 
 " The law ordain' d in reverence we must hold. 
 First I would cleanse them with ablutions pure ; 
 All man's pollutions doth the salt sea cleanse." 
 
 (.IpMgenia in Tcmris.) 
 
 The Plutus of Aristophanes was also washed by a 
 slave with sea-water before entering the sanctuary. 
 The baths were always accompanied with frictions 
 and other manipulations which produced surprising 
 effects on those whose nervous sj-stems were delicate. 
 Anointing, according to Aristides and others, was 
 also employed on coming out of the bath. The sick 
 were almost always subjected to fumigations before
 
 46 HISTORY OF MEDICINE. 
 
 receiving the answers of the oracle : they were after- 
 wards prepared by prayers, and slept in the neigh- 
 borhood of the temple on the skin of the ram which 
 they had offered up, or b}^ the side of the statue on 
 a bed, awaiting the appearance of the god of health. 
 
 It is not surprising that under such circumstances 
 they fancied they obtained the revelation of future 
 events. In their dreams, we are told, they saw 
 ^sculapius or some other divinity appear to them 
 and indicate the means which they ought to use for 
 their cure. "When the dreams transmitted by the 
 god are dissipated," says lamblicus, "we hear an 
 interrupted voice telling us what we shall do. Fre- 
 quently the voice strikes our ears when in an inter- 
 mediate * condition between sleeping and waking. 
 Some patients are enveloped in an immaterial spirit, 
 which their eyes cannot perceive, but which im- 
 pinges upon some other sense. ]^ot unfrequently a 
 mild and resplendent light spreads around, obliging 
 them to keep the eyes half shut," &c. Sometimes the 
 god of health presented himself accompanied with 
 other divinities or appeared under different forms. 
 Venus appeared in the shape of a dove to the cele- 
 brated Aspasia, and cured her of an ulcer which 
 she had on the chin. All these visions, however, it 
 is probable wxre only so many evidences of the jug- 
 glery of the priests. 
 
 The medicines recommended in the dreams were 
 generally of a kind to do neither good nor harm, 
 such as, for example, gentle purgatives prepared with 
 stewed Corinth raisins, or food easy of digestion, or
 
 HEROIC TREATMENT OF ARISTIDES. 47 
 
 fasting, baths, and mystical ceremonies. Occasion- 
 ally, however, remedies so powerful and advice so 
 absurd were recommended, that it required a person 
 to be wholly blinded by superstition to make use of 
 them. Gypsum and hemlock were prescribed to 
 Aristides, who had become dropsical from weak- 
 ness produced by the repeated emetics which ^scu- 
 lapius had ordered him. He was recommended to 
 alternate their employment with that of bloodletting, 
 and once the god prescribed that one hundred and 
 twenty pounds of blood should be abstracted. Ad- 
 vice so inconsistent with good sense might have 
 led him back to reason had he not been imbued 
 with the most ridiculous prejudices, and if an ab- 
 surd credulity had not formed the basis of his cha- 
 racter. 
 
 When the patient died, the fatal event was attri- 
 buted to his want of confidence or af obedience ; at 
 least such was the excuse offered by Apollonius in 
 the name of ^sculapius on the occasion of the 
 death of a dropsical patient, and of another indivi- 
 dual whose eye had been torn out. The interpreta- 
 tion of the dreams was the province of the priests, 
 and sometimes of the guardians of the temple. 
 These guardians dwelt in the vicinity of the edi- 
 fice. At a more recent period orators, sophists, and 
 philosophers might be met with in the avenues and 
 peristyle of the temples, with whom the sick could 
 discourse, and who assisted the priests in explaining 
 the dreams. Aristides speaks of his learned confer- 
 ences with the sophists in the peristyle of the tem- 
 ple of -^sculapius at Pergamus, and Philostratus
 
 48 HIS TO R V OF MEDICINE. 
 
 cites similar examples. Frequently there were at 
 the side of the temples gymnasia, where persons 
 lahoring under chronic diseases recovered their 
 strength by the use of gymnastics, and of baths 
 and unctions. 
 
 When the patients were cured, they returned to 
 give thanks to the god, and to carry him ofterings ; 
 they made also presents to the priests, and gave 
 some ornament for the use of the temple. In that 
 of Amphiaraus the custom was to throw pieces of 
 gold and silver into the holy wells, and occasionally 
 the sick, after their cure, had modelled in ivory, 
 gold, silver, or other metal, the part which had 
 been the seat of the affection, species of offerings 
 which were called d^a^T^^ara, and a number of which 
 were preserved in the temples. 
 
 Gruter, in a work entitled De incrementis art is 
 medicce j^er expositionem cegrotorum in vias imhlicas et 
 temjyla, published at Leipsic, in 1749, has given a 
 copy of several votive tablets discovered in the Isle 
 of the Tiber, of which the following is a transla- 
 tion: ""Within these few days a certain person 
 named Gains, who was blind, learnt from the oracle 
 that he ought to repair to the altar, offer up his 
 prayers, traverse the temple from right to left, place 
 his five fingers on the altar, raise his hand, and place 
 it over his eyes. He did so, and immediately re- 
 covered his sight in the presence and amidst the 
 acclamations of the people. These signs of the om- 
 nipotence of the god were manifested in the reign 
 of Antoninus." Again, "A blind soldier named 
 Valerius Aper, having consulted the oracle, received
 
 VOTIVE TABLETS, 49 
 
 for answer that he ought to mix the blood of a white 
 cock with honey and make an ointment to rub the 
 eye with for three days. He recovered his sight, 
 and returned thanks to the god in presence of the 
 people." Again, "Julian seemed lost without re- 
 source from a spitting of blood. The god ordered 
 him to take on the altar some pine-apple seeds, to 
 mix them with honey, and to eat this preparation 
 for three days. He was saved, and returned thanks 
 to the god in presence of the people." 
 
 There is one circumstance which not a little con- 
 tributed to confirm to the priests the exclusive 
 exercise of medicine. As soon as an important 
 remedy was discovered, the mode of preparing it 
 was written on the gates and columns of the temple 
 of ^sculapius. Those who invented surgical instru- 
 ments deposited them also in the temples of the god 
 of medicine. Thus, Erisistratus, according to Coelius 
 Aurelianus, presented one to the temple at Delphi, 
 intended for extracting teeth. At Cos the priests of 
 .^sculapius appear at a very early period to have had 
 in view the assistance of nature, and thus to cause 
 her to develop her energies. The Proenotiones Coacce^ 
 which are usually ranged amongst the writings of 
 Hippocrates, exhibit a proof of this. By some au- 
 thors, indeed, it has been asserted that the works of 
 Hippocrates were in a great measure composed from 
 the votive tablets preserved in the temple at Cos. 
 The remembrance of the benefits of ^sculapius was 
 perpetuated by the institution of feasts, which were 
 celebrated with much solemnity at Epidaurus, An- 
 cyra, Pergamus, and Cos, and at which the greater 
 4
 
 50 HIS TOR V OF MEDICINE. 
 
 part of the inhabitants of the cities of Asia Minor 
 congregated at certain periods. 
 
 The descendants of ^sculapius dwelt, some in 
 Peloponnesus, and others in the island of Cos. They 
 transmitted to their children the medical knowledge 
 which they had inherited from their ancestor, with- 
 out divulging the secret to any stranger. The family 
 of ^sculapius consequently formed, like the priests 
 of Egypt, a particular caste, professing the practice 
 of medicine and the mysterious worship of its 
 founder. One of its most ancient laws expressly 
 says, "Sacred things can only be revealed to the 
 elect, and ought not to be confided to the profane 
 until they are initiated in the mysteries of the 
 science." All these who were so initiated were 
 compelled by the Asclepiades to swear according to 
 the statutes of the order of Apollo, ^sculapius, 
 Hygeia, Panacea, and of all other gods and god- 
 desses, not to profane the mysteries, and only to 
 divulge them to the children of their masters, or to 
 those who would bind themselves by the same oath. 
 Galen asserts that medical knowledge was originally 
 hereditary, and that the parents transmitted it to the 
 children as a family prerogative ; but that afterwards 
 they relaxed and communicated it to strangers after 
 their initiation, and it consequently became less 
 exclusive property. The theurgic physicians of the 
 school of Alexandria afterwards restored this old 
 habit, in order, by the obligation of a religious 
 silence, to excite more consideration to their super- 
 stitious practices. The Asclepiades wholly neglected 
 two essential parts of the healing art, dietetics and
 
 IMPEDIMENTS TO ANATOMICAL STUDY. 51 
 
 anatomy. Plato asserts that the former was not culti- 
 vated before the time of Hekodicus, of Selybria, who 
 lived 396 years before Christ, and Hippocrates con- 
 firms the assertion. 
 
 Anatomy could not flourish in Grreece, because 
 they condemned and regarded as a crime worthy of 
 an exemplary punishment all conduct towards the 
 dead which was contrary to the popular prejudices. 
 These prejudices had their source in the opinion for 
 a long time entertained that the soul, when freed 
 from its material covering, was obliged to wander 
 on the banks of Styx until the body was consigned 
 to earth, or consumed by the flames ; hence the 
 eagerness with which sepulture was performed on 
 the dead to insure the rest of their souls, and the 
 duty imposed upon all travellers of covering with 
 earth the dead bodies which they might meet with, 
 as well as the religious respect entertained for the 
 tombs, and the severe punishments inflicted on those 
 who profaned them ; and, finally, the utility of 
 imploring the clemency of the gods in favor of those 
 who had perished in foreign countries or in fleets, and 
 to whom sepulture could not be given. Sacrifices 
 and libations were made ; the dead were loudly in- 
 voked by name, and monuments erected to them, 
 for which they had frequently as much respect as 
 for the graves themselves. At Athens a speedy 
 burial of the dead was esteemed the most sacred of 
 all duties, and the transgressor of the laws was 
 severely punished. 
 
 The attention of the Greeks to the bodies of their 
 warriors who had died in battle went so far, that
 
 5 2 HIS TORY OF MEDICINE. 
 
 six officers, who had gained a brilliant victory at 
 Arginusge over the Lacedsemonians, were sentenced 
 to death because they had not collected with suffi- 
 cient care the dead bodies which had fallen into the 
 sea. At the time even of the war of Troy, the two 
 armies, at the prayer of Priam, suspended hostilities 
 until they had burnt the dead : — 
 
 " Next, O, ye chiefs ! we ask a truce to burn 
 Our slaughter'd heroes, and their bones inurn, 
 That done, once more the fate of war be tried, 
 And whose the conquest, mighty Jove, decide." 
 
 After each battle the first duty of the conqueror 
 was to inter the dead bodies of the enemy. The fear 
 of a fate similar to that of the heroes of Arginusse 
 prevented Chabrias from prosecuting the victory 
 which he obtained at ISTaxos over the Spartans, and 
 he occupied himself in burying those warriors who 
 had fallen during the action. 
 
 There is no question but that the Greeks had 
 some notions of osteology, or the description of the 
 bones, and syndesmology, or the description of the 
 ligaments, suggested by the treatment of luxations, 
 fractures, and other diseases of the bones ; but the 
 extent of these notions will be more particularly 
 detailed in tracing the history of Hippocrates.
 
 CHAPTER TV. 
 
 MEDICINE OF THE ROMANS TO THE TIME OF CATO THE 
 CENSOR. 
 
 Their early knowledge derived from the Greeks — Establishment 
 of medicinge or shops by the freedmen — Medical practitioners 
 exempted from banishment — Archagathus, the executioner — 
 Porcius Cato, censor and physician. 
 
 Of the medicine of the Romans up to the time of 
 Cato, or prior to the 150th year before Christ, but 
 little need be said, as their manners and customs 
 connected with the healing art so nearly resembled 
 those of the Greeks, so much so, indeed, that Strabo 
 affirms, " all that they know they owe to the Greeks, 
 without having made the least additions themselves, 
 and whenever any hiatus is observable, it need not 
 be expected to be filled up by them ; even all their 
 technical expressions are of Greek origin." Their 
 mythology, both general and medical, resembled that 
 of Greece, modified according to the difi*erent char- 
 acters of the people ; and, the more their relations 
 with this nation multiplied and luxury made pro- 
 gress amongst them, the more physicians were ob- 
 served to establish themselves in the capital of the 
 world. The Greek physicians who first settled there 
 were all keepers of baths, except a small number of 
 philosophers who were anxious for the improvement
 
 5 4 HIS TOR V OF MEDICINE. 
 
 of the theory of medicine, by the introduction of 
 the dialectic or logical method. 
 
 The majority of these adventurers were slaves, 
 whom their masters, incapable at first of appreci- 
 ating the advantage of the sciences and afterwards 
 enervated by the luxury of the Greeks, frequently 
 sold or freed, after having made them considerable 
 presents, when they had received from them any 
 •eminent services. These freedmen established shops 
 which the Romans called medicince, and where they 
 sold medicines and exercised their art. Other phy- 
 sicians, however, who came to Rome under more 
 favorable circumstances, enjoyed those advantages 
 and privileges which so important an art as that of 
 medicine has a right to expect from polished nations. 
 It would even seem that the mid wives, to whom 
 Pliny attributes the prerogatives of nobility, and one 
 of whom had the title o^ latroncea^ regionis sucepriina, 
 were originally from Greece, and, when the Romans 
 expelled the Greeks from Italy, the laws which pro- 
 scribed them excepted all those who practised medi- 
 cine. 
 
 Archagathus of Peloponnesus, and son of Lysanias, 
 is the first Greek mentioned m history as having 
 gone to Rome to practise the healing art. He went 
 thither 219 years before Christ, under the consulate 
 of Lucius ^Emylius Paulus and Livius. The Senate 
 granted him the right of citizenship, and bought him 
 a shop in the suburbs. He soon, however, treated 
 diseases in so barbarous a manner that he received 
 the surname of the executioner^ and all the inhabi- 
 tants refused his assistance.
 
 CATO, CENSOR AND PRACTITIONER. 55 
 
 Several celebrated personages amongst the Romans 
 detested the Greeks on account of their avidity, the 
 latter regarding Italy as a country for their own 
 aggrandizement. Porcius Cato, the Censor, especi- 
 ally distinguished himself for the aversion which he 
 had for that nation. Scipio Africanus, on the con- 
 trary, admired and protected it. This reason deter- 
 mined Cato to inspire his son with an implacable 
 hatred of the Greek physicians. The austere censor 
 possessed, also, an old book of formulae, which he 
 religiously followed, and which contrasted in a strik- 
 ing manner with the ideas of the Greeks. 
 
 Cato himself practised medicine after his manner 
 and conformably to the precepts contained in his 
 book. Some idea may be given of the principles 
 on which all his science rested, when it is known 
 that, like Pythagoras, he regarded the cabbage as a 
 universal remedy ; that he expressly interdicted fe- 
 males from administering anything to diseased 
 cattle; that he regulated according to the ternary 
 number the medicines which ouo;ht to enter into 
 the composition of a remedy for cows ; and, finally, 
 that he pretended to cure dislocations, after the 
 manner of the Etrusci and Pythagoreans, by barba- 
 rous expressions and magical songs, such as " Motas 
 vaeta daries dardaries astatutaries /' or ^'huat,hanat 
 huat ista pista sista, domiabo damnaustra et luxato;^'' or, 
 finally, " huat^ haut haut ista sis tar sis ardanuahon 
 dunnaustra^" and such absurd and unmeaning com- 
 positions. These superstitious notions, however, are 
 not confined to the ancients, but have found advo- 
 cates even in much more recent periods, when it
 
 5 6 HIS TOR V OF MEDICINE. 
 
 would naturally be supposed that, in the march of 
 civilization, they would have long since been oblite- 
 rated.* 
 
 * They were even cherished until very recently in some dis- 
 tricts of Great Britain, and there are frequent allusions to them 
 in the popular poetry of the 17th century :— 
 
 " Tom Pots was but a serving man — 
 But yet he was a Doctor good ; 
 He bound his kerchief on the wound, 
 And with some kind words staunch'd the blood :" 
 
 And Sir Walter Scott, in his "Lay of the Last Minstrel," re- 
 marks : — 
 
 " She drew the splinter from the wound, 
 And with a charm she staunch'd the blood."
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 MEDICINE OF THE JEWS UP TO THE CAPTIVITY OF 
 BABYLON. 
 
 Egyptian origin of their medical knowledge — Medical attainments 
 of Moses and tke lawgivers — Cure of the lepra — The healing 
 art a vocation of the prophets — Medical work of Solomon — 
 Recorded cases of paralysis, affections of the intestines, leprosy, 
 etc. — First origin of monks and monk physicians. 
 
 Having already referred to the medicine of the 
 Egyptians up to the reign of King Psammetichus, 
 or prior to the 600th year before the Christian era, 
 we may now appropriately investigate the history 
 of the art amongst the Israelites to the captivity 
 of Babylon. The conformity which existed between 
 the constitution, manners and degree of civilization 
 of the Egyptians and those of the Israelites ought 
 not so much to astonish us when w^e reflect on the 
 various journey ings of Abraham and his children 
 into Egypt, and the sojourn of four hundred years' 
 duration which the descendants of Jacob made in 
 that country. It is true that the Israelites professed 
 the worship of the true G-od, and continued to a 
 certain extent faithful to the customs of their ances- 
 tors ; but it is easy to perceive that they borrowed 
 considerably from the Egyptians, even under the 
 legislation of Moses. The resemblance, indeed, be-
 
 58 HISTORY OF MEDICINE. 
 
 tween the two nations is so striking that it has in- 
 duced Strabo and others to believe that the ancient 
 Jews were descended from the Egyptians. 
 
 For four hundred and thirty years the descendants 
 of Jacob lived in Egypt under the dominion of the 
 Pharaohs, when a liberator appeared to deliver them 
 from servitude, and to conduct them to the borders 
 of the country which the Almighty had promised to 
 their ancestors. This liberator was Moses, who, 
 having been adopted by the daughter of the king 
 of Egypt, was instructed in all the arts and sciences 
 of that empire. Ancient writers pretend that the 
 priests taught him arithmetic, geometry, and me- 
 dicine, and Philo Judeeus asserts that the Greeks, 
 established in the country, instructed him in the 
 other profane sciences, but this is evidently an an- 
 achronism. 
 
 As the domination of the priests formed in Egypt 
 the basis of the constitution, Moses also established 
 amongst the Israelites a religious government. 
 "And ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and 
 an holy nation." (Exod. xix. 6.) Like also as in 
 Egypt, knowledge of every kind was hereditary in 
 the priesthood, the Levites forming also the here- 
 ditary noblesse amongst the descendants of Jacob. 
 They were at once the judges and physicians of the 
 people. A variety of passages in the Scriptures, 
 and especially in the laws of Moses, show that the 
 lawgiver had considerable knowledge of natural 
 history and medicine. I^ot only he surpassed the 
 magicians of Egypt, his instructors, but he also 
 succeeded in burning and reducing to powder the
 
 MEDICAL KNOWLEDGE OE MOSES. 59 
 
 golden image which Aaron had made for the people 
 to worship, and changed the hitter water of Ma rah 
 to sweet by casting a certain wood into it. Without 
 more exact information, however, respecting the 
 means which he employed on those occasions, it is 
 impossible to form any accurate estimate of his de- 
 gree of physical or medical knowledge. 
 
 Moses has given the least equivocal proofs of his 
 medical proficiency in that portion of his laws which 
 comprises his hygienic precepts, and in the descrip- 
 tion of those characters by which the white leprosy 
 might be discriminated, as well as of the means 
 which ought to be had recourse to for its cure. He 
 teaches how to distinguish the spots which announce 
 the speedy invasion or existence of the lepra from 
 those which ought not to inspire suspicions, and 
 treats fully in the 13th chapter of Leviticus of the 
 various symptoms of that dreaded affection. The 
 cure of the lepra, like that of all other diseases, 
 was considered as the immediate effect of the om- 
 nipotence of God, and prayer was the chief means 
 employed for its removal. An immediate revela- 
 tion to Moses declared that, if the people did not 
 observe all the laws of Moses, God would make 
 their plagues wonderful, visit them with sore sick- 
 nesses, and bring upon them all the diseases of 
 Egypt. (Deut. xxviii. 59.) When Miriam murmured 
 against the lawgiver, she was struck with leprosy, 
 from which she was not freed until Moses had 
 prayed God to cure her. The people, also, having 
 revolted, an epidemic arose which destroyed 1 -l-,700 
 men, and did not yield until Aaron the high priest
 
 6o HISTOR y OF MEDICINE. 
 
 had offered up incense. The Levites alone knew 
 how to treat the lepra. They isolated the patient, 
 purified his body by repeated ablutions, and offered 
 up expiatory sacrifices. 
 
 The exercise of medicine remained in their hands 
 even after the Israelites, having become masters of 
 the land of Canaan, abandoned their nomadic life, 
 in order to form a state which might be considered 
 as an agricultural republic. The healing art became 
 subsequently the avocation of the prophets, up to 
 the reign of Solomon, which elevated, for some 
 time, the Jewish nation to the highest point of 
 splendor. Civilization made but little progress, 
 from their avoiding every kind of connection and 
 admixture with the neighboring people, although 
 the divine laws expressly enjoined them to treat all 
 nations with friendship. E'otwithstanding their 
 proximity to the Syrians, with whom they kept 
 up commercial relations, presented a valuable op- 
 portunity for perfecting themselves in the sciences 
 and arts, they knew so little how to profit by it, 
 that Solomon was compelled to procure workmen 
 from Sidon to build the temple, because he could 
 find no person in all Judea who could work the 
 wood with so much dexterity as the inhabitants of 
 that industrious city. 
 
 In the time of Samuel, the Philistines who had 
 carried away the ark of God were struck with hae- 
 morrhoids, from which they were not freed until 
 they had offered to Jehovah figures in gold of those 
 excrescences. When King Saul was attacked with 
 melancholy, the afiection was attributed to an evil
 
 MEDICAL BOOK OF SOL OMON. 6 1 
 
 spirit, which the melodious sounds of David's harp 
 alone succeeded in expelling. 
 
 The reigns of David and Solomon considerahly 
 advanced the civilization of the Jews, but the pro- 
 gress which they caused in it was not of great dura- 
 tion, for the division of the kingdom and the inca- 
 pacity of the rulers were not long in replunging the 
 people into sloth and stupidity. The extensive 
 wisdom of Solomon does not less merit our attention 
 than his enlightened taste for commerce and the fine 
 arts which so much contributed to the welfare of his 
 people. His wisdom, we are told, excelled the wis- 
 dom of all the children of the last country and all the 
 wisdom of Egypt; "he spake three thousand pro- 
 verbs : and his songs were a thousand and ^y(6. And 
 he spake of trees, from the cedar tree that is in Leb- 
 anon, even unto the hyssop that springeth out of the 
 wall ; he spake also of beasts, and of fowl, and of 
 creeping things, and of fishes." (1 Kings iv. 32.) 
 
 It is not, consequently, surprising that tradition 
 should have attributed to him a book which in- 
 structed how to treat diseases by natural means, a 
 book which, according to Suidas, Ezechias destroyed, 
 because the use of the remedies pointed out in it 
 might injure the interests of the Levites, who cured 
 diseases by expiatory sacrifices. The qualifications 
 of this great prince are thus spoken of by Jose- 
 phus : " God," says he, "had accorded him the power 
 of appeasing his rage by prayers, and of driving im- 
 pure spirits out of the bodies of the sick by conjura- 
 tions." " This method," he adds, "is the one followed 
 in our own days." He mentions also having been
 
 62 HISTOR V OF MEDICINE. 
 
 witness of the cure of one possessed of an evil spirit, 
 performed by Eleazar in the presence of the Emperor 
 Vespasian. The prophet introduced into the nose 
 of the patient a root recommended in such cases by 
 Solomon, pronouncing at the same time the name of 
 that prince. 
 
 The Jews became so corrupt, and the Levites de- 
 generated to so great a degree, under the successors 
 of Solomon, that God was constrained to send pro- 
 phets to bring back the people to their duty and the 
 observance of the law. These missionaries were 
 more agreeable to the people than to the Levites, 
 from whose hands they took away the practice of 
 medicine. King Jeroboam having been wanting in 
 respect to one of these servants of the Lord, his hand 
 dried up, " so that he could not pull it in again to 
 him," and in order to get rid of the paralysis he was 
 compelled to supplicate the prophet to intercede for 
 him with the Almighty. Abijah, the son of Jero- 
 boam, having fallen sick, and the queen being desi- 
 rous of knowing what would be the event of the 
 disease, she went to Shiloh for the purpose of con- 
 sulting the prophet Ahijah, who predicted the a|> 
 proaching death of her son. He, however, who 
 rendered himself the most famous for his prophetic 
 cures was Elijah, who restored to life the son of a 
 widow at Zarephath, laboring under " a sickness so 
 sore that there was no breath left in him" (1 Kings 
 xvii. 17), who predicted to King Jehoram a disease 
 of the intestines in which his bowels should fall out, 
 and to Ahaziah that he should surely die. 
 
 Elisha inherited the prophetic spirit of Elijah.
 
 MIR A CULOUS CURES B V THE PR OPHE TS. 6 3 
 
 He restored to life the son of a woman of Shunem, 
 and freed I^aaman, the Syrian general, from leprosy 
 by prescribing bathing in the waters of Jordan. 
 The prophet Isaiah cured also King Hezekiah of an 
 imposthume by the application of a cataplasm of 
 figs. King Asa, in the twenty-ninth year of his 
 reign, was diseased in his feet, until, we are told, 
 his disease was exceedingly great: in his affliction, 
 however, he sought not the Lord, but the ordinary 
 physicians, — the Levites, — and died after having lan- 
 guished for two years. King Uzziah was also struck 
 with leprosy for having burnt incense in the temple 
 and for having resisted the priests when they repre- 
 sented to him the impropriety of his conduct. 
 
 Such are the principal facts which can give 
 us any idea of the state of medicine amongst the 
 Israelites prior to the captivity of Babylon. The 
 habits and modes of thinking, however, of that 
 people changed considerably after ten tribes had 
 been led by Shalmaneser, king of Assyria, into the 
 cities of the Medesand intoHalah and Haborby the 
 river of Gozan, and wdien the tribe of Judah was 
 led to Babylon by ^Nebuchadnezzar. The Jews then 
 found themselves transported into nations more pol- 
 ished than themselves and whose civilization had 
 followed a different march. Possessing no longer 
 a temple, they offered up their prayers in secret, 
 living a contemplative life, conjoined with the 
 severe abstinence of the Orientals. It is thus, ac- 
 cording to Sprengel, that the first monks sprang up 
 amongst the Israelites, and the members of that con-
 
 64 HISTOR V OF MEDICINE. 
 
 gregation were regarded as saints and physicians. 
 The first who devoted themselves to this new mode 
 of life were the Rechahites, who never drank wine, 
 built houses, sowed seed, nor cultivated the vine, 
 but dwelt in tents according to the rule established 
 by their founder Jonadab.
 
 CHAPTER VT. 
 
 MEDICINE OF THE HINDOOS. 
 
 Early state of civilization — Brahfnin physicians — Laws in regard 
 to poisons — Diseases caused by evil genii — Superstitions — Pa- 
 thology of the Hindoos — Treatment of fevers, smallpox, &c. 
 
 Although these people date at too early a period 
 the origin of civilization amongst them, and their 
 chronology extends to a most astonishing antiquity 
 — their period Caliuga being 3100 years before the 
 Christian era, at which time they pretend to have 
 calculated the equations of the moon and performed 
 other difficult astronomical investigations — it cannot 
 be denied that Alexander, when he undertook his 
 expeditions into Egypt, found the social institutions 
 at a very high degree of perfection and almost in 
 the same condition as they are at the present day. 
 Although the chronology of the Brahmins above 
 referred to is evidently absurd, it is unquestionable 
 that the inhabitants of India had made some astro- 
 nomical observations a long time before they had 
 any intercourse with Greece. 
 
 As among the Egyptians, the Hindoos were, at 
 the time of Alexander, and are still, divided into 
 several tribes or original castes, of which that of the 
 Brahmins comprised the savans and physicians. 
 From the testimony of Strabo, these Brahmins ob- 
 5
 
 66 HISTOR V OF MEDICINE. 
 
 served the greatest sobriety, passed their lives in con- 
 templation, and in solitude meditated on the causes 
 of all natural phenomena. There was also in India 
 another sect of philosophers which Clemens of Alex- 
 dria calls the Samaneans, and which are the same as 
 the Schamans of Thibet and of the coast of Malabar. 
 The Samaneans were also divided into two distinct 
 classes, the Hylopians ai^d the physicians properly 
 so called. These latter led a very simple life, but 
 did not dwell in the woods like the Hylopians. 
 Their food consisted of rice and meal. They cured 
 diseases, less by medicine than by regimen, and their 
 ordinary remedies were ointments and cataplasms, 
 for they ascribed a less certain action to means of every 
 other kind. From this caste of physicians were dis- 
 tinguished the magicians and sorcerers who wandered 
 from village to village to exercise their imaginary 
 art. 
 
 The surveillance of the sick was entrusted in the 
 towns to a particular class of magistrates, who were 
 also charged with the burials and under whose in- 
 spection the Samaneans practised physic. It appears 
 also that there existed a law for the purpose of pre- 
 venting any one who should discover a poison from 
 making it known before he had found out an anti- 
 dote to combat its effects. Should he, however, 
 succeed in doing the latter, the king loaded him 
 with honors, but if he published the formula for the 
 poison without pointing out that of the remedy, he 
 was punished with death. At the time of Megas- 
 thenes, about 300 years before Christ, the knowledge 
 of the Brahmins and the laws of the Hindoos were
 
 BRAHMIN PHYSICIANS. 67 
 
 not consigned in books, and were only transmitted 
 by tradition. All diseases were considered as the 
 effect of the influence of evil genii, and could not be 
 cured until the latter had been expelled by purifica- 
 tions and magic words. 
 
 The Brahmins of more recent days have not been 
 wholly devoid of medical knowledge, but they exer- 
 cised medicine as a vulgar profession, scarcely ever 
 endeavoring to improve it, and transmitted their 
 mode of treatment to their children such as they had 
 received it from their parents. They had not the 
 slightest knowledge of anatomy, but possessed some 
 old works on the healing art, written in verse and 
 containing collections of formulae, of which sugar 
 formed the chief ingredient, applicable to all diseases. 
 In the exercise of medicine as much superstition 
 existed amongst the Hindoos as amongst the Chinese. 
 Of this there is a striking example in the treatment 
 of the bites made by venomous serpents. Oil was 
 poured into a vessel containing the urine of the 
 person bitten, and according as it might swim or be 
 precipitated they prognosticated death or recovery. 
 Future events were also looked for in the aspect of the 
 stars, the flight of birds, and other similar futilities. 
 It has been asserted that there at one time existed 
 on the coast of Coromandel eight classes of physi- 
 cians, having each their particular department, some 
 adhering to the diseases of children and acknow- 
 ledging the wind as their patron ; others confining 
 themselves to the cure of the bites of serpents, and 
 considering the air as their protecting deity, &c. 
 The pathology of the Hindoos was extremely con-
 
 6S HISTOR V OF MEDICINE. 
 
 fused. They attributed to worms all the diseases of 
 the skin, and every other they ascribed to three prin- 
 cipal causes, wind, vertigo, and change of humors. 
 According to one of their theories, the body is com- 
 posed of 100,000 parts, in which are comprised 17,000 
 vessels, each of which has seven different canals, 
 and in which are ten species of wind. Diseases 
 arise from the irregular directions of these winds, 
 and as the external air which enters the lungs in the 
 act of respiration is the source of all the wmds, the 
 best preventive of these disorders consists in not 
 breathing too quickly. According to the memoirs 
 of the Danish missionaries, there were some Gentoos 
 who reckoned 44:48 different species of diseases. 
 
 Regimen formed the principal part of Hindoo me- 
 dicine. A considerable portion of them lived only 
 on vegetables, even in a state of health, an observa- 
 tion which Strabo and Suidas had already made. 
 They do not, at the present day, attain the very 
 advanced age of which these authors speak, and 
 which might in some measure be expected as the 
 results of their mode of life. According to Clarke, 
 however, it would seem that their sobriety preserved 
 them from several severe disorders, especially the in- 
 termittent fevers occasioned by the insalubrious air 
 of marshes. Their excessive cleanliness, the frequent 
 use of the warm bath, and particularly the custom 
 of using friction and brushing of the skin on coming 
 out of the bath, also had a powerful influence on 
 their health. 
 
 It has been aflarmed that the Brahmins were well 
 acquainted with the virtues of plants, and that they
 
 HINDOO TREATMENT OF DISEASE. 69 
 
 employed certain medicines with much advantage. 
 They made use of lime-water and the dolichos pru- 
 riens in cases of worms; formed with juice of the 
 euphorbium and maize flour, pills which they ad- 
 ministered, as well as the excrement of the cow, in a 
 considerable number of cases. They prescribed rice 
 in cholera morbus, and sand-baths in the beriberi, 
 a disease of the nervous function not uncommon 
 in those parts. They were not in general advocates 
 for the operation of bloodletting, but regarded the 
 opening of the lingual veins as an excellent remedy 
 in angina and difi;erent other affections. Caustics 
 w^ere their favorite means, and they a23plied them like 
 the Japanese in bone fever and in cholera morbus ; 
 they scarified the eyelids, and made incisions in the 
 forehead in ophthalmia, which was very frequently 
 observed amongst them, but they had no idea of 
 amputation. In acute fevers they prescribed the 
 most rigid diet, and, when the indications were press- 
 ing, bloodletting. The chief occupation, however, 
 of the physician was to explore the pulse, which 
 he never felt without attentively considering the 
 countenance of the patient, for, according to their 
 opinion, every change in the pulse drew on an altera- 
 tion in the features. In the smallpox they ordered 
 an antiphlogistic regimen, modified according to the 
 individual constitution of the patient, and, accord- 
 ing to Mackintosh, but which, to say the least of 
 it, is problematical, they knew how to remove the 
 scars left by the variolous pustules, by the aid of 
 an ointment, of which the Europeans have not yet 
 discovered the composition. They used, in the treat-
 
 70 HISTORY OF MEDICINE. 
 
 ment of venereal diseases, some particular and in- 
 digenous medicines, principally pills of eupliorbium, 
 which enjoyed with them a great reputation. They 
 had an aversion to glysters, and possessed, accord- 
 ing to one authority, an arcanum which, against 
 the bites of serpents, acted like the most energetic 
 opiates, and almost always cured those who might 
 have been bitten. 
 
 Such is a summary of what we know regarding 
 the medicine of the Hindoos; but under the influ- 
 ence of greater civilization many of these views 
 may have become modified, and other remedies and 
 modes of treatment adopted by them. It is impos- 
 sible, in the accounts we have given of the medical 
 relations of the Brahmins, to make any chronologi- 
 cal arrangement. It is j)robable that many of the 
 agents referred to are of purely modern employment 
 among them, and we have no reliable data to inform 
 us how many of the ancient remedies have been dis- 
 carded.
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 MEDICINE OF THE CHINESE AND JAPANESE. 
 
 Causes of their imperfect civilization — Ancient code of the Chi- 
 nese physicians — Medical schools — Chinese knowledge of ana- 
 tomy, physiology, &c. — Exploration of the pulse — Physicians 
 of the court of Pekin — Medical knowledge and practice of the 
 Japanese — The moxa, its preparation and uses. 
 
 A VARIETY of insurmountable obstacles have op- 
 posed themselves to the Chinese ever attaining the 
 same degree of civilization that the European 
 arrives at with so much comparative facility. 
 The first is situated in his organization, whether 
 natural or acquired by education; the second in the 
 frightful despotism which hangs over his head ; the 
 third, in the foolish vanity which has induced him 
 to believe that China is the country of wisdom and 
 the sciences. Du Halde, although a panegyrist in 
 other respects of the handicraft of the Chinese, has 
 accused them, with reason, of pushing superstition to 
 blindness, and of being in absolute ignorance of 
 every branch of natural history. According, also, 
 to Chirardini and Sir Geo. Staunton, they possess 
 neither an inventive spirit, taste for the fine arts, 
 nor genius in works of. the mind. 
 
 Isolated from every other nation, the Chinese were, 
 comparatively speaking, known only in modern times
 
 7 2 HISTOR V OF MEDICINE. 
 
 to Europeans. The first remarks which we possess of 
 them were commmiicatecl in the 13th century ; but it 
 is highly probable that they had previously had com- 
 munications with the advanced nations of Europe, 
 and that they had acquired from them some of their 
 knowledge. It is known that Bactriana and Sogdi- 
 ana were conquered by the Scythians, 126 years before 
 the Christian era. The sciences and arts have flour- 
 ished in those countries since the time of Alexander, 
 and the Chinese themselves relate, in their ancient 
 cjironicles, that towards this period several savans, 
 especially astronomers, went from those countries to 
 reside amongst them. It is consequently not unrea- 
 sonable to presume that the astronomical knowledge 
 of the Chinese may be dated at that period, and 
 that it was introduced through that channel. It is 
 said by Le Comte, in his Memoires sur VEtat present 
 de la Chine, that Hoang-ti composed, four thou- 
 sand years ago, the code by which the Chinese phy- 
 sicians have been until recently and may at the 
 present day be guided. According to the testimony, 
 however, of the best informed mandarins, this code 
 was not substituted for the ancient, until after the 
 burning of a considerable library in China, which 
 occurred 230 years before the Christian era. 
 
 There were formerly in China imperial schools, 
 in which medicine and astrology were at the same 
 time taught, the latter forming a favorite branch 
 with the Chinese. The physicians were but little 
 esteemed and very badly paid, and those of the 
 court, according to Du Halde, were commonly de- 
 prived of their virility. Every one, however, was
 
 CHINESE NOTIONS OF ANATOMY, ETC. 73 
 
 permitted to exercise medicine according to his own 
 fashion, and to prepare his medicines in the manner 
 which he considered the most suitable. The physi- 
 cians who enjoyed the highest consideration were 
 those who had learned the healing art from their 
 fathers and who transmitted it to their children. 
 Even at the present day it is probable that there 
 does not exist in China a school in which the art 
 can be studied, so that it may be considered as 
 in a state of comparative infancy. 
 
 The notions which the Chinese possess regarding 
 the structure of the body mainly rest on old tradi- 
 tions, which probably originated from the G-reek 
 physicians of Bactriana ; superstition preventing 
 them from dissecting. It is on this account that 
 their anatomical information has been so very in- 
 correct and confused as to scarcely deserve mention. 
 A single glance at the plates given by Cleyer, in his 
 Specimen Ifedicince Sinicce, will at once show their 
 slight knowledge of the human organization. 
 
 Their physiology is not less contemptible. They 
 admit two constituent elements of the body, heat 
 and moisture. These elements residing in the blood 
 and in the vital spirits, their union produced life, 
 and their separation occasioned death. The six chief 
 parts in which the radical moisture is seated are, — on 
 the left side, the heart, the liver, and the left kidney; 
 on the right, the lungs, the spleen, and the right kid- 
 ney. To these they give the name of the gates of 
 life. The viscera in which the vital heat resides 
 are, — on the left side, the small intestines, the gall- 
 bladder, and the ureters ; on the right side, the large
 
 74 HI ST OR Y OF MEDICINE. 
 
 intestines, the stomach, and the genital organs. 
 There exists, moreover, according to them, a certain 
 concordance between these viscera, tlie small intes- 
 tines being in harmony with the heart, the gall- 
 bladder with the liver, the ureters with the kidneys, 
 the large intestines with the lungs, the stomach 
 with the spleen, and the organs of generation with 
 the right kidney. The vital heat and radical mois- 
 ture pass at certain periods from the limbs into the 
 viscera, and vice versa. The body they consider to 
 heal in connection with certain external matters 
 which exert a constant agency upon it. Thus we 
 are told that in summer heat acts upon the heart and 
 large intestines ; that the viscera are in harmony with 
 the south ; the liver and gall-bladder with the atmos- 
 phere, and both one and the other with the east as 
 well as with spring; that the metals exert an in- 
 fluence over the lungs and large intestines, and are 
 in harmony with the west and with autumn; and a 
 variety of sundry absurdities. 
 
 To the Chinese the credit has generally been given 
 of understanding the circulation of the blood, but 
 if we believe Cleyer nothing can well be more ab- 
 surd than their ideas on this subject. According 
 to that author, the Chinese physicians make the 
 circulation of the vital heat and radical moisture to 
 begin at three o'clock in the morning. It com- 
 mences in the lungs, and terminates at the expira- 
 tion of twenty-four hours in the liver. They have 
 even calculated the rapidity of the circulation, and 
 pretend that in twenty-four hours the number of 
 pulsations amounts to from 54,000 to 67,000, whilst
 
 CHINESE EXPLORATION OF THE PULSE. 75 
 
 the number of respirations in the same period is 
 generally about 35,500 ; a calculation, however, evi- 
 dently most absurd, the pulsations being estimated 
 no higher than twice the number of respirations. 
 
 The exploring of the pulse is the most important 
 part of Chinese medicine. They compare the human 
 body to a musical instrument, and conceive that such 
 an accordance exists between its different parts and 
 the viscera, that we may be able to know whatever 
 is going on in it by inspecting the eyes and tongue, 
 and especially by feeling the pulse. They flatter 
 themselves that they can discover by the aid of the 
 last, viz., the jDulse, not only the seat but also the 
 causes of diseases. Most of the examples, however, 
 which the credulous missionaries have related as 
 proofs of their extraordinary dexterity in that re- 
 spect are only so many proofs of the charlatanry and 
 deceit of their physicians. The mode in which 
 they explore the pulse is as mystical as it is ridicu- 
 lous; they apply the four fingers upon the artery, 
 raising and depressing them over the vessel as if 
 they were playing upon the piano-forte. 
 
 In diseases of the heart, they feel the pulse of the 
 left arm ; a little higher, but on the same side, in affec- 
 tions of the liver ; in the right arm, in those of the 
 stomach ; at the wrist in those of the lungs, and 
 above the joint of the hand in those of the kidneys. 
 According to an old codex quoted by Cleyer, the 
 Chinese distinguish three different places at the 
 wrist where the pulse may be felt : the nearest to 
 the hand on the left side they consider as the pulse 
 for affections of the heart and pericardium, and on
 
 76 HISTORY OF MEDICINE. 
 
 the right side for diseases of the lungs ; the highest 
 place of those indicated, on the left side, diseases of 
 the left kidney and small intestines ; on the right 
 side, those of the right kidney and large intestines ; 
 the middle between the two, on the right side, is 
 considered the pulse of the liver and diaphragm ; on 
 the left side, that of the stomach and spleen. They 
 pretend also that they can determine the variation 
 which the pulse undergoes during the phases of the 
 moon and at the changes of the seasons. 
 
 The other principles of Chinese medicine are 
 equally devoid of rationality with their theory of 
 the pulse. The physicians of the court of Pekin 
 attributed the greater j)art of diseases to spirits or 
 winds, and dysentery to the want of heat in the 
 fluids. The chimerical idea of a panacea capable of 
 causing everlasting life existed in China as in other 
 countries. The ancient Scythians had labored hard 
 to discover the important secret, but the Chinese 
 fancied that they possessed it in the root of ginseng, 
 if properly administered. The sect Tao-tse pretended 
 that they knew the composition of a similar means 
 adapted for indefinitely prolonging life. Staunton 
 presumes that there entered into this preparation 
 opium and other similar substances capable of for 
 some time exalting the imagination. The Chinese 
 made use of the China root in the majority of dis- 
 eases ; and they even now sell in all the markets, 
 under the name of cordials, an incredible quantity 
 of medicines, which the common people employ in- 
 discriminately. Du Halde has given an extract from 
 an old Chinese book on botany, in which the virtues
 
 MEDICINE OF THE JAPANESE. 77 
 
 of various simple and compound medicines are ex- 
 posed with much superstition. If we may credit the 
 recital of some missionaries, the Chinese were at one 
 time neither subject to the stone nor the gout, ex- 
 ceptions which are attributed to the use of tea. They 
 frequently employed the bile of the elephant, white 
 vegetable wax, ivory, and musk. They rarely used 
 bloodletting, but -were great friends to baths, dry 
 cupping, and cauterization, which they principally 
 used for expelling wind, the cause, according to 
 them, of the major part of disorders. 
 
 The Japanese have borrowed of the Chinese the 
 majority of their principles, and the practice of the 
 art has been with them enveloped in the same 
 prejudices. They were afraid of bloodletting, and 
 had not the least notion of anatomy. All their 
 science consisted in the exploring of the jjulse. They 
 employed the actual cautery in all diseases, but 
 especially in the gout. The most common form of 
 the cautery was the moxa, which w^as afterwards, 
 although under a modified construction, introduced 
 into Europe."^ The Chinese moxas were formed from 
 the dried leaves of the Artemisia vulgaris latifolia^ or 
 Artemisia Chinensis, a species of mugwort. The 
 Japanese considered that it was proper to gather the 
 artemisia for this purpose only on those days which 
 had been selected by their astrologers, and which 
 
 * A description of tlie mode in which it may be extemporane- 
 ously formed for practical purposes, and the cases in which the 
 physician may advantageously avail himself of its administration, 
 may be found in the author's translation of Baron Larrey's 
 Memoir on the Use of the Moxa, London, 1832.
 
 78 HI ST OR y OF MEDICINE. 
 
 were thought to possess the advantage of a particu- 
 larly benign influence of the heavens and stars, by 
 which the virtues of the plant were considered to be 
 greatly increased. These were the first five days of 
 the fifth Ja]3anese month, called by the natives G-on- 
 guatzgoritz^ which, according to the Gregorian cal- 
 endar, answers to the beginning of June, and some- 
 times, but seldom, to the latter end of May, the 
 Japanese commencing their year with the new moon 
 next to the spring equinox. The artemisia received 
 the name of moxa when dried. Its preparation, 
 which it is not necessary here to describe, was 
 formerly kept a great secret by the Chinese. 
 
 According to Kaempfer, the Chinese and Japanese 
 burned with the moxa indiflerently and without re- 
 gard, old and young, rich and poor, male and female ; 
 women big with child were alone spared, if they 
 had not been burnt before. The intent of burning 
 with the moxa was either to prevent or to cure dis- 
 eases, but it was more particularly recommended 
 by their physicians as a preventive medicine, for 
 which reason they prescribed it to the healthy more 
 frequently than to the sick. This practice they 
 grounded upon the principle that by the very same 
 virtue by which it dispelled and cured present 
 distempers, it must of necessity destroy the seeds of 
 those to come, and by that means prevent them. 
 It was at one time the custom for all persons who 
 had any regard for their health to cause themselves 
 to be burnt once every six months, and this custom 
 was so thoroughly and so religiously observed in 
 Japan, that even those unhappy persons who were
 
 THE MOXA. 79 
 
 condemned to perpetual imprisonment were not de- 
 prived of this benefit, but were taken out of their 
 dungeons once in six months in order to be burnt 
 with the moxa. The neighboring black nations 
 made more use of this agent than the Chinese and 
 Japanese themselves, in epilepsy and all chronic 
 cephalic disorders, their plan being to burn a con- 
 siderable quantity of it on the crown of the head, 
 which, it is said, was sometimes attended with 
 so much success, that some patients are said to have 
 recovered who had been previously given over by 
 their physicians. 
 
 In all the northern provinces of China the prin- 
 cipal remedy for most diseases consisted in making 
 deep punctures in the body, after which small balls 
 of the down of the artemisia were burnt, these 
 punctures being made with needles of gold, silver, 
 or steel, without drawing blood; and all the skill 
 required in the physician was to determine their 
 number and depth, and where it was necessary to 
 make them. It was formerly considered that every 
 kind of fire was not proper for lighting these salu- 
 tary balls, and, therefore, mirrors of ice or metal were 
 employed for that purpose, which caused the water, 
 according to the Abbe Grosier, to freeze in a round 
 convex vessel, and the ice, being presented to the 
 sun, collected its rays and set fire to the down of the 
 plant. Ten Rhyne observes that acupuncturation 
 became a peculiar art in Japan, and that the. houses 
 of the practitioners were known by the wooden image 
 of a man in the vestibule, on which the places for
 
 8o HISTORY OF MEDICINE. 
 
 acupuncturation and the application of the moxa 
 were delineated. 
 
 The last absurdities respecting those people which 
 may be mentioned are the belief that the color of 
 red was very advantageous in the smallpox, for which 
 purpose they lined the chambers of those laboring 
 under it with cloth of that color; and the plan pur- 
 sued by some of their magicians, who are said to have 
 cured the majority of their diseases by placing before 
 their idols the description in writing of particular 
 characters of the affection under which the patient 
 labored, making the paper afterwards into pills and 
 causing the patient to swallow them. Some of these 
 absurdities, from all we can learn, still influence, 
 with slight modification, the practitioners of the 
 modern em23ire. 
 
 As previously remarked in regard to the Hindoos, 
 it is imj)0ssible to speak definitely of the more 
 recent progress of medicine in China and Japan, 
 especially as so large a portion of the interior of 
 each vast country is still in a state of only semi- 
 civilization or partial barbarism. In a brief sketch 
 of Oriental pathology and practice, much that is 
 modern is necessarily mingled with a large amount 
 of ancient traditionary information, which it would 
 be a useless task to classify chronologically. ,
 
 CHAPTER YIII. 
 
 MEDICINE OF THE SCYTHIANS. 
 
 Progress of their civilization — Wonderful cures — Abaris, the Hy- 
 perborean — Anacharsis — Toxaris. 
 
 The southern part of Russia from the Black Sea 
 to Mount Oural has been inhabited, from time im- 
 memorial, by the Scythians. This nation descended, 
 like almost all others, from Caucasus, and, always 
 more and more compressed by those which sur- 
 rounded it, were at last obliged to abandon their 
 territory to the Huns or Oriental Mongols, at the 
 period wdien Europe and Asia were inundated by 
 hordes of barbarians from the icy regions of the 
 north. 
 
 The Greeks were acquainted with this nomadic 
 nation a short time after the Trojan war, for the 
 excellent productions of the country which they in- 
 habited excited the cupidity of the merchants of 
 Miletus and several other Greek cities of Asia Minor, 
 who established at the mouth of the Danube, of the 
 Tyras, the Borysthenes, and on the banks of the 
 Palus Maeotides numerous colonies, by means of 
 which they entered into a more intimate connection 
 with the Scythians, to whom they gradually com- 
 municated a certain degree of civilization. 
 
 Many singular and incredible traditions reigned 
 6
 
 HISTOR V OF MEDICINE. 
 
 in Greece on the mode of life, manners, and know- 
 ledge of this people. So many surprising facts are 
 related of Abaris, Zamolxis, and of different other 
 Scythians who had travelled in G-reece or received 
 some tincture of civilization in the Asiatic colonies, 
 that, if we believe the tales, it would seem that the 
 inhabitants of Scythia had discovered the means 
 of attaining knowledge beyond the ordinal y capa- 
 bility of man. It is true, however, that the Chal- 
 deans, Egyptians, and other nations have not been 
 less held up to admiration. 
 
 The history of Abaris, the Hyperborean, is a tis- 
 sue of so many fables, that we are tempted to believe 
 him an absolutely imaginary personage. He under- 
 took, in the quality of priest, a journey to Delphi, 
 cured several patients by magical means or by charms, 
 as was the habit of all the priests of that period, and 
 as we are assured put a stop to an epidemic. Ac- 
 cording to some authors, he built the temple of Kdpi? 
 ffwttipa at Lacedsemon, pronounced several oracles, 
 and arrested by charms the plague which desolated 
 that city. 
 
 Another Scythian not less famous, Anacharsis, 
 travelled into Greece at the time of Solon, and, on 
 his return from his travels, instructed his country- 
 men in the regimen which they ought to observe in 
 acute diseases, as well as the means best adapted for 
 appeasing the wrath of the gods. He rendered him- 
 self celebrated for his great wisdom and the purity of 
 his manners. 
 
 A third, named Toxaris, accompanied Anacharsis 
 in his travels to Athens. He acquired great reputa-
 
 SCYTHIAN MEDICAL CELEBRITIES. 83 
 
 tion ill that city, from his becoming one of the 
 Asclepiades, and practising medicine with the great- 
 est success. After his death he is said to have 
 arrested a plague by appearing to the wife of one 
 of the members of the Areopagus, and the Athe- 
 nians, in gratitude, erected him an altar on which 
 was sacrificed every year a white horse.
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 MEDICINE OF THE CELTS. 
 
 The Gauls and the Belgse — The Druids, the Eubages. and the 
 Bards — Medical sorceresses — Druidical remedies. 
 
 Under the name of Celts we include especially the 
 Gauls and the Belgse. The former lived at first in 
 France between the Seine and Garonne, but subse- 
 quently crossed into England and were replaced by 
 the Belg88, who had previously resided between the 
 Loire and the Ehine, Although the latter were a 
 little more enlightened than the others, there is 
 every reason for believing that the knowledge of 
 their priests was very limited. 
 
 The learned amongst the Celts were called Druids. 
 They were at the same time judges, legislators, 
 priests, physicians, and divines. The isle of An- 
 glesey in England was, according to Rowland, at 
 first the place of their congregating, and they would 
 seem to have been more highly estimated by the 
 inhabitants of Great Britain than amongst the 
 Gauls ; several Druidical remains being still observa- 
 ble in that country. Subsequently they became 
 divided into three classes, the Druidi or Druids pro- 
 perly so-called, who were the legislators ; the Eubages, 
 who studied nature ; and the Bardi or Bards, who 
 confined themselves to poetry and history. Clemens 
 of Alexandria compares them, with considerable 
 justice, to the Schamans of Thibet, of whom we have
 
 THE DRUIDS AND THEIR REMEDIES. 85 
 
 already spoken. In fact these Druids were so many 
 impostors who had succeeded in rendering themselves 
 free from all authority by persuading the people that 
 they kept up a correspondence with the gods. Their 
 wives, Avho were called Alraunes, exercised also the 
 calling of sorceresses, causing considerable evil by 
 their witchcraft, but taking charge of those warriors 
 who might have been wounded. They gathered 
 those plants to which they attributed magical vir- 
 tues, and unravelled dreams. Women in childbed 
 especially implored their assistance. 
 
 The Druids revealed only their principles and 
 methods to tliose who were initiated in their mys- 
 teries, and communicated their instructions in the 
 woods and unfrequented places. As they celebrated 
 their religious ceremonies under the oak, they at- 
 tributed to the mistletoe, a plant sacred amongst 
 them, the virtue of curing all diseases. They col- 
 lected it in great pomp on the first day of each year, 
 and immolated white bulls immediately after having 
 found it. They regarded also the selago, a plant re- 
 sembling savin, and the vervain as sacred plants, 
 capable of curing all sorts of diseases and wounds. 
 This latter was always gathered at the rising of the 
 star Sirius, and the time of collection was preceded 
 by mystical ceremonies. 
 
 From this brief account of the Druids it appears 
 how erroneous it is to ascribe to them, as has been 
 done by some writers, considerable knowledge. All 
 the barbarous nations resembled them ; their priests 
 being only so many impostors, who arrogated to 
 themselves the exclusive possession of medicine and 
 other sciences.
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 FIRST TRACES OP A MEDICAL THEORY IN THE PHILOSOPHIC 
 SCHOOLS OF GREECE. 
 
 Medicine emerging from the age of superstition — Pythagoras and 
 his school — His services to the cause of medicine — Dietetic and 
 other regulations of himself and followers — Psychological and 
 physiological theories — Medical practice of his time — Alcmaeon, 
 the first comparative anatomist — Most ancient treatise on phy- 
 siology — Empedocles of Agrigentum — His valuable services ia 
 time of an epidemic — His views on anatomy and physiology — 
 Successors of Pythagoras — Anaxagoras and his views — Demo- 
 critus of Abdera — Democedes of Crotona — Gymnastic physi- 
 cians — Political condition of the physicians of Greece — Military 
 surgeons — Charlatans. 
 
 The fragments which we possess of the works 
 written by the ancients, and the wreck of the monu- 
 ments of antiquity which has escaped from the de- 
 structive jaws of time, exhibit but a feeble glimmer- 
 ing amidst the profound darkness which enveloped 
 the ancient world, and demonstrate that the condition 
 of the science charged with watching over the pre- 
 servation of health was nearly the same amongst all 
 the first people of the earth. Closely connected with 
 the adoration of the gods, it was itself everywhere 
 a species of secret and mysterious worship. Left 
 exclusively to the priests, it was with the Egyptians 
 as with the Greeks, with the Eomans as with the 
 Hindoos, a tissue of absurd juggleries, a system of
 
 SERVICES OF PYTHAGORAS TO MEDICINE. 87 
 
 more or less refined imposture, by aid of which the 
 ministers of religion amused themselves with the 
 credulity of the profane. 
 
 The Greeks were the only nation in whose temples 
 the dignity of medicine was not entirely overlooked, 
 and although the priests might equally seek to de- 
 ceive the people by oracles, they were compelled to 
 improve the science by attentively observing the 
 operations of nature, and by profiting with discern- 
 ment from the votive tablets of the sick. ^N'o per- 
 son, however, had given any satisfactory explanation 
 of these natural effects, because the ancient Egyp- 
 tians, Israelites, Greeks, and Eomans, adoring, with 
 perfect confidence, the gods whose worship their 
 fathers had introduced, and attributing all natural 
 phenomena to the absolute and immediate pleasure 
 of these divinities, regarded every ulterior research 
 as useless and superfluous. 
 
 Two great reasons induce us to assign to Pytha- 
 goras (580-489 B.C.) and his school a distinguished 
 place in the history of medicine. First, he rendered 
 important services to physiology by directing the 
 attention of his disciples to the explanation of the 
 functions and phenomena which are observable in 
 man when in a state of health; and secondly, he 
 acted with considerable wisdom in rendering medi- 
 cine serviceable to the progress of legislation and 
 the art of governing, it having, as has been already 
 seen, formed prior to his time a part of the divine 
 worship. Writers worthy of credit speak of {he 
 long journeys which Pythagoras made into foreign 
 countries, especially into Asia Minor, Phoenicia, and
 
 88 HISTORY OF MEDICINE. 
 
 Egypt. It is a matter of inquiry whether he ob- 
 tained his philosophical doctrine from the inhabi- 
 tants of the last country, and whether he learned from 
 the priests metempsychosis and the several other 
 dogmas which he subsequently professed. It seems, 
 however, probable that he borrowed from them the 
 use of several medicines, and the severe rules for the 
 preservation of health which he established among 
 his disciples ; and his symbolical language also, ac- 
 cording to Porphyrins, was absolutely the same as 
 the sacred dialect of Egypt. 
 
 The mildness of the climate, fertility of the soil, 
 and vigor and robust health of the inhabitants of 
 Crotona in Grrsecia Major, determined him, when he 
 had ended his voyages, to try in that small state 
 whether his schemes were capable of being put into 
 execution, as the goverment of that Grecian colony 
 seemed to be the most susceptible of reform. The 
 mode in which he was received there fully answered 
 his expectations. His venerable figure, engaging 
 manners, and irresistible eloquence gained all hearts, 
 and he appeared to the Crotonians a messenger 
 from the gods. Instead of undeceiving them in 
 their belief, he endeavored to keep up that idea, and, 
 in order to give more weight to his institutions, he 
 made them pass for inspirations from heaven. He 
 himself indeed, according to Diodorus, was so fi.lled 
 with the grandeur and importance of his objects, 
 that he probably believed that he really acted through 
 the influence of the divinity. 
 
 This society was composed of a certain number of 
 persons assembled together for receiving instruction 
 in every department of knowledge with which he
 
 THE DISCI PL ES OF P YTHA CORAS. ^ 
 
 was acquainted, and in concurring with liini in the 
 execution of his vast projects. His disciples lived 
 in the most perfect union, all their works tending 
 towards that consummation. Every hour was ap- 
 propriated, and each duty accurately determined. 
 The whole of their lives was devoted to preserving 
 the forces of the body and soul in a continual state 
 of harmony, and to the shunning of the least infrac- 
 tion of the rules of the order, and the least error in 
 the moral and physical regimen which their master 
 had prescribed for them. To arrive more certainly 
 at that end, they lived in a habitation common to 
 all, dressed in a uniform manner, and with the 
 linen of Egypt, observed the greatest cleanliness 
 and frequently cut the hair, shaved and used baths, 
 in order to maintain the body as pure as the soul. 
 They accustomed themselves to certain exercises, 
 such as promenading, wrestling, running, and dan- 
 cing. Sobriety was one of their principal obligations. 
 1^0 example of strictness similar to that of Pytha- 
 o^oras had ever been witnessed in Greece, as res^arded 
 the choice and quantity of food. Several articles 
 were forbidden, not alone because he believed them 
 to be dangerous, but because the voluptuous inha- 
 bitants of Grsecia Magna abused them, or because 
 they were proscribed in the sacrecl mysteries of the 
 Egyptians, his masters. 
 
 Aliments drawn from the animal kingdom were 
 not all interdicted to his disciples. Those only of 
 which they could not make use were fish and certain 
 parts of other animals, which probably the Egyp- 
 tians excluded also. It has been generally, and for 
 a long period, considered that the Pythagoreans did
 
 90 HIS TOR V OF MEDICINE. 
 
 not eat beans, and several different explanations have 
 been given of their reasons for abstaining from them ; 
 some asserting that this was introduced because 
 beans engender wind, which oppresses the mind and 
 disturbs its functions, others believing that the 
 cause of the proscription was the resemblance of a 
 bean to one of the organs of generation, and pre- 
 tending that it was a symbol of the laws which 
 interdicted all kinds of debauchery; and others, 
 aofain, considerino; that the custom owed its oris^in 
 to some affinity which they conceived beans to bear 
 to the human body, or to the ojDinion that the souls 
 of the dead transmigrated into that legumen. 
 
 A modern Pythagorean, however, Aristoxenus, 
 affirms that the Samian philosopher particularly 
 recommended beans and ate them frequently himself, 
 because he regarded them as an article of food . easy 
 of digestion. It has consequently been considered 
 that the expression " abstain thou from beans" was 
 of a political meaning. The election of magis- 
 trates took place by a sort of scrutiny, for which 
 beans were employed ; a custom which existed not a 
 very long time ago in Holland.^ Diogenes Laertius 
 
 * Horace alludes to the mode of conducting elections amongst 
 the Romans, as well as to the proscription by Pythagoras of the 
 use of beans ; of the latter he remarks : — 
 
 " 0, quando faba Pythagoras cognata simulque 
 Uncta satis pingui ponentur oluscula lardo?" 
 
 (Sat. Lib. 2, 6, 63.) 
 
 "Oh when shall I enrich my veins, 
 Spite of Pythagoras, with beans ? 
 Or live luxurious in my cottage 
 On bacon, ham, and savory pottage?" 
 
 [Francis.)
 
 DIETETICS OF THE PYTHAGOREANS. 9 1 
 
 and Porphyrius consequently conceive that, by the 
 expression just quoted, Pythagoras wished to warn 
 his disciples not to search after honors, in order that 
 they might be more attached to his order. 
 
 He accustomed them so much to self-denial, that 
 when they were tormented w^ith hunger, he placed 
 before them the most delicate dishes, and immedi- 
 ately removed them, without their being permitted 
 to touch a morsel. His precepts regarding sobriety 
 and moderation in the pleasures of love agreed 
 perfectly with his age and the nation in which he 
 lived. He forbade them, especially, to addict them- 
 selves at too early an age to venereal excesses, and, 
 in order to remove from the young men every 
 voluptuous idea, he wished them to be constantly 
 occupied either with works of the mind or gym- 
 nastic exercises. The Pythagoreans were warned 
 against giving way to any passion, even of the most 
 innocent nature, such as effusions of joy, for fear of 
 disturbing the harmony between body and soul. 
 
 To this unalterable moral tranquillity they joined 
 exercises of piety, founded on pretended intimate 
 relations with the gods. They not only chanted 
 hymns, prayed, and offered up sacrifices, but also 
 predicted the future by dreams or the flight of birds, 
 and attempted to conjure up the shades of their 
 friends. The latter qualities procured them a de- 
 gree of consideration equal and even superior to 
 that of the priests, who were almost all beneath 
 them both in piety and knowledge. 
 
 With the psychological ideas of Pythagoras we 
 have not much to do, and his physiological theories
 
 92 HIS TOR V OF MEDICINE. 
 
 were sufficiently absurd. He pretended that the 
 principle of life resides in heat, and that that of 
 locomotion is of an ethereal nature, or, according 
 to the expression of Aristotle, of an aerial character ; 
 he defined health to be a continuation of the primi- 
 tive constitution, and disease to be a derangement 
 of such organization. Pythagoras also practised 
 medicine, but we may, from the ruling spirit of the 
 age, readily form an idea of the way in which he 
 exercised it. Up to that period, the healing art 
 had been closely connected with the divinatory. 
 The priests alone had cultivated it in the temples 
 of ^sculapius, and the multitude regarded all the 
 cures performed by them as the immediate effects 
 of the divine power, or as miracles. Pythagoras 
 himself had acquired his knowledge in Egypt, 
 where magic, the divinatory art, the interpretation 
 of dreams, and medicine formed one and the same 
 science. These circumstances account for the strange 
 way in which the Pythagoreans practised medicine. 
 Pythagoras attributed magical virtues to plants, 
 and employed them in the treatment of diseases. 
 Pliny asserts that he believed the vinegar of squills 
 capable of lengthening the term of existence. He 
 considered the cabbage to be possessed of many 
 virtues, recommended aniseed wine against the bite 
 of the scorpion, and fancied that aniseed, held in 
 the hand, possessed considerable efficacy in epilepsy. 
 Mustard he esteemed a most penetrating remedy, 
 principally affecting the head, and very appropriate 
 for the bites of serpents and scorpions. The Pytha- 
 goreans made more frequent use of external than
 
 THE FIRST COMPARATIVE ANATOMIST. 93 
 
 of internal remedies, and especially of fomentations 
 and ointments, but they had never recourse to the 
 great operations of surgery, or even to incisions and 
 cauterization. History, however, informs us that 
 they were much distinguished for their skill in the 
 treatment of internal diseases. In fact, the Croton- 
 ians passed for the most experienced physicians of 
 all Greece. 
 
 One of them, who, according to Diogenes, had 
 been a disciple of Pythagoras, acquired a very 
 brilliant reputation. This was Alcm^on, the son 
 of Pirithus. Chalcidius assures us that he was a 
 naturalist, and that he first occupied himself with 
 anatomy, and composed several writings on the 
 structure of the eye ; but that commentator lived 
 at too late a date for his evidence to be regarded as 
 convincing. Several reasons, which have been already 
 mentioned, oppose the belief that they could, at that 
 time, easily dissect human bodies, and a Pythagorean 
 would have greater scruples than any other indi- 
 vidual. There is some reason, however, for believing 
 that AlcniBson was the first anatomist, as far as re- 
 garded the dissection of animals, although that was 
 also contrary to the principles of Pythagoras. The 
 opinion of his having been the first comparative 
 anatomist, or one of the first, is strengthened by 
 the circumstance of Aristotle refuting Alcmseon, 
 who had asserted that goats breathe through the 
 ears, and it has since been imagined, although with 
 very insufficient evidence, that he must have known 
 of the existence of the Eustachian tube, which ex- 
 tends from the middle ear to the pharynx.
 
 94 HIST OR V OF MEDICINE. 
 
 The animal functions and those of generation 
 appear to have awakened in a particular manner 
 the attention of the Pythagoreans. Diogenes and 
 Clemens Alexandrinus assert that Alcmseon wrote a 
 work on the functions, which would consequently be 
 the most ancient treatise on physiology known. 
 Like his master Pythagoras, he placed the seat of 
 the reasonable soul in the brain, and regarded the 
 human semen as an emanation from that organ. 
 He pretended that the head of the foetus was first 
 developed, because it is the seat of the reasonable 
 soul, and that the foetus received its nourishment 
 not by the moutK or umbilical cord, but from the 
 whole surface of the body, absorbing the nutritive 
 juices like a sponge. He explained in the same 
 manner the nutrition of the chick in ovo, regarding 
 the white as the milk which nourishes the yolk and 
 the embryo to which it gives birth. 
 
 Empedocles of Agrigentum (504-443 B.C.) lived at 
 a later period than Alcmseon, and was one of the most 
 celebrated philosophers of the Pythagorean school, 
 wandering, however, very considerably from the sys- 
 tem of his master. He was, like the majority of the 
 sages of antiquity, at once poet, legislator, physician, 
 and divine. He rendered a great service to his 
 native city, whose inhabitants had given themselves 
 up to all sorts of debauchery, by correcting the public 
 manners, changing the form of government, and 
 defending the cause of liberty, after the example of 
 the philosopher of Samos. His imposing appearance 
 and miraculous cures caused him to be considered 
 as the confidant of the gods, and as a prophet whose
 
 EMPEDOCLES OF AGRIGENTUM. 95 
 
 power extended so far as to arrest the progress of 
 nature and to stay even death. 
 
 What most of all contributed to render him im- 
 mortal was the ingenious means which he adopted 
 for arresting the severe epidemics occasioned by the 
 sirocco, a hot, suffocating wind which prevailed in 
 those parts. This consisted in closing up a passage 
 which existed between two mountains, through 
 which the wind blew with the greatest fury. Hence, 
 he received the epithet of oXi^av^iio^ or "tamer of the 
 wind." During a tempest which broke out at the 
 time of an eclipse of the sun, he saved many persons 
 by means of fumigations and fires. Philostratus 
 relates what would be another brilliant action of 
 this philosopher were it but correct, that he pre- 
 vented the total ruin of Agrigentum, by putting a 
 stop to a rain which menaced the city with inunda- 
 tion. He is also said to have restored to life a female 
 in a state of asphyxia or apparent death, who had 
 been for a long time considered dead. 
 
 These different occurrences and several other 
 similar ones obtained him so much celebrity, and 
 inspired him with so much vanity, that he con- 
 sidered himself as a fit companion for the gods. A 
 great portion of this presumption, however, he 
 owed to the principles of the Pythagoreans, who 
 regarded themselves as the equals of the gods, so 
 soon as they had received their initiation. Diodorus 
 of Ephesus relates a remarkable fact of this philo- 
 sopher. The city of Selinus was ravaged by a 
 pestilential disease, owing to the exhalation from 
 the stagnant and corrupt waters of a neighboring
 
 g6 HISTORY OF MEDICINE. 
 
 river. Empedocles put an end to the cause, by 
 conducting a river of pure water into the marsh, 
 and emptying it in that manner of all the stagnant 
 water which it contained. Since that circumstance, 
 the inhabitants of the city have adored him as a, 
 beneficent deity. 
 
 The opinion most generally received regarding 
 the death of this philosopher is that he threw him- 
 self, from pride, into ^tna, or that, having ap- 
 proached too near the crater of this volcano, he fell 
 in, and was swallowed up by the flames. At the 
 lower termination of the limits of perpetual conge- 
 lation on ^tna, at the present day, is found a little 
 plain named Fiano del frumento^ on which are the 
 ruins of an ancient monument, generally known 
 under the name of the Philosopher's Tower, because 
 tradition assigns it as the residence of Empedocles. 
 
 Empedocles in his ideas was decidedly a mate- 
 rialist, and believed that everything in nature 
 was the efl:ect of pure chance. He was of opinion 
 that, as the universe one day resulted from the at- 
 traction of its elements, so one day it would return 
 to chaos in consequence of their disunion or re- 
 pulsion, and again appear after an incalculable 
 lapse of time, without there ever being any inter- 
 ruption between these alternations of creation and 
 destruction. This last opinion will account for the 
 ideas of Empedocles respecting the production of 
 animals from accidental causes, or what has been 
 termed equivocal generation. According to him, 
 the animal body is not regulated by necessary laws, 
 no intelligent being presided at its construction ;
 
 CURIOUS PHYSIOLOGICAL VIEWS. 97 
 
 chance alone produced it. Empedocles believed that 
 the vertebrse and the diflerent joints composing the 
 spine resulted from the distortion or fracture of one 
 bone, which ran at first the whole length of the ver- 
 tebral column. He attributed the formation of the 
 abdominal cavity and that of the intestines to the 
 sudden and rapid passage of water through the 
 body at the moment of its formation, and the ex- 
 ternal openings of the nose to a current of air, 
 which had established itself from the interior to 
 the exterior. He believed also that animals mis^ht 
 spring up from earth when it had warmed to a cer- 
 tain extent, for, according to him, it was but neces- 
 sary for the four elements, fire, air, earth, and water, 
 to meet under special circumstances in order to pro- 
 duce the origin and formation of all bodies. 
 
 These physiological views he trusted only to his 
 most intimate pupils. Openly, he made use of ex- 
 pressions which were within the conception of the 
 vulgar, and accorded with their social prejudices. 
 Thus, like the lonians and Pythagoreans, he taught 
 that in nature everything is animated, and filled 
 with divinities; that consequently the soul of man 
 is identical, not only with the gods, but also with 
 that of vegetables, as they all, without distinction, 
 emanate from the general soul of the world. He 
 admitted also in vegetables a soul endowed with 
 the same powers as those which he accorded to 
 the soul of animals, possessing consequently a volun- 
 tary faculty, and being capable of feeling joy as 
 well as grief; in this respect, however, not diftering 
 from the Pythagoreans in general. This opinion of 
 7
 
 98 HISTOR Y OF MEDICINE. 
 
 the affinity between plants and animals determined 
 him to employ, when he spoke of the former, the 
 same expressions which are wont to be used when 
 treating of the latter. Thus, he called their seed 
 eggs, and their fructification gestation and preg- 
 nancy. The principal difference which he estab- 
 lished between them was that the organs of genera- 
 tion were united in the same individual in vegetables, 
 in place of being distinct and separate as in animals. 
 He compared also the leaves of plants to the hair of 
 the mammalia, the feathers of birds, and the scales 
 of fishes. 
 
 The principal object of his physiological researches, 
 as well as of those of his contemporaries, was the the- 
 ory of generation. Already there reigned amongst 
 philosophers a great diversity of opinion relative to 
 this theory, and all those who were desirous of dis- 
 tinguishing themselves made a point of embracing 
 one sect or another. The philosopher of Agrigentum 
 asserted that the embryo is not the product of the 
 semen of one part}^, either of that of the male or of 
 that of the female, but that it results from a mix- 
 ture of each, and receives the form of the father or 
 of the mother, according as the semen of the one or 
 the other may predominate, or according as the im- 
 agination of the mother may be more or less called 
 into action. The semen of each sex he believed to 
 be composed of different parts, between which there 
 existed a mutual attraction. The sex he conceived 
 to depend solely on the degree of heat in the womb, 
 the infant being of the male sex if the semen enter 
 a warm uterus or womb, and of the female if the
 
 VISIONARY THEORIES OF EMPEDOCLES. 99 
 
 organ which receives the fluid be cold. He attribu- 
 ted monsters to the superabundance or want of 
 semen, or to the dispersion or erroneous direction of 
 that fluid, and twins to the too great quantity or 
 dispersion of it. 
 
 Inspection of some foetuses which had come into 
 the world before their time had probably taught him 
 that all the parts of the embryo are developed from 
 the thirty-sixth to the forty-fourth day, and he ap- 
 plied his theory to the mode in which each organ is 
 formed.. The muscles, according to him, result from 
 a mixture of equal parts of the four elements, fire, 
 earth, air, and water; the tendons from a super- 
 abundance of fire and earth ; the nails from exposure 
 of the tendons to air ; and the bones from a pre- 
 dominance of earth and water. In a similar manner 
 he explained the formation of sweat and tears. It 
 was Empedocles who first gave the name of amnios 
 to the membrane which incloses the foetus and to 
 the water in which it swims. He has the credit 
 also of having first dissected the ear with accuracy. 
 
 The above are all the visionary theories of Empe- 
 docles which need be detailed, but, although visionary, 
 they are highly interesting as being some of the first 
 dawns of medical philosophy and characteristic of 
 the times in which they were conceived. 
 
 Ancient history makes also mention of several 
 other successors of Pythagoras, but we have no 
 examples of their works regarding either the theory 
 or practice of medicine. Pliny, Diogenes, and 
 Eudoxus mention Epicharmus, who was born at Cos, 
 but who passed his life in Sicily. He wrote several
 
 HISTOR V OF MEDICINE. 
 
 works on medicine, which no longer exist, and from 
 which no author has given extracts. Tiraquel, in- 
 deed, asserts that his productions still exist in the 
 library of the Vatican, but it would seem that this 
 assertion is devoid of foundation. 
 
 Anaxagoras of Clazomense (B. C. 500-428), a 
 cotemporary of Empedocles, whose strange theory 
 of the heavens and earth being made of stone are 
 well known and have been celebrated by Butler in 
 his Hudibras, is the next physician worthy of notice. 
 The greatest portion of his physiological observa- 
 tions, like those of most others about that period, 
 are concerning generation. He believed that the 
 embryo or foetus proceeds solely from the paternal 
 semen, and that the mother provides only a place for 
 its development, and he explained the reason of the 
 diflerence of sexes by the situation which the child 
 occupied in the womb, boys being, he absurdly enough 
 says, always on the right side and girls always on 
 the left. Another and a still more gross absurdity, 
 however, is his belief that the crow and the ibis 
 coupled by the beak, and that the polecat brought 
 forth its young through the mouth. There is an- 
 other of his opinions of a pathological nature, which 
 proves how common the belief in the multiplicity 
 of bilious diseases was even in those days, — that the 
 bile, by passing into the lungs, air-vessels, and pleura, 
 becomes the cause of acute diseases. Aristotle, 
 however, in contradicting this assertion, affirms, and 
 supports his affirmations by anatomical observations, 
 that in a very great number of such cases the bile 
 is not found to predominate.
 
 NOTED GREEK PRACTITIONERS, lOI 
 
 Democritus of Abdera (B.C. 494-404) is painted 
 by the ancient writers of Greece in nearly the same 
 colors as Pythagoras. He had, they remark, all the 
 powers of nature at his disposal, and owed his 
 science to the priests of Egypt. Pliny informs us 
 that he busied himself much with the anatomy of 
 the chameleon, and wrote a whole book on that rep- 
 tile. His physiological theories very much resembled 
 those of Empedocles. 
 
 There were some other theorists about this time as 
 well as practitioners of medicine, such as Hemelitus 
 of Ephesus, Acron of Agrigentum, Iccus of Taren- 
 tum, Herodicus of Selybria, Euryphon, and Thales, 
 but their theories were visionaiy and unworthy of 
 consideration. Before passing, however, to a period 
 when a luminary appeared in the medical world, 
 who is fairly entitled to the appellation of the father 
 of medicine, and whose works are still considered 
 by some as the guiding star, by whose light their 
 theories and practice are regulated, we may briefly 
 refer to other persons who devoted themselves about 
 this time to the profession of physic, and who were 
 occasionally remunerated by a fixed salary. 
 
 Democedes of Crotona, for example, was retained 
 at the court of the Samian tyrant, Polycrates, with 
 an allowance of two talents yearly. Being after- 
 wards taken prisoner, and carried as a slave into 
 Persia, he acquired great reputation by curing Da- 
 rius of a sprained foot after the Egyptian physicians 
 had failed ; and also by his successful treatment of 
 a tumor of the breast, under which Atossa, the 
 daughter of Cyrus and wife of Darius, had labored
 
 I o 2 HIS TOR V OF MEDICINE. 
 
 for a considerable period. Such practitioners, from 
 their wandering lives, were sometimes called ferio- 
 deutai ; of this class, one of the most conspicuous 
 was AcRON of Agrigentum, the contemporary and 
 rival of Empedocles. According to Diogenes, he 
 was the author of some books on medicine and die- 
 tetics written in the Doric dialect, and signalized 
 himself at Athens at the time of the great plague 
 by introducing the i^ractice of fumigation, and thus 
 affording relief to many. 
 
 The gymnasia of ancient Greece seem also to have 
 contributed to the improvement of the healing art. 
 It belonged to the gymnasiarch or paloestrophylax to 
 regulate the regimen of the youths who were trained 
 in those seminaries; the sub-directors or yvixva^oi 
 treated all diseases which occurred ; and the subal- 
 terns or bathers, the axfi^rat, performed bloodletting, 
 administered injections, and dressed wounds, ulcers, 
 fractures, and other surgical cases. Of the class of 
 gymnastic physicians, one of the most celebrated was 
 Herodicus of Selybria. He is frequently mentioned 
 by Hippocrates, who censures him for extenuating 
 his patients by excessive fatigue, and of sometimes 
 causing their death. 
 
 It is to be regretted that we have so little infor- 
 mation regarding the political condition of the 
 physicians of Greece. All that we know must be 
 gathered from some obscure passages in various 
 Greek writers. In a State so polished as that of 
 Athens, the physicians would necessarily be sub- 
 jected to certain laws. Plato seems to insinuate 
 that at his time the Athenian physicians, as formerly
 
 LAWS AFFECTING GREEK PHYSICIANS. 103 
 
 those of Egypt, directed the treatment of their dis- 
 eases according to certain precepts marked out for 
 them, and that they were responsible to the State for 
 all the deaths occasioned by their negligence. A 
 passage of Xenophon also proves that the young 
 men, before establishing themselves on the territory 
 of the republic of Athens, were obliged to ask per- 
 mission in a public discourse, in which they ex- 
 plained the manner they had previously, or whether 
 they had at all, practised, and proclaimed by whom 
 they had been instructed. Hyginus says that there 
 existed a law amongst the Athenians forbidding 
 slaves to exercise medicine, and reserving it exclu- 
 sively for freemen. 
 
 The Greeks had in their pay military surgeons ; 
 but it would seem, from Xenophon, that they were 
 only called in after sanguinary battles to dress the 
 wounded. There seems also some reason for be- 
 lievmo; that there were at Athens charlatans who 
 sold their nostrums in the public places. Aristo- 
 phanes introduces in one of his comedies a person 
 seeking in all the streets and shops for a potion 
 which might accelerate the delivery of a pregnant 
 woman. The aleiptai or physicians sold also secret 
 remedies at the public baths, and were frequently 
 consulted in cases of wounds, &c.
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 THE AGE OF HIPPOCRATES. 
 
 Revoliition in medical science — Important era in the liistory of 
 medicine — Biographical sketch of Hippocrates — His medical 
 career — The great plague at Athens — Brilliant cures — Authen- 
 ticity of his works — Books falsely ascribed to him — His undis- 
 puted works — His knowledge and views on anatomy, physio- 
 logy, semeiology, pathology, therapeutics, surgery, dietetics. 
 
 The first year of the 80th Olympiad gave birth 
 to Hippocrates (B.C. 460-370), the second of that 
 name, who was destined to effect a greater revolu- 
 tion in medical science than had previously been 
 accomplished, and whose authority continued to be 
 regarded with almost implicit veneration by his 
 successors during a period of more than two thou- 
 sand years, and is still in some parts of the Euro- 
 pean continent, especially, looked up to with the 
 greatest deference and respect. 
 
 "He saw," says M. Cabanis,- "that too much and 
 yet not enough had been done for medicine, and he 
 accordingly separated it from philosophy, to which 
 it had never been united by its true and reciprocal 
 relation. He brought the science back again into 
 its proper channel, that of rational experience. 
 
 * Coup d'CEil sur les Reyolutions, &c., de la Medecine.
 
 REVOLUTION IN MEDICAL SCIENCE. 105 
 
 However, as he himself observes, he introduced 
 both these sciences into each other, for he considered 
 them as inseparable ; but he assigned to them rela- 
 tions which were altogether new. In short, he 
 freed medicine from false theories, and formed for it 
 new and solid systems; this he, with justice, said 
 was to render medicine philosophical. On the other 
 hand, he elucidated moral and natural philosophy 
 by the light of medical science. This we may, with 
 propriety, call, with him, the introduction of one 
 into the other. The new spirit of improvement 
 which was then communicated to medicine resem- 
 bled a sudden light that dispels the phantoms of 
 darkness, and restores to bodies their proper figure 
 and natural color. By rejecting the errors of former 
 ages, Hippocrates learned more fully to avail him- 
 self of the useful part of their labors. The connec- 
 tion and dependence both of the facts which had 
 been observed, and of the conclusions which had 
 been legitimately deduced from their comparison, 
 were now perceived with a degree of evidence, which, 
 till then, had been unknown. All the discoveries 
 were certainly not yet made, but from that moment 
 inquirers began to pursue the only path which can 
 conduct to them. From that moment, if they had 
 been able to preserve themselves from delusion, they 
 would have possessed sure means of estimating, with 
 precision, the new ideas which time was destined to 
 develop; and if the disciples of Hippocrates had un- 
 derstood his lessons well, they might have laid the 
 foundation of that analytical philosophy, by the aid 
 of which the human mind will be henceforth enabled
 
 I o 6 HIS TORY OF MEDICINE. 
 
 to create to itself, as it were, daily some new and 
 improved methods of advancement." 
 
 Unfortunately, however, for the progress of the art, 
 the disciples of Hippocrates soon wandered from the 
 path which he had marked out. Instead of quietly 
 and carefully watching the operations of nature, they 
 kept inventing, like his more immediate predecessors, 
 to whose visionary speculations we have already re- 
 ferred, fanciful hypotheses to explain them, and in 
 place of studying assiduously the works of the 
 master whom they professed to worship, thc}^ falsi- 
 fied his writings in order to make them meet their 
 own particular views; so that it has hecome a mat- 
 ter of very considerable difficulty to distinguish the 
 genuine from the spurious compositions which have 
 been ascribed to the father of medicine. 
 
 Of Hippocrates, as Dr. Parr has correctly observed , it 
 is difficult to speak with impartiality, in a manner 
 that will satisfy his warm admirers, or those who 
 reject everything which is not of a modern era. If 
 we look at him as a physician, when medicine had 
 scarcely escaped from the trammels of superstition, 
 the refinements of philosophy, or the dictates of 
 antiquated tradition, our admiration will rise almost 
 to enthusiasm, for we shall perceive sound judgment, 
 accuracy of reasoning, and acuteness of observation 
 superior to his era or the state of science at that 
 period. But to study and admire Hippocrates at 
 this time is very difierent. Science has opened 
 newer and more extensive views ; diseases are dis- 
 tinguished with greater accuracy, and the remedies, 
 as they are more numerous, may be more appro-
 
 BIOGRAPHICAL SKE TCH OF HIPPOCRA TES. i o 7 
 
 priately adapted to the circumstances. He forms, 
 however, so vast a space in the history of medicine, 
 that a detailed notice of liimself and of some of his 
 doctrines is necessary and of the highest interest. 
 
 Hippocrates, whose science and skill made the 
 aire in which he lived memorable, was descended 
 from a line of physicians, and inherited the instruc- 
 tions of his father and grandfather, who were them- 
 selves descendants of the Asclepiadse. His biography 
 would be extremely interesting, had it been trans- 
 mitted to us by authors wholly worthy of confidence, 
 but with the exception of some fragments preserved 
 by Soranus, we have but a small number of authentic 
 accounts reo-ardins: the circumstances of his life. 
 His father Heraclides gave him the first part of 
 his education, and probably taught him the art of 
 observing diseases as they presented themselves in 
 the temples, and the mode of treating them as 
 practised by the Asclepiadse. Herodicus of Selybria 
 and Gorgias Leontinus are also mentioned as having 
 been his masters, and, according to others, he was a 
 disciple of Democritus of Abdera. The votive 
 tablets of the temples of ^sculapius furnished 
 Hippocrates with a part of his observations on the 
 progress and nature of diseases. Andreas asserts 
 that he reduced the temple at Cos to ashes, in order 
 to prove that he was the author of the semeiological 
 observations which he has given, but in this there 
 is not the least shade of probability, as no other 
 author has made any mention of the act, and it 
 could not have failed to produce a considerable sen- 
 sation at the time, so considerable, indeed, as not
 
 io8 HIST OR Y OF MEDICINE. 
 
 to have been passed over in silence. ]S'or could it be 
 conceived, supposing it were true, how Hippocrates, 
 after such an act, could have preserved himself from 
 the fury of a people who vowed implacable hatred 
 to the despoilers of their temples. 
 
 Soranus asserts that Hippocrates went to the court 
 of Perdiccas, king of Macedonia, and that he cured 
 that prince of a consumption occasioned by an un- 
 fortunate afiection for his mother-in-law, Phila, a 
 fact which is not controverted by chronology, as 
 Perdiccas the Second did not mount the throne 
 until the fourth year of the 87th Olympiad, a time 
 when Hippocrates was enjoying his greatest celeb- 
 rity ; but what makes it a little suspicious is, that 
 history relates a similar circumstance to have oc- 
 curred at the court of Seleucus JS'icator. It is not 
 improbable that he passed some time at the court of 
 Perdiccas, as Pella, Olynthus, and Acanthus are all 
 situated in Macedonia, at which place he is asserted 
 to have observed several diseases. He appears to 
 have resided a long time in Thrace with the Edonians, 
 for he frequently speaks, in his book on Epidemics, 
 of the towns of Abdera, Datus, Doriscus, (Enus, and 
 Cardia, situated in Thrace or on the isle of Thasos. 
 It may likewise be conjectured that he travelled 
 into Scythia, and into the country surrounding the 
 kingdom of Pontus and the Palus Mseotides, for he 
 gives a faithful picture of the manners and mode 
 of life of the Scythians. 
 
 The same Soranus remarks that Hippocrates de- 
 livered Athens, Abdera, and Ill3'ria from a plague 
 which occasioned great ravages. This cannot refer to
 
 PUBLIC SER VICES OF HIPP OCR A TES. 1 09 
 
 the terrible plague at Athens, which occurred during 
 the Peloponnesian war, as Thucjdides, who has given 
 a full account of that epidemic, of which he was an 
 eye-witness, makes no mention of Hippocrates, and, 
 on the contrary, expressly asserts that the skill of the 
 physicians failed in it, as well as in all those diseases 
 the knowledge of which the gods had revealed to 
 man. Soranus goes on to observe that, in consequence 
 of the above circumstance, the Athenians out of 
 gratitude initiated him in the mysteries of Ceres, 
 according him the right of citizenship, and directing 
 that he should be feasted, as well as his descendants, 
 in the Prytaneum, where all those who had rendered 
 a service to their country were entertained. Galen 
 also refers to the circumstance of his arresting the 
 epidemic, and adds that Hippocrates caused fires to 
 be burnt as well as aromatics, over the whole 
 city, in order to purify the atmosphere, which he 
 observes perfectly succeeded and arrested the disease, 
 so that the epidemic mentioned by Soranus and 
 Galen cannot have been identical with that referred 
 to by Thucydides. In another place, Galen holds 
 that Hippocrates practised the healing art amongst 
 the Athenians, supporting his assertion by the case 
 of a patient who dwelt in the market of Cecrops. 
 
 Amongst the most brilliant cures ascribed to 
 Hippocrates is that of Democritus of Abdera, whom 
 he took under his care at the request of the 
 Abderites. Soranus confines himself to observing, 
 that, having cured the philosopher of his insanity, 
 he returned to the town of Abdera, having rendered 
 it as great a service as if he had delivered it from
 
 HISTORY OF MEDICINE. 
 
 the plague. Tzetzes, however, adds that the in- 
 habitants, full of gratitude, oflered him ten talents, 
 but that, the conversation which he had with 
 Democritus having proved the Abderite to be the 
 wisest of all men, he refused the same, thanking the 
 Abderites, on quitting them, for having made him 
 acquainted with so great a philosopher. 
 
 The last years of his life this illustrious physician 
 passed in Thessaly, more especially at Larissa, 
 Cranon, Pher?e, Tricca, and Melibcea, as proved by 
 the observations which he made regarding the dis- 
 eases of those different towns. Soranus asserts, 
 also, that he succeeded in arming the Thessalians 
 in favor of his countrymen, when the Athenians 
 declared w^ar against the inhabitants of Cos and 
 attacked them. According to the same author he 
 died at Larissa in the 99th year of his age, and a 
 long time after his death his grave was to be seen 
 between that town and Gyrtona. 
 
 It is much to be regretted for the sake of the 
 science that we have no certainty respecting the 
 authenticity of several of the works which have been 
 published as those of Hippocrates. The ancients 
 themselves questioned the authenticity of a multi- 
 tude of writings ascribed to the son of Heraclides, 
 and many of them were attributed to his relatives, but 
 frequently they were uncertain to whom to give the 
 credit, and fixed them almost indiscriminately on the 
 different members of the family of Hippocrates. 
 Hippocrates, the son of Heraclides, lived at a period 
 when paper was uncommon amongst the Greeks. 
 They were acquainted, it is true, with the papyrus,
 
 THE WORKS OF HIPP OCR A TES. 1 1 1 
 
 wliich the Greek colonists in Egypt had learned to 
 prepare after the reign of Amasis, but the use of 
 paper was by no means common in Greece until the 
 time of Alexander the Great. Hippocrates therefore 
 wrote his observations in a very concise style on 
 tablets covered with wax, or on the skins of animals. 
 Several of these collections were not intended for 
 the public eye, but were kept for his own private 
 use. His two sons, however, Thessalus and Dracon, 
 and his son-in-law Polybus, who adopted the princi- 
 ]3les of the modern sects, falsified his writings, 
 changing their arrangement, making interpolations, 
 and endeavoring to elucidate obscure passages by 
 additions of their own. 
 
 The greatest disorder also took place when the 
 Ptolemies, after the example of Aristotle who col- 
 lected the first large library, founded several collec- 
 tions of books, and amongst others that of Alexan- 
 dria, and forbade the exportation of paper in order 
 that they might procure for themselves a greater num- 
 ber of copies of the works of the ancients. Hence, 
 numerous mercenary individuals profited by the 
 enthusiasm of the kings of Egypt, either by selling 
 to them the writings of the other Hippocrates under 
 the name of the most celebrated, or by adding to 
 the writings of Hippocrates their own productions, 
 satisfied that the Ptolemies, who were ambitious of 
 forming a richer library than that of the kings of 
 Pergamus, would readily take without examination 
 everything which was ofiTered to them. 
 
 To distinguish the real works of Hippocrates has 
 hence been a problem of very considerable difiiculty.
 
 1 1 2 HIS TORY OF MEDICINE. 
 
 The literati of Alexandria were extremely doubtful, 
 even at that time, of their authenticity, and en- 
 deavored to select the true from the false. At the 
 expiration of five hundred years, also, the task was 
 attempted by Galen, who, with an intimate knowledge 
 of what the successors of HijDpocrates had written, 
 possessed a discriminating genius and critical dis- 
 cernment of the style and manner of the Coan sage, 
 which peculiarly fitted him for the task. . Mercu- 
 rialis, too, a man of very extensive erudition, and 
 Haller, a physician of the first literary eminence, 
 as well as Gruner, have all labored in the same 
 field, assuming as a principle that Hippocrates was 
 a man of singular abilities, extensive information, 
 and consummate candor and modesty. By these 
 tests, although as uncertain as it is possible to 
 imagine, they have tried every imputed work. 
 
 The undisputed works of Hippocrates are said to 
 be the first and third book of Epidemics^ two books 
 of the Frcenotiones (a difterent work from the FrcB- 
 notiones Coacce, published by Elzevir in 1660, by 
 Duretus at Paris, and with commentaries by Holle- 
 rius at Ley den, which is considered to be certainly 
 spurious) containing the Prognostica and the second 
 book of the Frorrhetica ; De Dmta in Acutis ; 
 Aphorismi ; De Aere^ Aqiiis et Locis ; De Natura 
 Hominis ; De Huraorihus Purgandis ; De Alimento ; 
 De Articidis ; De Fractiiris ; De Capitis Vulneribiis ; 
 De Officina Medici ; and De Locis in Homine. This is 
 nearly the enumeration of Haller, but even the au- 
 thenticity of several of these has been strongly 
 called in question.
 
 THE WRITINGS OF HIPPOCRATES. 113 
 
 Even the disputed works of Hippocrates are, how- 
 ever, entitled to very attentive perusal from the 
 information they give respecting the mode of reason- 
 ing and practice of medicine at that period. The 
 writings of Hippocrates, as Dr. Parr has correctly 
 observed — and the remark may be extended to the 
 whole of the literature of medicine — merit attention. 
 "Where the title of doctor," he proceeds, "is as- 
 sumed merely as a claim to receive the fee of a 
 physician, it is of little importance whether the 
 practitioner can read, the world is contented to take 
 his talents on trust ; but the man who claims the 
 rank of a regular, well-instructed physician should 
 not be ignorant of the opinions of Hippocrates or 
 of the state of physic at the earliest period of 
 recorded observations. He will derive no little satis- 
 faction from the candid relation of facts, whether 
 favorable or otherwise, and from the firm, undeviat- 
 ing integrity which seems to have regulated the 
 conduct of this father of medicine." 
 
 Having thus briefly sketched the life of the Father 
 of Physic, Hippocrates, the "divine old man," as he 
 has been denominated by some writers, and pointed 
 out those of the works generally attributed to him 
 which have been considered authentic, and the neces- 
 sity of an acquaintance with the state of physic at 
 the earliest period of recorded observation, and espe- 
 cially of its condition at the time of Hippocrates, 
 we may next proceed to glean some particulars of 
 the knowledge of that distinguished individual in 
 the different branches which comprise the science of 
 medicine. 
 8
 
 1 1 4 HISTOR V OF MEDICINE. 
 
 First, with respect to his acquaintance with ana- 
 tomy, this would not seem to have been considera- 
 ble, and it is extremely doubtful whether he had 
 ever acquired it by regular dissection. Galen, it is 
 true, attributes to him the invention of scientific 
 anatomy, and asserts that the Asclepiad?e were at 
 that period very skilful in the art ; but it is well 
 known that at the time of Hippocrates there still 
 existed the prejudice of interring the dead with the 
 greatest possible celerity. It is consequently probable 
 that Hippocrates, like Empedocles, AclniEeon, and 
 Democritus, confined himself chiefly to the dissec- 
 tion of animals. Those of his writings which bear 
 the stamp of authenticity prove in fact that, with 
 the exception of a tolerably exact knowledge of 
 osteology, he was completely ignorant of anatomy, 
 or at least had but a very vague and superficial 
 knowledge of the organization of the human body. 
 Between arteries and veins Hippocrates established 
 no difference. He called them collectively <p?.f4', and 
 aprjjpt,';; designated with him the trachea. The ner- 
 vous system was not more known to him. He called 
 without distinction tovo^ or v^vs^ov a ligament or a 
 nerve. He was totally ignorant that the nerves 
 are the conductors of the sensations, and that they 
 arise from or are connected with the brain. 
 
 With regard to his theory of generation, it was 
 quite conformable to the spirit of the age. He re- 
 garded the accumulation of j^hlegm in the womb as 
 the cause of abortion. The sis^ns which he men- 
 tions as indicating pregnancy strongly exhibit the 
 inaccuracy of his ideas regarding the organization
 
 HIS PHYSIOL GICAL THE OKIES. 1 1 5 
 
 of the animal frame. He believed that the semen, 
 secreted by the right testicle passes into the right 
 side of the uterus, where the conception is of the 
 male sex, and that females are engendered by the 
 semen of the left testicle deposited in the left side 
 of that viscus. Hippocrates was so convinced of the 
 correctness of this theory that he pretended to have 
 remarked that a shrinkino; of the rio-ht breast an- 
 nounces that the female will be prematurely de- 
 livered of a boy, whilst a sinking of the left denotes 
 that the aborted foetus will be a female. He also 
 asserts that those men who have the right testicle 
 larger than the left constantly beget male children. 
 He was of opinion that the complexion of the female 
 is more lively and animated when she bears a boy 
 than when she is pregnant of a girl. The recipro- 
 cal action of the warm and cold spirit in promoting 
 the growth of the foetus, which he mentions, is of 
 course wholly imaginary. The soul, he supposes, is 
 drawn in with the air and communicated through 
 the vessels of the placenta to the foetus. 
 
 He supposed the existence of four fluids in the 
 body, — blood, phlegm, and yellow and black bile. 
 Their common source he ascribed to the stomach, 
 but each had also its particular origin, — the blood 
 from the heart, phlegm from the head, yellow bile 
 from the gall-duct, and black bile from the spleen. 
 The last organ, in his opinion, attracts not only the 
 black bile, but water also, which it conveys to the, 
 urinary organs or to the belly. 
 
 It was Hippocrates who first fixed the three gene- 
 ral periods or stages of diseases, those of crudity,
 
 1 1 6 HIS TOR Y OF MEDICINE. 
 
 concoction, and crisis, believing that the morbific 
 matter ought, before being expelled from the body, 
 to undergo a certain elaboration. The signs of these 
 three periods he has laid down with considerable 
 minuteness, although the whole theory is extremely 
 visionary. He may, however, be regarded as the real 
 inventor of the art of prognosticating. He had also 
 observed that nature is, in simple diseases, subjected 
 to certain laws, and that in fevers, more especially, 
 the evacuation of the morbific matter is apt to take 
 place at certain and regular days. These days he 
 called critical., the principal of which are, according 
 to him, the fourth, seventh, eleventh, fourteenth, 
 seventeenth, and twentieth. With regard to these 
 crises themselves, he observed them to happen in a 
 variety of ways. It has been asserted that sweating 
 was not ranged amongst them; but it is requisite 
 only to cast a glance over his writings to find many 
 cases of patients reported to have been cured by cri- 
 tical sweats. 
 
 He paid much attention to the urine, the appear- 
 ances of which in general, and the sediment in 
 particular, he regarded as very important signs in 
 diseases. The sediment and the cloud which is often 
 visible in the midst of the fluid were, in his eyes, 
 proofs of a salutary effort of nature. He noticed 
 also, ver}^ carefully, the marks of a favorable or un- 
 favorable termination in the stools, the sputa, the 
 coating of the tongue, &c., although the appearance 
 of the patient, the state of his eyes, the color and 
 temperature of his body, the augmentation or dimi-
 
 HIS VIE WS ON DIE TE TICS. i j 7 
 
 nution of his bulk, the functions of resiDiration and 
 of the intellect, &c., were very diligently attended to. 
 
 The practice of Hippocrates must be divided into 
 his dietetic, his medical, and his surgical. The chief 
 dietetic work under his name is attributed by the 
 critics to Polybus, his son-in-law, but there is much 
 reason to think that the rules are derived from him- 
 self. His first precept is to continue those exercises 
 which are not found to be absolutely hurtful. He 
 who has contracted a habit of some duration had 
 always better follow it, even when it is contrary to 
 health, than abandon it for another, and especially 
 than abandon it suddenly. Every too rapid change 
 in the manner of living is prejudicial to the body, 
 which renders it requisite to pass gradually from 
 one change to another. Excesses of all kinds are 
 dangerous — sleeping and waking, motion and rest, 
 nourishment and evacuation, ought never to trans- 
 gress the limits marked out by nature. Those who 
 are in perfect health should abstain from all kinds 
 of medicine. Purgatives he asserts to be those which 
 individuals bear with the greatest difficulty. Too 
 strict a regimen is always more noxious, in a state 
 of health, than a freer and less regular mode of 
 living, because, in the former case, the least wander- 
 ing from or forgetfulness of the laws imposed upon 
 the individual may induce unpleasant consequences. 
 
 It is to the Coan sage that we are indebted for 
 the first notions regarding the regimen to which 
 patients should be subjected in acute affections. 
 His principal object in those cases was always to 
 assist concoction by cooling and diluent drinks, or
 
 1 1 8 HIS TOR V OF MEDICINE. 
 
 by other similar means. As the humors he con- 
 sidered undergo some change in all acute diseases, 
 and as nature, in elaborating them, endeavors to 
 render them fit for being evacuated, it is necessar^^ 
 to avoid interrupting her endeavors by diverting 
 her powers for the purpose of converting them to 
 the digestion of alimentary substances. Hence the 
 following important precepts of the physician of 
 Cos: "The more we nourish an unhealthy body, 
 the more we injure it. Nothing should be given to 
 the patient whilst the affection is increasing, and 
 especially towards the time when the crisis is on the 
 point of occurring. We ought, without delay, to 
 prescribe a very spare diet when the violence of the 
 fever is extreme at the commencement, and at the 
 same time to examine into the strength of the 
 patient, to satisfy ourselves whether he be in a state 
 to bear a privation of food until the time when the 
 affection may arrive at its highest point of intensity. 
 The quantity of nutritive matters ought to be in- 
 creased with very great circumspection ; frequently, 
 total abstinence produces the best effects when the 
 patient is sufiiciently strong to bear it during the 
 whole course of the fever; but in the application 
 of those rules, attention must always be paid to the 
 degree of violence of the affection, its progress, the 
 constitution of the patient, and the habits contracted 
 both with regard to meat and drink." In the same 
 book, the author exposes the precautions which 
 should be taken when we are about to alter the cus- 
 tomary regimen of patients, and lays down some 
 excellent precepts, the observance of which he re-
 
 HIS TREA TMENT OF FE VERS. 1 1 9 
 
 commends to those who would pass from a severe 
 regimen to one less strict, and vice versa. 
 
 The utility of diluents in all fevers is a principle 
 first noticed by Hippocrates, and which even at the 
 present day is almost universally adopted with some 
 slight modifications. As for his practical precepts, 
 notwithstanding their excellence, several authors 
 have pretended that he knew not how to apply them, 
 from a considerable number of the diseases described 
 in his book on Epidemics having had a fatal issue. 
 This, however, ought rather to be esteemed a mark 
 of his extreme candor. In medicine, as is well known, 
 the correctness of the mode of treatment cannot 
 always be appreciated by the results. The object of 
 the practitioner, according to Hippocrates, ought 
 always to be to carefully observe and assist the pro- 
 gress of nature. A phj^sician as attentive as was 
 the Father of Physic could not have failed to ob- 
 serve that there is an effort of nature which generally 
 tends to the re-establishment of health, although a 
 cure may not always follow ; and it was in consequence 
 of such observation that the axiom contained in 
 the sixth bopk of his Epidemics was promulgated — 
 ^'•Nature is the first of ijhysicians.'''' Dividing acute 
 diseases into three periods, he made it a point to 
 observe with the greatest care the powers of 
 nature in each of those periods, of stimulating when 
 they seemed to him insufi3.cient, and of moderating 
 them when they were superabundant. 
 
 He never interfered with what he considered to 
 be salutary efforts, but endeavored, on the contrary, 
 as much as he could, to favor them. On this account,
 
 I20 HISTORY OF MEDICINE. 
 
 in acute diseases, and especially at their commence- 
 ment, he did not prescribe evacuation until he had 
 noticed, or fancied he had noticed, manifest signs 
 that the morbific principle might be expelled. His 
 endeavors were directed only to evacuating the 
 matters elaborated by concoction, and during the 
 period of crudity, as he termed it, he occupied him- 
 self with moistening all the passages, in order to 
 accelerate the elaboration of the principle of the 
 disease. In acute diseases, when the aifection was 
 at its highest point, and the paroxysm at its greatest 
 intensity, he confined himself to attentive observa- 
 tion, but if any unpleasant symptom occurred, he 
 attacked it according to the indications which might 
 present themselves. 
 
 Hippocrates, however, did not confine himself to 
 a blind pursuance of the indications of nature; on 
 the contrary, having remarked that, in general, dis- 
 eases are relieved as soon as the matter engendered 
 during the course of the affection is expelled, he 
 endeavored to evacuate the humors when they had 
 undergone a particular alteration, but never before 
 he was persuaded that they were sufficiently elabo- 
 rated. Occasionally, therefore, his principal object 
 was to produce efiects opposite to those of nature. 
 He bled when he noticed a state of fulness of the 
 vessels, and endeavored to replenish them when he 
 perceived that they were empty. The axiom contra- 
 ria contrariis opponenda was not so universal a rule 
 in medicine as has been pretended; it was always 
 subordinate to the general maxim of following and 
 imitating nature. Some of the modes of practice
 
 HIS VIE WS ON BI O ODLE TTING. 1 2 1 
 
 pursued by Hippocrates will have elucidated this 
 remark. 
 
 He generally practised bloodletting in acute dis- 
 eases, where the patient was young and robust. 
 His principal intention in having recourse to this 
 operation seeming to have been to diminish the ir- 
 regularity of the febrile movements and to accelerate 
 concoction, he on this account almost always pre- 
 scribed it during the first stage. He paid no regard 
 to the day of the disease, but was guided by the 
 violence of the attack. In' the majority of cases, 
 he recommended the bloodletting to be made as 
 near as possible to the seat of the disease, but in 
 determining the place where the vein should be 
 opened, he was guided by his erroneous ideas of the 
 distribution of the vessels in the human frame. Thus, 
 it was necessary to open the inner vein of the arm 
 in ischuria or suppression of urine, and the basilic 
 in pleurisy. He recommended, with propriety, and 
 the practice in some cases has been at various times 
 revived, bloodletting in dropsy, when the patient 
 was young and plethoric, and when the affection 
 occurred in the spring time. The quantity of 
 blood to be drawn was regulated by the severity of 
 the symptoms, and frequently, when circumstances 
 seemed to demand it, the bleedings were so copious 
 as to produce syncope or fainting. 
 
 The rules to be followed for evacuating the crudities 
 contained in ih^ "primm vice, are indicated with con- 
 siderable precision. Regard was to be paid to the 
 climate, season, atmospherical constitution, age of the 
 patient, and nature of the affection, in order to judge
 
 HISTORY OF MEDICINE. 
 
 whether the evacuation would be salutary or hurt- 
 ful. Evacuation, and especially by purging, he incul- 
 cated ought never to be too copious, as under such 
 circumstances it is always dangerous. 
 
 His purgatives were all drawn from the class of 
 drastics ; for in his time there were none known but 
 the veratrum album or white hellebore, the peplain, 
 — supposed to be an extract of euphorbium, — the 
 seeds of the amanta cretensis, the root of the thapsia, 
 the seeds of the daphne laureola, and the flowers and 
 seeds of the carthamus or bastard saflron. They 
 were also used as emetics ; but Hippocrates seems 
 to have employed them in many cases without 
 having had anj^ intention of particularly provoking 
 either vomiting or purging. He was satisfied if they 
 occasioned either one evacuation or the other. When 
 he was desirous of purging gently, he ordered asses' 
 milk,the juice of the herb mercurialis, the leaves of 
 elder, or a decoction of beet-root with salt and honey. 
 As adjuvants to these, he employed clysters and 
 suppositories. In general, he used purgatives in 
 chronic diseases, but he certainly employed them in 
 acute ones more freely than the greater number of 
 modern practitioners. The diuretics prescribed by 
 Hippocrates were the leek, onion, mercurialis, wild 
 parsley, &c., with wine and honey largely diluted, 
 and sometimes the warm bath. Cantharides, how- 
 ever, he ordered also in dropsies. He endeavored to 
 favor expectoration indirectly b}^ fomentations and 
 the copious use of drinks prepared with groats and 
 acidulated with oxymel, — a composition of honey and 
 vinegar. He made use of the same means for excit-
 
 SUR GER V OF THE CO AN SA GE. 123 
 
 ing perspiration. In many circumstances, however, 
 he necessarily treated diseases in a purely empirical 
 manner, without acting according to any rational 
 indication. 
 
 The majority of his remedies were obtained from 
 the vegetable kingdom ; with the exception of alum 
 and some preparations of copper and lead, he em- 
 ployed only plants, for pharmacy, or the art of pre- 
 paring compound medicines, was very rude in his 
 time. In order to diminish, for example, the acri- 
 dity of the juice of euphorbium, it was poured, drop 
 by drop, on dried figs, and in this manner we are 
 told a very useful remedy for dropsy was manufac- 
 tured. It would be idle to look in the writings of 
 Hippocrates for the least traces of chemistr}^, the 
 origin of that science, properly so called, not having 
 taken place for several years after this period. 
 
 The Coan sage enriched surgery with a consider- 
 able number of new observations and with several 
 operations. He is said to have been the first inven- 
 tor of the art of applying bandages. In all severe 
 wounds he ordered rest, prescribed a strict regimen, 
 and recommended the limb to be placed in the easiest 
 position. He permitted the blood to flow copiously 
 in extensive wounds when they were seated on the 
 limbs or penetrated the cavities of the body. He 
 rejected oils and every moist application, but in 
 certain cases employed emollient cataplasms. He 
 attributed to heat considerable eflicacy in the cure 
 of wounds. He frequently also administered eme- 
 tics, especially in wounds of the head, having ob-
 
 124 HIS TOR V OF MEDICINE. 
 
 served that vomiting in sueli cases was a very com- 
 mon symptom. 
 
 He judged evacuations particularly necessary when 
 the wound was complicated with erysipelas, of which 
 gastric derangement is the most ordinary cause. 
 He had noticed that suppuration is inevitable when 
 the wound results from the action of an obtuse 
 body. In his work on wounds of the head, the cir- 
 cumstances which require the application of the 
 trepan are very carefully indicated. Hippocrates 
 employed, for this operation, two different instru- 
 ments, one of which resembled the trephine, and the 
 other the common trepan. Before applying them 
 the integuments were raised up, and the bone was 
 scraped with a scalpel made for the purpose, in order 
 to examine into its condition. In the same book 
 the remark is made that pain is frequently felt in 
 the side of the head opposite to that of the wound. 
 He also penetrated the ribs to evacuate water from 
 the chest. 
 
 In cases of fracture, extension and counter-exten- 
 sion were first made, afterwards a bandage was ap- 
 plied, and over this splints moderately tightened, so 
 that they might compress the limb. Ten days after a 
 fracture of the forearm, he recommended the patient 
 to wear a slino- when he beo-an to walk about. He 
 mentions also the time at which fractures are com- 
 monly consolidated, but has not omitted to remark 
 that the age, sex, and several other similar circum- 
 stances may hasten or retard the formation of the 
 callus. The machines which he made use of for 
 reducino; luxations of the laro-e articulations were
 
 TENDENCY OF HIS TEACHINGS. 125 
 
 very complicated ; but he treated in a very simple 
 manner less severe dislocations. His observations 
 regarding distortion of the feet, both outwardly and 
 inwardly, are particularly worthy of attention. He 
 distinguishes several varieties of this curvature, de- 
 scribes the state of the parts with all the exactness 
 of which his own experience rendered him capable, 
 and proposes for the cure an apparatus which some- 
 what resembles one of much more modern invention. 
 The revolution wliich he caused in practical me- 
 dicine, semeiology, pathology, and dietetics, was the 
 more important from the plans adopted before him 
 by the Asclepiadee and the philosophic sects being 
 in no respect adapted for the improvement of the 
 science. He taught physicians that their first duty 
 is to observe attentively the progress of nature. He 
 demonstrated the inutility of theories, and proved 
 that observation alone is the basis of medicine. The 
 curative art, having become, from his example, a 
 science of experiment and of facts, ought to have 
 made the most rapid progress. If the route traced 
 and pursued by Hippocrates with so much success 
 had continued to be followed up, Grecian medicine 
 would have attained in a short time a degree of 
 perfection of which we can scarcely form an idea. 
 These brilliant hopes were not, however, realized.
 
 CHAPTER XIT. 
 
 THE IMMEDIATE SUCCESSORS OF HIPPOCRATES. 
 
 Founders of the dogmatic school — Liberal yicM's and civilization 
 of the time — Aristotle — His views on anatomy, physiology, &c. 
 — Theophrastus — Praxagoras and his physiological discoveries 
 — The term arteries first employed — Medical practice of the 
 period — The age of the Ptolemies — The library of Alexandria 
 — Publication of doubtful works, interpolated manuscripts, 
 &c. — Medical school of Alexandria — Herophilus and Erisis- 
 tratus ; their discoveries and views — Their followers — Di- 
 vision of medicine into its branches, surgery, pharmacy, ttc. 
 — The surgeons of Alexandria and their operations — Lithoto- 
 mists — Surgical apparatus — Prohibitions to young surgeons. 
 
 Simple observation was repugnant to the general 
 spirit of the age in which Hippocrates flourished, 
 and anatomy served only to conflrm the specula- 
 tions and theories of the dogmatic physicians; for 
 so those who professed to tread in the steps of Hip- 
 pocrates were termed. 
 
 Thessalus, Draco, and Polybus were the foun- 
 ders of the dogmatic school, but they soon aban- 
 doned the principles of their renowned ancestor, and 
 the science veered about perpetually, influenced 
 b}' the different philosophic ideas which prevailed. 
 Little improvement w^as made in practice, but few 
 innovations occurred in physiology, and these latter 
 w^ere chiefly promulgated by Plato (B.C. 430-348), 
 whose reveries are highly entertaining ; but not
 
 ARISTOTLE. 127 
 
 being sufficiently important, we may pass thera 
 over, and proceed to the doctrines of one whose fame 
 far eclipsed that of the medical theorists of the time, 
 a man to whom every branch of natural science was 
 highly indebted, and who united the most compre- 
 hensive views to the most acute genius and the most 
 unremitting diligence. 
 
 The origin of natural history and anatomy is very 
 closely allied with the career of Aristotle (B.C. 384- 
 322). The expeditions of Alexander the Great had 
 more influence over medicine, and particularly over 
 some of its branches, than the innumerable theories 
 of the philosophical sects of which we have already 
 spoken. The civilization of the Greeks took a dif- 
 ferent direction from that which it had previously 
 foUoAved ; and although it had been generally spread 
 over Athens and other great cities of Greece, the 
 greater part of the nation had not lost the common 
 prejudices of those who live isolated and have but 
 a limited commerce with each other. They con- 
 tinued esjDecially to consider the bodies of the dead 
 as sacred and inviolable objects. So soon, however, 
 as the conquests of the hero of Macedonia had 
 opened to Greece the ports of India, Persia, and 
 Egypt, and multiplied their relations with the whole 
 of the East, the conflict of opinions soon diminished 
 the prejudices and silenced the voice of superstition. 
 The frequent travels of philosophers into diflerent 
 regions of their own, and an acquaintance with the 
 opinions adopted by the sages of other nations, 
 taught them to rectify their own ideas, and showed 
 them, at least, that Greece was not the only part of
 
 1 2 8 HIS TOR V OF MEDICINE. 
 
 the world where the study of the sciences was en- 
 couraged. They found, indeed, amongst .foreigners 
 prejudices more barbarous and injurious than their 
 own; but that discovery afforded them an excellent 
 pretext for renouncing a portion of those which 
 blinded their own countrymen. 
 
 Commerce, under the protection of Alexander, 
 tended also considerably to the progress of science. 
 That prince rendered Egypt the mart of the then 
 known world, and opened a channel to the rich coun- 
 tries of India, whence Greece subsequently obtained 
 so many valuable drugs and objects of natural his- 
 tory. The improvement of native industry and the 
 multiplication of the means of existence were the 
 results of the fresh activity impressed upon com- 
 merce. This gave rise to wealth, which in its turn 
 aided the progress of science. Alexander himself 
 fostered the sciences, a taste for which he had ac- 
 quired from his master Aristotle. 
 
 To that x^hilosopher he presented ^ymphseum, a 
 country situated near Mieza, in order that he might 
 devote himself in tranquillity to the study of nature. 
 Plutarch has striven to show that the son of Philip 
 was himself a philosopher, but his conduct proves 
 him to have been merely a virtuoso. According to 
 Gellius he exhibited himself beyond measure jealous 
 that Aristotle should divulge his secrets after having 
 revealed them to him. He rendered, however, impor- 
 tant services to natural history by sj^aring no pains 
 or expense in collecting over all Asia animals which 
 he sent to Aristotle, in order that the philosopher 
 might study their organization. Pliny relates that
 
 HIS DISCO VER V OF THE NER VES. 1 29 
 
 several thousand persons in Asia and Greece were 
 employed in procuring him quadrupeds, birds, and 
 fishes wherever they could be met with. 
 
 Several writers, in the number of which is found 
 Athengeus, assert that, according to general opinion, 
 Aristotle received from the king of Macedonia eight 
 hundred talents, or upwards of eight hundred thou- 
 sand dollars, to enable him to collect the materials 
 for his history of animals ; but this sum, according 
 to Schulze, would seem to have been exaggerated. 
 It is certain, however, that Aristotle was placed in 
 circumstances the most favorable for enriching natu- 
 ral history and anatomy with a multitude of dis- 
 coveries which contributed much to the progress of 
 science. By all these circumstances he jDrofited, and 
 he acquired no less glory in philosojDhy than in the 
 sciences accessory to medicine. 
 
 The principal discovery made by Aristotle in 
 anatomy was that of the nerves, but, although he was 
 well acquainted with the parts of the human frame 
 designated under that name, he appears to have 
 observed them only in animals. He maintains that 
 the ear does not communicate by any opening with 
 the brain, but yet he somewhat strangely argues that 
 the brain sends to each ear a vessel, which seems to 
 be the acoustic nerve. He perfectly describes the 
 strong and tendinous optic nerves of the mole ; but 
 erroneously asserts that there is no continuity be- 
 tween the brain and organs of sense, and he therefore 
 derives all the senses from the heart. 
 
 Although his angeiology, or description of the 
 vessels, is very imperfect, he has the merit of having 
 9
 
 1 30 HIS TOR V OF MEDICINE. 
 
 first placed in the heart the origin of all the vessels. 
 He refutes those of his predecessors who assert that 
 they proceed from the head, and demonstrates that 
 the structure even of the heart sufficiently indicates 
 that that organ is intended to give origin to blood- 
 vessels. He first gave the name of aorta to the 
 largest artery of the body, but he attributed the 
 same functions to it as to the veins. He not only 
 calls it t?^H, a vein, but also regards it as the trunk 
 of all the other veins. He affirms that the brain 
 does not receive bloodvessels, and this opinion is 
 probably owing to his never having opened the 
 human subject. He seems, in fact, only to have 
 embraced it to serve as a point of support to his 
 theory on the humid and cold nature of the cerebral 
 mass ; for he adds that the membranes of that viscus 
 are covered with a multitude of bloodvessels. 
 
 In describing the distribution of the vessels, Aris- 
 totle falls into numerous errors, which are so many 
 additional proofs of his not having studied the 
 structure of the human body. The liver, he says, 
 sends a vessel to the right arm, so that bleeding 
 should always be practised from this limb in diseases 
 of that organ. The vessels of the spleen are similarly 
 distributed towards the left upper extremity. Those 
 of the other viscera of the lower belly terminate in 
 a common trunk. The aorta does not send any 
 branch to the liver or spleen. 
 
 The doctrine of Aristotle respecting the origin 
 and distribution of the vessels is united with 
 another idea which had subsequently considerable 
 influence on physiology and 'pathology, — that the
 
 COMPARA TIVE ANA TOMY OF ARISTO TLB. 1 3 1 
 
 spirit or air passes from the trachea into the heart. 
 Aristotle asserts that the heart communicates with 
 the trachea by means of adipous and cartilaginous 
 ligaments; and, as for the other viscera, he describes 
 the brain as a moist body, deprived of blood and 
 filling the cavity of the head, the cerebellum being 
 situated posteriorly. There exists, he observes, in 
 the brain an empty space, by which he probably 
 means the ventricles. Man, also, he asserts, is of 
 all animals the one whose brain, in proportion to 
 the size of the body, is the largest. This observa- 
 tion, which proves how assiduously Aristotle must 
 have dissected animals, has been confirmed by the 
 moderns. 
 
 Aristotle is chiefly celebrated in anatomy for the 
 great number of animals which he dissected, and 
 the comparison which he instituted between their 
 structure and that of man; he was also the first who 
 made anatomical drawings and appended them to 
 his works, but none of them have reached us. He 
 first established the physical characters which dis- 
 tinguish man from the ape, by observing that the 
 ape, like several other quadrupeds, has a bone in the 
 male organ, and by describing the difterences pre- 
 sented by the form of their skull and the bones of 
 their faces. He remarked, also, that man is the only 
 animal that extends itself on the back in sleep. 
 The Stageirite is the first philosopher who described 
 the four stomachs of ruminating animals and ex- 
 plained the phenomena of rumination. 
 
 Of the immediate followers of Aristotle, none is 
 more celebrated than Theophrastus of Eresus (B.C.
 
 1 3 2 HIS TOR Y OF MEDICINE. 
 
 371-288). He was the author of several productions 
 on medical science, in which he accords with the 
 principles inculcated bj his master, Aristotle ; but 
 the subjects on which he rendered himself most 
 famous were of a botanical nature, especially re- 
 garding the physiology and diseases of plants. He 
 may, indeed, be considered as the father of botanical 
 science. Theophrastus died loaded with years and 
 infirmities, in the 107th year of his age, lamenting 
 the shortness of life and complaining of the parti- 
 ality of nature in granting longevity to the crow 
 and to the stag, and not to man. 
 
 One of those who, about this period, most contri- 
 buted to the improvement of anatomy was Praxa- 
 GORAS, a native of Cos. He was the first who 
 established a distinction between the arteries and 
 veins, a discovery which is as important as all the 
 others collectively with which he has enriched the 
 science of anatomy. Although Aristotle had al- 
 ready, in some measure, traced for him the route, 
 by describing, with a degree of accuracy previously 
 unknown, the origin and distribution of the vessels, 
 yet the only diflerence which he admitted between 
 those vessels was that some of a tense and fibrous 
 texture ouo-ht to be reo;arded as branches of the 
 aorta, whilst others he considered to be attached to 
 the vena cava. At this period, however, it was re- 
 cognized that the ramifications of the aorta are those 
 only in which pulsations are evident. 
 
 The honor of this great discovery belongs entirely 
 to Praxagoras. Before him all the ancients had 
 given to the arteries no other names than that of
 
 DISCOVERY OF THE ARTERIES. 1 33 
 
 bloodvessels. But whence is it that he applied to 
 them the name of arteries, seeing that until his 
 time it had been appropriated to the trachea or 
 windpipe? According to Sprengel, the following 
 are probably the reasons : 1. The arteries alone pro- 
 duced pulsations, and, as they executed them con- 
 tinually, their contractions appeared to him to depend 
 on a primary vital force inherent in the vessels, and 
 for a long period the air {nvivixo) had been regarded as 
 the seat of the vital force. 2. Finding the arteries 
 constantly dilated after death, he might have con- 
 cluded that during life they contained only air. 3. 
 Plato and Aristotle had judged it necessary, in order 
 to explain the continual movement of the heart, to 
 admit of air-passages for the purpose of carrying 
 the pneuma from the lungs. The connection between 
 the pulmonary veins and the aorta in the left ventri- 
 cle appeared to Praxagoras sufficient to explain the 
 presence of the pneuma in that ventricle, and conse- 
 quently in the arteries, and hence he gives to the 
 latter the name which had, until that period, been 
 applied only to the trachea. 
 
 Galen, who attributes to him the oj)inion that the 
 arteries, during life, are filled with air, is justly as- 
 tonished that he should, notwithstanding, have pre- 
 tended to judge of the state of the blood by feeling 
 the pulse, ashe did not admit the existence of that 
 fluid in the arterial vessels. If Praxagoras, however, 
 had been asked whence comes the blood which es- 
 capes from the artery when it is wounded, he would 
 have replied, when the artery receives any wound it 
 is in a preternatural condition, attracting the blood
 
 1 3 4 HIS TOR V OF MEDICINE. 
 
 from every part of the body, and thus causing it to 
 flow out. 
 
 •An erroneous opinion, common to Praxagoras, 
 Aristotle, and several others of the ancients, was 
 that the heart gives origin to all the ligaments, or 
 at least that the strongest ligaments are united in 
 that organ. Hippocrates likewise asserted, like all his 
 predecessors, that the arteries, in process of time, he- 
 come converted into ligaments, and acquire strength 
 in proportion to the diminution of their diameter. 
 
 Praxagoras in his practice wandered but little 
 from the principles of Hippocrates. He pretended 
 that intermittent fevers arise in the vena cava, pro- 
 bably from having remarked that the rigors com- 
 mence along the spine where that vein is situated. 
 In his surgical practice he was bolder than his pre- 
 decessors, for he removed the uvula in cases of in- 
 flammatory sore throat, and opened the cavity of the 
 abdomen in those aff*ected with the iliac passion for 
 the purpose of replacing the intestines in their na- 
 tural condition. 
 
 After the death of Alexander the extensive em- 
 pire of the Macedonian hero was dismembered, and in 
 the year 321 before Christ Egypt fell to his brother- 
 in-law, Ptolemy, surnamed afterwards Soter. Xot 
 only was this prince the protector and friend of the 
 learned, but all the sovereigns likewise of his time 
 encouraged science, and established large libraries. 
 The kings of Syria and of Pergamus were especially 
 distinguished for their endeavors to contribute to 
 the progress of human knowledge. This universal 
 disposition, and the establishments which were the
 
 BRILLIANT ERA OF THE PTOLEMIES. 135 
 
 consequence, necessarily increased the sphere of 
 knowledge as well as the numher of those who 
 cultivated it, corrected its imperfections, and rem- 
 dered it more useful in the commerce of life. 
 
 The Greeks were the first who inspired a taste 
 for study in Egypt and other countries. The inha- 
 bitants were not tardy in becoming initiated in all 
 the mysteries of Grecian philosophy, and thus a 
 degree of emulation sprang up in consequence, which 
 in the sequel was highly advantageous to all the 
 sciences. 
 
 Ptolemy Philadelphus and Ptolemy Euergetes, 
 who succeeded the founder of the kingdom of Egypt, 
 followed also his example, and spared no pains in 
 order to carry the sciences to the highest point of 
 splendor. The library and museum of Alexandria, 
 of which Ptolemy Soter had laid the first foundation, 
 was, under their reign, enriched with valuable ac- 
 quisitions. By the immense commerce which they 
 carried on in the Indian seas they furnished natu- 
 ralists with an opportunity of observing a multitude 
 of animals and vegetables unknown until that period, 
 and, lastly, they were the first who permitted phy- 
 sicians to open the bodies of the dead. They them- 
 selves did not disdain to study the human structure, 
 and thus rooted out the old prejudice which caused 
 anatomy to be ranked as amongst the greatest of 
 crimes. 
 
 Ptolemy Philadelphus rendered himself particu- 
 larly celebrated for his erudition. He had purchased 
 at Athens, Rhodes, and other places, a number of the 
 works of the ancient philosophers, and amongst
 
 1 3 6 HIS TOR V OF MEDICINE. 
 
 others those of Aristotle. His languishing state of 
 health, according to Strabo, compelled him to seek 
 all possible means of relaxation, and no study ap- 
 peared to him more captivating than that of natural 
 history. He kept at great expense hunters for taking 
 all kinds of wild animals, which were kept alive at 
 Alexandria. 
 
 During the constant wars which distracted the 
 successors of Alexander, the sciences were nowhere 
 cultivated with so much zeal as at Alexandria. 
 That city seemed to be in some measure the centre 
 of all knowledge and of the commerce of the whole 
 world, and its inhabitants preserved, until the reign 
 of the seventh Ptolemy, the peaceable enjoyment of 
 the advantages which they owed to the cultivation 
 of the sciences. That monarch was himself a learned 
 disciple of Aristarchus the rhetorician, and wrote a 
 large work on the natural history of animals. His 
 predecessors all followed the footsteps of Alexander 
 the Great, sparing no pains in embellishing the city 
 founded by that conqueror, and in forwarding the 
 progress of philosophy and of the sciences. 
 
 Alexandria became, under their reign, the centre 
 of information, the asylum of philosophers, of rheto- 
 ricians, and of physicians, who flocked thither from 
 every country of the civilized world, and its situation 
 and uniform mildness of climate contributed much 
 to render it an agreeable sojourn. The temple of 
 Serapis contained an immense collection of books, 
 which the Ptolemies had brought from all parts. 
 Aristotle was appointed. by Ptolemy Soter to form 
 and conduct this library, the number of works in
 
 CELEBRATED RIVAL LIBRARIES. 137 
 
 which is estimated by some authors as high as 
 700,000, although, according to others, it was not 
 greater than 500,000 at the time of Ptolemy Phik- 
 delphus. Ostentation, however, would seem to have 
 had the greatest share in the formation of that im- 
 mense collection, in which the kings of Egypt paid 
 more regard to the number than to the merit of the 
 works. 
 
 The establishment of these libraries occasioned 
 a singular rivalry between the Ptolemies and the 
 king of Pergamus. Eumenes had established one 
 at Pergamus which consisted of 200,000 volumes. 
 Those princes were desirous of surpassing each other 
 in the richness of their collections and in the price 
 which they paid for the works of the ancients, and 
 the rivalry extended so far, that Ptolemy forbade 
 the exportation of the papyrus, in order to deprive 
 the kings of Pergamus of the means of surpassing 
 him. The same jealousy also seems to have existed 
 between the successors of Ptolemy Philadelphus 
 and of Eumenes, under whom was discovered the 
 art of preparing parchment. 
 
 It would have been indeed astonishing if the re- 
 compenses accorded to those who discovered ancient 
 manuscripts had not induced many mercenary indi- 
 viduals to make interpolations, and to falsify im- 
 portant works for the purpose of acquiring money ; 
 and accordingly it is at this period that we may 
 date the origin of many interpolations of manuscripts 
 and the greatest number of doubtful works. Am- 
 monius informs us that Aristotle himself was not 
 spared; and a passage in Galen, which throws much
 
 138 HISTORY OF MEDICINE. 
 
 light on the prevailing spirit of the age, shows that 
 the name of Hippocrates was frequently used hy the 
 sophists to give a higher value to the opinions they 
 emitted. 
 
 The Ptolemies, moreover, had founded, in a part 
 of the chateau called Bruchium, a museum, accord- 
 ing to Suidas, established on the model of that of 
 Pero-amus. A number of learned men were there 
 entertained and pensioned by the State, enjoying 
 the privilege of making use of the library and the 
 collection on natural history. Public discussions were 
 there indulged, and, after the manner of the Olympic 
 games, prizes were awarded to the conquerors. This 
 institution became more especially celebrated as a 
 school of medicine; and, for a long time, it was suf- 
 ficient for a practitioner to say that he had studied 
 at Alexandria to give him reputation. 
 
 The prominent individuals who arrest our atten- 
 tion in the Alexandrian school, connected with the 
 medical profession, are Herophilus and Erasistratus, 
 according to Galen and Celsus the two greatest 
 anatomists known until that period. They both 
 lived in Egypt at the time of Ptolemy Soter. Hero- 
 philus, who was born at Chalcedonia, was probably 
 the older. It is certain that he dissected a number 
 of human bodies, whilst his predecessors were satis- 
 fied with opening animals. Celsus assures us that 
 he obtained permission to dissect living criminals, 
 and that he frequently profited by it. This tradi- 
 tion was believed, and was repeated by the fathers 
 of the church. However his knowledge was ob- 
 tained, the works of this physician were the more
 
 ANA TOMICAL DISCO VERIES OF HER OPHIL US. 139 
 
 useful to science, as his descriptions were not 
 formed from analogy, but drawn from nature her- 
 self; and he certainly made a number of discoveries. 
 One of the most important is that of the functions 
 of the nervous system. 
 
 Herophilus was the first who regarded the nerves 
 as organs of sensation. He was perfectly acquainted 
 with the brain, for he says that this viscus gives 
 rise to the nerves. "We possess, besides, some details 
 respecting the numerous discoveries with which he 
 enriched anatomy. He first described the vascular 
 membrane which lines the ventricle. He gave the 
 earliest description of the fourth sinus, to which the 
 term torcular Herophili has been assigned, and called 
 by the name of calamus scriptorius the longitudinal 
 fissure in the fourth ventricle. He described with 
 great accuracy the diflerent portions of the eye, and 
 discovered by dissection the greater part of the 
 membranes of that organ, giving them names by 
 which they are distinguished at the present day, the 
 retina, for example. He is said also to have first ope- 
 rated for the cataract by extraction of the crystalline. 
 
 Another discovery, and a no less important one, 
 was the distinction which he established between 
 the vessels of the mesentery proceeding to the liver 
 and those which, terminating in the mesenteric 
 glands, were subsequently called lacteal veins. He 
 did not, however, describe them so accurately as 
 Erasistratus. He was the first who called the intes- 
 tine duodenum by that name. His description of 
 the genital organs was very different from that of 
 his predecessors. He discovered the epididymis, but
 
 1 40 HIS TOR V OF MEDICINE. 
 
 does not appear to have suspected any use for it. 
 Scarcely had the natural pulsation of arteries been 
 discovered when Herophilus established a system on 
 the discovery. He observed the diiierence of those 
 pulsations as regarded their strength and velocity, 
 and remarked that it was not in the artery itself but 
 in the heart that the origin of the force which in- 
 duces pulsation should be sought after. 
 
 He rendered to the other branches of the healing 
 art less important services than to anatomy, in which 
 last branch he was so accurate that it was said of 
 him by Fallopius, one of the greatest anatomists of 
 the 16th century, that to contradict Herophilus in 
 anatomy was like contradicting the Gospel. This 
 doctrine of the pulse caused him to make researches on 
 symptomatology, which he divided into three parts: 
 diagnostics, or the signs distinguishing diseases ; 
 anamnestics, or the commemorative signs which dis- 
 cover the ]3receding state of the body ; and prognostics, 
 or the signs indicating the favorable or unfavorable 
 termination of the disorder. His opinions, however, 
 on this subject, as well as those of a practical nature, 
 are so wild and visionary as not to merit comment. 
 
 A physician not less celebrated than Herophilus 
 in the history of medicine was Erasistratus, who 
 probably lived at Alexandria in the time of Herophi- 
 lus, about 300 B.C. He was a disciple of Chrysippus 
 of Cnidos, of Metrodorus, and of Theophrastus, and 
 lived for some time at the court of Seleucus Xicator, 
 where a splendid cure is said to have obtained him 
 a brilliant reputation. Appian and Lucan give us 
 the most detailed account of this case without, how-
 
 ME Die A L SKIL L OF ERA SIS TEA TUS. 1 4 1 
 
 ever, naming Erasistratus, but Plutarch in relating 
 it expressly mentions him. Antiochus, son of Seleu- 
 cus, having become deeply enamored of his step- 
 mother Stratonice, concealed his passion, and at last 
 fell sick. The prince kept his bed, experienced no 
 pain, but became considerably reduced without its 
 being possible to discover the cause. Erasistratus, 
 having remarked the sunken state of his eyes, tHe 
 feebleness of his voice, the paleness of his complexion, 
 and the tears which he unconsciously shed, fancied 
 that he saw in the congeries of symptoms proofs of 
 a violent passion. In order to throw light on his 
 suspicion, and discover the object, he placed his hand 
 upon the heart of the patient, and had all the females 
 in the palace brought into the chamber, when An- 
 tiochus experienced no agitation ; but on the ap- 
 proach of Stratonice he immediately changed color, 
 his heart beat forcibly, he was covered with perspi- 
 ration, and seized with a general trembling. Appian 
 and Lucan render the subsequent part of the recital 
 no less interesting by detailing the adroit manner 
 in which Erasistratus announced the news to Seleu- 
 cus, and the generous conduct of the king. 
 
 Soon after this Erasistratus abandoned the practice 
 of medicine and went to Alexandria, where he de- 
 voted all his attention to theoretical speculation and 
 to anatomy. His remains were deposited on Mount 
 Mycale opposite Samos, whence arose the surname 
 of Samian which several authors have assigned him. 
 The profundity of his knowledge and his rare pro- 
 bity attracted around him so many friends and dis- 
 ciples that he passed generally for the first anatomist
 
 1 42 HISTOR Y OF MEDICINE. 
 
 and the greatest theorist of his age. Erasistratus 
 supposed digestion to be performed by attrition. 
 His own system of pathology rested on the idea of 
 the arteries containing only a spirit, and that diseases, 
 particularly fevers and inflammations, arose from 
 their admitting blood. He was afraid of bleeding 
 lest the blood should find a way from the veins to 
 the arteries, and he dreaded purging because Pytha- 
 goras had forbidden it. He reduced his patients by 
 abstinence or by violent exercise. Yenesection he 
 supplied by the use of ligatures round the limbs; 
 purgatives by slight emetics or by glysters. He 
 advised simple medicines, and reprobated in strong 
 language the complicated formulae of that era. 
 
 Erasistratus first observed the valves of the vena 
 cava and gave them the name of triglochine, by 
 which they are still frequently designated, although 
 more commonly by that of tricuspid. According to 
 Coelius Aurelianus, he practised surgery with so 
 much hardihood, that in abscesses of the liver and 
 spleen he did not hesitate to open the abdomen for 
 the purpose of applying the remedies immediately 
 to the parts diseased. 
 
 The chief of the followers of Herophilus and Era- 
 sistratus during the next three centuries were, Eu- 
 demus, Demetrius of Apamea, Mantias, Baccheius of 
 Tanagra, Zenon of Laodiceia, Apollonius of Citium, 
 Apollonius of Memphis, Callimachus, Callianax, 
 Chrysermus, Andreas of Carystus, Cydias, Heraclides 
 of Ery thraea, Apollonius of Tyre, Gains, Dioscorides, 
 Phacas, Straton of Berytus,Straton of Lampsacus,Ly- 
 con of Troas, I^icias of Miletus, Apollophanes, Arte-
 
 THE SURGEONS OF ALEXANDRIA. 143 
 
 midorus of Side, Charidemus and his son Hermogenes 
 of Tricea, Icesias and Menodorus, but they are spoken 
 of with but little respect by Galen, and are said to 
 have been arrogant and loquacious. It is somewhat 
 odd that not one of them has been celebrated for any 
 anatomical acquirements; and yet, although the 
 school of Alexandria, of which they were the sup- 
 porters, fell more and more into a state of decay from 
 the progress of the empirical and methodical sects, 
 it was kept up until the time of Galen. 
 
 The division, which was made about that time, of 
 medicine into surgery, dietetics, and rhizotomy or 
 pharmacy, occasioned, as Celsus has well remarked, 
 considerable progress in the art of surgery. The 
 surgeons of Alexandria, where surgery was first 
 successfully cultivated, performed the majority of 
 the most important operations. Philoxenus was the 
 first who distinguished himself by his dexterity. 
 He left several works on surgery, which are all lost. 
 Galen had preserved only a collyrium or eye-water 
 of his invention. Celsus speaks in eulogiums of a 
 person named Hero, who first taught that the epi- 
 ploon is frequently found contained in an umbilical 
 hernia. 
 
 Of all the operations, however, which were im- 
 proved at Alexandria, that for the stone is the one 
 which most merits our attention. Certain surgeons 
 in that great city confined themselves to it exclu- 
 sively, and were called lithotomists, as they are de- 
 nominated at the present day. The unhap]3y end 
 of Antiochus the Sixth, sumamed Theos, furnishes
 
 144 ' HISTORY OF MEDICINE. 
 
 US with a proof of the depraved condition of the 
 lithotomists of Alexandria. The usurper, Tryphon, 
 engaged some of them to propagate a report that 
 the young prince was affected with the stone, and 
 under pretext of freeing him from the disease he was 
 made to perish under the operation. 
 
 The school of Alexandria is also remarkable for 
 the attention paid to the improvement of surgical 
 apparatus. Amyntas of Rhodes was the author of 
 a bandage for fractures of the nose, Perigenes of 
 one for dislocation of the humerus, Pasicrates and 
 ^N'ileus invented the pleinthium, a species of square 
 box, furnished with pulleys, which was used in the 
 reduction of luxations of the humerus ; ^ymphodo- 
 rus a fracture-box for the extremities, etc. etc. 
 
 It is to be regretted that some of the works of 
 the physicians and surgeons of Alexandria have not 
 reached us. Even in the time of Julius Csesar the 
 celebrated library of the Bruchium had become a 
 prey to the flames, which devoured 400,000 volumes, 
 and doubtless destroyed a considerable number of 
 the works of the Alexandrians. It is true that 
 Egypt still possessed the library of the temple of 
 Serapis, and that Marc Antony made a present to 
 Cleopatra of that of Pergamus, which comprised, 
 according to Plutarch, 200,000 volumes, but the 
 loss of the royal library was not less irreparable. 
 
 It has been asserted that Herophilus taught the 
 obstetric art, and that a woman named Agrodicea 
 acquired so much dexterity in it that she obtained 
 permission to practise it, although those of her sex 
 were forbidden to exercise it ; but this latter asser-
 
 PROHIBITION TO YOUNG SURGEONS. 145 
 
 tion does not rest on a very clear foundation. It 
 would seem, however, that the exclusive practice of 
 particular branches of surgery was encouraged at 
 Alexandria, as a law existed prohibiting young 
 practitioners from undertaking the operation for 
 the stone, which was always left to the lithotomists. 
 
 10
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 THE EMPIRICAL SCHOOL. 
 
 Origin of the empirical sect — Views and tlieories of the empirics 
 contrasted with those of their predecessors — Traumatic theory 
 — Their neglect of anatomy and physiology — Distinguished fol- 
 lowers of this school. 
 
 If we apply the denomination of empirical to 
 those who, neglecting the study of the causes of 
 disease, confine themselves to the employment of 
 those means of which experience had demonstrated 
 to them the utility, the term is applicable to all the 
 physicians of antiquity. There did not, however, 
 exist until between the years 280 and 250 before 
 Christ an empirical sect, properly so called, distin- 
 guished b}^ the particular principles which they ad- 
 mitted. 
 
 The decaying condition of the dogmatic school, 
 and the change which had occurred in the prevail- 
 ing philosophy, were the causes which gave rise to 
 the empirics. Physicians had abandoned too soon 
 the route of observation which Hippocrates had 
 pointed out to them, and made use of the few dis- 
 coveries with which anatomy was enriched to es- 
 tablish on the functions of the body, in the state of 
 health or disease, fresh speculations which were not 
 founded on a sufficient number of observations. 
 Hence, theory succeeded theory with extreme rapi-
 
 THE RISE OF EMPIRICISM. 147 
 
 dity, and this circumstance, joined to the several 
 new medicines which the immense extent of com- 
 merce of the Ptolemies had made known, induced a 
 considerable number of physicians to attend exclu- 
 sively to the properties of drugs, without at all 
 attaching themselves to the theories of the dogma- 
 tists. 
 
 The extension of scepticism also contributed to 
 the rise of empiricism, the empirical school having 
 separated from the dogmatical a short time after 
 Pyrrho had become celebrated by the establishment 
 of his particular doctrine. Pyrrho was born in the 
 101st Olympiad, and probably died about the third 
 year of the 133d (288 years before Christ), and Phi- 
 LiNUS, founder of the empirical school, enjoyed his 
 greatest reputation during the same Olympiad. The 
 manner in which Pyrrhonism or scepticism in all 
 probability encouraged the empirical sect was by 
 inducing them to reject indiscriminately all the 
 dogmas which had been previously admitted, for so 
 they are asserted to have done. 
 
 The first empirics — by which is not to be under- 
 stood anything similar in character to the unprinci- 
 pled ]3retender of modern days, who has his nostrum 
 which he gives indiscriminately in all diseases, and 
 is also distinguished by the name of empiric — paid 
 particular attention to symptoms, without occupying 
 themselves with the causes of disease. By sub- 
 jecting the art of observing to fixed and invariable 
 rules, they rendered to the science a far more 
 important service than all the vague theories of the 
 physicians of antiquity, and improved it more than
 
 148 HISTORY OF MEDICINE. 
 
 all the speculations of the ancient dogmatic school. 
 The theories of the latter have been long buried in 
 oblivion, and now interest only the historian, whilst 
 the rules which the empirics have left us on the 
 manner of observing, although mixed up with 
 several absurdities, are still at the present day the 
 basis of our labors, and the touchstone of the con- 
 clusions which we draw from them. 
 
 The experience on which they rested was the 
 result of the most perfect induction. It was neces- 
 sary, before pretending to possess any rational 
 knowledge, to have observed the same cases several 
 times and under similar circumstances. Although 
 the empirics neglected the search into the causes 
 which do not fall under the senses, they attached 
 the more importance to the judicious selection of 
 those phenomena which might become an object of 
 observation, for it appeared to them wholly super- 
 fluous to attend to the most trivial symptoms of 
 disease. They besides carefully discriminated the 
 symptoms which essentially belong to the disease, 
 from those complicated with it. These cases the 
 physician was expected to retain in his memory, and 
 the name of theorem was appropriated to the re- 
 membrance of cases which they had observed. 
 Several such theorems rendered the physician capa- 
 ble of pretending to empiricism ; and the union of 
 all constituted medicine, observation and memory 
 forming its foundation. 
 
 The empirics admitted three distinct sources of 
 observation, according as they obtained it by some 
 fortunate accident, by inspection of the patient, or
 
 VIEWS OF THE EMPIRICS. 149 
 
 by a comparison with other similar cases, or by 
 analogy. 
 
 Empiricism or autopsy was consequently under- 
 stood, when an individual preserved the remembrance 
 of cases which had always been seen alike, and the 
 application of which might be made to any one 
 that presented itself But as all men are not placed 
 in circumstances which will permit them to observe 
 a sufficiently great number of morbid symptoms, it 
 is frequently necessary to have recourse to history, 
 which is nothing more than the remembrance of a 
 number of cases which have followed the same 
 march, and to which any one may arrive by an ac- 
 quaintance with the remarks of his predecessors. But 
 here it was required that they should be influenced 
 only by the most perfect possible induction. If, for 
 example, the critical character of an evacuation had 
 only been noticed by one physician, it could not be 
 depended upon; it was therefore necessary to ex- 
 amine the opinions of different practitioners and to 
 be guided by those of the majority. 
 
 It was necessary, again, that the observations 
 should have been made in the same manner, that the 
 circumstances should have been perfectly identical, 
 and particularly that the disease should not have 
 presented the least difference in its nature and 
 character. Thus, the remarks made by a physician 
 on inflammation were not considered to be appli- 
 cable to simple or ephemeral fever. To him who 
 knew how to profit by the observations of others with 
 all requisite prudence, and who consequently possessed 
 the history, it was not esteemed necessary that he
 
 15° 
 
 HISTOR Y OF MEDICINE. 
 
 should have observed himself. As we are able, from 
 the descriptions given by authors, to acquire a suf- 
 ficiently exact knowledge of a country which we 
 have never visited, so was it very properly considered 
 are we by attention to the writings of others able to 
 learn more, in the course of a long life, than if we 
 ourselves had observed the diseases for ages. 
 
 As personal observation, however, and the know- 
 ledge acquired in the works of practitioners were not 
 considered to be sufficient when new diseases pre- 
 sented themselves, or when medicines were employed 
 which had not previously been used, the founders of 
 the empirical school indicated a third method of ar- 
 riving at a knowledge of the curative means which 
 ought to be adopted. This was analogism, or a 
 comparison between the existing case and similar 
 ones. As Serapion had ranked this third method 
 amongst the number of the foundation stones on 
 which empiricism rested, observation, history, and 
 analogism were subsequently called the tripod of 
 that sect. 
 
 From this notice of the empirics it will be ob- 
 served that they really imitated Hippocrates, as they 
 adopted the same philosophy by which the Father of 
 Physic had produced the most happy and salutary 
 reform in medicine. But, although the principles 
 which they established greatly contributed to the 
 progress of the art, they were highly culpable in 
 neglecting all occult cases. K'othing, they main- 
 tained, is more useless than the desire to fathom 
 occult subjects; they are impenetrable, and no rea- 
 soning can make us acquainted with them. The
 
 SERAPION OF ALEXANDRIA. 151 
 
 physicians, they asserted, would be always at variance 
 with each other on those subjects, whilst there never 
 would be the least discussion raised on those pheno- 
 mena which strike the senses. They despised also 
 anatomy, that firmest support of medicine, and paid 
 no attention to it, but they agreed that where an 
 opportunity accidently occurred for examining the 
 structure of the body it ought to be embraced; and, 
 as the most frequent opportunities which were of- 
 fered to them were in cases of wounds, they thought 
 it necessary to give the name of traumatic theory to 
 the knowledge gained in that manner. 
 
 The dogmatists could never forgive the empirics 
 for attaching no value to physiology, and especially 
 for not taking into consideration the different powers 
 of the body. The efforts, indeed, of the empirics 
 seem to have had no other object than that of curing 
 diseases by the most suitable means. They occupied 
 themselves but very little with the physiological and 
 pathological speculations diffused about the same 
 time, and admitted only amongst the powers of the 
 body those the real existence of which experience 
 had proved. 
 
 Philinus of Cos, the disciple of Herophilus, was 
 the founder of the empirical school; but his suc- 
 cessor Sekapion of Alexandria appears to have 
 given to the system greater extension, so that by 
 some authors he has been considered as its inven- 
 tor. Serapion wrote against Hippocrates with much 
 vehemence, and busied himself almost exclusive- 
 ly with researches on drugs. Ccelius Aura4ianus, 
 in quoting his book Ad Sectas^ censures him for
 
 152 HIS TORY OF MEDICINE. 
 
 the acrid remedies which he prescribed in angina, 
 and reproaches him with having neglected dietetics. 
 It would seem, indeed, that in those remote ages a 
 multitude of superstitious remedies were used in 
 epilepsy; for Serapion, besides castor, recommended 
 the brains of the camel," the rennet of the sea-calf, 
 the excrement of the crocodile, the heart of the hare, 
 the blood of the turtle, and the testicles of the wild 
 boar. Several authors make mention of some other 
 preparations and antidotes which bear his name, and 
 not worth much more than the preceding. 
 
 The immediate followers of Serapion and of the 
 empirical sect during the next two centuries and a 
 half (B. C. 276-30) were Celsus, Glaucias, Baccheius 
 of Tanagra, Heraclides of Tarentum, Meander of 
 Colophon, and Menodotus of ISTicomedeia ; but 
 scarcely any of them made discoveries or promul- 
 gated sentiments of sufficient interest to be worthy 
 of notice. 
 
 The empirical school terminates the most ancient 
 period of the history of medicine, and that which 
 gives a type to the healing art of the subsequent 
 ages.
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 STATE OP MEDICINE NEAK THE DAWN OF THE CHRISTIAN 
 
 ERA. 
 
 Royal toxicologists — Rome a centre of attraction to the world — 
 Asclepiades and his views on anatomy, pathology, &c. — Bron- 
 chotomy first proposed — Disciples of Asclepiades — Themison 
 of Laodicea — First employment of leeching — Followers of 
 Themison — The methodic school. 
 
 The studies and the taste of the princes who 
 reigned at this period spread considerable light on 
 the materia medica, and advanced the knowledge of 
 poisons and antidotes to a higher degree than that 
 of any other branch of the science. Attains Philo- 
 metor, the last king of Pergamus (in the second cen- 
 tury B. C), was celebrated in antiquity for his skill 
 in medicine and his great knowledge of botany. He 
 cultivated in his gardens different poisonous plants, 
 as the hyoscyamus, aconite, hemlock, and hellebore, 
 with which he made experiments to ascertain the 
 efficiency of antidotes. Several remedies which he 
 prepared subsequently bore his name. The principal 
 were a plaster made with cerusse and an internal 
 remedy in jaundice. 
 
 Mithridates Eupator, king of Pontus, however, 
 surpassed him in general knowledge and in skill 
 in the healing art. This prince, who never re- 
 quired an interpreter when he received the ambas- 
 sadors of even the most remote nations, spoke two
 
 1 5 4 HIS TOR V OF MEDICINE. 
 
 and twenty languages, if we may credit Pliny. The 
 continued fear which he had of being poisoned 
 caused him to contract a habit of daily taking poi- 
 sons and antidotes, to habituate his body to the action 
 of toxical substances. He was also accustomed to 
 try on criminals the action of poisons and counter- 
 poisons. After his death Pompey seized on all his 
 goods, and found in his castle secret memoirs stating 
 that he had poisoned two individuals and treating 
 also of the interpretation of dreams. Pompey had 
 these books translated by his freedman Leucus. 
 Mithridates is especially celebrated for his antidote, 
 in which there were iifty-three ingredients. Two 
 plants bear his name, the eupatorium and a species 
 of garlic called mithridatium. 
 
 The victories of Lucullus and of Pompey in Greece 
 and in Asia first made known the Grecian ^^hilosophy 
 to the Romans. After that period, attracted by the 
 thirst of gain, philosophers, rhetoricians, poets, and 
 physicians came in crowds from Greece, Asia Minor, 
 and Egypt to Rome and into Italy, to display to the in- 
 habitants of the capital of the world, knowledge and 
 arts which were unknown to them. Of this number 
 was AscLEPiADES, who was born in Prusa, a city of 
 Bithynia, about ninety years before Christ. He was 
 by profession a rhetorician or Epicurean, and the 
 friend of Cicero. If we may credit the report of 
 Pliny, Asclepiades went to Rome without any know- 
 ledge of medicine ; and failing in his attempts as a 
 rhetorician, he with little iDieparation professed him- 
 self a physician. He was the first of this profession 
 who gained general esteem in the capital of the
 
 PECULIAR VIEWS OF ASCLEPIADES. 155 
 
 world, and whose name has reached posterity. Pliny 
 gives a long account of the artifices by which he at- 
 tained his reputation, but, as Dr. Parr has very cor- 
 rectly observed, they are such only as every fashion- 
 able physician employs, — pleasing the patient and 
 avoiding everything that can give uneasiness, till 
 nature cures or yields to the disease. 
 
 The philosophy of Asclepiades was that of Demo- 
 critus as reformed by Epicurus, and his physiology 
 rested on corpuscles or atoms flowing through invisi- 
 ble pores. The doctrines of Hippocrates respecting 
 the intelligence of nature and her influence in the 
 cure of diseases he rejected with contempt. He de- 
 nied even the power of attraction in the magnet. 
 Everything happened, in his opinion, from necessity, 
 and nothing without a cause ; nor was nature any- 
 thing but the body or its motions, and instead of 
 assisting it was usually injurious. His anatomical 
 knowledge was very imperfect, or he would not have 
 thought that the urine passed from the intestines into 
 the bladder through pores. Digestion was, in his 
 opinion, unnecessary; he supposed the food was car- 
 ried into the blood, and there attenuated till it was 
 adapted to the pores of the vessels which conveyed 
 it as nourishment. Hunger was induced by the re- 
 laxation of the larger and thirst by that of the smaller 
 pores. The faeces were not, he thought, excrementi- 
 tious, as some insects feed on them. 
 
 His pathology was of a similar complexion. In- 
 flammation was owing to obstruction either from the 
 magnitude, the figure, the multitude, or the rapid 
 motion of the atoms ; pain to obstruction from par-
 
 156 HISTORY OF MEDICINE. 
 
 tides of a large size, and the absence of the smaller 
 ones. Fainting, dropsies, and hectics arose from the 
 too great size of the pores ; and dropsies, in particu- 
 lar, he thought might be owing to the transudation 
 of the flesh, which then became water. Quotidians 
 were owing, in his opinion, to the obstruction of the 
 larger particles, tertians of the less, and quartans of 
 the least. He denied the existence of critical days. 
 
 As for his practical principles, the branch of 
 therapeutics is indebted to him for several important 
 remarks. He rejected violent remedies, particularly 
 emetics and purgatives, substituting for the latter 
 injections. He had frequently recourse to blood- 
 letting, especially in inflammations. He had but 
 little confidence in cupping, which he used only 
 when the fever had disappeared and the plethora 
 was not very considerable. Obstructions were best 
 removed, in his opinion, by friction, wine, gestation, 
 and bathing. He plumed himself on having first re- 
 commended frictions, and is minute in his directions 
 for their management. He first made use of the 
 shower-bath, if we are to so translate his halnece 
 pensiles, and frequently directed cold baths and af- 
 fusion with cold water. In violent angina, or sore 
 throat, he bled the patient in both arms, and was 
 the first that advised bronchotomy, or opening the 
 windpipe, to prevent the fatal effects of that com- 
 plaint. 
 
 Asclepiades was the founder of a school which 
 enjoyed great celebrity amongst the ancients, and 
 promulgated his principles with more or less modi- 
 fication. Amongst his disciples Stephanus of By-
 
 THE MIS ON OF LA DICE A. 1 5 7 
 
 zantium names Philonides of Dyrrachium, Aufidius 
 of Sicily, and ^Nico of Agrigentum, who flourished 
 about the middle of the century before Christ. 
 Marcus Artorius, the friend and physician of 
 Augustus, was also one of the disciples of Asclepi- 
 ades. Augustus said himself, in his memoirs, that 
 he owed his life to Artorius, because he, inspired by 
 a dream, persuaded him before the battle of Philippi 
 to be present notwithstanding his indisposition, by 
 which step he was prevented from falling into the 
 hands of the enemy when Brutus became master of 
 his camp. Artorius was lost at sea, a short time 
 after the battle of Actium, which took place 31 
 years before Christ. Clodius and Niceratus, whom 
 Coelius Aurelianus also ranks amongst the disciples 
 of Asclepiades, are less worthy of notice. 
 
 The most celebrated and the most important of 
 all the pupils of the Bithynian physician was The- 
 MisoN of Laodicea, founder of the Methodic School, 
 properly so called, who did much to rectify the prin- 
 ciples of Asclepiades, and to introduce greater pre- 
 cision into his system. Themison has been highly 
 extolled by his contemporaries and successors, and 
 his name was long synonymous with that of an able 
 physician. Juvenal, however, whether by way of 
 sarcasm or as a simple narrator of facts, is very 
 severe upon his medical powers : " Qiiot Themison 
 cegros autumno occiderat uno ;" " How many sick did 
 Themison destroy in one autumn ?" 
 
 Asclepiades principally considered the causes of 
 diseases, whilst Themison thought it only necessary 
 to connect them by some common symptom, and
 
 1 5 8 HISTOR Y OF MEDICINE. 
 
 divided diseases into the stricta^ laxa^ and mixta. By 
 these terms are not to be understood constricted and 
 relaxed fibres, or a mixture of both, but diseases at- 
 tended with impeded or increased secretions or too 
 great discharges from one part, or too little from 
 another. These principles formed a guide for physi- 
 cians, and hence the sect (from jue^oSoj, via) was styled 
 the methodic. In the first case, the stricta, Themison 
 directed evacuants ; in the second, the laxa, astrin- 
 gents ; and in the third or mixta, to oppose, by either 
 class of remedies, the most dangerous symptoms as 
 they may occur. Themison neglected the precepts 
 of Asclepiades in many resj^ects, particularly in 
 giving aloes and scammony. What we know, how- 
 ever, of his curative methods does not impress us 
 with a very high idea of his skill in the treatment 
 of disease. He recommended bleeding in apoplexy, 
 and also applied the trepan, probably with the view 
 of more certainly disgorging the bloodvessels. 
 
 He appears to have been the first who made use 
 of leeches ; he regarded the plantain as a universal 
 remedy, and wrote an ex professo treatise on the vir- 
 tues of that plant. Coelius Aurelianus relates a 
 singular fact of Themison, that, having been bitten 
 by a mad dog, or probably remaining too long with 
 a friend laboring under hydrophobia, he contracted 
 the same disease. He cured himself, but, when he 
 attempted to explain the method, he relapsed. This, 
 however, could only have been a high degree of hy- 
 pochondriasis. He was the author of several works, 
 from which Coelius Aurelianus has preserved short
 
 FREED MAN PHYSICIAN OF A UG USTUS. 1 5 9 
 
 extracts ; but there is nothing very important con- 
 tained in them. 
 
 Amongst his numerous disciples were Eudemus, 
 who advised the administration of clysters of cold 
 water in inflammation of the bowels, Vettius Valens, 
 and Antonius Musa. The latter, who lived a short 
 time after Themison, was the freed man of Augus- 
 tus, and is celebrated for a fortunate cure produced 
 on that emperor. Augustus had been for a long 
 time affected with a severe disease, respecting the 
 nature of which historians do not give us any 
 accurate information, and which the physicians had 
 aggravated by the administration of healing reme- 
 dies. Musa succeeded in curing him by the simple 
 use of cold bathing. Augustus and the Senate, out 
 of gratitude, not only accorded him a considerable 
 sum, but also decreed to him the title of knight, and 
 a statue of brass in the temple of ^sculapius. Dion 
 Cassius asserts that, emboldened by this brilliant 
 success, Musa also ordered cold bathing to Marcellus, 
 but it occasioned the young prince's death. Musa 
 introduced into medicine the flesh of the viper in 
 cases of malignant ulcers, as well as the lettuce, 
 chiccory, and endive. 
 
 The system of Themison seems to have had no 
 very violent opponent or defendant ; so far as we can 
 collect the opinions of physicians, they were divided 
 between the pores of Asclepiades and the strictum 
 or laxum of Themison, and practitioners would seem 
 to have reasoned with some freedom, though with 
 no striking marks of genius or ability.
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 STATE OF MEDICINE DURINa THE EARLY CENTURIES OF 
 THE CHRISTIAN ERA. 
 
 Cornelius Celsus, the medical Cicero — His views on anatomy, 
 surgery, etc. — Elegant Latinity of his works — Contempt of 
 Pliny for the Roman practitioners of this age — Medical preten- 
 sions of Thessalus Trallianus — Symmachus and his clinics — 
 The first medical lexicographer — The subdivisions of the me- 
 thodic sect — Aretseus and his medical practice — Medical writ- 
 ings of Soranus — Claudius Galenus (Galen), his life and ser- 
 vices, writings, etc. — The immediate successors of Galen — State 
 of medical literature at this period — School of Alexandria — 
 Study of medicine in Persia — Celebrated medical school at 
 Edessa, and its professors — Establishment of the first institu- 
 tion for clinical instruction. 
 
 Cornelius Celsus was one of the most distin- 
 guished ornaments of the methodic sect, who brought 
 back, or greatly contributed to bring back, physicians 
 to the patient study and observation recommended 
 by Hippocrates. Respecting this elegant writer, 
 this medical Cicero as he has been termed, we possess 
 but few details ; we know only that he received an 
 excellent education, that he embraced the methodic 
 sect when in its infancy, and that the work for 
 which he is celebrated formed only a small part of 
 a great encyclopedia. Although we have no sub- 
 stantial proofs that he was a physician, he has de-
 
 ANATOMICAL VIEWS OF CELSUS. i6l 
 
 scribed several operations too accurately not to have 
 seen them practised. 
 
 Bianconi presumes that Celsus was secretary to 
 Tiberius, and that he accompanied the emperor in 
 his expedition to the East ; an opinion which is prob- 
 able, for Horace in his Epistle to Florus speaks of 
 Celsus and of the compilation which he made from 
 the library of the Palatine Mount : — 
 
 "Let Celsus be admonished o'er and o'er, 
 To search the treasures of his native store : 
 Nor touch what Phoebus consecrates to fame, 
 Lest, when the birds their various plumage claim, 
 Stripp'd of his stolen pride, the crow forlorn 
 Should stand the laughter of the public scorn." 
 
 Hov. lib. 1, e'p. 3. 
 
 Bianconi also endeavors to prove that he was inti- 
 mately acquainted with Ovid. 
 
 In his work on agriculture, he treated of the vete- 
 rinary art. His books entitled I)e Re medicd, although 
 almost exclusively devoted to surgery, contain seve- 
 ral facts which permit us to form an idea of the 
 state of anatomy, of medicine properly so called, and 
 of the different other branches of the science at that 
 period. Celsus defends anatomy against the empirics, 
 who, as before observed, neglected it. The descrip- 
 tion which he gives of the structure of certain jDarts 
 proves that he had himself dissected human bodies ; 
 whilst that of others, on the contrary, — of the liver, 
 for example,^was evidently described from the or- 
 ganization of animals. He does not always distin- 
 guish arteries from veins, and had not a very correct 
 11
 
 1 6 2 HIS TORY OF MEDICINE. 
 
 idea respecting the nerves, for he sometimes gives 
 that name to tendons and even to muscles. 
 
 Several of his principles on semeiology, or symp- 
 tomatology, and on clinical or bedside medicine, are 
 derived from the writings of Hippocrates and of the 
 ancient Greeks. Some resemble those of Asclepiades 
 and Themison. He rejects the critical days, recom- 
 mends and censures, as the case may be, in different 
 placeSjthe use of purgatives, particularly recommends 
 friction, exercise, and bathing in chronic affections, 
 and first speaks of the utility of analeptic, or nu- 
 tritive, glysters. He was, however, tinctured with 
 considerable suj^erstition, and mentions with confi- 
 dence several superstitious medicines for the cure of 
 epilepsy, as the warm blood of a recently slain gladi- 
 ator or a certain portion of human or horse fiesh. 
 
 Some of his surgical precepts may be advantage- 
 ously followed even at the present day. His method 
 for performing the operation of lithotomy, the mode 
 of extracting stone from the bladder by the smaller 
 app)aratus, has been strongly supported in modern 
 times, and is more especially applicable to children. 
 His rules relative to the application of the trepan 
 merit great commendation, taking into account the 
 time at which they were written. At that period 
 obstetrics, or the art of midwifery, was in a very 
 rude state ; it was^ confined to the forcible extrac- 
 tion of the child, which was frequently pulled with 
 such violence as to be taken away piecemeal. 
 
 Cataract was removed by depression. Celsus also 
 speaks of some particular operations performed in 
 his time at Rome, as, for example, the formation of
 
 SURGERY OF CELSUS. 163 
 
 an artificial prepuce in cases where the original does 
 not cover the glans, and of infibulating boys in 
 order to preserve their voice for the purpose of sing- 
 ing, and gladiators to preserve their strength by 
 keeping them from venereal excesses. ''The skin 
 that covers the glans," he observes, "is extended and 
 marked on both sides with ink, where it may be 
 perforated, and then it is let go. If these marks 
 return upon the glans, too much has been taken up, 
 and it ought to be marked nearer the extremity ; if 
 the glans is not reached by them, that part is proper 
 for the fibula. Then where the marks are, the skin 
 is pierced by a needle followed by a thread, and the 
 two ends of this thread are tied together, and moved 
 every day, till small cicatrices are formed about the 
 orifice. When these are confined the thread is taken 
 out, and a fibula or clasp put in ; and the lighter it 
 is, so much the better. But the operation," he wisely 
 remarks, "is more frequently needless than neces- 
 sary." 
 
 Celsus may be considered rather as an epitome of 
 the maxims of his predecessors than himself an ob- 
 ject of historical research ; those, however, who are 
 anxious to study the opinions and practice of the 
 ancient physicians will find them correctly detailed 
 in his works. They are worthy of perusal as a spe- 
 cimen of the most elegant Latinity Avith which medi- 
 cal literature has been enriched. 
 
 Plin}^ has been reproached with bearing an im- 
 placable hatred to the physicians, his contempo- 
 raries, and with painting them in the most odious 
 colors. There is not the least reason, however, for
 
 1 64 HI ST OR V OF MEDICINE. 
 
 regarding as a calumny all that he has said of the 
 Roman practitioners, and the contempt with which 
 he speaks of them is not wholly unmerited. At the 
 period of which we are now detailing the history, 
 the capital of the world was inundated with physi- 
 cians, whose principal aim appeared to be to acquire 
 riches and honors, to elevate their own schools on the 
 ruins of the ancient, and .to blind the people by the 
 establishment of new systems or by the invention of 
 obsolete modes of treatment. 
 
 Amongst others, Crixas, a physician of Marseilles 
 (A.D. 54-68), introduced astrology into medicine, 
 and was desirous of subjecting the regimen of the 
 sick to the course of the stars ; and, notwithstanding 
 these absurdities, he acquired a sufficiently large for- 
 tune to fortify, at his own expense, several towns of 
 his own country. 
 
 Thessalus Tralliaxus (A.D. 54-68), however, sur- 
 passed all his contemporaries, and perhaps all his 
 predecessors, in the low manoeuvres of charlatanry. 
 His father was of the lowest rank, and Thessalus 
 himself without the advantag-es of education. This 
 is the account, indeed, of Galen, who, on every oc- 
 casion, eagerly censures him; but Pliny as well 
 accuses him of the most disgusting arrogance and 
 the most consummate ignorance. A man, says 
 Sprengel, who heaped the most gross epithets on 
 the ancients, who cited them all before his tribu- 
 nals, and was at once judge and party, who gave 
 himself the title of chief of physicians, because he 
 believed himself to excel all other practitioners; a 
 man so little versed in the literature of the Greeks
 
 A SATIRE ON CLINICAL TEACHING. 165 
 
 that he accused Hippocrates of having killed his 
 patients by overloading them with nourishment; a 
 man who had the audacity to write to I^ero that his 
 predecessors had contributed nothing to the progress 
 of science; a man, finally, who flattered the great, 
 and boasted of beins; able to teach the healino- art 
 in six months ; has such a man any right to pretend 
 to the esteem of posterity? He had, in fact, at- 
 tracted a great number of disciples, but they were 
 all rope-makers, cooks, butchers, weavers, tanners, 
 and, in a word, artisans, whom he took for six 
 months to visit patients, and then accorded them 
 the privilege of killing with impunity. 
 
 The custom followed by physicians of taking their 
 students with them is satirized by Martial in the 
 following epigram: — 
 
 "Languebam ; sed tu comitatns protinus ad me 
 Venisti centum, Symmache, discipulis. 
 Centum me tetigere manus, aquilone gelatse ; 
 Non habui febrem, Symmache, nunc habeo." 
 
 Martial., lib. 5, ep. 9. 
 
 I send for Symmaclms ; he 's here, 
 
 A hundred pupils following in his rear. 
 
 They feel my pulse, with hands as cold as snow ; 
 
 I had no fever then, I have it now. 
 
 The system of Thessalus differed but little from 
 that of Asclepiades and Themison. It is, however, 
 scarcely capable of being rendered intelligible. He 
 made use of the ideas of Asclepiades relative to the 
 relationship between the primary corpuscles and 
 their pores, to establish a new indication which was 
 to be followed up when the ordinary signs of strictum 
 and laxum failed. This new indication he called
 
 1 6 6 HIS TORY OF MEDICINE. 
 
 metasj'n crisis, or the restoration of the relationship 
 which, in a natural state, exists between the pores 
 and the corpuscles. 
 
 Galen accuses him of not having the least idea of 
 the action of medicines, although he had written 
 upon the subject. The chief works of Thessalus, 
 quoted by Coelius Aurelianus, relate to diet ; but 
 G-alen mentions his name connected with a subject 
 of surgery, which leads us to suppose that he may 
 have written some surgical tract. Xone of his prac- 
 tical opinions are worthy of notice. 
 
 About the period embraced by the methodic sect 
 lived EuFUS Ephesius (A.D. 98-117), who was per- 
 haps the first medical lexicographer, as well as 
 Erotian, whose " Lexicon Hippocraticum" is still a 
 work of great value. In this era also, from the age 
 of E'ero to that of Trajan, lived Dioscorides and 
 Pliny.^ 
 
 The sect of the methodists was, however, at no 
 period very generally followed, and about this time 
 it was subdivided into many others. One of these, 
 the Episynthetics as it was termed by its founder, or 
 Eclectic sect, endeavored to reconcile the various 
 discordant opinions of difterent authors, and to se- 
 lect from each system what seemed the most philoso- 
 phical. The chief of the eclectics was Agathinus of 
 Sparta ; and of its supporters, Archigenes of Apamea 
 and Philip of Cffisarea. 
 
 * The extensive Tvork of the latter on natural history has 
 furnished several data for this medical history, and the depart- 
 ment of materia medica is considerably indebted to both these 
 authorities.
 
 ARETjEUS. 167 
 
 Another sect into which the methodists were sub- 
 divided was the Pneumatic. The chief of this sect 
 was Athen^eus of Attaleia, a man whose system, 
 according to Galen, was polished with greater skill 
 than that of any of his contemporaries. Athe- 
 neeus supposed that fire, air, water, and earth were 
 not really elements, but that their qualities, heat, 
 cold, dry, and moist, merited that title. Like the 
 Stoics, he introduced a fifth principle, viz., a spirit 
 or air governing and directing everything, and oc- 
 casionally when ofiended inducing diseases. From 
 this same principle it is that they were styled Pneu- 
 matists. 
 
 The fame, however, of all the followers of Athenseus 
 was eclipsed by that of Aret^us. It is a singular 
 circumstance that he never mentions Galen, nor did 
 any person notice him prior to Aetius. He was 
 educated in the principles of the pneumatic school, 
 and subsequently embraced those of the eclectic and 
 partly of the pneumatic. His language has always 
 been esteemed for its luminous terseness. The 
 nerves, he supposed, did not grow from their origin 
 to their termination in straight lines, but crossed 
 each other in the form of an X, passing in this way 
 to opposite sides. He thus explains why, where the 
 head has been injured on one side, the disease is felt 
 on the side opposite. 
 
 His practice was without question the most judi- 
 cious of the ancient physicians, and was infinitely 
 more simple and rational than could be expected in 
 one of that age. He employed few and almost al- 
 ways simple medicines, and was particularly fond of
 
 1 68 HISTORY OF MEDICINE. 
 
 giving emetics, especially the white hellebore. He 
 used the most active purgatives, and bled frequently 
 and freely from different parts, although he argued 
 against the refinement of some practitioners, who 
 preferred small veins, which are only the branches of 
 those whence blood is usually taken. He employed 
 arteriotomy, cupping-glasses, and leeches, but pre- 
 ferred curing acute diseases by diet. He gave wine 
 more freely than former physicians, and employed 
 opiates with little reserve. The castor was one of his 
 most favorite remedies as a nervous and antispas- 
 modic, thinking it also a promoter of digestion. He 
 administered it in almost all chronic diseases. He 
 recommended asses', mares', sheep's, and woman's 
 milk, used frictions and the actual cautery, and ad- 
 vised the operation of lithotomy. Practitioners, in 
 short, of any age will derive from Aretseus the most 
 wise and useful medical observations. His practice 
 was active, enlightened, and discriminating. 
 
 An author of the era of the methodic sect was Sora- 
 Nus of Ephesus (A.D. 98-138) ; his works have been 
 lost, which is a source of regret, as G-alen, who omits 
 no opportunity of criticizing the methodics, speaks 
 respectfully of Soranus. They were translated in a 
 barbarous style by Coelius Auroelianus, but even in 
 this dress they have reached us in an imperfect state. 
 Yet, from Coelius, we have the only systematic and 
 connected views of the methodic doctrine, for by 
 Soranus only was it brought to a perfect state. It 
 has been, indeed, generally conceived that the writ- 
 ings published under the name of Coelius Aurelianus 
 were due to Soranus.
 
 PNE UMA TIC AND E CLE C TIC SCHO OLS. 169 
 
 As the cycles of the methodists are often men- 
 tioned in medical works, a brief description of their 
 meaning will not be inappropriate. The cycles were 
 periods supposed to consist of three days each, or 
 combinations of three, and during these the same 
 plans of treatment were continued, but at the end 
 of each cycle the exertions were increased so as at 
 last to rise to the most active measures. The re- 
 sumptive cycle consisted of common foods ; the meta- 
 syncritic of a more acrid and stimulating diet, with 
 frictions, baths, rubefacients, sternutatories, &c. The 
 cyclus vomitorius was distinguished into two, accord- 
 ing as the vomits accompanied the sparer diet of the 
 first, or the more stimulating diet of the second. 
 Each cycle consisted of four diatritio, though some- 
 times prolonged to sixteen days ; the additional 
 diatritios containing four days. 
 
 Several other physicians and surgeons of the 
 pneumatic and eclectic schools followed Aretseus or 
 were his contemporaries, but it is only necessary to 
 state the names of the chief of them, such as Cassius 
 the lathrosophist, Herodotus, a pupil of Agathinus, 
 Magnus of Ephesus, Heliodorus, a celebrated sur- 
 geon under Trajan, Antyllus, Philagrias, and Leo- 
 nides of Alexandria. The three last mentioned 
 flourished, however, a century or two later. They 
 all published works on different branches of the 
 healing art, but we only know of them by the ex- 
 tracts given by Aetius and others. 
 
 Of all the ph^^sicians of antiquity, not one per- 
 haps possessed a more brilliant genius or more ex-
 
 I 70 HIS TOR Y OF MEDICINE. 
 
 tensive erudition than Claudius Galenus of Perga- 
 mus, who was born during the reign of the Emperor 
 Adrian, not, as Dr. Parr asserts, under that of Severus. 
 At the time of his appearance the schools of medi- 
 cine were a prey to the most pernicious dissensions ; 
 the partisans of the schools of Erasistratus, of Hippo- 
 crates, Herophilus, and of the empirical, methodical, 
 eclectic, and pneumatic sects, divided in their opin- 
 ions, agreed but in one point, that of converting 
 medicine into a tissue of frivolous subtleties and use- 
 less discussions. In the midst of this disorder Galen 
 appeared, and led back to the safer road of patient 
 thinking and accurate observation which so much 
 distinguished the Hippocratic school. 
 
 This extraordinary man was born at Pergamns in 
 Asia Minor, in the 132d year of the vulgar era. In 
 his writings he has suffered no opportunity to escape 
 him of representing his father, whose name was 
 !N"ico, and who followed the profession of an archi- 
 tect, as well informed, active, and of an excellent 
 character, but he relates a multitude of scandalous 
 anecdotes of his mother Xantij^pe. His father gave 
 him an excellent education, and himself initiated 
 him in the mysteries of the Aristotelian philosophy. 
 He afterwards studied philosophy under a Platonist 
 named Gains, a stoic and an epicurean. AVhen still 
 young, he had made such progress in the stoical 
 dialectics that he wrote commentaries on the dialectics 
 of Chrysippus ; but he himself thought but little of 
 that production. He asserts also that but for the 
 natural spirit with which he was endowed, and the
 
 GALEN, 171 
 
 mclinatiou which he felt for geometrical demonstra- 
 tions, he would infallibly have sunk into the dark- 
 ness of Pyrrhonism. A dream determined his father 
 to educate him for the practice of medicine. 
 
 Satyrus, a skilful anatomist for the times, and a 
 disciple of Quintus, then much celebrated ; Strato- 
 nicus, a physician of the Hippocratic school, and 
 ^schrion, attached to the sect of the empirics, taught 
 him in turn the principles of their systems. After 
 the death of his father, young Galen, aged twenty- 
 one, went to Smyrna to hear the lectures of Pelops, 
 a disciple of I^umesianus, and those of the Platonist 
 Albinus. Thence he returned to Corinth in order 
 to study under Kumesianus, a celebrated philosopher, 
 and disciple of Quintus. Soon afterwards he travelled 
 for the purpose of adding to his knowledge, and es- 
 pecially of acquiring novelties in natural history. 
 Amongst others he journeyed over Lycia to seek for 
 the black ashes, a species of bitumen, and subse- 
 quently passed into Palestine to collect the asphaltes 
 of the Dead Sea. 
 
 At this period Alexandria was in some measure 
 the centre of the learned world ; and the best title of 
 recommendation, as we have had occasion previously 
 to observe, to a physician, was to have studied in 
 that city. Galen therefore resolved to stay some 
 time there and to improve himself in anatomy, which 
 was nowhere cultivated with so much zeal. Hera- 
 clianus, respecting whom we know nothing more, 
 is the one of all his masters of whom he speaks in 
 the highest terms. At the age of twenty-eight he 
 returned to his own country, where the priests of ^s-
 
 1 7 2 HIS TORY OF MEDICINE. 
 
 culapius and the gymnasiarchs in the neighborhood 
 of the temple placed the athletse, or wrestlers, under 
 his care. 
 
 A revolt which took place at Pergamus was the 
 occasion of his quitting that city, and the advantages 
 which oiiered themselves to the Greek physicians 
 induced him to choose the capital of the world for 
 his residence. He was then thirty-four years of age. 
 Here his successful practices, his extreme sagacity 
 in prognosis, and his great knowledge of anatomy 
 were not long in giving him so much celebrity that 
 he became an object of jealousy to all the physicians 
 of Eome. Several of the grandees and philosophers 
 of the empire persuaded him to open public lectures 
 on anatomy, but he connected himself more espe- 
 cially with the Consul Boethius, the philoso]3hers 
 Eudemus and Alexander of Damas, and with Severus 
 who subsequently wore the imperial purple. 
 
 It is presumable that his practice at Rome was 
 never very extensive, as he mentions having gone 
 twice a day into the country to visit one of his ser- 
 vants who was laboring under ophthalmia. Accord- 
 ing to his own account, observing the implacable 
 hatred of the Eoman physicians, who heaped upon 
 him the most offensive epithets, he determined on the 
 breaking out of a destructive epidemic to set off for 
 Brinde, where he embarked for Glreece. 
 
 Some have, however, narrated this event in a 
 manner not quite so honorable to Galen, by asserting 
 that his fear on the breaking out of the plague was 
 thesolereasonfor his quitting the city and depriving 
 it of his valuable assistance. He was at this period
 
 INTERESTING POINTS IN GALEN'S CAREER. 173 
 
 ill his thirty-fifth year, when he visited different 
 parts of Palestine and the Isle of Cyprus, with a 
 view of improving himself in natural history, and 
 returned again to Rome, in spite of the hatred of 
 his brethren, which he asserts had previously driven 
 him away. In fact, about a year after he had left 
 that city, the Emperors Marcus Aurelius and Lucius 
 Verus being at Aquileia, where they were preparing 
 for war ao-ainst the Marcomanni and other Germanic 
 nations, he was called in to attend upon them. At 
 Aquileia he remained with them for some time, but 
 a plague having broken out in the environs, and 
 Lucius Verus having died of it, terror again pos- 
 sessed him, and he returned to Rome, where he was 
 appointed physician to the young Emperor Com- 
 modus. 
 
 The year at which he returned to his country is 
 not known, nor is the period of his death. One pas- 
 sage in his writings clearly proves that he was still 
 living under the reigns of Pertinax and of Septimus 
 Severus, who ascended the Imperial chair one hun- 
 dred and ninety-seven years after Christ. Suidas 
 asserts that he lived to the age of seventy. 
 
 The differences of sentiment which reigned at that 
 period had inspired Galen with a disgust for all sects, 
 and the study which he had made of the different 
 systems taught him the defects of each, but occa- 
 sioned also that discordance in his opinions, which 
 frequently degenerates into contradiction. 
 
 Although he asserts that the enemies of Hippoc- 
 rates were either ignorant or punctilious dialecticians 
 whose discussions are frequently repugnant to the 
 most common sense, he is not himself entirely free
 
 1 74 IIISTOR V OF MEDICINE. 
 
 from that reproach. His works are not exempt from 
 subtleties which ought to be attributed to the dia- 
 lectic method generally adopted in all the medical 
 schools. Although he declared that he had no wish 
 to dispute about words, we cannot help observing 
 several real disputes respecting words in more than 
 one place of his writings. He endeavors to excuse 
 his prolixity by the necessity for completely refuting 
 his adversaries, whom he on all occasions loads 
 with the most gross abuse ; pretends to have always 
 avoided repetition, although a perusal of his writ- 
 ings discovers them every instant, and in vain 
 attempts to prove that he is devoid of pretension, 
 that he attaches no value to the suffrages of men, 
 that truth and the progress of science are the ends 
 of his exertions, and that on this account he never 
 put his name at the head of his works. 
 
 Notwithstanding all these assertions, he had an 
 overweening idea of his own merit, and had the in- 
 sufferable vanity to assert in the ninth book of the 
 eight chapter, " de Methodo medendi ad Glaiiconem^'' 
 that if Hippocrates had rendered a service to medicine 
 by opening the true road, it was he who had removed 
 all difficulties : that he first had shown the true me- 
 thod of treating disease, and that he had produced 
 in medicine, what Trajan had done for the Roman 
 Empire, a considerable extension of its limits. 
 
 The following are the principal services rendered 
 by Galen to each branch of the healing art, com- 
 mencing with anatomy. Galen, as before observed, 
 was instructed on this subject at Alexandria, the 
 cradle of anatomy. Without devoting himself to
 
 MEDICAL SERVICES OF GALEN. 175 
 
 very minute researches, he properly regarded it as the 
 foundation of the healing art. He appears, however, 
 on very few occasions to have added to the discove- 
 ries of his predecessors by opening dead bodies, and 
 nowhere mentions having drawn his descriptions 
 from inspection of the human subject, speaking only 
 of his numerous dissections of monkeys and other 
 animals. He expresses his happiness at having been 
 able to observe at Alexandria two human skeletons, 
 one of which was that of a robber who had been de- 
 prived of se]Dulture, and he advises those who would 
 study osteology to repair to that city. He recom- 
 mended also those kinds of monkeys to be dissected 
 whose structure approximated the nearest to that of 
 man, in order that they might not be embarrassed 
 when an opportunity presented itself for opening a 
 dead body. 
 
 The inaccurate application of observations miade 
 on animals is particularly manifest in his osteology. 
 The sacrum, he asserts, is formed only of three por- 
 tions, and the coccyx in some measure constitutes a 
 fourth. Seven distinct species, he asserts, compose 
 the sternum or breast bone. In myology, or the 
 knowledge of the muscles, he has made some im- 
 portant discoveries. He first observed the poplitseus 
 muscle and the platysma myoides. He pretends also 
 to have discovered, and has certainly described with 
 accuracy, the origin of the tendo Achillis. His 
 angeiology is not much more complete than that of 
 Herophilus and Erasistratus. As a proof of this he 
 asserts that the veins arise in the liver and the arte- 
 ries from the heart, although both originate from the 
 latter.
 
 1 7 6 HIS TORY OF MEDICINE. 
 
 The pathology of G-alen has made considerable 
 noise in the medical world, and for a space of six- 
 teen hundred years was almost implicitly followed. 
 He gave to every change in the humors the name of 
 putridity, which is said to take place whenever any 
 humor in a state of stagnation is exposed to a high 
 temperature without evaporating. Hence, the sedi- 
 ment in the urine was esteemed a proof of putridity. 
 Previous to every fever, he asserts, there is a 
 species of putridity which occasions preternatural 
 heat; this becomes the cause of fever, because the 
 heat and arterial system take part in it. All fevers 
 proceed from a degenerate condition of the humors, 
 with the exception of the ephemera or dry fever, 
 which is owing to a particular state of the pneuma 
 or spirit. Amongst intermittent fevers, Galen at- 
 tributes" the quotidian to derangement of the phlegm, 
 the tertian to that of the bile, and the quartan to 
 the putrescence of the atrabile or black bile; this 
 latter humor, he conceives more difficult to put in 
 motion, and requiring the longest time for the pro- 
 duction of the paroxysms. 
 
 Galen accounts for inflammation by the introduc- 
 tion of the blood into a part which did not previ- 
 ously contain it. If the pneuma insinuates itself 
 along with the blood, the inflammation is then 
 pneumatoid; if the blood be alone, the inflamma- 
 tion is then pure or phlegmonoid; cedematoid if 
 accompanied with phlegm; erysipelatoid when uni- 
 ted with bile, and scirrhous if joined with atra- 
 bile. The terms phlegmonoid and erysipelatoid 
 liave since been used to designate different characters
 
 INFLUENCE OF GALEN S DOCTRINES. 177 
 
 of inflammation, although they are now accounted 
 for more philosophically than in the absurd manner 
 of Galen. 
 
 Galen professed to select from each of his prede- 
 cessors what was most valuable, but he has almost 
 exclusively confined himself to commenting on and 
 illustrating the works of Hippocrates, which he 
 thought succeeding physicians had either misunder- 
 stood or misrepresented. He seems, notwithstand- 
 ing, to have taken the qualities of the four elements 
 from Athenseus ; and, though Hippocrates mentions 
 somcAvhat obscurely the pneuma or spirit, Galen 
 would seem to have borrowed his pneuma from the 
 pneumatic sect of which we have previously spoken. 
 
 The life and opinions of Galen have befen sketched 
 at some length on account of the very extensive in- 
 fluence which the latter had on succeeding' genera- 
 tions of physicians, and even still have in some 
 parts of the world. In proof of this blind enthu- 
 siasm for his opinions, it may be remarked that 
 Massaria, a professor of Pavia in the 16th century, 
 absolutely declares that he would rather err with 
 Galen than be right with any other physician. The 
 doctrine of concoction, first broached by Hippo- 
 crates, but established in the school of Galen, was, 
 as has been very properly observed, one of the most 
 fatal that has ever been promulgated. By this term 
 was understood such a change in the morbid matter, 
 by the power of nature, generally with the assist- 
 ance of art, as renders it fit for separation from the 
 healthy parts of our fluids, and to be thrown out of 
 our bodies. 
 12
 
 1 78 HIST OR V OF MEDICINE. 
 
 His doctrine, as applied to fevers, exerted the 
 most injurious agency. It prevented the adminis- 
 tration of all-important means in the early stages 
 of the disease, leaving the patients to its ravages, 
 and when the idea was added that heat was -the in- 
 strument by which the favorable change was effected, 
 the miseries of the sufferers were considerably aug- 
 mented. The curtains were drawn, the doors and 
 windows shut, the fires large and kept up, and the 
 food and medicines of the most heating kind ; all 
 diametrially oj^posite to the practice found to be so 
 highly beneficial at the present day. 
 
 The theories of this writer, and the practice 
 founded upon them, are now almost universally 
 exploded, and they are principally referred to as 
 chronicles of the state of medical science at this 
 time. His book "<i6 Tuendd Valetudine,'' and an- 
 other entitled " de Teinperamentis,'" afford an exam- 
 ple of his opinions, the former of his practical, the 
 latter of his hypothetical and controversial. 
 
 Of the immediate successors of Galen during the 
 third and fourth centuries, the most eminent were 
 Marcellus of Side in Pamphilia, who wrote forty- 
 two books on medicine in hexameter verses, Sam- 
 monicus Serenus, the father and son, Yindicianus, 
 Theodorus Priscianus, and Sextus Placitus Papiensis, 
 who recommended the heart of the hare to be placed 
 upon the neck for the cure of a quartan fever, and 
 a boiled new-born puppy to be eaten to preserve the 
 patient from colic for the remainder of his life. 
 
 About this time medical literature had sunk to a 
 very low pitch, and was principally occupied by the
 
 MEDICINE IN THE EARL V CENTURIES. 179 
 
 effusions of certain monks, the absurdity of whose 
 works is exemplified in those of Marcellus Empiri- 
 cus of Bourdeaux, who recommended in case of a 
 stye seated on the right eyelid, that it should be 
 touch(# with three fingers of the left hand, the 
 patient spitting, and saying three times, "iV^ec mula 
 iparit^ nee lapis lanamfert; nee hide morbo caput crexat, 
 auf si C7^eve7it, tabeseat,'^ and a number of similar ri- 
 diculous ceremonies. 
 
 During the first centuries, indeed, of the Christian 
 era, theosophy had considerable influence over the 
 schools in which medicine was taught. In the first 
 century the opinion generally received was that the 
 apostles had obtained the faculty of curing all diseases 
 by means of the simple apposition of the hands or 
 by inunction with holy oils and ointments ; and it 
 was believed that the disciples of Christ had trans- 
 mitted the power which they had received from 
 their master to the elders of each community. Thus, 
 tradition unfolds to us the history of incredible cures 
 performed by the shade of St. Peter, by St. Martin 
 of Tours, &c. 
 
 These circumstances, which might be readily mul- 
 tiplied, are suflicient to exhibit the causes which 
 arrested the progress of medicine and retarded the 
 advancement of science. In the 4th century Chris- 
 tianity had extended through the Roman empire, 
 and, for the reasons just mentioned, medical educa- 
 tion in the public schools was everywhere totally 
 neglected, if we except at Alexandria, where, even 
 at tliat period, it was held in some account. Zeno 
 of Cyprus attracted thither numbers of students,
 
 i8o HISTORY OF MEDICINE. 
 
 and it was from this school that emanated the cele- 
 brated individual to be now mentioned. 
 
 About the latter end of the 4th century Oribasius 
 of Pergamus or of Sardis, who was physician to the 
 Emperor Julian, lived. At that monarch's request 
 he made extracts from all the works left by the an- 
 cients, arranged them in a methodical order, and 
 divided them into seventy books, of whicli we at 
 the present day possess only seventeen. He subse- 
 quently extracted from this collection the most im- 
 portant part of its contents, and composed a book of 
 it, which he called a Synopsis. 
 
 In these compilations we seek in vain for any new 
 idea, but they are of the highest value to the histo- 
 rian, and may be consulted with advantage by him 
 who is anxious to learn the ideas of several great 
 writers of antiquity. Distinct from these compila- 
 tions, however, Oribasius published several works of 
 his own, which, although they contain but little new, 
 show that he was, for the times in which he lived, 
 well informed in his profession. 
 
 About the same era lived ^emesius, first bishop 
 of Emesa, who wrote a work entitled '-'-de Naturd 
 Hiimand." His physiology will be understood when 
 it is stated that he believed the semen to be prepared 
 in the brain, that it descended afterwards by the 
 vessels which exist behind the ears, distributed itself 
 over the whole body, and was finally deposited in the 
 testicle. JBetween the time of Oribasius and that 
 of Aetius of Amida not one name occurs which is 
 worthy of mention, nor was any discovery made
 
 CELEB R A TED PERSIAN MEDICAL SCHO OL. 1 8 1 
 
 with which we are acquainted in any one branch of 
 medical science. 
 
 The school of Alexandria still continued to cul- 
 tivate medicine, shedding at long intervals some 
 faint glimmerings of light. The G-reeks, oppressed 
 by the superstitious and intolerant Christians of this 
 period, gave up medical instruction. The school of 
 Athens, once so celebrated, was trodden under foot 
 by the orthodoxy of the Christian emperors of the 
 East ; and, in place of encouraging, they persecuted 
 the pagan philosophers who taught medicine, Justi- 
 nian ordering them to be deprived of benefices which 
 they had possessed for ages, and directing them to 
 be bestowed on orthodox Christians only. On the 
 other hand, the dismemberment of the Roman em- 
 pire and the destructive invasion of the barbarians 
 of the ISTorth completed the annihilation of medical 
 instruction. 
 
 The Persian empire was for a short period the 
 only place where medicine could be cultivated under 
 the protection of the laws. A sect of Christians, 
 the N'estorians, flying from the persecutions of or- 
 thodoxy, established themselves at Edessa, in Meso- 
 potamia, where they founded a school of medicine, 
 which soon became celebrated for the number and 
 knowledge of the professors, and for the excellence 
 of their doctrines. Pupils hastened thither from all 
 parts, where they studied practical medicine in a 
 public hospital, probably the first institution for 
 clinical instruction. One of the most celebrated 
 professors of this school was Stephen of Edessa. 
 
 The j^estorians did not all, however, establish
 
 1 8 2 HISTOR V OF MEDICINE. 
 
 themselves at Edessa; several of the most learned 
 sought an asylum in the neighboring Mohammedan 
 states. In the city of Dschondisabour they founded a 
 school of medicine, where the Persians and Arabians 
 studied the healing art, and it was from these l^es- 
 torians, from those at Edessa, and from the Athenian 
 philosophers expelled from their country by Justi- 
 nian, that the Arabians received the first elements 
 of a science of which they were afterwards the re- 
 storers, through the foundation of the Academy of 
 Bagdad by the Caliph Almanzor. From time to time, 
 however, at the court of the Emperors of Constan- 
 tinojole were seen physicians distinguished for the 
 extent of their erudition, such as Aetius and Alex- 
 ander of Tralles.
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 STATE OF MEDICINE IN EUROPE AND THE EAST FROM THE 
 MIDDLE OF THE SIXTH CENTURY. 
 
 Epidemic of the sixth century — Aetius of Amida, and his use 
 of charms — Alexander Trallian — Theophilus — Paulus JEgi- 
 neta, the first obstetric physician — Medical writers and practi- 
 tioners of the next centuries — Decay of medicine in the West 
 and its rise in the East — Arabian physicians and schools — 
 Spanish medical schools and libraries — Progress of Arabian 
 practice of medicine and surgery — First writer on smallpox — 
 First account of academic degrees conferred— Serapion the 
 elder — Rhazes and his works — Avicenna — Albucasis — Aven- 
 zoar — Decline of science in Spain and the East in the eleventh, 
 twelfth, and thirteenth centuries. 
 
 Being more particularly interested with the his- 
 tory of the theories and progress of medicine, we need 
 not give more than a passing allusion to the preva- 
 lence of the terrible epidemic which made the sixth 
 century memorable. Although it attacked all with- 
 out distinction of age or mode of life, and reigned in 
 all seasons and in every climate, destroying, it is said, 
 one-half of the population, causing all the arts to be 
 abandoned, and whole towns to be deserted, medical 
 science gained but little from the awful experience, 
 and no information of value has been handed down to 
 posterity for practical use in times of after-epidemics. 
 
 It was about the middle of the sixth century that 
 Aetius of Amida in Mesopotamia flourished. Like
 
 1 84 HISTORY OF MEDICINE. 
 
 all the practitioners of his time, he studied at Alex- 
 andria. Aetius pursued the same steps as Oribasius, 
 and collected everything remarkable from the exist- 
 ing works on medicine. Like Oribasius, also, he has 
 given us his own opinions respecting various points of 
 medical science, from which he would seem to have 
 been a man of somewhat extensive practice, but his 
 ideas are mixed up with the grossest bigotry and 
 superstition. In dropsies he advises punctures, but 
 the observations on this subject are taken from his 
 predecessors. His remarks on cauteries, both actual 
 and potential, are more particularly his own. He 
 advises them freely in many complaints, and directs 
 numerous drains to be made. 
 
 Aetius also introduced much of Egyptian phar- 
 macy, and was particularly fond of external applica- 
 tions, as well as of charms and amulets so common in 
 the same country. In composing a certain ointment 
 he required that there should be repeated in a loud 
 voice, ^' May the God of Abraham^ the God of Isaac., and 
 the God of Jacob deign to accord virtues to this raedi- 
 cine ;^^ and when a foreign body had stuck in the 
 gullet, he recommended that the neck of the patient 
 should be touched by the surgeon, who was at the 
 same time to exclaim, " Get thee out or descend, the 
 martyr Blaise, servant of Jesus Christ, commands 
 thee." One of the strangest of his recommendations, 
 which is also repeated by Paulus ^gineta and Ama- 
 tus Lusitanus, is that of coition for the cure of 
 diarrhoea or relaxation of the bowels. 
 
 Alexander Trallian, so called from Tralles, a 
 city of Lydia, flourished a short time after Aetius,
 
 MEDICINE IN THE SEVENTH CENTURY. 185 
 
 whom he mentions in his writings. This physician 
 was one of the most original writers of antiquity, 
 and his practice, with the exception of a few super- 
 stitious prejudices, such as the use of charms and 
 amulets, perhaps the best of any of the older physi- 
 cians. He not only compares the observations and 
 principles of his predecessors with the results of his 
 own experience, but always judges for himself, and 
 does not hesitate to i-eject their theories and practice 
 when he does not believe them to be well founded. 
 His observations are principally confined to the signs 
 of diseases and their remedies. 
 
 Alexander seems to have been impressed with a 
 correct idea regarding the mode of practising medi- 
 cine with the greatest advantage. One rule which 
 he lays down is, that we ought never to determine 
 the plan to be pursued in the treatment of any disease, 
 without having attentively studied the specific and 
 individual causes, and in a thousand places he recom- 
 mends us never to suffer ourselves to be blinded or 
 led into error by the spirit of system, but to always 
 direct our attention to the age, strength, constitution, 
 and mode of life of the patient, as well as to the 
 season and atmospheric variations, and especially to 
 observe carefully the efforts of nature in acute dis- 
 eases. He is apparently the first author who men- 
 tions rhubarb. His practical precepts exhibit the 
 most gross superstition. 
 
 We may next pass to the commencement of the 
 seventh century, at which period lived Theophilus, 
 who was also called from his sanctity or his talents 
 Philotheus or Philaretus. He was one of the first
 
 1 8 6 HIS TOR V OF MEDICINE. 
 
 monks that wrote upon medicine. He made a compi- 
 lation from Galen and Rufus on the structure of the 
 human body, which seems to have been dictated by 
 piety, in order to demonstrate the wisdom of God in 
 the organization of the human frame. He also pub- 
 lished two other works, one on the urine and the 
 other on the pulse, both of which are replete with 
 absurdities. He and Stephen of Athens, one of his 
 scholars, have also left some commentaries on the 
 aphorisms of Hippocrates, which embrace only the 
 theoretical part. John of Alexandria and Palladius 
 the latrosophist probably also belong to the seventh 
 century, but neither one nor the other merits especial 
 notice. 
 
 The last Greek author who claims our particular 
 attention is Paulus ^gixeta, who flourished about 
 the middle of the seventh century. Paulus was a 
 distinguished surgeon and accoucheur, and received 
 his education at Alexandria. He was the first phy- 
 sician who seems to have been famous for his at- 
 tention to female diseases and the obstetric art, and 
 is by some considered to have been the first man that 
 merited the appellation of man midwife. In medi- 
 cine Paulus -(5^gineta does not merit much regard, 
 but his surgical remarks are occasionally new and 
 interesting. Like his predecessors Oribasius and 
 Aetius, he was more a compiler than an original 
 writer. 
 
 After this period the state of medicine in Greece 
 remained stationary, and no person of eminence ap- 
 peared who rendered himself so celebrated as those 
 individuals of whose principles we have already
 
 MEDICAL WRITERS OF THE TENTH CENTURY, 187 
 
 spoken. There were some few physicians, however, 
 who shone dimly through the obscurity. I^onus, 
 who lived near the end of the 10th century, com- 
 piled a work, frequently even literally from Aetius, 
 Alexander Trallian, and Paulus, mixed up also with 
 some original observations of his own. In these we 
 find the first mention made of the distilled water 
 of the rose as a remedy, which Le Clerc, Friend, and 
 others erroneously ascribe to Johannes Actuarius. 
 The first allusion, however, to rose-water as a per- 
 fume is in a work regarding the ceremonies of the 
 Emperor Constantine YII., where, at a feast given 
 in 946, the priest speaks of the rose-water as an 
 agreeable scent. 
 
 Several works were composed about this era on 
 the diseases of horses, &c., but Simon Seth was, in 
 chronological order, the next writer on human dis- 
 eases. He held the office of keeper of the wardrobe 
 in the palace of Antiochus at Constantinople, and 
 wrote a ^^ Syntagma de Cibarionan JFacuUate,'^ in which 
 he chiefly copied the work of Psellus, who was his 
 contemporary, l^either of the treatises is, however, 
 considered of any value. He speaks of asparagus 
 as having been a long time introduced into the 
 kitchens, and as possessing considerable medicinal 
 properties. His work also contains the first de- 
 scription of camphor, which he affirms to be the 
 resin of an extremely large Indian tree, and he 
 speaks likewise of the musk. 
 
 The last but one of these writers to whom we 
 slmll at present allude was John, the son of Zacha- 
 riah, who was surnamed Actuarius, a title accorded
 
 1 88 HISTOR V OF MEDICINE. 
 
 by the court of Constantinople to a great number 
 oJP physicians, and which merely answered to the 
 modern physician in ordinary. All his works are hi 
 a great measure compilations from his predecessors, 
 but they have been highly extolled by some practical 
 authors. Stephens considered one of them worthy of 
 a place amongst the '-'-Frinciins Artis Medicce.'^ They 
 contain some original observations regarding palpi- 
 tation of the heart, in which he would seem to have 
 first recommended bleeding and purging. He is 
 the only Greek physician who speaks of the milder 
 purgatives, as senna, manna, cassia, and myrobalans; 
 and these medicines were professedly borrowed from 
 the Arabs, whom he calls barbarians. 
 
 Demetrius Pepagomenus, a contemporary of Actu- 
 arius, wrote a work on the gout, by order of the 
 Emperor Michael YII. Palaeologus. This small 
 treatise has been highly spoken of, and esteemed 
 worthy of a better place than the majority of the 
 works of this period. The author continues in it 
 faithful to the system of Galen, but his theory of the 
 disease is more rational and conformable to the ob- 
 servation of the moderns than that of the major 
 part of his immediate successors. He sets out with 
 the principle, that the gout is a disease of the whole 
 organism, produced by debility of the digestive or- 
 gans, and by errors in diet ; and on this account so- 
 briety and temperance are considered to be the only 
 means of prevention, but, he adds, although it is 
 easy to prescribe a suitable regimen, patients are 
 rarely found so tractable as to conform to it. 
 
 [N'icolas of Alexandria, who sometimes styled
 
 MEDICAL PROGRESS IN THE EAST. 189 
 
 himself Myrepsiis, lived also about this period ; but, 
 although he attained the title of Actuarius, he has 
 left nothing behind him worthy of comment. 
 
 By the accounts thus given of the works pub- 
 lished by the modern Christians of the Empire of 
 the East, it will have been observed in what a state 
 of decline were the sciences, especially that of medi- 
 cine, under the reign of the emperors of Constan- 
 tinople. Those princes themselves had afterwards so 
 little confidence in their physicians, during the four- 
 teenth century, that Andronicus III., being affected 
 with a tumor of the spleen, sent for Arabian physi- 
 cians from Persia to attend him. 
 
 When science decayed in the "West it arose again 
 in the East. We have already had frequent occa- 
 sion to mention that Alexandria was, for a long 
 period, the great medical school, at which the most 
 eminent of the Greek physicians were educated, 
 and although its rich library no longer existed, it 
 remained the centre of the sciences, the Arabs from 
 their vicinity possessing considerable facilities in 
 the acquisition of knowledge. At the time of Mo- 
 hammed there were at Mecca several physicians who 
 had been educated in the Grecian schools. 
 
 History particularly mentions Kha-reth-Ebn-Kal- 
 DAHT of Takif (A.D. 622), a contemporary of the pro- 
 phet, who had studied also at Dschondisabour in the 
 Chuzistan, where a medical school had been estab- 
 lished, and who practised the healing art in Persia. 
 Towards the end of the seventh century, Theodocus 
 and Theodunus, two Greek physicians, established 
 themselves in Irak, and had for pupils a number of
 
 1 90 HISTOR Y OF MEDICINE. 
 
 Arabs, who were afterwards distinguished for their 
 knowledge of medicine. The principal works of the 
 ancient writers of medicine in Greece had likewise 
 been .translated into the language of the country, 
 and these translations formed the basis of Arabian 
 knowledge. 
 
 Until the middle of the eighth century that na- 
 tion showed but little zeal for the sciences; but, 
 when the Caliph Almanzor had founded the city of 
 Bagdad, it became the seat of a school more eminent 
 than almost any of the other academies of the Mo- 
 hammedan states. A college of medicine was there 
 established, the directors of which were charged 
 with the examination of those who were destined 
 to exercise the healing art. From all countries of 
 the world there were so many professors and pupils 
 included in this city, that at one time they were esti- 
 mated at six thousand. There also the Caliphs es- 
 tablished the first hospitals and the first public 
 pharmacies, to assist the progress of medicine. In 
 the thirteenth century the Caliph Mostanser re-es- 
 tablished the academy and medical school there; 
 the number of Jewish schools between the time of 
 their foundation and that century having almost 
 wholly annihilated those of the Arabs. Mostanser 
 gave salaries to the professors, collected a large 
 library, and established a new school of pharmacy. 
 
 Of all the princes, the most renowned was Alma- 
 moun, who has made his name important by the 
 services which he rendered to science. It is, pro- 
 perly speaking, in his reign, or about the year 812, 
 that we should date the introduction of Greek lite-
 
 SPANISH MEDICAL SCHOOLS AND LIBRARIES. 19 1 
 
 rature into the Arabian schools. Until that period 
 there were but few translations, but the Caliph had 
 fresh ones made. Almamoun purchased far and wide 
 the works of the ancients, and recommended this 
 particularly to the care of the ambassadors of the 
 Greek princes. He made to Leo the most advan- 
 tageous offers to induce him to be near his person, 
 but the philosopher refused the invitation. 
 
 Under the successors of Almamoun science was 
 powerfully encouraged, and academies were formed 
 in different states which were under the dominion 
 of the Arabs. Spain, however, was the most 
 happy of the Mohammedan states. The three Ab- 
 dalrahmans and Alhakem, from the eighth to the 
 tenth century, are celebrated for having raised to 
 the highest point of splendor the countries subjected 
 to the caliphate of Cordova. They protected science, 
 and governed with so much mildness that, accord- 
 ing to some historians, Spain could not boast of 
 having been so happy under the reign of the Chris- 
 tian princes. 
 
 Alhakem established at Cordova an academy, 
 which, for several centuries, was the most celebrated 
 in the whole world. Already in the tenth century it 
 had a library containing 224,000 volumes. Seville, 
 Toledo, and Saragossa, Murcia and Coimbra had 
 also schools, which preserved considerable reputation 
 until the end of the domination of the Arabs, but 
 none of them attained the celebrity of Cordova. 
 Whilst their dominion continued in Spain medical 
 instruction continued to make progress, so that 
 in the twelfth century there were seventy public
 
 192 HISTORY OF MEDICINE. 
 
 libraries in that part of Spain which was subject to 
 the Moors, whilst Cordova had produced 150 medical 
 authors, Almenik 52, and Murcia 62. 
 
 The consequence of the encouragement given to 
 science was the publication of several works on 
 medicine, the principal of the authors of which may 
 be noticed in chronological order, premising, how- 
 ever, that anatomy was rigorously forbidden by 
 several dogmas of their religion ; dogmas so influen- 
 tial that we are told by Toderini, that when he 
 asked a Mufti if the dissection of human bodies were 
 permitted, he received for answer that his question 
 alone was a contravention of the law. Their ana- 
 tomy was consequently wholl}^ derived from the 
 writings of the Glreeks, especially from those of 
 Galen. They studied it, however, also on human 
 bones, when they were able to obtain them from 
 the cemeteries. Abdollatif, a celebrated Arabian 
 physician of this period, relates that having on one 
 occasion examined some bones obtained from a 
 burying-ground, he observed that the lower jaw is 
 composed of but one bone, and that the os sacrum 
 is sometimes formed of several, but more frequently 
 of only one. These remarks he made for the pur- 
 pose of refuting Galen, who asserted that those 
 bones were not simple but composed of several 
 pieces. 
 
 Chemistry and pharmacy are the branches of 
 medical science most indebted to the labors of the 
 Arabs ; and several of the modern names are derived 
 from them, such as alcohol, jalap, syrup, looch, 
 naphtha, camphor, bezoar, and a number of others
 
 PRACTICE OF THE ARABIAN PHYSICIANS. 193 
 
 and in the eighth century Geber of Mesopotamia 
 had prepared corrosive sublimate, red precipitate, 
 nitric acid, nitro-muriatic acid, lapis infernalis, &c. 
 
 It would seem that formulae or recipes for the 
 preparation of medicines sanctioned by the govern- 
 ment were composed by Sabor-Ebn-Sahel, the di- 
 rector of the school of Dschondisabour, and published 
 in the latter half of the ninth century, under the 
 title of Krabadin, which would seem to be the first 
 information we possess respecting the publication 
 of a dispensatory, or pharmacopoeia. The dispensa- 
 tories which were subsequently jDublished were 
 under the immediate surveillance of government, who 
 directed a particular attention that the medicines 
 should not be adulterated or sold at too hisrh a 
 price. 
 
 With respect to the mode of practice pursued by 
 the Arabian physicians, it was most gross and super- 
 stitious. The event and even the previous history 
 of the disease as well as of the individual were pre- 
 tended to be discovered by the inspection of the 
 urine, or the aspect of the stars. Observation was 
 neglected in proportion as they delivered themselves 
 up to the foolish minutiae of theory and the subtleties 
 of the dialectic philosophy, of which they were con- 
 siderably enamored. Fabulous histories passed from 
 mouth to mouth, and from writing to writing, with- 
 out any pains being taken to investigate their accu- 
 racy. Surgery made but little progress amongst the 
 Arabians, owing to natural prejudices and misplaced 
 modesty, — men never being permitted, under any 
 circumstances, to expose the parts of generation of 
 13
 
 1 9 4 HIS TOR V OF MEDICINE. 
 
 the female, on whom lithotomy, the reduction of a 
 prolapsed womb, &c., were practised by women. 
 
 A priest of Alexandria named Aaron Ahran 
 published the oldest work which the Arabs possessed. 
 Aaron was a contemporary of Paulus ^gineta, who, 
 it will be remembered, lived about the year 630 of 
 the Christian era. His work was entitled Pandects 
 of Medicine.^ and consisted of thirty books ; they 
 were published in Greek, but were afterwards trans- 
 lated by a Jew of Bassora. They are not in exist- 
 ence at the present day, but we possess some fragments 
 of them in the works of Rhazes. Aaron was the first 
 writer who drew particular attention to the small- 
 pox, of which he gave the first description, Paulus 
 ^gineta, his contemporary, not having noticed the 
 subject. 
 
 The next writer to Aaron on medicine was Jahiah- 
 Ebn-Masawaih, or Mesue as he is usually called. He 
 was a pensioner at the court of Haroun-al-Easchid, 
 and taught medicine to the Arabs. Of all his wri- 
 tings we possess a few specimens only in the works 
 of Rhazes. He lived about the year 845 of the Chris- 
 tian era. His scholar Hhonain became still more 
 celebrated than his master amongst the Arabs for 
 his translation of Greek works. His history fur- 
 nishes the first account of academical degrees con- 
 ferred by learned societies. He translated into Ara- 
 bic not only Hip^DOcrates and Galen, but also Pliny, 
 Alexander of Aphrodisea, Ptolemy, and Paulus 
 ^gineta. His sons, Izhac-Ebn-Hhonain, and David- 
 Ebn-Hhonian, are also known as translators. He 
 first left an Arabic translation of the work of Aris-
 
 R HAZES AND HIS WORKS. 195 
 
 totle on plants, and was a celebrated philosophical 
 physician. David wrote some observations on medi- 
 cal subjects, the manuscript of which has remained 
 undated. Isaac has been quoted by several later 
 writers on medicine, but his observations are of 
 little moment. 
 
 Jahiah-Ebn-Serapion, commonly called Serapion 
 THE ELDER, livcd at the commencement of the ninth 
 century. His works are principally compilations, 
 and those, according to Hali-Ben- Abbas, not of the 
 most accurate kind. Serapion first described a spe- 
 cies of eruptive disorder, which he. called echra; 
 this was subsequently corrupted to essera, and de- 
 notes a species of chronic nettle-rash, which was 
 common in Arabia. 
 
 The great luminary of this period was Moham- 
 med-EbuHSecharjah-Abou-Bekr-Arrasi, who is com- 
 monly known in medical literature by the name of 
 Rhazes. He published twelve works on chemistry 
 and on medicine. He is said to have lost his sight 
 at a very advanced age; and it is asserted that he 
 would not sufter himself to be operated on for the 
 cataract, because the surgeon who was to perform 
 the operation was unable to tell him in what man- 
 ner the eye was covered by its membranes. He died 
 in the year 923. 
 
 The two great works of Rhazes are the Continent^ 
 and the ten books denominated Almanzor^ addressed 
 to Mansor, king of the Corassini. It has been as- 
 serted by some authors that the latter work was not 
 the production of Rhazes, but there seems to be 
 every reason for believing from the superior testi-
 
 196 HISTOR Y OF MEDICINE. 
 
 mony of others that it was. What have most con- 
 tributed to establish the reputation of Ehazes are 
 his treatises on the smallpox and measles, the most 
 valuable of the works of the older writers which 
 we possess on those two diseases, and the first de- 
 scription of the latter of them, the measles. Amongst 
 the list of new remedies used by Rhazes, we find 
 orpiment, a sulphuret of arsenic, the sulphates of 
 copper and iron, borax, &c. &c., all of which are 
 extensively used in medicine at the present day. 
 
 A short time after this celebrated Arab, whose 
 life and medical productions formed prominent 
 features of the tenth century of the Christian era, 
 lived Ali Abbas (A.D. 994), or Ali the son of Abbas, 
 who was surnamed the magician, and published a 
 work entitled '•'' Almaleki ; or., the v:hoIe Book of Medi- 
 ci7ie.'' The only one of his productions particularly 
 worthy of comment is his practical directions re- 
 garding diet, which, for the time in which he lived, 
 is very creditable. In the general views and treat- 
 ment of disease he differs but very little from Rhazes 
 and his other predecessors. 
 
 This century produced also Al-Hussain-Abou-Ali- 
 Ben-Abdallah-Ebn-Sina, surnamed Scheikh-Reyes or 
 prince of physicians, than whom it would be diffi- 
 cult to find any one after Aristotle and Galen who 
 reigned for a longer period and more despotically 
 over the empire of the sciences. He is commonly 
 known under the name of Avicenna (A.D. 978- 
 1036). He was born at Bokhara in Chorassan, and 
 was the last of the Arabian authors on medicine, his 
 successors being born in Spain, where the Saracens
 
 AVICENNA AND A LB UC AS IS. 197 
 
 were then having sway ; but little communication 
 seeming to have been held between the Eastern and 
 Western empires. 
 
 Although the doctrines of Avicenna were almost 
 implicitly followed for nearly six hundred 3^ears, he 
 does not seem to have had any pretensions to an 
 extraordinary genius, but was unquestionably en- 
 dowed with a strong mind. From the multitude 
 of materials furnished by his predecessors it was not 
 diificult to compose the immense work to which he 
 gave the title of Canon, ^Notwithstanding the ex- 
 tensive influence which Avicenna possessed, his 
 Canon forming the syllabus or foundation of the 
 lectures in every university, he was a mere compiler, 
 his works being chiefly collected from those of his 
 predecessors both of Grreece and Arabia. 
 
 In the twelfth century lived a celebrated Spanish 
 physician, or, more particularly, surgeon, called Kha- 
 laf-Ebn- Abbas- Abu'l-Kasem, born at Zahera near 
 Cordova, and more known under the names of Al- 
 BUCASis, Abulcasis, or Alzaharavius, especially the 
 flrst. He is said to have died about the year 1122. 
 Albucasis wrote a celebrated work on the operations 
 of surgery, which is one of the most valuable relics 
 of the age. In this he first describes the mode of 
 removing stones from the bladder of the female, but 
 this operation was only to be performed by mid- 
 wives, the surgeon, as we have before had occasion 
 to observe, not being permitted to oftend the mo- 
 desty of the sex. 
 
 Amongst all the Arabian physicians, however, 
 there is no one who is entitled to the merit of so much
 
 1 9 8 HIS TOR I ^ OF MEDICINE. 
 
 originality or of correct observation as Abdel-Malek- 
 Abou-Merwan-Ebn-Zohr, more known under the 
 name of Ayexzoar, a native of Seville in Andalusia, 
 and who flourished about the year 1169 of the Chris- 
 tian era. Avenzoar would seem to have first de- 
 scribed the inflammation of the mediastinum and 
 of the pericardium, as well as dropsy and emp^^ema 
 of the latter. 
 
 AvEREHOES was also a Spaniard who flourished 
 early in the thirteenth century; but he was more 
 distinguished for his philosophical than his medical 
 works. He died about the year 1206. 
 
 The last Arabian of whom mention may be made 
 was Ebx-Beithas, a celebrated botanist and physi- 
 cian, who was born at Malaga, and published some 
 works on the materia medica and veterinary medi- 
 cine. He was their last remarkable writer ; and with 
 him terminates the history of the medicine of that 
 nation. 
 
 In the eastern part of the empire they lost their 
 taste for science much sooner than in Spain and the 
 empire of Morocco; the Turks having in the eleventh 
 century destro^^ed the greater part of the caliphates 
 of Asia, and substituted their despotic government. 
 Science could not flourish under the reign of indi- 
 viduals wdiose national education had for its sole 
 object that of making warriors. In Spain, science 
 was not encouraged longer than the thirteenth 
 century ; the physicians of that era not being deserv- 
 ing of mention. The conquests of the Christian 
 Spaniards more and more constricted the territory 
 of the Moors, and compelled th'em to neglect every-
 
 MEDICAL PROGRESS OF THE SARACENS. 199 
 
 thii.ig' to defend themselves against the common 
 enemy, until at last Ferdinand totally expelled them 
 from Spain in the fifteenth century. 
 
 If we cast a rapid glance over the exertions of the 
 Saracens for the advancement of the healing art, we 
 shall find that they confined themselves to keeping 
 the knowledge which had been transmitted to them 
 by the Greeks, and that a small number of discover- 
 ies in materia medica or isolated observations were 
 the only advancements which they made in the 
 science. Anatomy, particulary, continued in the 
 same state in which the Greeks had left it. The 
 theory of medicine was filled by them with numerous 
 subtleties, but no important acquisition was gained. 
 As for surgery, they had no learned author on the 
 subject except Albucasis. Chemistry and materia 
 medica, in short, were the only two branches of 
 medicine which were much improved by them. 
 AYhilst medical instruction flourished in the coun- 
 tries subjected to the Moorish princes, and especially 
 in Spain, ignorance ]30ssessed the Christian states of 
 the West.
 
 CHAPTER XYIT. 
 
 STATE OF MEDICINE AMOXG THE MOXKS OF THE MIDDLE 
 AGES. 
 
 Monk Physicians of the West — Cures by prayer, relics, &c. — 
 English ecclesiastical physicians — Medical schools established 
 by them in England and France — Schools of the cathedrals — 
 Physicians first so called — Curious laws affecting physicians — 
 Practice of medicine restricted to the lower clergy — Eminent 
 medical ecclesiastics of the day — Medical celibacy — Practice of 
 medicine by the nuns — The Abbess Hildegarde — Laws in 
 regard to pregnant women — Constantine the African — In- 
 fluence of the Crusaders — Celebrated schools of Monte-Cassino 
 and Salernum — Dietetical precepts of the latter — Chief physi- 
 cians of this school — Degrees of bachelor, licentiate, &c. first 
 granted to physicians in France — Doctors first so called. 
 
 After the sixth century, the monks of the West 
 almost exclusively exercised medicine as a work of 
 piety and of charity, and as a duty attached to their 
 divine calling. Retarded, however, by ignorance and 
 prejudice, and by the aversion they entertained for 
 reflection, or for profane acquirements, they neglected 
 the study of the science, never investigating the 
 causes which produce the phenomena of nature nor 
 employing even ordinary remedies, but having 
 recourse merely to prayers, relics of martyrs, holy 
 water, and other ceremonials of the Romish church. 
 They were consequently unworthy of the name of 
 physicians ; and, as Sprengel has observed, ought
 
 MONK PHYSICIANS OF THE MIDDLE AGES. 201 
 
 rather to be esteemed pious and fanatical nurses. It 
 would be impossible fully to describe all the cures 
 which the monks performed or are said to have 
 performed in the middle ages on the graves of the 
 martyrs, or by the aid of their relics. 
 
 The cures performed at the tomb of St. Ida, the 
 wife of Egbert, in the ninth century, at that of St. 
 Martin of Tours, and of John, Bishop of Hagustald ; 
 the infallible aid aftbrded by the ashes of St. Deus- 
 dedit at Benevento in all species of intermittents; 
 the cures of Pope Stephen III. of the convent of St. 
 Denys, produced by the intercession of the apostles 
 St. Peter and St. Paul ; of several emperors, amongst 
 others of Otho the Great, by St. Guy, &c., are only a 
 small number of examples amongst those which 
 might be cited to prove the gross superstition and 
 fanaticism of these dark ages. 
 
 During the seventh and eighth centuries, however, 
 there were among the monks of the West a few 
 traditionary remains of the science which had origi- 
 nated in the East. Some missionaries sent into 
 England by Pope Gregory I. founded schools there 
 in which medicine was taught, and whence Germany 
 several times obtained professors. About this jDcriod 
 there were some English ecclesiastics distinguished 
 for their extensive acquirements, especially Theodore, 
 Archbishop of Canterbury (A.D. 671), and to Colomb 
 and Erigenes. According to Bede, that prelate 
 himself gave practical instructions to the monks 
 who exercised medicine, for it is related, amongst 
 other things, that he forbade bleeding during the
 
 HIST OR Y OF MEDICINE. 
 
 fii^t quarter of the moon. Tobias, Bishop of Rosa, 
 also practised the healing art. 
 
 The schools established by these ecclesiastics were 
 much frequented by strangers, and thus the English, 
 principally during the reign of Charlemagne, first lit 
 the sparks of science in France and Germany. The 
 remarkable zeal with which Charlemagne endeavored 
 to encourage learning amongst the nations under his 
 governnlent is well known. He was seconded in 
 this noble undertaking by an English savant named 
 Alenin, who taught philosoph}^, dialectics, astronomy , 
 and arithmetic to the emperor himself, and who in 
 concert with Theodulf, Bishop of Orleans, established 
 schools in the cathedrals and monasteries. A learned 
 society was formed at the court of Charlemagne, 
 almost wholly composed of English, in which were 
 discussed the various subjects of human knowledge, 
 and it was possessed of a library presented by the 
 emperor. The members of this academy also, it 
 would appear, occupied themselves with medicine. 
 
 Amongst the schools established by order of 
 Charlemagne, those of Lyons, Metz, Falda, Hirschau, 
 Reichman, and Osnaburg were the most celebrated. 
 At these schools were taught grammar, music, dia- 
 lectics, rhetoric, geometry, and astronomy. These 
 were the mily branches which they particularly 
 studied; but the emperor in the year 805 issued an 
 ordinance for addins; medicine to the other sciences 
 taught in the schools of the convent, although he 
 himself held physicians and their advice in but 
 little estimation. 
 
 After that period the healing art was taught in
 
 CURIOUS CODE AFFECTING PHYSICIANS. 203 
 
 several schools of the cathedrals under the name of 
 physic, and it would seem to be at this time that 
 the name of physician was first applied to the fol- 
 lowers of the healing art. The physicians, however, 
 do not seem to have been deserving of more consi- 
 deration than was accorded them in the barbarous 
 times in which they lived, and we may judge how 
 little that was by the laws promulgated by Theo- 
 doric, king of the Visigoths, which were followed 
 until the eleventh century in a great part of the 
 West. "1^0 physician," it is said in that code, 
 "shall bleed a noble woman or girl without a rela- 
 tion or domestic being present at the operation, and 
 in case of contravention of this law he shall pay a 
 fine of five pence, ' qida diffidllimum non est^ ut in tali 
 occasione ludibriiun interdiim adhcerescat^ "When a 
 physician is called upon to attend a patient or to 
 dress a wound, he must, immediately after having 
 seen him, give surety, and agree upon the price to 
 be paid upon his cure ; but he shall not demand 
 anything should the patient die. For the cure of 
 the cataract he shall receive -Q.ve sous. If a physi- 
 cian shall wound a man of noble birth, he shall pay 
 a fine of one hundred sous, and if the gentleman 
 shall die of the eftects of the operation, the physi- 
 cian shall be delivered up to the relations of the de- 
 ceased, who may treat him as to them seemeth meet ; 
 but if it be a serf whom he has wounded or caused 
 the death of, he shall be made to restore another to 
 the lord. When a physician takes a pupil, the latter 
 shall pay him twelve pence for his apprenticeship, 
 &c." {Lindeiihrog^ Cod. Leg. Aiitiq. Wisigoth. in Spren- 
 gel Arzneigesch.)
 
 204 HIS TOR V OF MED ICINE. 
 
 The contempt in which the ecclesiastical ph^^si- 
 cians were held was necessarily obnoxious to the 
 church, and this was the principal reason why, in 
 the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, various councils 
 expressly forbade the members of the superior clergy, 
 such as the archdeacons and the prelates, to practise 
 medicine, and declared those excommunicated who 
 would not conform to the order. The lower clergy, 
 however, as the deans, subdeans, and monks, still 
 preserved the right of practising medicine and of 
 studying mundane sciences; but they were inter- 
 dicted from performing any surgical operation, and 
 especialh^ from the use of the actual cautery and of 
 cutting instruments. 
 
 These steps were taken first of all in the synod of 
 Eheims in 1131, and they were afterwards confirmed 
 ixL the councils of Montpellier in 1162, of Tours in 
 1163, of Paris in 1212, and at Lateran in 1139 and 
 1215. The same law was also renewed in more 
 severe terms in the j^ears 1220, 1247, and 1298. 
 From this frequent repetition of the same ordi- 
 nance it is evident that it was frequently violated, 
 and that the ecclesiastics had much trouble in de- 
 taching themselves from the practice of medicine. 
 
 Independently of the ecclesiastics of the school of 
 Salernum, now Salerno, in Italy, which was a cele- 
 brated school of medicine in the eleventh and twelfth 
 centuries, the most eminent practitioners of the 
 healing art were Thieddeg, an ecclesiastic of Prague, 
 who had studied medicine at Corbe^^, and flourished 
 in 1017. He was physician to Boleslas, king of Bo- 
 hemia. Hugues, Abbe of Saint Denis, who was, in
 
 MONK PRACTITIONERS OF ''LEACH CRAFTED 205 
 
 the same century, physician to the king of France ; 
 Didon, Abbe of Sens; Sigould, Abbe of Epernly ; 
 Jean de Ravenne, Abbe of Dijon; Milon, Arch- 
 bishop of Benevento ; Dominico, Abbe of Pescara ; 
 and Campo, monk of the convent of Farfa in Italy, 
 and other ecclesiastics were distinguished for their 
 reputed cures from the ninth to the eleventh century. 
 In England, however, the fashion with the clergy 
 of studying and practising the medical art prevailed 
 a long while after the latter century. The prior 
 and convent of St. Swithins at Winchester granted 
 to Thomas of Shaftesbury, clerk, a corody, consist- 
 ing of two dishes daily from the prior's kitchen, 
 bread, drink, robes, and a competent chamber in 
 the monastery for the t^-m of his life; in conside- 
 ration of which the said Thomas paid them fifty 
 marks, and was moreover obliged to attend upon 
 them medically — " deservire nobis in arte medi- 
 cinae." In the romance of "Sir Guy," which ap- 
 peared about the end of the thirteenth century, a 
 monk heals the wound of the knight : — 
 
 " There was a monke beheld him well, 
 That could of leach crafte some dell." 
 
 So late as the middle of the fifteenth century, 
 John Arundale, afterwards Bishop of Coichester, 
 was captain and first physician to Henry YI. King 
 John, whilst sick at I^CAvark, made use of "William 
 de Wodestoke, Abbot of the neighboring monastery 
 of Croxton, as his physician ; and many other exam- 
 ples might be added. Even in 1452 the physicians 
 of the University of Paris were not allowed to 
 marry, and in the same school, anciently, at the
 
 2 o 6 HIS TORY OF MEDICINE. 
 
 admission of the degree of doctor in physic, the 
 graduate took an oath that he was not married. 
 
 The nuns likewise attended to medicine as an act 
 of piety and charity. So late as the twelfth cen- 
 tury Abelard permitted those of the convent of 
 Paraclet to practise surgery. The most celebrated 
 of those learned nuns was Hildegarde (A.D. 1098- 
 1180), Abbess of the convent of Rupertsberg, near 
 Bino;en, whose revelations and miracles caused her 
 to be placed in the number of the saints. Her cor- 
 respondence, which is still in existence, instructs us 
 that the higher clergy at that time consulted her 
 on all occasions. She has left behind her a sort of 
 materia medica, which certainly was not obtained 
 from the writings of phy^cians who had preceded 
 her, and comprises a variety of superstitious reme- 
 dies. Thus, it advises the common fern in all kinds 
 of witchcraft, the herring in the itch, the ashes of 
 flies in all affections of the skin, the seed of the 
 zedoary in salivation and in pain of the head, and 
 water mint in the asthma, &c. 
 
 A law which existed in the decisions of several 
 councils exhibits the care taken .by the church for 
 the preservation of the life of its proselytes. This 
 law might have favored the study of anatomy, had 
 not prejudices opposed insurmountable obstacles to 
 those desirous of undertaking it. It directed that 
 the bodies of those women who died during preg- 
 nancy or in their accouchement should be opened, in 
 order that the infant might be saved. " MoriucB 
 mulieres in jmrtu scindcmtur, si infans vivere credatur ;
 
 THE SCHOOL OF SALERNUM. 207 
 
 tamen^ si bene constitent de morte ij^sancm.'^ It was a 
 revival of the edict published by IN'uma Pompilius. 
 
 Medicine assumed a more imposing attitude when 
 the Benedictine monks turned a more particular at- 
 tention to it in the kingdom of I^aples and established 
 two celebrated schools — the one at Monte-Cassino, 
 the other at Salernum. The former of these as early 
 as the eleventh century enjoyed so much celebrity 
 that the Emperor Henry II. went from Bavaria to 
 the convent to be cured of the stone. During the 
 eleventh century it also became much more cele- 
 brated by the stay there of Constantine the African. 
 This individual w^as born in Africa, but desirous of 
 information he visited the Arabian schools of Bag- 
 dad, travelled into India and Egypt, and passed 
 thirty-nine years in journeying over remote regions. 
 On his return to his own country he was regarded 
 as a sorcerer, and ran the danger of losing his life. 
 He took refuge at Salernum, and became secretary 
 to Robert Guischard, Duke of Apulia; but becoming 
 soon tired of the bustle of court, he retired into the 
 convent of Monte-Cassino, where he devoted the last 
 years of his life to translating the works of the 
 Arabs. These translations, we are told, were by no 
 means faithful, and were written in a barbarous 
 style. His works have been passed off as original, 
 but they are scarcely anything more than extracts 
 from books written by the Saracens. He died in 
 1087. 
 
 The Benedictines established convents at an early 
 period in the states of ]^aples. The school of 
 Salernum, amongst others, was already celebrated
 
 2o8 HISTORY OF MEDICINE. 
 
 in the eighth centiuy, as regarded the healing art. 
 It was beautifully situated in a locality extremely 
 favorable to health. The first pilgrimages made by 
 the sick for medical aid to Saleruum are asserted to 
 bear date about the 3'ear 984, a period at which 
 Adalberon, Archbishop of Yerona, undertook a 
 journey to that city, but did not reap from it all 
 the advantages he had anticipated. At that period 
 they endeavored to cure the sick by prayer only ; but 
 towards the eleventh century the monks of Salernum 
 began to unite some scientific acquirements to these 
 superstitious modes of treatment. The}^ studied the 
 works of the Greek and Arabian physicians in 
 translations, and thus advantageously distinguished 
 themselves from all their contemporaries. 
 
 The Crusaders, however, acquired Salernum the 
 reputation of being the first medical school of the 
 West. It was conveniently situated for them, and 
 the beauty of the sky also attracted strangers thither 
 from all parts. But it was not the Crusaders who 
 carried thither the knowledge they had acquired in 
 the East, as has been believed by some. These en- 
 terprising individuals were too ignorant and super- 
 stitious to profit by what was going on in the scien- 
 tific schools of the Arabians. In proof of their 
 superstition it is known that the whole army com- 
 manded by the Emperor Otho suddenly dispersed 
 on the appearance of an eclipse of the sun. This 
 phenomenon, which was considered as a miracle, 
 occasioned terror in every mind ; it was believed to 
 be the precursor of the end of the world, which, at 
 this period, was imagined to be close at hand. Every
 
 CURES BY THE ROYAL TOUCH. 209 
 
 sign observed in the heavens, every meteor, occasioned 
 the most ridiculous fears. The physicians even bor- 
 rowed only from the Arabians their marvellous no- 
 tions on astrology, uniting it still more intimately 
 with medical science. 
 
 It was by this mixture of astrology and all the 
 reveries of theosophy with medicine that Edward 
 the Confessor imagined he possessed the miraculous 
 gift of curing certain diseases by the simple touch 
 and by pronouncing a few sacred words. After the 
 example of Edward, the kings of France became 
 celebrated for the skill with which, by following 
 his process, they cured the scrofula, goitre, &c., the 
 former of which was thence called the king's evil. 
 Such a method of cure has been claimed to be the 
 peculiar attribute of the sovereigns of England and 
 France, but history does not sanction this, for it 
 appears to have been not unfrequently employed in 
 Scandinavia, and to have been derived from the 
 mystical practices of the Druids in curing disease. 
 The words used by the French kings were " he roi 
 te iouche, Dieu te giterisse.^^ 
 
 In the first year of the twelfth century, Robert, 
 Prince of England, son of William the Conqueror, 
 disembarked at Salernum for the purpose of being 
 cured of a wound in the arm which the surgeons 
 had treated badly, and it was perhaps on this occa- 
 sion that the physicians of Salernum, at the head of 
 whom is placed John of Milan (A.D. 1100), wrote 
 in Leonine verse, at that time much used, some die- 
 tetical precepts, which have reached us, and give a 
 good idea of the medicine of the age ; but they re- 
 14
 
 2 1 o HIS TOR Y OF MEDICINE. 
 
 semble considerably the dietetical production of 
 Izliali, to which reference has ah-eady been made. 
 One of their dietetical precepts, which will give an 
 idea of their mode of writing, and which it would 
 be well to attend to in this as in every other climate 
 where the autumnal heat is great, was : — 
 
 " Autumni fructus caveas ; ne sint tibi luctus."* 
 
 And another, recommending the use of wines after 
 pork to assist its digestion: — 
 
 " Est caro porcina sine vino pejor ovina : 
 Si tribuis vina, tunc est cibus et medicina."f 
 
 The chief physicians of the school of Salernum 
 were Gariopuntus, who lived about the middle of 
 the eleventh century, Cophon, ^N'icolas Propositus, 
 who lived in the first half of the twelfth century, 
 Eomualdus, and ^gidius, Ero^ or Trotula, and Roger. 
 During the twelfth century the school of Salernum, 
 through the favor of the Emperor Frederic 11. , ac- 
 quired a degree of celebrity which few similar es- 
 tablishments in ancient times had attained. That 
 prince, who possessed extensive literary and scientific 
 acquirements, founded the Universities of Xaples 
 and Messina, gave fixed salaries to the professors 
 attached to them, and encouraged that of Bologna, 
 which already existed. The kings of England,' 
 those of France, and the popes, imitating the ex- 
 ample of Frederic, created some learned institutions, 
 where public teaching was encouraged, and those 
 
 * Sir Alexander Croke's Edit, of the "Regimen Sanitatis 
 Salernitanum ;" Oxford, 1830, p. 105, line 56. 
 t Ibid., p. 106, lines 73, 74.
 
 CUSTOMS OF THE SCHOOL OF SALERNUM. 21 1 
 
 attached to them recompensed. The schools which 
 already existed at Paris and Montpellier obtained 
 the title of universities, and numerous pupils flocked 
 thither to attend the medical classes. It was about 
 this period that the titles of bachelor, licentiate, and 
 master were granted to the physician. Academical 
 dignities, as already stated, were first conferred by 
 the IN'estorians and the Jews of the East, whence 
 the custom extended to the Arabs in Spain, and the 
 school of Salernum first introduced them among the 
 Christians of 'the West. The professors only, at this 
 epoch (the twelfth century), were denominated doc- 
 tors. This title, however, soon acquired the same 
 acceptation as master, and was ultimately substi- 
 tuted for it. 
 
 The custom of the school of Salernum, which was 
 also for a long period that of the institutions suc- 
 cessively established, was to study anatomy in the 
 works of Galen or on pigs and dogs, animals which, 
 at this era, were almost exclusively dissected.
 
 CHAPTER XYIII. 
 
 STATE OF MEDICINE DURING THE THIRTEENTH AND 
 FOURTEENTH CENTURIES. 
 
 Medical progress in France under St. Louis — Jean Pitard — Lan- 
 franc of Milan — Progress of surgery in Italy — The school of 
 Bologna audits followers — Encouragement of medical instruc- 
 tion in the fourteenth century — First dissection of the human 
 body — Rough modes of dissection — Astrology and theosophy 
 intermingled with medicine — The Arabists — Decay of the 
 school of Salernum. 
 
 Medical education made remarkable progress in 
 France under Saint Louis. It was during the reign 
 of this prince that the college of surgeons was sepa- 
 rated from the faculty of medicine, through the 
 influence of Jean Pitard, a man of considerable 
 talents, the surgeon and confidant of the king. 
 Surgery was regularly taught in this college, but 
 without any particular splendor until the appearance 
 of an individual to whom the art is highly indebted. 
 Lanfranc of Milan, medicin chirurgique, or surgical 
 physician, as the lay physicians who practised sur- 
 gery were then called, being compelled to leave his 
 own country, went to Paris in 1295, where he com- 
 menced a course of surgery which procured him the 
 greatest celebrity. 
 
 This branch of the healing art had for several 
 years made considerable progress in Italy. Roger 
 of Parma, who afterwards established himself at
 
 MEDICINE IN THE THIRTEENTH CENTURY. 213 
 
 Montpellier, and became the chancellor of that uni- 
 versity, had first made known in his country the 
 operations of Albucasis, and after him his pupil 
 Roland of Parma, professor at Bologna, acquired 
 considerable renown for his improvement of surgi- 
 cal pathology. The most skilful of the surgeons of 
 this school, however, Guillaume de Salicet of Pla- 
 centia, a learned pathologist for his time, was the 
 master of Lanfranc. The latter surpassed all his 
 predecessors in the extent of his know^ledge and the 
 extent of his imagination. He published at Paris his 
 '-''G-rande Chirurgie^'' -wYach. served as a guide to that 
 school until the more modern works of Guy de Chau- 
 liac, at the end of the fourteenth century, were sub- 
 stituted for them. Medical instruction now became 
 successively encouraged in the principal cities of 
 Europe in which universities were erected by the 
 reigning princes. 
 
 The history of medicine is henceforth chiefly in- 
 terested in its progress in England, France, Ger- 
 many, and Italy. The Moors, vanquished by the 
 Christians in Spain, appear in proportion as they left 
 that beautiful country to have delivered it up to 
 fresh darkness. The period at which the Spaniards 
 recovered their independence, instead of being the 
 occasion of increase of knowledge, was the precursor 
 of a state of ignorance of increasing magnitude. 
 Again the Arabians, overcome in the East, and their 
 caliphates destroyed by the Turks, lost their taste 
 for science. 
 
 In the fourteenth century medical instruction ex- 
 perienced in European countries a revolution of the 
 highest importance, and one to wdiich medical science
 
 2 1 4 HIS TORY OF MEDICINE. 
 
 is indebted for its subsequent progress. Until this 
 period anatomy, whose utility had been acknow- 
 ledged by physicians from the most remote period, 
 was but a speculative science. The prejudices of 
 every religious creed had interdicted physicians 
 from the dissection of human subjects. After the 
 time of Herophilus and his successor Erasistratus, if 
 some studious individuals attended to practical 
 anatomy, they could operate only on animals, and 
 of course their information was of a character by 
 no means satisfactory, owing to the difference be- 
 tween their structure and that of man. The anato- 
 mical courses of the schools consisted of the nomen- 
 clature of the parts of the body, according to the 
 descriptions contained in the works of Galen, and, 
 when any demonstrations were made, dogs and pigs 
 were the subjects; but in 1315 Moxdini de Luzzi, 
 Professor of Anatomy at Bologna, dissected the 
 human subject before his pupils, for the first time, 
 it is asserted, for seventeen centuries, and he subse- 
 quently composed a treatise on anatomy, in which 
 the different parts of the human body were described 
 from nature. This work, imperfect as might be ex- 
 pected, was considered classical for more than two 
 centuries. 
 
 The bold and successful experiment of Mondini 
 was successfully repeated by others, and soon the 
 greater number of the universities began to open, 
 several times in each year, human bodies, whose 
 structure they demonstrated to the pupils. The 
 previous dissection of the subjects, however, which 
 served for those demonstrations, was confided to a
 
 DISSECTIONS OF HUMAN BODIES. ■ 215 
 
 barber's boy, who had no other instrument than a 
 razor, which he of course used in an unskilful man- 
 ner; then the professor, furnished with the treatise 
 of Mondini, read the description of the parts thus 
 clumsily prepared to his auditors. 
 
 After Mondini, and in the same century, ITicolas 
 Betrucci, Peter de la Cerlata, better known under 
 the name of Argelata, both professors at Bologna, 
 Henry de Hermondaville, who taught at Paris, and 
 several others distinguished themselves by their 
 zeal and dexterity in anatomical demonstrations. 
 
 The progress which the healing art, aided by 
 practical anatomy, made at this period was but 
 trifling. An important obstacle existed to the 
 advancement of the science in the prodigious and 
 to-be-regretted success everywhere acquired by judi- 
 ciary astrology, as well as by every other part of the 
 theosophy with which the writings of the Arabians, 
 and especially those of Averrhoes, had infested the 
 schools. 
 
 One of the most dangerous propagators of these 
 doctrines — of those physicians whom Haller has 
 called Arabists — was Arnold of Yilla iTova, a pro- 
 fessor at Barcelona, a man of considerable talents, 
 but more famed for his chemical than for his medical 
 knowledge ; to him we are indebted for the use of 
 tinctures. His astrological instruction he received 
 from the celebrated Raymond Lully. 
 
 Peter Julian the Spaniard, afterwards Pope John 
 XX., was also the author of several works, both 
 physiological and practical, compiled from the Greek 
 and Arabian writers, but the most famous of the 
 Arabists was Bernard de Gordon, whom certain
 
 2 1 6 HIS TOR Y OF MEDICINE. 
 
 authors assert to have been born in Scotland. He 
 was professor at Montpellier early in the fourteenth 
 century, and his system of the practice of medicine, 
 entitled Lilium Ifedicince, contains some remedies 
 not yet wholly forgotten. 
 
 The doctrine, however, which he taught at Mont- 
 pellier, and consigned in his works, is a sad example 
 of the extent of degradation which the human mind 
 is capable of attaining. At the end of this century 
 lived Guy de Chauliac, and although he was never 
 a professor, his treatise on surgery was the basis of 
 instruction over all Europe until Ambrose Pare 
 published his celebrated work on the same subject. 
 
 The rebellion of the ISTeapolitans against Emperor 
 Conrad lY., son of Frederic II., excited the anger of 
 that prince, who inflicted a severe punishment on 
 the city of Naples by issuing an edict dated 1252, in 
 which he invited by the most seductive promises, all 
 the literati to go to Salernum in order to strengthen 
 that celebrated school, and to transform it into a 
 great university; but he was not successful in his 
 design of injuring Xaples. Death surprised him in 
 1254, and Salernum remained a simple school of 
 medicine, which at the middle of the fourteenth cen- 
 tury had already lost its ancient splendor. The laws 
 relative to the healing art were, it is true, confirmed 
 in 1365, by Queen Jane, but the school appears to have 
 been so much eclipsed after the fourteenth century 
 by those of Bologna and of Paris, that it could never 
 recover the eclat it had enjoyed. The words of Pe- 
 trarch prove that in his time it had almost entirely 
 lost its reputation.
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 STATE OF MEDICINE DURING THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY. 
 
 Absurdities taught in the schools, and afterwards denounced by 
 the faculty of Paris — Distinguished medical men of the day — 
 Surgery in the hands of the barbers and bathers — Scarcity of 
 operators in Europe — Operation for replacing the nose when 
 lost — Basil Valentine, the monk, and his experiments with 
 antimony, &c. — Lectures of Chrysolore, ambassador of the 
 Emperor of the East — Invention of printing — Prevalence of 
 scurvy, lues venerea, &c. 
 
 Medical instruction made but little improvement 
 in the fifteenth century. The false philosophy of the 
 Arabians, as already stated, pervaded the majority 
 of the schools and counteracted the development of 
 reason. Thus, Marcellus Ficinus, a Florentine 
 physician who was celebrated in those times, uniting 
 with some wise precepts on hygiene the most absurd 
 conceits of judiciary astrology, laid it down as a 
 principle that the vital spirits of man are of a nature 
 similar to that of the ether, which according to the 
 theosophical philosophy fills the space in which the 
 stars move, and he concluded that if we could 
 procure this ether we might attain considerable 
 longevity; an effect which, according to him, the 
 preparations of gold taken internally would likewise 
 produce. He attributed a particular virtue to
 
 2 1 8 HISTOR V OF MEDICINE. 
 
 medicines prepared during the conjunction of Jupi- 
 ter and Yenus. Many similar absurdities which 
 were taught at this period in the public schools 
 might be quoted. There were, indeed, but few 
 minds which resisted the admission of this myste- 
 rious science. 
 
 Amongst those, however, who most usefully 
 attacked it were the chancellor Gerson and the 
 learned Pic de la Mirandole. The former con- 
 demned all the superstitious means defended by the 
 astrologists, and was the author of a work full of 
 good sense, in which the theosophical precepts of the 
 time had their just value assigned to them. Lastly 
 the faculty of Paris denounced it, holding it to be 
 diabolical and dangerous. 
 
 Amongst the physicians whose works were ad- 
 vantageous to science during this century was Bar- 
 tholomew MoNTAGXANA (A.D. 1460), professor at 
 Padua, who cultivated anatomy and boasted of hav- 
 ing opened fourteen subjects, a thing remarkable for 
 the time. 
 
 Michael Savonarola, professor at Ferrara, is also 
 highly worthy of mention amongst the learned of 
 those times, not only as being a judicious observer 
 on several practical points, but because he strongly 
 combated the erroneous doctrines of Averrhoes and 
 strenuously opposed the false philosophy which at 
 that time possessed the schools. 
 
 In this century some useful works on materia 
 medica and pharmacy were published, one of the 
 most remarkable of which was that of Saladin, a 
 physician of I^aples. Surgery, however, remained
 
 SUR GER V OF THE FIFTEENTH CENTUR Y. 219 
 
 stationary in the hands of the barbers and bathers, 
 who could neither read nor write. Scarcely at this 
 period was there in Europe a man who was able to 
 perform operations. They who required an oculist 
 had to seek him in Asia, where they found some pos- 
 sessed of at least dexterity of hand. 
 
 The king of Hungary, Matthew Corvin, being 
 wounded in battle and unable to find a surgeon who 
 could cure him, published through Europe that he 
 would load with honors and riches any one who 
 should be successful. Hans de Dockenbourg, an 
 Alsacian, succeeded in restoring his majesty to 
 health and received the rewards which he offered. 
 
 Leonard Bertapaglia, professor of surgery at 
 Padua, and who published a commentary on the 
 fourth book of Avicenna, may be separated from the 
 barbers on account of his classical instruction only ; 
 his surgical theory being filled with absurdities. 
 
 It was in the fifteenth century that was devised 
 the operation for replacing the nose when lost by 
 accident or disease. The Italians, Vincent Vianeo, 
 Branca and Bojani, were the first who attempted it. 
 They cut from the arm a piece of flesh, leaving it 
 adherent to the limb by a few fibres only ; giving to 
 this flap the shape of the nose, they applied it to the 
 raw surface where the nose had existed, the arm 
 being kept tied up to the countenance, and, when 
 the adhesion was complete, they divided the parts 
 connecting the artificial nose with the arm. This 
 operation, as we shall presently learn, was after- 
 wards improved by Tagliacozzi. 
 
 About the middle of the fifteenth century lived
 
 2 2 o HIS TOR Y OF MEDICINE. 
 
 • 
 
 Basil Yalextixe, a German Benedictine monk, 
 who led the way to the internal administration of 
 metallic medicine by a variety of experiments on 
 the nature of antimony, with which, if we may credit 
 vague tradition, he was extremely unfortunate upon 
 his brother monks, all of whom he injured by it, 
 and hence the name of this drug has been supposed 
 to be derived, aj^ti-/to»'a;t»/5'- To Basil Valentine we 
 are also indebted for the discovery of the volatile 
 alkali and of its preparation from sal ammoniac. 
 He .also first used mineral acids as solvents, and 
 noticed the production of ether from alcohol. He 
 seems also to have understood the tonic virtues of 
 the sulphate of iron. 
 
 Towards the end of this century lived Alexander 
 Bexedetti, professor at Padua, who contributed 
 greatly to the improvement of anatomy and surgery 
 in Italy. At this period also a remarkable event 
 occurred which prepared the way for the improve- 
 ments of the following century. This was the ar- 
 rival in Italy of Emmaxuel Chrysolore, ambassador 
 from Emmanuel Palaeologus, Emperor of the East. 
 This sovereign sent his ambassadors to the courts of 
 the Christian princes to solicit aid from them against 
 the Mussulmans, who continually threatened his 
 states. As the negotiation, the result of which did 
 not fulfil the expectation of the emperor, continued 
 for a long time, Chrysolore during his residence at 
 Venice taught there publicly the different branches 
 of erudition which had been cultivated at Byzan- 
 tium since the destruction of the Roman Empire of 
 the West.
 
 CHRYSOLORE THE AMBASSADOR. 
 
 The G-reek language was chiefly the subject of 
 the lectures of Chrysolore, explaining the original 
 works of the authors of antiquity, of which the de- 
 fective translation of the Arabians gave but a feeble 
 and erroneous idea. The Greek ambassador had 
 some zealous and clever disciples ; his lectures were 
 carried into several cities of Italy, and the taste for 
 proper subjects of study was extended over all 
 Europe. The works of Plato and of Aristotle were 
 read, and the errors foisted upon them by the Ara- 
 bians rectified. These and these new acquirements 
 ultimately tended to the civilization of Europe. 
 
 During the obscurity of this and the following 
 centur}^, Greece still retained her former treasures, 
 and could boast of a few ph^^sicians to whom they 
 were not unknown, and by whom they were not 
 neglected. A warlike race whose martial spirit was 
 aided by enthusiasm burst at once from its fastnesses 
 and soon overwhelmed the Eoman empire in the 
 East. The Turkish Emperor Amurat, in the year 
 1430, took by storm Thessalonica, from whence 
 Theodore Gaza, a man of considerable learning es- 
 caped with some of his literary treasures to Italy. 
 When Constantinople was taken a few years after- 
 wards, and the Byzantine kingdom wholly over- 
 turned, many others followed his example. All 
 were warmly received by Lorenzo di Medicis, and 
 the manuscripts thus rescued from oblivion soon 
 disseminated the stores of Grecian poetry, history, 
 philosophy, and medicine. 
 
 The human mind was roused from its lethargy by 
 several other occurrences in this century. The in-
 
 22 2 HIS TOR V OF MEDICINE. 
 
 vention of printing of course tended very conside- 
 rably to the communication of knowledge. Colon 
 and De Gama discovered or facilitated the access to 
 either India, from whence the materia medica gained 
 new acquisitions. The scurvy, first observed in Ger- 
 many in 1482, the sudor Anglicanus, first noticed 
 about the same time, followed by lues venerea and 
 the morbus petechialis in Italy, equally animated 
 the spirit of inquiry to prevent or relieve the effects 
 of such distressing scourges.
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 STATE OF MEDICINE DURING THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY. 
 
 Improved taste and knowledge of medicine — New translations 
 of Hippocrates and Galen — The Royal College of Physicians 
 founded — Multitude of editors, commentators, &c. — Distin- 
 guished writers on practical medicine — Medical controversies 
 of this century— John Argentier and his principles of reform — 
 Belief in demons as a cause of disease — Alchemy in medicine 
 — Paracelsus, his life, opinions, and vagaries — Chemical medi- 
 cines more generally employed — New pharmacopoeias — Re- 
 markable progress of anatomy and surgery — Improvement in 
 surgical operations — Treatment of gunshot wounds — Study of 
 special surgical diseases — Taghacozzi and his rhinoplastic ope- 
 ration — Remarkable discoveries in anatomy — The days of Syl- 
 vius, Vesalius, Pare, Fallopius, Fabricius, and Eustachius. 
 
 The knowledge possessed by the learned of this 
 century of the Greek language procured them, as 
 already remarked, the inappreciable advantage of 
 reading the works of Hippocrates and others in their 
 purity, and of being able to expound them to their 
 pupils. At the end of the fifteenth century Nicolas 
 Leonicenus, of Venice, professor at Padua and Fer- 
 rara, and who taught there for more than sixty 
 years, employed his talents in the promulgation of 
 Hippocratic medicine. He translated into Latin 
 the works of the Father of Medicine, and explained 
 them in his lectures. Leonicenus did not, however, 
 confine himself to the teachins: of the doctrines of
 
 2 2 4 HIS TOR Y OF MEDICINE, 
 
 Hippocrates; he did justice to those parts of the 
 theories aud practice of the Arabians which merited 
 it, and thus advanced the already improving medi- 
 cal taste which was being promulgated from the 
 schools of Italy to those of France. He died in 
 1524. 
 
 After Leonicenus the renowed Thomas Linacre, 
 of Canterbury, who had frequented the Italian 
 schools, and was phj-sician to Henry YIII. of Eng- 
 land, published a faithful translation of the works 
 of Hippocrates into Latin. He was the first person 
 who in England employed the Latin language in his 
 writings. Linacre rendered everlasting service to 
 medical science by appropriating the fortune he had 
 acquired at court to the founding at Oxford and 
 'Cambridge of a chair of Hippocratic and Galenical 
 medicine. It was throuo-h him also that the estab- 
 lishment of the College of Physicians of London was 
 brought about, prior to this period the right of 
 licensing practitioners in London seeming to have 
 been vested solely in the bishops. Leonicenus and 
 Linacre soon had imitators. John Gonthier, of 
 Andernach, professor of the Faculty of Paris, 
 translated Galen and the chief of the Greek writers. 
 In Germany, also, Cornarus published a good trans- 
 lation of Hippocrates, and refuted the false philo- 
 sophy of the Arabians. 
 
 During this period Fracastorius and Massa were 
 the chief luminaries of the Italian schools ; Sylvius 
 and Fernelius of the Parisian. The latter victori- 
 ously opposed the humoral pathology of Galen and 
 sowed the first seeds of Solidism, a system subse-
 
 WRITERS OF THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY. 225 
 
 quently embraced by Hoffmann and his school. 
 Lommius, the excellent author of the Observationes 
 Medicinales, was a disciple of Fernelius, and prac- 
 tised at Brussels. All these authors were zealous 
 supporters of Hippocratic medicine, and with equal 
 enthusiasm and perseverance endeavored to re- 
 vive it. 
 
 Botal, a Piedmontese of this era, a disciple of 
 Fernelius, chief physician to Charles IX. and Henry 
 II. of France, chiefly distinguished himself by his 
 recommendation of profuse bleeding. Duretus, IS". 
 Piso, and Hollerius were also French physicians, 
 but with more correct views under the guidance of 
 Hippocrates, whom they admired and illustrated. 
 De Gorris (Gorrseus) and Foesius of Dijon were 
 equally able illustrators of the ancients in the De- 
 finitiones Medicm and (Economia Hippoeratis. Fores- 
 tius and C. Piso wrote several interestino^ obser- 
 vations on prognosis, with select observations and 
 consultations. 
 
 An immense multitude of editors, commentators, 
 scholiasts, &c., during this century were employed 
 on the writings of Hippocrates and Galen, whom 
 they quoted as so many oracles. The study, how- 
 ever, had a considerable effect in bringing them back 
 to the patient reflection which distinguished Hippo- 
 crates and his school. Amongst the distinguished 
 writers on practical medicine in addition to those 
 previously mentioned, were Zwinger of Basle in 
 Switzerland, Mercurialis (A.D. 1533), who published 
 a classical work on the gymnastics of the ancients, 
 Amatus Lusitanus and Prosper Alpinus (A.D. 
 15
 
 226 HISTOR V OF MEDICINE. 
 
 1553), who wrote an excellent work on the medicine 
 of the Egyptians. 
 
 We need not dwell on the disputes relative to the 
 proper place for bleeding according to the nature or 
 seat of diseases. These controversies respecting re- 
 vulsion and derivation which went on during the 
 whole course of the sixteenth century, and in which 
 each party speculated according to the humoral 
 notions of the time in vogue, could not fail to retard 
 the progress of the art. The discussion, however, 
 excited the researchesof anatomists, researches which 
 were not without their use' in the subsequent dis- 
 covery of the circulation of the blood. 
 
 The writings of the G-reeks which were circulated 
 amongst physicians liberated them during this cen- 
 tury from the servitude in which they had been kept 
 by the erroneous theories of the Arabians, and a spirit 
 of criticism was introduced into the schools. John 
 Argextier, a Piedmontese physician who taught 
 successively at Pisa, Naples, and Turin, signalized 
 himself by his principles of reformation in teaching. 
 He taught that medicine ought to be considered as 
 a science of observation and experience, and demon- 
 strated, contrary to the opinions at the time generally 
 received, that the nails, hair, and humors of the 
 human body are integrant parts of its composition ; 
 that every part of the frame, in short, receives its 
 nourishment from the blood : whilst Galen and his 
 followers pointed out certain parts as being vivified 
 by the semen. He refuted also a multitude of other 
 erroneous physiological ideas of the ancients which 
 were defended by the moderns, but frequently the
 
 INFL UENCE OF DEMONS IN DISEASE. 227 
 
 theories he substituted were as objectionable as those 
 which he combated. The opinions of Argentier 
 found partisans in different universities, and were 
 taught at Montpellier by two celebrated professors — 
 Laurent Joubert and Guillaume Rondelet. 
 
 ils^otwithstanding the taste for accurate observation 
 exhibited by several intelligent professors, theoso]Dhy, 
 and that of the most degrading character, became in 
 some schools intimately connected with medicine. 
 Henry Corneille Agrippa of Bologna, for example, 
 in different cities of Europe, as London, Paris, &c., 
 j)romulgated the most gross errors. The absurd 
 reveries of this visionary, as contained in his works, 
 cannot be perused without a feeling of contempt and 
 pity. He considered, for instance, all the Hebrew 
 letters to have a natural sio-nification, foundino- his 
 opinion on the idea that Hebrew is the most sacred 
 and ancient language, and adding that when demons 
 speak they always do so in Hebrew. 
 
 Demons he considered to exist over the whole of 
 nature, some dwelling in fire or air, on the land or 
 in water, others in the constitutions, man constrain- 
 ing all these to obey him by proper fumigations with 
 certain appropriate ingredients. According to this 
 absurd doctrine, all diseases are infl.uenced by demons, 
 a doctrine, which, strange to say, spread through all 
 the schools. Astrology was taught in those of the 
 greatest celebrity during this century, and the most 
 distinguished minds could with difficulty prevent 
 the reception of this deplorable contagion. 
 
 The alchemists also now came to unite themselves 
 with the abettors of theosophy, but it was reserved
 
 2 28 HISTORY OF MEDICINE, 
 
 for Paracelsus and Van Helmont to inundate the 
 whole science with the mysticism of alchemical doc- 
 trines and language. 
 
 Paracelsus lived in the middle of the sixteenth 
 century. He was an ignorant boaster, but he still 
 had the merit of having first introduced chemical 
 remedies into medicine, and of subduing the preju- 
 dices of the Galenical physicians against the produc- 
 tions of the laboratory. He declared that antimony 
 was not to be equalled for medicinal virtue by any 
 other substance in nature, and he also appears to 
 have first used mercury internally. He employed 
 lead internally in fevers, and gives directions for the 
 preparation of red precipitate with mercury and 
 aqua fortis. 
 
 His vanity was such as to lead him to assert that 
 Hippocrates was produced by the genius of Greece, 
 as he was by that of Germany, adding in his delirium 
 that all the universities united had not as much 
 knowledge as his beard, and that the hairs of his 
 forehead had more instruction than all writers put 
 together. Paracelsus maintained that the human 
 body is composed of salt, sulphur, and mercury, and 
 that in these "three first substances," as he calls 
 them, health and disease consist ; that the mercury 
 in proportion to its volatility produces tremors, mor- 
 tifications in the ligaments, madness, frenzy, and 
 delirium, and that fevers, phlegmons, and the jaun- 
 dice are the offspring of the sulphureous principle, 
 while he supposed that the colic, stone, gravel, gout, 
 and sciatica derive their origin from salt.
 
 BOASTING QUACKERY OF PARACELSUS. 229 
 
 His real name was Philip Hochener, which he 
 changed, on commencing his professional career, 
 into Philippus Aureolus Theophrastus Bombastus 
 Paracelsus, a name which is quite characteristic of 
 the boasting quackery of the man. At an early 
 age he visited the most renowned towns in Europe, 
 and returning to his native country was made Pro- 
 fessor of Medicine and Chemistry at Basle in Switzer- 
 land. He availed himself of this situation not to 
 instruct the unlearned, but to vilify his contempo- 
 raries and predecessors. 
 
 It is generally said that his dissolute manners and 
 intractable temper obliged him to quit this occupa- 
 tion, but others have told a more plausible story. 
 It is said that a rich canon fell sick, and, getting 
 frightened, offered one hundred florins to any one 
 who would cure him. Paracelsus administered three 
 pills, and the canon got well; but, being so soon re- 
 stored, and by such simple means, he refused to 
 fulfil his promise. The matter was brought before 
 a magistrate, who decreed that the doctor should 
 only recover the customary fee. Irritated at the 
 flimsy excuses and unpardonable ingratitude of the 
 priest, and at the magistrate's partial decision, Pa- 
 racelsus declared that he would leave the inhabitants 
 of Basle to the eternal destruction which they 
 deserved. He then retired to Strasburgh, and 
 thence to Hungary, where he took to drinking, and, 
 notwithstanding his boasting that he possessed a 
 universal medicine to secure immortality, he died 
 in a hospital in the forty-third year of his age. 
 
 Although, however, what is almost incredible,
 
 230 HISTORY OF MEDICINE. 
 
 the chemical sect, with Paracelsus at their head, 
 were very successful, they were aware of the unpo- 
 pularity of their means ; people were frightened at 
 the idea of mercury and antimony, which were ac- 
 cordingly exhibited under fantastic and assumed 
 names. 
 
 In Ens^land chemical medicines be2:an to be em- 
 ployed in the reign of Charles I. In 1644 Schroder 
 published his Chemico- Medical Pharmacopoeia^ and 
 shortly after, that of the London College made its 
 ajjpearance. The great modern improvements in 
 chemistry would seem indeed to have sprung from 
 its application to medicine, and the foundations of 
 chemical science are principally to be found in the 
 medical and pharmaceutical writers of the sixteenth 
 century, who rescued it from the hands of the al- 
 chemical pretenders and gave it a place and character 
 of its own. 
 
 "Whilst the state of medicine, properly so called, 
 had become corrupted and deteriorated by the suc- 
 cess everywhere obtained by the introduction of 
 theosophy, surgery and anatomy made remarkable 
 progress in the majority of the schools of Europe. 
 Prior to the sixteenth century the operation of tre- 
 panning and that of lithotomy were never under- 
 taken by surgeons by profession. The professors in 
 4:heir lectures spoke of the diseases which needed 
 those operations, but left them to the charlatans of 
 Italy. 
 
 A French surgeon, Germain Colot, about the end 
 of the fifteenth century, having seen the operation 
 of lithotomy executed by an itinerant at Milan,
 
 G UNSHO T WO UNDS A SUR GICAL NO VEL TV. 231 
 
 performed it in France, making his first trial on a 
 criminal under sentence of death. In the sixteenth 
 century this operation was repeatedly practised by 
 John de Romain, a surgeon at Cremona, and by 
 Mariano Santo de Barletta, surgeon at ISTaples, a 
 pupil of Romain. From Italy these improved ope- 
 rations were practised in France, especially by Lau- 
 rent Colot, who operated so successfully that his 
 fame was celebrated over Europe. Still later in this 
 century, Peter Franco became renowned as a litho- 
 tomist and as the inventor of several improved in- 
 struments for that operation. 
 
 Grunshot wounds were at this period new diseases, 
 regarding the cure of which no information could be 
 acquired from the ancients. The surgeons were 
 therefore compelled to draw upon their own re- 
 sources, and the most incongruous theories were the 
 consequence, as is strongly exhibited in the works of 
 Yigo, the Genoese. This branch of the art was, 
 however, much improved by the labors of Ambrose 
 Pare (A.D. 1509-1590), Maggi, Leone, a professor at 
 Pavia, Botal, a celebrated anatomist, Felix Wurz, 
 a German surgeon, Guillemeau, a pupil of Pare, and 
 others. Vigo gave also in his lectures rules for the 
 operation of the trepan, pointing out the cases in 
 which the operation is required. 
 
 The diseases of the urinary organs, which had 
 become more common after the introduction of 
 syphilis, were likewise the objects of surgical atten- 
 tion. At this time the introduction of bougies of 
 wax or lead for the dilatation of the urethra was 
 proposed and practised, but in a very clumsy and
 
 232 HIS TOR V OF MEDICINE. 
 
 imperfect manner. It was not until a later period 
 that plaster bougies were invented, the first instance 
 of success from their use with which we are acquainted 
 being that of Henry III. of France. This prince, 
 when returning from Poland, in passing through 
 Venice, contracted a disease which by bad treatment 
 degenerated into a stricture of the urethra, when an 
 expert physician of the time, Mayerne, thought of 
 introducing plaster bougies for the purpose of widen- 
 ing the canal, and by this means cured his patient. 
 
 It was in this century that Gaspard Tagliacozzi, 
 professor at Bologna, improved the operation for 
 forming a new nose at the expense of the biceps 
 muscle of the individual, now known as the Tallia- 
 cotian operation. The most skilful surgeons and 
 anatomists of the time, as Fallopius, Yesalius, Par^, 
 and Fabricius Hildanus, thought it necessary to 
 apologize for this graft, as Tagliacozzi called it, but 
 that surgeon in his enthusiasm asserted that the 
 grafted nose possessed a more acute sense of smell 
 than a natural one. On this occasion Tagliacozzi 
 excited such an enthusiasm amono-st his fellow-citi- 
 zens, that they erected a statue to him, on which 
 he was represented holding a nose in his hand. 
 
 Surgical education at Paris acquired fresh lustre 
 during this century. The College of Surgery under 
 the protection of Guilliaume Vavasseur, first surgeon 
 of Francis I., became a celebrated school. The art 
 was much improved also by the labors of Pare, Fal- 
 lopius, Berenger de Carpi, and others. 
 
 The greatest discoveries which signalized the 
 sixteenth century were those which took place in
 
 CELEBRATED ANATOMISTS OF THE DAY. 233 
 
 anatomy. Every part of the human frame was 
 carefully studied, and important discoveries made. 
 Those professors who contributed more especially to 
 the knowledge of the structure of the human body 
 were Berenger de Carpi, who dissected more than one 
 hundred subjects, and to whom the art is indebted 
 for numerous discoveries ; James Dubois, who Latin- 
 ized his name (Sylvius), and was the master of the 
 great Vesalius and the true founder of anatomy in 
 France, and also the first who injected the blood- 
 vessels ; Andreas Vesalius, the most accurate 
 anatomist of the day, who was the author of the 
 first anatomical plates executed after nature ; Eusta- 
 chius, who discovered the Eustachian tube ; Gabriel 
 Fallopius, who first described the Fallopian tube, 
 so called after him ; Fabricius ab Acquapendente, 
 who first described the valves of the veins, a discov- 
 ery which contributed to facilitate that of the circu- 
 lation of the blood; and lastly, Michael Servetus, 
 who also contributed to the same discovery which 
 took place in the following centurj^ The latter 
 anatomist comprehended the lesser circulation, or 
 that through the lungs, but the honor of establish- 
 ing the accurate theory of the general circulation 
 was reserved for Harvey,
 
 CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 STATE OF MEDICINE DURING THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 
 
 Harvey's discovery of the circulation of the blood — Advance of 
 practical medicine — Rosicrucians — Eclectic conciliators — Van 
 Helmont and his doctrines— Sympathetic powder of Sir Kenelm 
 Digby— Mathematical sect— Borelli, Bellini, Willis, Keill, and 
 other celebrated physicians and philosophers — Humoral pa- 
 thology — Malpighi, Bartholin, Steno, Aselli, Wirsung, Pec- 
 quet, Wharton, and their discoveries in the glandular system, 
 &c. — The days of Sydenham, Baglivi, and Boerhaave — Dis- 
 tinguished contributors to medical science. 
 
 This period is signalized by the discovery of the 
 circulation of the blood, the most important which 
 has ever been made in medicine, and the source of 
 most of the subsequent improvements. The honor 
 of it belongs to William Harvey, physician to 
 James I. and Charles II. of England, and Professor 
 of Anatomy to the College of Physicians in London, 
 who in the year 1619 made known to his pupils the 
 general mechanism of the circulation. This great 
 discovery was for a long time contested and at- 
 tacked from all sides with the greatest acrimony, 
 and it was remarked by Hume, as an evidence of 
 obstinate adherence to preconceived opinions, that 
 no physician in Europe who had reached forty years 
 of age ever to the end of his life adopted Harvey's 
 doctrine of the circulation of the blood. It was a
 
 NOVEL SCHOOLS OF MEDICAL FAITH. 235 
 
 great triumph for Harvey, however, when such an 
 anatomist as John Riolan, of the Faculty of Paris, 
 who had heen one of the most violent opponents of 
 the new theory, voluntarily succumhed, and became 
 one of its warmest advocates, during the same cen- 
 tury. 
 
 Malpighi of Bologna soon demonstrated micro- 
 scopically the course of the corpuscles of the blood 
 in the minute vessels, and also corroborated the fact 
 of the communication between the veins and the 
 arteries. The teachings of Harvey were also con- 
 firmed by the experiments on infusion of medical 
 substances into the veins and on transfusion of the 
 blood of one animal into the body of another, which 
 were made in various parts of Europe, and England 
 especially. 
 
 Whilst anatomy and physiology in this century 
 made a philosophical progress and one calculated to 
 extend the domain of the science, the advance of 
 practical medicine was retarded by the false doc- 
 trines Avhich infested the schools. A sect of fanati- 
 cal physicians, known under the name of Rosicru- 
 cians, united their principles to those of Paracelsus, 
 and for a long time diverted medicine from its true 
 object by seeking after modes of curing diseases in 
 the knowledge of the occult sciences. These dream- 
 ers pretended to cure all diseases by the aid of faith 
 and the imagination, asserting that the most serious 
 disorder might be suddenly cured by the sole glance 
 of a true Rosicrucian. 
 
 Another school of medicine also appeared at this
 
 2:^6 HISTORY OF MEDICINE, 
 
 time, known under the denomination of the Eclectic 
 Conciliators. These physicians, more intelligent 
 than the Rosicrucians, were acquainted with the 
 medical theories of the ancients, but they had the 
 folly to unite' them with the absurd principles of 
 Paracelsus. The j^hysicians of this sect, along with 
 considerable knowledge, possessed the most abject 
 credulity. Thus, they believed in the transmutation 
 of metals, in the power of witchcraft, the possi- 
 bility of holding a correspondence with the devil, &c. 
 Daniel Sennertus, a professor at Wittemberg, who 
 possessed considerable erudition, was one of these 
 eclectics. 
 
 Van Helmont, whose doctrines assimilated with 
 those of Paracelsus, was a man of much superior 
 talents, distinguished by sagacity and judgment, 
 which render his works very interesting to the mo- 
 dern physician. His son was more mystical than 
 the father, but acute and ingenious, and w^as the 
 friend of Leibnitz. He was succeeded as a chemical 
 pathologist by Sylvius de le Boe, professor at Leyden, 
 whose doctrines of alkalies, acids, and effervescence 
 long disgraced the science. 
 
 One of the most remarkable instances of super- 
 stition upon record occurred in this century, that of 
 the Sympathetic Powder of Sir Kenelm Digby, 
 knight of Montpellier. Whenever any wound had 
 been inflicted, this powder was applied to the weapon 
 that had inflicted it, which was, moreover, covered 
 with ointment, and dressed two or three times a 
 day. This practice is repeatedly alluded to by the
 
 S YMPA THE TIC PO WDERS AND UNG UENTS. 
 
 237 
 
 poets; thus, Sir Walter Scott, in the "Lay of the 
 Last Minstrel": — 
 
 "But she has ta'en the broken lance, 
 And wash'cl it from the clotted gore, 
 And salv'd the splinter o'er and o'er. 
 William of Deloraine, in trance. 
 Whene'er she turn'd it round and round, 
 Twisted as if she gall'd his wound. 
 Then to her maidens she did say. 
 That he should be whole man and sound." 
 
 Long after this period the formularies contained 
 an "armatory unguent," which was applied to the 
 instrument. According to Lord Bacon, the wound 
 was washed clean, "and then bound up close in fine 
 linen, and no more dressing renewed till it was 
 whole." Under such treatment it was of little im- 
 portance what application was made to the instru- 
 ment; binding up the wound, bringing the edges in 
 apposition, defending it from extraneous irritants, 
 and leaving it to the restorative power which is 
 seated in almost every part of an organized body, 
 is the approved mode of managing incised wounds 
 at the present day. 
 
 Dry den alludes to the superstition just referred to 
 more than once in his "Tempest; or. Enchanted 
 Island." Thus, Miranda, when she enters with 
 Hippolito's sword wrapt up: — 
 
 Hip. O, my wounds pain me ! 
 
 (^8he unwi'cips the sword.) 
 Mir. I am come to ease you. 
 Hip. Alas ! I feel the cold air come to me ; 
 My wound shoots worse than ever. 
 
 {She wipes and anoints the sword. )
 
 238 . HISTORY OF MEDICINE, 
 
 Mir. Does it still grieve you ? 
 
 Hip. ISTow metliinks there 's something laid just upon it. 
 
 Mir. Do you find no ease ? 
 
 Hip. Yes, yes ; upon the sudden all this pain 
 
 Is leaving me. Sweet Heaven, how I am eased !" 
 
 Act. V. Scene II. 
 The school of Paris most firmly rejected the 
 theosophical and chemical pathology. John Riolan 
 and Guy Patin were irreconcilable adversaries of 
 those pernicious doctrines, which, however, after 
 their death, met with a more favorable reception, 
 and were soon professed almost exclusively not 
 only at Paris but in all the other schools of France. 
 England at first adopted the chemical doctrine, the 
 celebrated Thomas Willis being one of the most 
 zealous propagators of the erroneous propositions of 
 Paracelsus. The physicians of Italy also soon re- 
 ceived the contagion; but about the latter end of 
 the seventeenth or commencement of the eighteenth 
 century a mathematical sect may be said to have 
 arisen. The application of mathematics to astro- 
 nomy by Kepler and to the laws of motion, as well 
 as to the system of the world by Xewton, led to 
 the opinion that its powers were irresistible, and 
 that it might unfold every secret of nature. 
 
 Borelli, at the end of the seventeenth century, 
 applied this science, where it properly admitted of 
 application, to the motions of animals, and showed 
 the advantages and disadvantages derived in these 
 motions from the origin and insertion of the muscles. 
 His scholar, Bellini, in the beginning of the follow- 
 ing century, went farther, and from mathematical 
 data endeavored to explain many functions of the
 
 MATHEMATICAL PHYSIOLOGISTS. 239 
 
 human body. Keill, a philosopher and mathemati- 
 cian rather than a physiologist, calculated from 
 imaginary data the power of each organ, and gave 
 the stomach, for instance, a force of compression so 
 great that in order to overcome the resistance it 
 must have destroyed its organization. The very 
 discordant results, however, at which diiferent ma- 
 thematical physiologists have arrived in treating of 
 the same function, show that very little useful ser- 
 vice can be looked for from that quarter. One esti- 
 mated the force of the heart as equal to 180,000 lbs.; 
 another reduced it to 8 ounces, and both these con- 
 clusions are clad in all the imposing forms of the 
 exact sciences. This doctrine soon extended into all 
 the universities of Europe. In Italy, and especially 
 in England and Germany, the mathematicians soon 
 vanquished the chemists; but in France the strife 
 was very active between the partisans of the two 
 doctrines, and for a long time the chemical sect pre- 
 served the pre-eminence. 
 
 About the middle of the seventeenth century, 
 when the circulation of the blood came to be scene- 
 rally known and admitted, and when the receptacle 
 of the chyle and the thoracic duct were discovered, 
 a considerable revolution also occurred in the system 
 of natural philosophy. In the course of this cen- 
 tury Galileo had introduced mathematical reasoning ; 
 and Lord Bacon, having proposed the method of in- 
 duction, had thereby excited a disposition to observe 
 facts and to make experiments. Until this period 
 every physician, whether Galenist or chemist, had 
 been so much accustomed to consider the state and
 
 240 HIS TOR V OF MEDICINE. 
 
 condition of the fluids both as the cause of disease 
 and as the foundation for explaining the operation 
 of medicine, that a humoral pathology formed a 
 great part of every system. 
 
 Such were the opinions which in the seventeenth 
 century prevailed in the schools of medicine, and 
 consequently amongst physicians. There were some 
 individuals, however, who still followed the route 
 traced out by Hippocrates, and occupied themselves 
 in elucidating his works, and amongst the chief of 
 these were Stephen Roderic de Castro and Zacutus 
 Lusitanus. 
 
 Whilst the medical doctrines were thus corrupted, 
 surgery, and especially anatomy, made striking 
 progress. The structure of the lungs and heart was 
 carefully studied. Malpighi, Bartholin, Lower, and 
 Steno threw considerable light on this part of ana- 
 tomy. Different physiological theories regarding 
 respiration and circulation originated in these re- 
 searches, Swammerdam, John Mayow, Borelli, Bel- 
 lini, Pitcairn, and Raymond Vieussens occupying 
 themselves with this important function. Gaspard 
 Aselli discovered the lacteal vessels in animals, a 
 discovery which opened the path for others relative 
 to the lymphatic vessels and glands. The excretory 
 duct of the pancreas was detected in a guinea-fowl 
 by Maurice Hofltman and by John George Wirsung. 
 A short time afterwards the route followed by the 
 chyle from the intestines through the mesentery 
 was detected, and Pecquet found the common trunk 
 of the lacteal and lymphatic vessels. This cele- 
 brated anatomist discovered that the latter vessels
 
 NE W DISCO VERIES IN ANA TO MY. 2 4 1 
 
 do not empty themselves into the liver, as had been 
 previously believed, and he made known the course 
 followed by the chyle before it reaches the torrent 
 of the circulation. 
 
 The history of the glandular system, in spite of 
 the controversies which it excited, was pushed to a 
 great extent. Thomas Wharton, especially, threw 
 considerable light upon it, and first gave a general 
 description of the glands, specifying those parts of 
 the body which in their structure belong to that 
 class of organs. Some of his observations on the 
 nature and functions of the glands are not exempt 
 from error; but, notwithstanding this, his work 
 rendered considerable service to the science, and 
 jDrepared the way for the farther discoveries of ana- 
 tomists of his and our own times. A Swedish phy- 
 sician, named Olatis Rudbeck, published his observa- 
 tions on the lymphatics, but he is memorable mainly 
 for his controversy with Bartholin as to priority of 
 discovery of the lymphatics of the intestines. 
 
 Before Francis Sylvius the anatomists of the 
 seventeenth century had not made any useful re- 
 searches on the structure of the encephalon. Sylvius, 
 however, threw fresh light on several points of the 
 history of the brain and of that of the nerves. J. 
 J. Wepfer traced the course of the vessels of the 
 brain with more accuracy than had previously been 
 done. Thomas Willis afterwards published a trea- 
 tise on the brain, which described in a more com- 
 plete and accurate manner the brain and the nerves 
 connected with it. Gerard Blaes, Swammerdam, 
 Steno, and Malpighi also studied the brain, and 
 16
 
 242 HISTORY OF MEDICINE. 
 
 especially its membranes. Blaes described with 
 accuracy the spinal marrow, and Francis Joseph 
 Burrhus, by subjecting the brain to chemical ana- 
 lysis, discovered it to be composed of 25 per cent, of 
 a fatty matter analogous to spermaceti. 
 
 The organs of the sense of sight were successfully 
 studied by the anatomists and philosophers of the 
 seventeenth century. J^ewton, Kepler, Scheiner, 
 Descartes, &c., determined the properties of the dif- 
 ferent parts of the eye relative to vision, and Schei- 
 ner demonstrated that the retina is the true organ 
 of sight. 
 
 During this century, also, numerous researches 
 were made on generation. Those of Harvey threw 
 considerable light on this portion of physiology, 
 and afforded ample materials for the works of a 
 number of physiologists, as Hartsoeker, Leeuwen- 
 hoek, Charles Drelincourt, and Frederick Euysch. 
 John James Eau, Spigelius, Sanctorius, and others 
 equally promoted physiology or disseminated the 
 discoveries of other observers by their dissections, 
 assisted by the newly discovered art of injecting 
 the vessels and the use of lenses, microscopes in the 
 complex state at present aflS.xed to them being the 
 invention of the following century. 
 
 The improvements in surgery, which had been 
 so numerous in the previous century, were less re- 
 markable at this era. There was no one who could 
 boast, like Ambrose Pare, of the sixteenth century, 
 that he had been the surgeon to four kings of France 
 in succession ; but the services which he rendered to 
 the art in the treatment of gunshot wounds, the
 
 IMPR O VEMENTS IN SUR GER V. 2 43 
 
 employment of the ligature, &c., bore good fruits 
 even in these days. ISTeither was there any author 
 of a complete treatise on surgery whose work ob- 
 tained equal popularity with that of Anthony 
 Chaumette, of France, in the sixteenth century ; 
 syphilis and gunshot wounds were then surgical 
 novelties, and much of the literature of those times 
 was devoted to these two subjects, and William 
 Clowes, an eminent English surgeon of Queen Eliza- 
 beth's time, had published " a short, profitable trea- 
 tise" on the morbus Gallicus, or syphilis ; and, early 
 in the seventeenth century, " a right fruitful and 
 profitable treatise" on the king's evil. 
 
 There seem to be periods in the progress of every 
 department of science, when, instead of making new 
 improvements, the energies of its cultivators are di- 
 rected to the perfecting of previous inventions and 
 discoveries. Such seems to have been mainly the case 
 in the surgical history of the seventeenth century. 
 Thus we find on record suggestions for operations 
 for stone, hernia, gunshot wounds, amputations, &c., 
 and several quaint and learned treatises in various 
 languages on the principles and practice of surgery; 
 but novelties were uncommon. Much of the tardy 
 inactivity of the surgeons of this day is due to the 
 fact that the art had not yet been elevated to the 
 position it occupies at the present age. For several 
 centuries they had been associated with the barbers ; 
 in other words, the barbers were at one time almost 
 the only surgeons, and this, too, not only in Eng- 
 land, but in the countries of continental Europe. 
 Even Ambrose Pare had been a barber-surgeon, but
 
 2 44 HIS TOR V OF MEDICINE, 
 
 he soon rose far above that rank. In the royal 
 warrants of monarchs to their surgeons, the words 
 capitis rasura were frequently mentioned, and in 
 that of Henry YI., in the fifteenth century, occurs 
 the phrase valettus et sirurgicus noster. Surgery was 
 thus debased until the eighteenth century. 
 
 The increase of anatomical knowledge gave a 
 great impetus to the advance of surgery ; but even 
 in 1635, when demonstrations of anatomy and sur- 
 gery were given in the Jardin Eoyal at Paris, the 
 lecturer was a physician, not a surgeon, and this 
 was the state of things as late as 1671, when the 
 king decreed that the lectures should be read by a 
 surgeon. To exhibit the still growing interest in 
 this branch of medicine, it may be stated, that in 
 the next century, about 1724, as many as ^yq public 
 professors were appointed there to conduct these de- 
 monstrations. 
 
 Many other distinguished names, of authors espe- 
 cially, might be mentioned in connection with the 
 advance of medical science, such as Conrad Victor 
 Schneider, a German anatomist and writer, whose 
 name is associated with the mucous lining of the 
 nose ; Francis Glisson, especially memorable for his 
 researches on the anatomy of the liver; Sanctorius, 
 author of aphorisms on Italian medicine, &c. ; John 
 Scultetus, whose Latin work was translated under 
 the name of the " Chirurgeon's Storehouse," illus- 
 trated with forty tables cut in brass ; the German 
 physicians, Michael Etmuller, father and son, both 
 of whom were writers in various departments of 
 medicine; Francis Mauriceau, the eminent French
 
 IMPR VEMENTS IN OBSTE TRIGS. 2 45 
 
 accoucheur, all of whose works were collected and 
 printed in the next century; R^gnier De Graaf, of 
 Holland, whose reputation has been preserved to pos- 
 terity by his researches on the sexual functions of 
 woman, and its association especially with the folli- 
 cles which bear his name ; and a host of others. 
 
 Several familiar names are associated with the 
 discoveries of the latter portions of this century. 
 Meibomius published a work particularly referring 
 to the anatomy of the eyelids; Peyer, one on the 
 glands of the intestines; Bonetus, a treatise on mor- 
 bid anatomy, deduced from actual post-mortem dis- 
 sections; and De Graaf introduced the practice of 
 performing injections for the purpose of discovering 
 the motion of the blood in the vessels, a process 
 which was also beneficial to anatomy. The merit 
 of this, or a similar discovery, is also given to Fre- 
 derick E,uysch, who is said to have first made ana- 
 tomical preparations. Bidloo, professor at Leyden, 
 published in 1685 his celebrated anatomical folio, 
 with 105 magnificent plates. Hugh Chamberlen, or 
 Chamberlain, about this time invented the obste- 
 trical forceps, but instead of giving the world the 
 benefit of his invention kept it a great mystery for 
 many years, so that he might reap the pecuniary 
 benefit of its practical use. About the same period, 
 also, Julian Clement, a celebrated French accoucheur, 
 by his great skill and influence, was the means of 
 having men employed instead of women to officiate 
 in cases of childbirth. It is said that the writers of 
 midwifery of this century did but little more than 
 copy the obstetrical work of Eucharius Rhodion,
 
 246 HISTORY OF MEDICINE. 
 
 which was " set foorth in Englishe by Thomas 
 Eajualde, Phisition," entitled " The Byrthe of Man- 
 kynde," which is said to have been the first book 
 published on that subject, in 1540, and generally 
 known as Eaynalde's work. 
 
 The conclusion of the seventeenth century was 
 distinguished by some of the brightest luminaries 
 that have illustrated medical science, such as Sy- 
 denham, Morton, Baglivi, and Boerhaave, although 
 the fame of the latter was chieflj^ conspicuous in 
 the next century. The first of these, Sydenham 
 (1624-1689), was a most accurate reasoner and ex- 
 cellent practitioner. His remarks on diseases, which 
 are equally learned and original, are extremely 
 worthy of perusal; Baglivi and Morton, although 
 with fewer titles to genius and the character of ori- 
 ginal authors, deserve great credit for their observa- 
 tions on several important subjects of the healing 
 art. Sydenham has been sometimes called the Eng- 
 lish Hippocrates, and the term is not inapplicable 
 when we consider the accuracy of the detailed de- 
 scriptions of diseases in his various works, and his 
 sagacity in observing the effects of remedies, never 
 allowing his theoretical views on the nature and 
 causes of diseases to affect his rational treatment of 
 them. In an age when speculation and conjectural 
 hypothesis pervaded every system, Sydenham cer- 
 tainly deserves great credit for not blindly adhering 
 to any one theory.
 
 CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 STATE OF MEDICINE DURINa THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. 
 
 New systems of medicine — Doctrines of Stahl — Expectant medi- 
 cine — Systems of Hoffmann and Boerliaave — Haller's physiolo- 
 gical theory of irritability — The CuUenian system — Doctrines 
 of Brown — Darwin and the laws of association — Brilliant pro- 
 gress of anatomy and physiology — Interesting researches on 
 the circulation, respiration, nervous system, organs of the 
 senses, generation, surgery, pathological anatomy, &c. — The 
 concluding years of the century — Jenner and the discovery of 
 vaccination — Xavier Bichat — John Hunter — Other contributors 
 to medical science. 
 
 Sketch of American medical history in the eighteenth century — 
 Colonial condition of the country — Practice of medicine by 
 the clergy and others — Absence of all restrictions in its exer- 
 cise — Practice of midwifery by women — Modes of practice — 
 Inoculation for smallpox — Systems of medicine — Medical au- 
 thorship — Medical education — Medical schools of this era — 
 Conclusion. 
 
 About the beginning of the eighteenth century, 
 when every part of science came to be on a more im- 
 proved and correct footing, there appeared in the 
 writings of Stahl, Hoffmann, and Boerhaave, three 
 new and considerably different systems of physic, 
 which have ever since had some influence in direct- 
 ing it, although they now exert a much less influence 
 than prior to the publication of the Cullenian theory. 
 That of Stahl appeared first, and was for a long 
 time the prevailing system in Germany. The chief
 
 248 HISTORY OF. MEDICINE. 
 
 and leading principle of this system is, that the 
 rational soul of man governs the whole economy of 
 his bod3\ 
 
 At all times physicians must have observed that 
 the animal economy has in itself a power or condi- 
 tion by which, in many instances, it resists the in- 
 juries which threaten it, and by which, on many 
 occasions, it also corrects or removes the disorders 
 induced or arising in it. This power physicians 
 very anciently attributed under a vague idea to an 
 agent in the system, which they called nature, and 
 the language of a vis conservatrix et medicatrix na- 
 turce has continued in the schools of medicine from 
 the most ancient times to the present. 
 
 Stahl expressly founded his system on the suppo- 
 sition that the power of nature, so much talked of, 
 is entirely in the rational soul. He supposed that 
 on many occasions the soul acts independently of 
 the state of the body, and that, without any physical 
 necessity arising from that state, the soul purely in 
 consequence of its intelligence perceiving the ten- 
 dency of noxious powers threatening, or of disorders 
 anywise arising in the sj^stem, immediately excites 
 such motions in the body as are suited to obviate 
 the hurtful or pernicious consequences which might 
 otherwise take place. 
 
 This theory is of course so absurd as not to re- 
 quire comment. There is, however, as Dr. Cullen 
 has very properly remarked, so much seeming ap- 
 pearance of intelligence and design in the operations 
 of the animal economy, that many eminent indivi- 
 duals, as Perrault in France, Nichols and Mead in
 
 THE PA THOL OGY OF STAHL . 2 49 
 
 England, Porterfield and Simson in Scotland, and 
 others equally noted, have very much countenanced 
 the same opinion, and it is therefore worthy of 
 mention, though not of refutation. The consequence 
 of Stahl's doctrine was that, trusting too much to 
 the constant attention and wisdom of nature, he 
 and his followers proposed the art of curing by ex- 
 pectation, the Medicina ex2)ectans of some writers, 
 La Mklecine expedante of the French, and have 
 consequently suggested only for the most part inert 
 and frivolous remedies, zealously opposing the use 
 of some of the most efficacious, such as opium and 
 the Peruvian bark, and being extremely reserved in 
 the employment of general remedies, such as bleed- 
 ing, emetics, &c. 
 
 In whatever way the operations of nature in 
 curing disease may be explained, it has often had a 
 baneful influence on the practice of physic, by lead- 
 ing physicians into, or continuing them in, a weak 
 and feeble practice, and by superseding or discour- 
 aging all the attempts of art. Huxham has pro- 
 perly observed that even in the hands of Sydenham 
 it had this effect, and, although it may sometimes 
 prevent the mischiefs of bold and rash practitioners, 
 it tends to the production of a degree of timidity 
 which opposes the introduction of new and effica- 
 cious remedies. 
 
 The opposition to chemical remedies in the six- 
 teenth and seventeenth centuries, and the noted pro- 
 scription of antimony by the medical faculty of 
 Paris, are chiefly attributable to those prejudices, 
 which the majority of the physicians of France did
 
 250 BIS TOR Y OF MEDICINE. 
 
 not get the better of for nearly one hundred years 
 afterwards, and which a considerable number have 
 possessed until even more recent times. To this, 
 indeed, is owing the inert practice for which the 
 French physicians have been celebrated. 
 
 With respect to the pathology of Stahl, it did not 
 wholly depend upon the powers of nature, or caito- 
 crateia, as it has been termed, but supposed a state 
 of the body and diseases that admitted of remedies, 
 which under the power and direction of the soul 
 acted upon the organization and matter of the body 
 so as cure its diseases. Upon this footing the Stah- 
 lian pathology turned entirely upon plethora, or ful- 
 ness, and cacochymia, or depraved condition of the 
 humors. With respect to the former, or plethora, they 
 applied their doctrine in a very fantastic manner ; 
 and with regard to the latter, they involved them- 
 selves as much in the humoral pathology as the 
 systematic physicians who had preceded them, and 
 with a theory so absurd and incorrect as not to 
 merit the smallest attention. It may be observed, 
 however, that as the followers of the Stahlian sys- 
 tem were very intent upon observing the method of 
 nature, so were they attentive to the phenomena of 
 diseases, and have hence given in their writings 
 many facts not to be found elsewhere. 
 
 Whilst the doctrines of Stahl were prevailing 
 in the University of Halle, Frederick Hoffmann, 
 a professor in the same university, proposed a sys- 
 tem which was very different. Hoffmann was born 
 at Halle, in the year 1660. He graduated in 1681 ; 
 was made professor of physic there in the year
 
 THE S YSTEM OF HOFFMANN. 2 5 1 
 
 1693, and filled that chair till his death, in 1742. 
 A very remarkable circumstance of his life is, that 
 he never took fees from his patients, but was con- 
 tent with his stipend. He was in high repute as a 
 practitioner, and curing the Emperor Charles YI. and 
 Empress, and Frederick I. of Prussia, of inveterate 
 diseases, greatly increased his reputation. His 
 works are collected into six volumes folio, pub- 
 lished at different times, from 1748 to 1754. They 
 abound with many useful practical remarks, but at 
 the same time, as Dr. CuUen has correctly observed, 
 contain many frivolous observations and an abund- 
 ance of conjectural theory. 
 
 The chief peculiarity of Hofl[mann's system was 
 the theory of the nervous influence in the production 
 of disease, and it is to him we are indebted for the 
 attention which has subsequently been paid to it. 
 With it he has also everywhere mixed a humoral 
 pathology as incorrect and hypothetical as any 
 other, and, although he differed from Stahl in the 
 fundamental doctrines of his system, it is evident 
 that he was considerably infected with the Stahlian 
 doctrines of plethora and cacochymia. 
 
 Another author to whose theories reference may 
 be made at this period is the celebrated Hermann 
 BoERHAAVE (A.D. 1668-1738), the contemporary of 
 Stahl and of Hoffmann, and who over all Europe, 
 and especially in Great Britain, gained higher repu- 
 tation than either of the others. He was a man of 
 general erudition, and few physicians enjoyed for 
 so long a period so unbounded and so unalloyed a 
 reputation. " He first gave chemistry," says Dr.
 
 252 HIS TOR Y OF MEDICINE. 
 
 Parr, "a philosophical systematic form, and reduced 
 medicine to a science at least plausible, inert, and 
 perspicuous. We have no reason to think that he 
 expected to be the founder of a sect; yet he pro- 
 ceeded with the caution of a veteran, and culled 
 from each the flower which was to adorn his own 
 parterre. Though Paracelsus had burnt the writings 
 of Hippocrates and Galen in solemn state, yet they 
 were not forgotten, and the wise observations of 
 the Grecian sages formed the groundwork of his 
 system. The Galenic doctrine of humors he assimi- 
 lated with wonderful address to his chemical doc- 
 trines, and gave them a specific character founded 
 on their chemical relations. The mechanical philo- 
 sophy then attracting universal attention added to 
 the fabric ; the vessels were cones or cylinders, the 
 fluids consisting of various particles, adapted only 
 to given apertures, were at times forcibly impelled 
 and impacted in vessels to which they were not fitted, 
 and consequently produced numerous complaints." 
 
 From his selection from the opinions of various 
 sects Boerhaave has been generally styled an eclec- 
 tic ; he has also been called the modern Galen. In 
 his doctrines, however, he placed too much stress 
 upon the acrimony of the fluids as a cause of dis- 
 ease, and as he fancied that such acrimony was of a 
 particular character, which could be neutralized by 
 chemical remedies, his practice was frequently most 
 inert and illogical. In treating also of the pro- 
 perties and functions of a living body, he over- 
 looked the principle of life, and the laws of a living 
 organized machine. This error he seems to have
 
 BOERHAAVE AND HIS DOCTRINES. 253 
 
 subsequently discovered, and in his later works he 
 speaks, but still in the language of a sectarian, of 
 the inertia liquidi nervosi. 
 
 The pathological doctrines of Boerhaave long held 
 unbounded sway in different parts of the European 
 continent, under the denomination of the humoral 
 pathology, which, however, formed only one portion 
 of his system, but never gained much ground in the 
 British dominion, nor among the practitioners of 
 the American continent. The Cullenian system, 
 however, forms an important era in the history of 
 British and American medicine. One of the most 
 celebrated pupils and expounders of the views of 
 Boerhaave was Yan Swieten, of Leyden, afterwards 
 professor at Vienna, who published a vast collection 
 of observations in a work entitled Commentaries on 
 the Aphorisms of Boerhaave. 
 
 The physicians of the European continent had 
 scarcely escaped from the trammels of Boerhaave 
 when the doctrines of Brown caught their atten- 
 tion ; and to him they erroneously ascribe that re- 
 volution of the science which taught that the func- 
 tions of a living being were to be explained only 
 by the laws of animation. As already stated, even 
 Boerhaave in his later years did not reject the con- 
 sideration of a nervous fluid, though, consistently 
 with his humoral pathology, he considered it as in- 
 active; and Gaubius, his successor, treats at some 
 length of the diseases of the vital solid. His 
 nephew, indeed, Kaauw Boerhaave, who practised 
 with credit at St. Petersburgh, considered the in- 
 fluence of the nervous system in his work entitled
 
 254 HIS TOR V OF MEDICINE. 
 
 Im;petum faciens Hippocrati dictum. As an evidence 
 of the imperfect state of the materia medica at this 
 time, and of the credulity that even then existed, 
 it is worthy of note that some of the repulsive 
 and ridiculous agents which were employed in pre- 
 vious centuries, such as a certain portion of human 
 or horse flesh for the cure of epilepsy, were actually 
 exhibited with success in the treatment of epileptics 
 in the poor-house at Haerlem, by this author and 
 practitioner. Haller, though chiefly of the mechani- 
 cal sect, assisted the new revolution by his experi- 
 ments on irritability, and Dr. Cullen finally con- 
 structed on this ground the ingenious system to 
 which his name has been given. 
 
 One of the most distinguished authors and phy- 
 siologists of the eighteenth century was Albrecht 
 Von Haller (1708-1777). He was a pupil of Boer- 
 haave, whom he resembled in the possession of nu- 
 merous sterling intellectual and moral attributes, 
 and was a most prolific writer, especially on phy- 
 siology, and he has not been inaptly called the father 
 of modern physiology. He was also a brilliant ex- 
 perimentalist, and as professor at Gottingen was 
 specially noted for the physiological discoveries 
 made by him, as well as for the principles deduced 
 by him from patient observation and experiment. 
 This led him to establish a theory of irritability 
 and sensibility, which he applied to the muscular 
 and nervous system, by the action of which the 
 various phenomena of the body were explained. 
 The views of Haller led to various controversies. 
 Among those who prominently figured in them
 
 HALLER—CULLEN. 255 
 
 may be mentioned "Wliytt, Porterfield, Sauvages of 
 France, and Bianchi and Fontana of Italy. Fabre 
 of the Faculty of Paris was the first person to apply 
 Haller's doctrine of irritability to pathology. 
 
 Called by the duties of his office to review and 
 examine the various systems of physic which were 
 in vogue, Cullen soon perceived the inconsistencies 
 of the Boerhaavian theory, and accordingly resolved 
 to abandon it. Stahl's doctrines, to which some of 
 his contemporaries adhered, did not appear to him 
 more satisfactory, and in particular he deemed them 
 objectionable on account of the inert practice which 
 they countenanced. I^or could he altogether assent 
 to the system of Hoffmann, though he conceived it 
 to approach nearest to the truth, and he was induced 
 to adopt some of its fundamental principles. 
 
 Among others he took up the doctrine of spasm 
 and debility, from which he deduced all the pheno- 
 mena of febrile disorders. Rheumatism was referred 
 by him to a spasm of the muscular fibres, arising 
 from an increased afflux of blood, but gout he con- 
 ceived to originate in atony, especially of the diges- 
 tive organs. In these latter diseases he rejected the 
 idea of a peculiar morbific matter; yet in his expla- 
 nations of several other complaints, as for instance 
 of scrofula, he had recourse to the supposition of 
 an acrimony of the fluids. 
 
 He laid much stress on the efforts of the vis me- 
 dicatrix naturcB, advocated the hypothesis of a ner- 
 vous fluid and vital principle, and ascribed to the 
 brain a peculiar faculty, by which it was enabled to 
 excite the muscles to action independently of the
 
 256 HIS TOR V OF MEDICINE. 
 
 mind, and to which he gave the name of irritability 
 of the sensorium. This principle in its various 
 ramifications influenced every part of his theory of 
 medicine. The circulation was no longer to be ex- 
 plained by mechanical laws; the angles at which 
 the larger arteries divaricated were shown to have 
 little influence; and lentor, viscidity, and acrimony, 
 either acid or alkaline, were proved, if they existed, 
 to have no influence in producing diseases. The 
 whole was resolved into motions, regulated by the 
 living principle, and chiefly influenced by the action 
 or torpor of the extreme arteries."^ 
 
 The speculative doctrines of Cullen aftbrded the 
 first hint of the Brunonian theory of excitability. 
 In a passage of his Institutions of Medicine^ Cul- 
 len speaks of a state of excitement or collapse of the 
 brain and nervous system, on which he supposes the 
 strength or debility of the other parts of the body 
 to depend; and in his other writings he is con- 
 stantly laboring to prove in what manner these 
 conditions may be occasioned by the agency of vari- 
 ous causes. Brown, seizing upon this idea, set 
 about the formation of a new theory, according to 
 which all the actions of life were to be referred to 
 the excitement of the body by stimuli, and all dis- 
 ease reduced to the two general heads of direct and 
 indirect debility, or debility arising from a deficiency 
 or a previous excess of excitement. 
 
 Dr. John Brown first started as a self-appointed 
 
 * His views are contained in liis First Lines of the Practice of 
 Physic^ an excellent history of disease, seductively amalgamated 
 with his own peculiar doctrines.
 
 THE D OCTRINES OF BR O WN. 257 
 
 lecturer, and the avowed opjDonent of the Cullenian 
 system. His doctrine, which was even more simple 
 than that of any predecessor, admitted only of the 
 sthenic and asthenic states, without allowing the 
 union of each, and the simplicity exhibited in his 
 doctrine attracted many proselytes. Brown seemed 
 to consider man not as a being composed of an or- 
 ganized system, to which the principle of life was 
 superadded, but as a machine, to wdiich a certain 
 series of actions and effects is alloted by means of 
 an excitability differing in degree, but generally, 
 though on the whole imperceptibly, exhausting. 
 
 Life, therefore, he considered a forced state ; every- 
 thing stimulating, some substances too violently, 
 others not sufficiently, and thus there are two kinds 
 of debility, indirect and direct. In the former case 
 the strongest stimuli are necessary ; in the second, the 
 slightest destroy in consequence of too great irrita- 
 bility. In the gaol fever, for instance, we must 
 give the strongest stimuli ; to the man long pent up 
 in darkness, with scanty food, the light, he consi- 
 dered, must be moderate, the aliment of the mildest 
 kind, and stimuli of every sort most sparingly ad- 
 ministered, as the flame long repressed would be 
 roused by the slightest excitement. 
 
 The doctrines of Brown when a23plied to practice 
 were excessively injurious. As all diseases in his 
 view were either sthenic or asthenic, that is, dis- 
 eases of excitement or debility, he made a noso- 
 logical arrangement according to those divisions, in 
 which the greatest errors were committed, exhibit- 
 ing clearly that the author was more attached to 
 17
 
 258 HIS TOR V OF MEDICINE. 
 
 system than an accurate observer of the operations 
 of nature, as well as his want of judgment and 
 practical knowledge. The cure was as simple as the 
 arrangement: bleeding, low diet, and purging for 
 the sthenic diseases ; stimuli of different kinds and 
 degrees for the asthenic. 
 
 It is not at all astonishing that a system of this 
 kind should have had its admirers. The labor of 
 study was entirely done away with. When the ob- 
 servation of the practitioner had taught him to 
 which class of Brown's system any disease under 
 his care might belong, the remedies were obvious. 
 If it were sthenic, he must bleed; if asthenic, stimu- 
 late. Fatal were the effects of this system in dif- 
 ferent diseases; but fortunately it has now nearly 
 met with the oblivion which it merits, sounder views 
 and experience having taken the place of visionary 
 theory and absurd practice. 
 
 Previous to the time of Dr. Erasmus Darwin no 
 one seems to have conceived the idea of applying the 
 doctrine of association to the theory and treatment 
 of disease. It is true that Hoffmann, and even some 
 writers before his time, had remarked the sympathy 
 or consensus which subsists between particular organs 
 of the body, but their observations were mixed up 
 with much erroneous hypothesis. Darwin saw that 
 the chief errors of preceding theorists had arisen 
 from the partial views which they had taken of the 
 animal economy ; from their considering the living 
 system as a simple whole, and not paying due re- 
 gard to the recijDrocal influence which the different 
 organs of which it is composed exert upon each
 
 DAR WIN'S THE OR Y OF ASSOCIA TION. 259 
 
 other. He saw too that it was only by the same 
 orgauic powers by which the body is preserved and 
 develojied, that disease is generated, formed, and 
 linally removed from the system. 
 
 Taking advantage of all the facts which had 
 been accurnulated by his predecessors, placing them 
 sometimes in new lights, and at other times confirm- 
 ing and illustrating them by his own observations 
 and experiments, he proceeded to the construction of 
 a system of pathology and therapeutics founded on 
 the general laws of animated nature. Unfortu- 
 nately, however, as he advanced in his design, he 
 fell into many incongruities, and the difficulties in- 
 creasing upon him, he was led to assume positions 
 which were unsupported by evidence or counte- 
 nanced by the slightest analogy, added to which 
 the language which he employed was inflated, vague, 
 and inconsistent, and was severely satirized — es- 
 pecially that adopted in his Botanic Garden — by a 
 celebrated British bard, who describes him as one — • 
 
 " Whose gilded cymbals, more adorned than clear, 
 The eye delighted but fatigued the ear, 
 In show the simple lyre could once surpass, 
 But now worn down, appear in native brass ; 
 While all his train of hovering sylphs around, 
 Evaporate in similes and sound."* 
 
 Rejecting as illusive all the explanations which 
 had been given of febrile disorders on chemical 
 
 * The best part of his work Zoonomia; or, the Laws of Or- 
 ganic Life, is considered to be his account of the Catenation of 
 Animal Motion and of the Diseases of Association, especially 
 his theory of fever.
 
 2 6o HIS TOR V OF MEDICINE. 
 
 and mechanical principles, Darwin traced the suc- 
 cession of the symptoms of fever to the irregular 
 actions of the nervous, vascular, and absorbent sys- 
 tems; showing how the derangement of one part 
 produces similar or opposite affections of others, in 
 consequence of the intimate connection of the organs 
 in question and the influence which they naturally 
 possess. 
 
 Dr. Darwin is one of the last writers who, during 
 the eighteenth century, attempted any material 
 revolution in the opinions of medical practitioners. 
 As at the present day, various theoretical and prac- 
 tical innovations were indulged in, but they were 
 confined to some particular disease or subject. 
 
 The brilliant progress of anatomy and physiology 
 during the previous century laid the foundation for 
 a still further advance of medical science in the 
 eighteenth century. The names of many anatomists 
 and physiologists of these times are familiar to the 
 student as associated with special descriptions of 
 the various portions of the economy, the name of the 
 discoverer still clinging to them in the momenclature 
 of modern anatomy. 
 
 Physiologists at the commencement of the 18th 
 century were occupied in minute investigations upon 
 the peculiarities of the foetal circulation, and the 
 structure of the foetal heart. Winslow, Duverney, 
 Thebesius, Ferrein, S^nac, and others made inter- 
 esting experiments on the valvular and muscular 
 arrangement of the heart, and Lancisi not only 
 traced the nervous distribution of that organ, but 
 also offered some unsubstantial theoretical views in
 
 PR O GRESS OF ANA TOM Y AND PH YSIOL OGY. 261 
 
 regard to the coronary arteries, and the movements 
 of the heart. The views of Haller were, however, 
 antagonistic to those of Lancisi, and soon supplanted 
 them. 
 
 Several prominent men in various parts of Europe, 
 Helvetius, Morgagni, Michelotti, and others, were 
 also busy at this time in investigating the structure 
 of the lungs, and the changes which the blood under- 
 goes in its passage through those organs. In the 
 glandular system, at the end of the previous century, 
 Duverney had established the identity of the 
 chyliferous and lymphatic vessels; Pacchioni had 
 discovered the lymphatic glands of the dura mater, 
 and Cowper the two glands which have since borne 
 his name. These discoveries were not followed in 
 the next century by many of equal importance ; the 
 labors of the physiologists, of its latter portion es- 
 pecially, seeming to be directed to the systematic 
 2:eneralization and collocation of all the facts and 
 discoveries previously established. 
 
 The investigation of difficult points of the anatomy 
 and physiology of the nervous system and of the 
 organs of the senses was an important feature of the 
 medical history of this period. Pacchioni and Bag- 
 livi, early in the century, studied the influence of 
 the dura mater on the movements of the body, com- 
 paring this membrane in its structure to that of 
 the heart, and giving a fanciful view of the effect it 
 has on the nerves. Santorini of Venice adopted 
 similar views, but afterwards abandoned them. The 
 opinions of Pacchioni were defended by Lancisi, 
 who, however, ascribed to the pineal gland the ftibu-
 
 2 62 HIS TOR Y OF MEDICINE. 
 
 lous quality of controlling the functions of the soul, 
 the power of thought heing in direct relation to the 
 bulk of this little organ. It was reserved for Haller 
 to expose the fallacies of his predecessors, among 
 whom may be mentioned the celebrated Boerhaave, 
 and all the feeble theories in regard to the dura ma- 
 ter were soon completely demolished. The names 
 of Tarin, Le Cat, and Meckel are at this time asso- 
 ciated with the anatomy of the cranial nerves. 
 
 It had already been established in the seventeenth 
 century that the seat of cataract was the crystalline 
 lens, and Morgagni now described the humor in the 
 midst of which it is nourished. Experiments were 
 also made by Petit in regard to the nerves of the eye, 
 the eflect of age in producing changes in the organ, 
 &c. ; and Albinus and Haller each claimed to have 
 discovered the pupillary membrane. The.two anato- 
 mists, however, who accomplished most at this time 
 in perfecting the study of the anatomy of the eye 
 were Porterfield of Edinburgh, and Zinn of Gottin- 
 gen, each of whom ascribed important functions to 
 the ciliary processes. The structure of the mem- 
 brana tymj)ani and the distribution of the auditory 
 nerve had been accurately studied a few years before 
 the commencement of the eighteenth century ; but 
 Valsalva now described much more precisely the 
 minute portions of the ear, and of the labyrinth 
 especially, the use of the fluid of which was after- 
 wards discovered by Cotunnius and Meckel. 
 
 The physiology of generation attracted much 
 attention about the same period. Il^aboth of Leipsic 
 made interesting observations on the mucous glands
 
 PR O GRESS OF MICR OSCOPIC ANA TO MY. 263 
 
 of the neck of the uterus. Morgagni and Santo- 
 rini made experiments in regard to the ovaries, and 
 Alexander Monro (father and son) investigated the 
 development of the foetus and the seminal ducts. 
 The illustrious Haller also embraced in his physiolo- 
 gical researches the whole field of the generative 
 functions, and especially the development of the 
 ovum. The celebrated William Hunter, of London, 
 was, with Haller and Monro, the first to inject x^or- 
 tions of the delicate structure of these organs. 
 
 Of the microscopic anatomists of the eighteenth 
 century, one of the most prominent is Lieberkuhn, 
 professor at Berlin, whose skill in injecting and 
 preparing various portions of the economy was 
 remarkable. He is said to have been the inventor 
 of the solar microscope, by which he was enabled to 
 exhibit the circulation of the blood, and thus to 
 pave the way for numerous valuable discoveries. 
 The assistance of chemical reao-ents seems now for 
 the first time to have been called into play, either 
 alone or in combination with the microscope, in the 
 examination of certain portions of the economy 
 which were not within the range of optical investi- 
 gation only. 
 
 Valuable researches were also made during this 
 century on the l^^mphatic system, by Cruikshank, 
 Hewson, and "William and John Hunter, and in 
 1787 Paul Mascagni gave, in his Yasorum lymioha- 
 ticoriim corporis humani historia et iconographia, the 
 first general description of the entire lymphatic 
 apparatus. 
 
 The field of pathological anatomy was invaded by
 
 264 HIS TOR Y OF MEDICINE. 
 
 numerous representatives of the profession in every 
 country of Europe, but prominent among them may 
 be mentioned the name of John Baptiste Morgagni, 
 whose work on pathological anatomy contains nume- 
 rous evidences of the great erudition of its author, 
 and as a valuable contribution to the medical litera- 
 ture of that subject occupies a more elevated position 
 than any of the works that had preceded it. 
 
 The progress of surgery was materially enhanced 
 by European wars, which gave abundant opportuni- 
 ties for studjang the phenomena and treatment of 
 gunshot wounds. Surgical professorships were also 
 appointed in Germany and Holland. The celebrated 
 German surgeon and anatomist Laurence Heister, 
 one of the most voluminous authors of this century, 
 and professor at Altorf and Helmstadt, in addition 
 to a score or two of medical monographs, published 
 a valuable system of surgery; and William Chesel- 
 den, of London, made important improvements in 
 capital operations. The degrading association of 
 barbers and surgeons was abolished in 1743 at Paris 
 b}^ an edict, breaking the legal fetters which had for 
 so many years bound together the surgeons of St. 
 Cosine and the barbers, and the example was speedily 
 followed in 1745 by a similar act of the English 
 Parliament. Freed from this galling servitude, 
 surgery became a separate and distinct branch, to be 
 ever afterwards studied and cultivated by educated 
 members of the profession. 
 
 About the middle of the eighteenth century a 
 distinguished lithotomist appeared, in the person of 
 a monk named Frere Come, or St. Cosme, — although,
 
 BRILLIANT CONCLUSION OF THE CENTURY. 265 
 
 before his monastic retirement, a surgeon by profes- 
 sion, — who operated gratuitously with a Uihotome 
 caclit^ as he called it, and thus excited the hostility 
 and envy of the regular surgeons. The tourniquet 
 of Petit was also devised, and came into use about 
 this time. The surgeons of this era were less partial 
 to the use of the cautery than their predecessors, and 
 all the methods of dressing wounds were much less 
 cumbrous and elaborate than those previously em- 
 ployed. Many of the more refined and elegant 
 modes of operating still in vogue trace their origin 
 to the eighteenth century, such as those for the 
 stone, the removal of cancerous and other tumors, 
 amputations, &c. 
 
 The concluding years of the eighteenth century 
 were remarkable for the immense amount of labor and 
 research which were brought to bear on every depart- 
 ment of medical science. It could hardly be expected 
 in the stormy days of the revolution, that any suc- 
 cessful efforts would be made in France to advance 
 the progress of medical learning, but the other 
 enlightened countries of Europe were not pervaded 
 with the same spirit. Chemistry now for the first 
 time became a subject of more scientific study, and 
 more systematic arrangement, and was more generally 
 applied to the living body. Blumenbach, Soemmer- 
 ing, Yicq-d'Azyr, Scarpa, Monro, John Hunter, and 
 Cruikshank, made new and important physiological 
 observations, especiall}^ on the nervous system. The 
 latter and also Mascagni interested themselves with 
 the lymphatic vessels. The medical writers of this 
 period limited their writings to the observations of
 
 266 HIS TOR V OF MEDICINE. 
 
 nature, making their opinions to accord with experi- 
 ence, and originating no new theories. 
 
 It was at this period also that animal magnetism, 
 which a few years previously had agitated the 
 scientific world, was critically examined and placed 
 on its proper level, but has been since spasmodically 
 revived. Although not strictly or directly connected 
 with the progress of medicine proper, the discovery 
 of galvanism also formed an interesting episode in 
 the history of these times. 
 
 The history of medical progress during the 
 eighteenth century would be incomjDlete without a 
 passing allusion and tribute of respect to the immor- 
 tal English physician, Edward Jennee, (A.D. 1749- 
 1828), the discoverer and active promulgator of vac- 
 cination. Inoculation of the smallpox virus had 
 been practised through a long series of years in every 
 part of the world, and the inquiries of all learned 
 men had been turned through the whole of this cen- 
 tury to some rational plan for the prevention of the 
 spread of the pestilence ; but it was not until the 
 year 1798, that Jenner discovered the possibility of 
 protecting mankind by virus obtained from the cow. 
 The history of this inestimable discovery need not 
 here be detailed. 
 
 Without advancino; further into the medical his- 
 tory of the nineteenth century than the first j^ear of 
 this era, we may briefly allude to the researches of 
 the celebrated Xavier Bichat (A.D. 1771-1802), as 
 then published. Distinguished above all his con- 
 temporaries for the light which his observant and 
 penetrating mind difiused over the difi:erent depart-
 
 WRITERS OF THIS CENTURY. 267 
 
 ments of medical science, of some of which — as of 
 general anatomy — he may be regarded as the founder, 
 it may well be said of him, as Corvisart expressed in 
 a letter to the First Consul announcing his death, 
 '-'• Bichat vient de mourir sur un champ de hataille qui 
 compte aussi plus dhine victoire ; jpersonne^ en si pen de 
 temps, n' a fait tant de choses et aussi bien.^' 
 
 Perhaps the most prominent name connected with 
 medical and surgical science and natural history in 
 England during the eighteenth century was that 
 of John Hunter (A.D. 1728-1793), who was distin- 
 guished not only for his energy of mind and accuracy 
 of observation, but for the valuable contributions with 
 which he enriched medical literature. He was not 
 only an excellent anatomist and physiologist, but he 
 suggested also valuable improvements in surgical 
 operations. It has been well said of him in an im- 
 partial review of his minute inquiries into all the 
 various processes of the organism, his demonstrations 
 of the functions of animals, and of changes of struc- 
 ture, and of his surgical reflections and practical pre- 
 cepts, that all his original facts, his principles and 
 opinions, are entitled to the respect of the anatomist, 
 the surgeon, and the naturalist. 
 
 Other names might be enumerated as included in 
 the long list of those who during this century aided in 
 enriching medical science, although it would be im- 
 possible to describe minutely the nature of their 
 various contributions. Among these might be men- 
 tioned Martin Lister, who published, besides works 
 on anatomy and natural history, an edition of the 
 aphorisms of Hippocrates and Sanctorius ; Stephen
 
 268 HIS TORY OF MEDICINE. 
 
 Hales, the author of various works on statics, 
 especially as applied to the blood and bloodvessels ; 
 John Freind, the author of commentaries on Hippo- 
 crates, and other works, and of a History of Physic 
 from the time of Galen to the heginning of the sixteenth 
 cerdury ; Richard Mead, one of the distinguished 
 writers and practitioners of England, the author of 
 numerous valuable works on medicine, which were 
 translated into various European languages ; James 
 and John Douglass, authors of numerous medical 
 and surgical monographs; William Cheselden, the 
 eminent surgeon and anatomist; Percival Pott, a 
 voluminous contributor to surgical literature, espe- 
 cially on the subject of spinal curvature; Sir James 
 Earle, Surgeon to George HI., and author of com-" 
 prehensive works on hydrocele, stone in the bladder, 
 cataract, &c. ; Henry Francis Le Dran, a distinguished 
 surgeon, whose works on surgerj' were so highly 
 esteemed that almost all of them were translated into 
 English ; Peter Joseph Desault, Surgeon to the Hotel 
 Dieu of Paris, the distinguished author and prac- 
 titioner; John Louis Baudelocque, the celebrated 
 French obstetrician; John Huxham, an English 
 writer on fevers and epidemic diseases, whose name 
 is perpetuated in an excellent officinal tincture of 
 bark, and many others. 
 
 [Sketch of the State of Medicixe ix America 
 DURiXG the Eighteexth Cextury. — The colonial pro- 
 gress of the medical profession of this country offers 
 but few attractive features to interest the student of 
 history. Little else could be expected in the then
 
 STATE OF MEDICINE IN AMERICA. 269 
 
 existing condition of things, when the intercommu- 
 nication between various portions of the country 
 w^as so limited, and when the profession was chiefly 
 remarkable for the absence of all the facilities for 
 education and improvement. The attractions oflered 
 for foreign medical visitors to our shores were almost 
 null, and the American physician of that period 
 could boast of neither journals, hospitals, nor medi- 
 cal schools to aid him in obtaining the elements of 
 a practical professional education. Quite a number 
 of those who afterwards became prominent laid the 
 foundation of their medical acquirements abroad, 
 and were the active agents here on their return in 
 disseminating the seeds of medical learning in this 
 country, and of inaugurating a thorough system of 
 medical instruction. 
 
 As in the early history of medicine its practice 
 was restricted to the priesthood, and exercised by 
 them in connection with their religious duties, so 
 also do we find that in the older settled parts of 
 America, as in JSTew England, the clergy were both 
 jDhysicians and religious instructors. This is proba- 
 bly due to the Puritanical spirit which pervaded every 
 department of society, aftecting equally all branches 
 of business and education. Men high in office, such 
 as governors of provinces, also devoted attention to 
 the practice of medicine; but it may be reasonably 
 inferred that but little progress could be made in 
 the scientific acquirements of a proper medical edu- 
 cation, when the practice of this art was unrestricted 
 by any legal enactments, so that the member of 
 any profession, or of any trade even, was at liberty
 
 270 HIS TOR Y OF MEDICINE, 
 
 to devote himself to it, however unprepared he 
 might be. 
 
 That this was the real condition of things at that 
 time is proven by the fact that an old law of the 
 previous century, and this probably the only one 
 that had been passed in any of the colonies for the 
 regulation of the practice of medicine, was still in 
 force, a proviso of which expressly declares " that 
 no chirurgeons, midwives, physicians, or others^' 
 should be allowed to practice medicine except under 
 certain restrictions, which were neither satisfactory 
 nor permanently effective. With the exception of 
 laws passed in N"ew York and JSTew Jersey a few 
 years before the Declaration of ^National Independ- 
 ence, prescribing that every person proposing to 
 practice medicine or surgery should pass an exami- 
 nation, and be approved by a board of non-medical 
 officials, such as judges, attorney-general, and mayor, 
 nothing else was done in any of the colonies to throw 
 restrictions or safeguards around the indiscriminate 
 exercise of medicine. 
 
 Early in the century the practice of midwifery was 
 almost entirely followed by women, and it was not 
 until the return from Europe of several well edu- 
 cated and learned physicians, who devoted them- 
 selves also to this branch of the art, that the preju- 
 dice against the employment of the other sex in 
 cases of labor was effectually destroyed. The mode 
 of practice adopted generally in the treatment of 
 diseases was of course mainly borrowed from the 
 mother country. Here and there some slight origi- 
 nality was visible, as in the partiality evinced for
 
 EARL V MEDICAL II I ST OR V OF AMERICA. 2 7 1 
 
 special drugs, and it must be confessed that the 
 opportunity offered for novelties in treatment was 
 strikingly manifested in the presence of the yellow 
 fever at various periods of this century, in an epi- 
 demic form of startling gravity. The agitation 
 throughout Europe in relation to inoculation for 
 smallpox was transferred at an early date to our 
 own shores, and the controversial discussions of its 
 merits were probably more bitter among the physi- 
 cians of this country than abroad, and were even 
 carried to the extent of personal violence. Within 
 a few weeks of its successful introduction in Great 
 Britain as a preventive of smallpox, and before the 
 intelligence could have reached America, inoculation 
 became a popular feature of practice in spite of all 
 the preliminary opposition to it. 
 
 The systems of medicine followed were essentially 
 those in vogue in Great Britain, and the theories of 
 Boerhaave, Stahl, Hoffmann, and others must have 
 unsettled the prevailing faith of the practitioners of 
 the new world, according as they adopted the views 
 of one or the other of these celebrities, and furnished 
 them with new ideas in pathology and therapeutics. 
 It is probable, however, that the great mass of me- 
 dical practitioners of this country, or medical pre- 
 tenders as a number of them must have been, during 
 the first half of the eighteenth century, were in- 
 fluenced by their own views of treatment rather 
 than by conscientious adherence to the theories of 
 any one man, however elevated in the scale of pro- 
 fessional excellence. We can hardly wonder, how- 
 ever, at this unsatisfactory condition of the profes-
 
 2 72 HIS TOR Y OF MEDICINE. 
 
 sion at a time when there was but little regular 
 iustruction or precise information accessible to the 
 inquiring medical minds of the country in regard 
 to the popular European systems of the day. 
 
 The medical authors of this country had but little 
 prospect of fame or fortune at this early period to 
 encourage them to enrich the medical literature of 
 their times. It has, indeed, been said of the colonial 
 physicians, that they only " turned authors on some 
 special emergency of public duty, or for the purpose 
 of promulgating and enforcing some new and useful 
 mode of practice. The capabilities of our early 
 physicians, therefore, ought to be judged of, not so 
 much by the quantity as by the quality of the pro- 
 ductions which they have left us; and an impartial 
 review of them will show us that they do not suiFer 
 by a comparison with the productions of their 
 European brethren at the same period. Some of 
 them were not thought unworthy of being published 
 in the Transactions of the Royal Society, while 
 others found a place in the publications of the 
 learned medical associations of the day in their 
 mother country."^ 
 
 It is remarkable that so many years were allowed 
 to elapse before eflbrts were instituted to provide 
 systematic courses of instruction, especially when 
 the fact was universally recognized that a complete 
 
 * Annual Address before tlie Medical Society of the State of 
 New York, by Dr. J. B. Beck, 1842, in which is a detailed refer- 
 ence to all the prominent works issued during our colonial con- 
 dition, and to many matters of general interest in the medical 
 history of that period.
 
 FIRST MEDICAL LECTURES IN AMERICA. 273 
 
 medical educatiou was only attainable by a visit to 
 foreign schools. The earliest example of medical 
 teaching in this country is probably found in the ana- 
 tomical demonstrations of Dr. Thomas Cadwalader, 
 at Philadelphia, after his return from London, where 
 he had studied under the celebrated Cheselden.* 
 This was probably previous to the year 1750, at which 
 date there is evidence that a body was dissected in 
 the city of iSTew York, by Drs. Bard and Middleton, 
 and the bloodvessels were injected for the instruc- 
 tion of the young men engaged in the study of 
 medicine. This, according to Dr. Hosack, was the 
 first essay made in the United States to impart 
 medical knowledge by dissection, of which there is 
 any record ; but it is believed that the demonstra- 
 tions of Cadwalader were made at an earlier date. 
 
 In 1754-56 a course of lectures on anatomy and 
 surgery, accompanied by dissections, was delivered 
 at ^e^vport, Rhode Island, by Dr. "William Hunter, 
 of Scotland; and in 1762, Dr. Shippen, in his ana- 
 tomical lectures then inaugurated at Philadelphia, 
 laid the foundation of a medical school (now the 
 University of Pennsylvania), which, on the return 
 of Dr. John Morgan from Europe, was with his co- 
 operation fairly established, being engrafted on the 
 College of Philadelphia. The appointment of Dr. 
 Morgan thus created the first collegiate medical 
 professorship. In 1767 steps were taken for the 
 establishment of a medical school in the city of 
 
 * A History of the Medical Department of the University of 
 Pennsylvania, by Joseph Carson, M.D. Philada., 1869, p. 39. 
 18
 
 2 74 HISTORY OF MEDICINE. 
 
 iS'ew York, whicli was fully organized in the follow- 
 ing year. The medical institution of Harvard College 
 was the next in succession, and was located at 
 Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 1782. The fourth 
 medical school instituted in this country was that 
 of Dartmouth, at Hanover, ]^ew Hampshire, in 1797. 
 These were all the medical colleges established prior 
 to the commencement of the present century, the 
 period to which this history of medicine has been 
 brought. 
 
 The limits of a cursory sketch of American med- 
 ical progress during the eighteenth century do not 
 admit of a detailed reference to the literary or 
 scientific labors of individuals. These have been 
 already described by those who have had the oppor- 
 tunity afforded them to make more comprehensive 
 biographical and historical sketches of the men of 
 that period, or will hereafter interest the compilers 
 of copious and voluminous records of the medical 
 progress of this country. They need not, therefore, 
 be referred to here, even although, as in the case of 
 Dr. Benjamin Rush, a sketch of American medical 
 histor}^ may seem to be incomplete which passes thus 
 lightly over their labors.] 
 
 The history of the various revolutions narrated 
 in this review of the progress and theories of medi- 
 cine in many of the countries of the world, from 
 the earliest ages to the end of the eighteenth century, 
 leads to one important deduction, — that we ought
 
 GENERAL CONCLUSIONS. 275 
 
 to be very tardy in embracing any sect or system. 
 The true means for the improvement of medical 
 science are observation and reflection, systems having 
 too much the effect of distracting the practitioner 
 from those important objects of study, and of re- 
 ducing the practice to a set form which the ever- 
 varying characters of disease must effectually pre- 
 vent him from successfully pursuing. And yet there 
 is not a system, professional or empirical, from 
 which the philosophical inquirer may not cull some- 
 thing useful. 
 
 Although we may become somewhat more noto- 
 rious by embracing an exclusive theory, and by 
 endeavoring to make all natural phenomena bend 
 to it, we must recollect that, by such a course, we 
 are wandering from the true path, to which, as 
 years roll away and time mellows the over-excite- 
 ment of the imagination, we will • surely return. 
 With no other motive than the discovery of truth, 
 let us choose from the various sects and systems that 
 which is good, rejecting, without remorse, the 
 crumbling materials of which the superstructure is 
 too generally erected. 
 
 AVhen we take a. retrospective glance at the con- 
 dition of medicine in former times, and reflect upon 
 the amount of ignorance, credulity, and superstition 
 that prevailed, we cannot fail to be struck with the 
 immense improvement that has taken place in compa- 
 ratively modern periods, and must be encouraged in 
 the hope, that as the physical and moral sciences pur- 
 sue their onward progress, and as the means of obser- 
 vation and exjDeriment are augmented and facilitated,
 
 276 HIS TOR V OF MEDICINE. 
 
 our own noble science may attain a pitch of perfec- 
 tion, of whicli at the present time we can form no 
 adequate conception, shedding light where all is 
 now obscurity, and tending to dispel doubt and 
 difficulty wherever existent.
 
 INDEX. 
 
 AEARIS, the Hyperborean, 82 
 Abbe physicians. (See Monk 
 
 PHYSICIANS.) 
 
 Abdel-Malek-Abou- Merwan-Ebn- 
 
 Zohr, 198 
 Abdollatif, an Arabian physician, 
 
 192 
 Abulcasis, 197 
 
 Academical degrees first conferred 
 by societies, 194 
 introduced at Salernum, 
 211 
 Accouchement, old laws in regard 
 
 to, 206 
 Achilles, healing powers of, .36 
 Acron of Agrigentum, 101, 102 
 Actuarius, John, 187 
 iEgidius, 210 
 ^schrion, 171 
 ^sculapius, 36 
 death of, 38 
 descendants of, 50 
 feasts of, 49 
 history of, 36 
 remedies used by, 38 
 science of, 37 
 sons of, 39 
 temples of, 43 
 worship of, 42 
 Aetius of Amida, 180, 182, 183 
 Agathinus of Sparta, 166, 169 
 Agrippa, Henry Corneille, absurd 
 
 views of, 227 
 Agrodieea, the obstetrician, 144 
 Ahran, Aaron, 194 
 Albinus on the eye, 262 
 Albucasis, 197 
 
 Alcmocon, first comparative anato- 
 mist, 93 
 Aleiptai, 102, 103 
 
 Alexander Trallian, 184 
 Alexandria, library of, 135-137 
 lithotomists of, 143, 145 
 medical school of, 26, 138, 171, 
 
 179, 181 
 medical works of, 144 
 surgeons of, 143 
 Alexanor, son of Machaon, 40 
 Al-Hussain-Abou-Ali-Ben-Abdal- 
 
 lah-Ebn-Sina, 196 
 Ali Abbas, Almaleki of, 196 
 Almaleki, or the whole book of 
 
 medicine, 196 
 Almamoun, caliph, services to sci- 
 ence, 190 
 Almanzor, caliph, encouragement 
 
 of medicine by, 190 
 Almanzor of Rhazes, 195 
 Alraunes, Druid sorceresses, 85 
 Alzaharavius, 197 
 Amatus Lusitanus, 225 
 America, state of medicine in, in 
 eighteenth century, 268 
 absence of restrictions to prac- 
 tice, 269 
 examinations of physicians in, 
 
 270 
 first anatomical demonstrations 
 
 in, 273 
 inoculation for smallpox in, 271 
 laws in regard to practice, 26^ 
 medical authorship in, 272 
 education in, 272 
 schools in, 273 
 practice of medicine by clergy, 
 
 269 
 practice of midwifery in, 270 
 systems of medicine adopted in, 
 271 
 Anacharsis, 82
 
 278 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Anathemata or ofiferings, 48 
 Anatomist, comparative, the first, 
 
 93 
 Anatomy, first demonstrations of, 
 on the human subject, 214 
 
 progress of, in Greece, 51, 52 
 
 practical. (See Dissectioxs, 
 etc.) 
 
 restrictions to study of, in 
 Spain, 192 
 Anaxagoras of Clazomenae, 100 
 Andreas of Carystus, 142 
 Animal nfagnetism, 266 
 Antimony, first so called, 220 
 Antyllus, 169 
 Aorta, first named, 130 
 Apis, an Egyptian divinity, 26 
 Apollo, healing powers of, 36 
 
 mythological history of, 24 
 Apollonius of Citium, 142 
 
 of Memphis, 142 
 
 of Tyre, 142 
 Apollophanes, 142 
 Apostles, cure of diseases by, 179 
 Arab physicians, practice of, 193 
 Arabia, decline of science in, 213 
 Arabian medicine and medical 
 
 schools, 1S9 
 Arabists, 215, 217 
 Archagathus, the executioner, 54 
 Archigenes of Apamea, 166 
 AretiiBus, 167 
 Argelata, 215 
 Argentier, John, 226 
 Aristteus, healing powers of, 36 
 Aristides, heroic treatment of, 47 
 Aristotle, 127 
 
 comparative anatomy of, 131 
 
 discovery of the nerves by, 
 129 
 
 history of, 128 
 
 physiology of, 129 
 Arnold of Villa Nova, 215 
 Artemidorus of Side, 143 
 Artemisia as a moxa, 77 
 Arteries, discovery of, 132 
 Artorius, Marcus, 157 
 Arundale. Bishop of Colchester, 
 
 205 
 Asclepiadoe, 50 
 Asclepiades, 154 
 
 doctrines of, 154 
 Asclepius. (See ^sculapius.) 
 Aselli, Gaspard, on thelacteals, 240 
 Association applied to disease, 258 
 
 Assyrians, practice of, 30 
 Astrology in medicine, 209, 227 
 Athenteus of Attaleia, 167 
 Athens, school of, 181 
 Attalus Philometor, medical ski 
 
 of, 153 
 Aufidius of Sicily, 157 
 Augustus, physicians of, 157, 159 
 Autopsy or empiricism, 149 
 Avenzoar, 198 
 Averrhoes or Averroes, 198 
 Avicenna, 196 
 
 BABYLONIANS, medicine of, 22 
 Baecheiusof Tanagra, 142, 152 
 
 Bacis, medical mythology of, 36 
 
 Bagdad, medical college of, 190 
 
 Baglivi, 246 
 
 on the nervous system, 261 
 
 Barbers, surgery of, 219, 243, 264 
 
 Bard, Dr., dissection by, 273 
 
 Bardi, 84 
 
 Barletta, Mariana Santo de, 231 
 
 Bartholin, Thomas, on lung-struc- 
 ture, 240 
 physiological researches of, 241 
 
 Basil Valentine, 220 
 
 Bathers, surgery of, 219 
 
 Bathing before entering the temple, 
 45 
 
 Baths established in Rome, 53 
 
 Baudelocque, John Louis, 268 
 
 Beans, proscription of, 90 
 
 Belg«, medicine of, 84 
 
 Bellini, views of, 240 
 
 Benedetti, Alexander, 220 
 
 Benedictine monks, medical schools 
 of. (See MoxKS.) 
 
 Berenger de Carpi, 232, 233 
 
 Bertapaglia, Leonard, 219 
 
 Bertrucci, Nicolas, 215 
 
 Bianchi, 255 
 
 Bichat, Xavier, researches of, 266 
 
 Bidloo, anatomical work of, 245 
 
 Blaes, Gerard, 241, 242 
 
 Bloodletting, first recorded opera- 
 tion of, 41 
 controversies in regard to, 226 
 heroic, on Aristides, 47 
 
 Blumenbach, physiological views of, 
 265 
 
 Boerhaave, Hermann, 247, 251, 262, 
 physiological views of, 262 
 system of, 247, 251, 262
 
 INDEX. 
 
 279 
 
 Boerhaave, Kaauw, 253 
 Bojani, operation of, 219 
 Bologna, school of, 213 
 Bonetus, morbid anatomy of, 245 
 Borelli, views of, 238, 240 
 Botal, 225, 231 
 Bougies first employed, 231 
 Brahmin medicines, 68 
 
 phj^sicians, 65 
 Branca, operation of, 219 
 Brown, John, system of, 256 
 Bruchium, library and museum of, 
 
 138, 144 
 Brunonian theory, 256 
 Burrhus, F. J., 242 
 Byrthe of mankynde, 246 
 
 (^ADWALADER, Thomas, lectures 
 J by, 273 
 
 Caliphs, medicine under the, 190 
 
 Callianax, 142 
 
 Callimachus, 142 
 
 Campo, monk of Farfa, 205 
 
 Canon of Avicenna, 197 
 
 Cassius, the iatrosophist, 109 
 
 Castro, Stephen Roderic de, 240 
 
 Cathedrals, medical schools of, 203 
 
 Cato, Porcius, censor and practi- 
 tioner, 55 
 
 Cautery, use of, in China, 77 
 
 Celibacy of physicians of middle 
 ages, 206 
 
 Celsus, Cornelius, 152, 160 
 surgery of, 162 
 views and works of, 161 
 
 Celts, medicine of, 84 
 
 Cerlata, Peter de la, 215 
 
 Chaldeans, medicine of, 22 
 
 Chamberlen, or Chamberlain, for- 
 ceps of, 245 
 
 Charidemus, 143 
 
 Charlatans, in Greece, 103 
 
 Charlemagne, medicine at the court 
 of, 202 
 
 Charms, cures by, at Rome, 55 
 
 Chauliac, Guy de, 213,216 
 
 Chaumette, Anthony, surgery of, 
 243 
 
 Chemical medicines, first used, 230 
 opposition to, 249 
 sect, 230 
 
 Chemistry applied to physiology, 
 263 
 
 Cheselden, William, 264, 268 
 
 Chinese, medical absurdities of, 80 
 medical schools of, 72 
 medicine of, 22, 71 
 physicians, code of, 72 
 physiology of, 73 
 
 Chiron, healing powers of, 36, 37 
 
 Chirurgeon's storehouse, 244 
 
 Christianity, efi"ect of, on medicine, 
 179 
 
 Chrysolore, Emmanuel, lectures of, 
 220 
 
 Chrysermus, 142 
 
 Circulation of the blood, discovery 
 of, 234 
 Chinese notions of, 74 
 
 Clergy practitioners. (See Monk 
 
 PRACTITIONERS ) 
 
 Clinical teaching, Martial's satire 
 
 on, 165 
 Clodius, 157 
 
 Clowes, "William, works of, 243 
 Coan sage. (See Hippocrates.) 
 Code afi'ecting physicians, 203 
 Coimbra, school of, 191 
 College of Physicians of London 
 founded, 224 
 of Surgery of Paris, advance 
 of, 232 
 Colomb, 201 
 Colot, Germain, 230 
 
 Laurent, 231 
 Come, Frere, lithotome of, 264 
 Conciliators, eclectic, 236 
 Constantine the African, 207 
 j Continent of Rhazes, 195 
 j Convents, medical schools of, 202 
 I Cophon,210 
 Cordova, academy and library of, 
 
 191 
 Cornarus, translation of Hippocra- 
 tes by, 224 
 Cotunnius on the ear, 262 
 Cowper, discovery of glands of, 
 
 261 
 Crinas of Marseilles, 164 
 Critical days of Hippocrates, 116 
 Cruikshank on the lymphatics, 263 
 
 physiological views of, 265 
 Crusaders, influence of, on medical 
 
 science, 208 
 Cullen, system of, 247, 255 
 Cullenian theory, 247, 255 
 Cycle, resumptive, 169 
 metasyncritic, 169 
 Cycles of the methodists, 169
 
 28o 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Cyclus Tomitorius, 169 
 Cydias, 142 
 
 DARTMOUTH medical school es- 
 tablished, 274 
 Darwin, Erasmus, doctrine of asso- 
 ciation of, 258 
 Dead bodies, burning of, 52 
 burial of, 52 
 respect for, 51 
 Death of patients attributed to dis- 
 obedience, ic, 47 
 Definitiones Medicae, 225 
 DeGraaf. (See Graaf.) 
 Demetrius of Apamea, 142 
 
 Pepagomenus,work of, on gout, 
 188 
 Democedes of Crotona, cures of, 101 
 Democritus of Abdera, 101, 107, 109 
 Demons, influence of, in disease, 227 
 Derivation, controversies on, 226 
 Desault, Peter Joseph, 268 
 Diana, healing powers of, 36 
 Diatritoi, 169 
 Didon, Abbe of Sens, 205 
 Digbv, Sir K., sympathetic powder 
 
 of,^236 
 Dioscorides, 142, 166 
 Dispensatory, first publication of, 
 
 193 
 Dissection of human bodies, first, 214 
 
 Egyptian aversion for, 34 
 Dockenbourg, Hans de, 219 
 Doctor, title first used, 211 
 Dogmatic school, 126 
 Dominico, Abbe of Pescara, 205 
 Douglass, James, works of, 268 
 
 John, works of, 268 
 Dracon, son of Hippocrates, 111, 126 
 Drelincourt, Charles, 242 
 Druid physicians, 84 
 Dschondisabour, medical school in, 
 
 182, 193 
 Dubois, James, 233 
 Duodenum first named, 139 
 Duretus, 225 
 
 Duverney, experiments on the 
 heart, 260 
 on the lymphatics, 261 
 
 EAELE, Sir James, works of, 268 
 Ebn-Beithas, 198 
 Eclectic conciliators, 236 
 
 Eclectics, 166 
 
 Edessa, medical school of, 181 
 Egyptians, aversion to dissection, 
 34 
 
 chemistry of, 34 
 
 imperfection of medical know- 
 ledge of, 35 
 
 medical works of, 27 
 
 medicines used b}', 31 
 
 metallurgy of, 34 
 
 pharmacj' of, 35 
 
 state of medicine among, 23 
 Embalming, Egyptian process of, 
 
 31 
 Embre, book so called, 24 
 Empedocles of Agrigentum, 94 
 
 medical services of, 95 
 
 physiological views of, 97 
 
 public services of, 95 
 Empire of the East, jirogress of 
 medicine in, 189 
 
 of the West, progress of medi- 
 cine in, 189 
 Empirical school, 146 
 Empiricism, 146 
 Empirics, doctrines of, 146-152 
 Epicharmus, medical works of, 99 
 Epidemic of sixth century, 183 
 Epididymus, discovery of, 139 
 Epilepsy, superstitious cures of, 254 
 Episyntbetics, 166 
 Erasistratus, 138, 141 
 Erigenes, 201 
 Eros, 210 
 Erotian, Lexicon Hippocraticum of, 
 
 166 
 Esmun, worship of. 26 
 Etmuller, Michael, 244 
 Eubages, 84 
 Eucharius Rhodion, obstetric work 
 
 of, 245 
 Eudemus, 142, 159 
 Euryphon, theories of, 101 
 Eurypylus, surgical treatment of, 
 
 40 
 Eustachius, 233 
 
 Excitability, Brown's theory of, 257 
 Expectant medicine, 249 
 Eye, nomenclature of, by Herophi- 
 lus, 139 
 
 FABRE, 255 
 Fabricius ab Acquapendente, 
 233
 
 INDEX. 
 
 281 
 
 Fabricius Hildanus, 232 
 Fallopius, Gabriel, 232, 233 
 Feasts of iEsculapius, 49 
 Fees of physicians in the middle 
 
 ages, 203 
 Fernelius, 224, 225 
 Ferrein on the heart, 260 
 Foesius of Dijon, works of, 225 
 Fontana, 255 
 
 Forceps, obstetrical, invented, 245 
 Forestius on prognosis, 225 
 Fracastorius, 224 
 Franco, Peter, lithotomist, 231 
 Freedmen, sale of medicines by, at 
 
 Rome, 53 
 Freind, John, works of, 268 
 
 GAIUS, 142 
 Galen, 170 
 Galen, biographical sketch of, 170 
 
 comments of, on Hippocrates, 
 177 
 
 modern, 252 
 
 pathology, &c., of, 176 
 
 services to medicine, 174 
 
 views of, 173 
 
 writings of, 224, 225 
 Galenus, Claudius. (See Galen.) 
 Galvanism, discovery of, 266 
 Gariopuntus, 210 
 Gaubius, 253 
 Gauls, medicine of, 84 
 Gaza, Theodore, 221 
 Geber of Mesopotamia, chemical 
 
 remedies of, 193 
 Gerson, Chancellor, work of, 218 
 Glaucias, 152 
 Glisson, Francis, 244 
 Gonthier, John, of Andernacb, 
 
 writings of, 224 
 Gordon, Bernard de, 215 
 
 Lilium Medicinee of, 216 
 Gorgasus, son of Machaon, 40 
 Gorgias Leontinus, 107 
 Gorraius, writings of, 225 
 Gorris, De, writings of, 225 
 Graaff, Reginald de, 245 
 Grande Chirurgie of Salicet, 213 
 Greece, charlatans in, 103 
 
 early study of anatomy in, 52 
 
 medicine of, 86 
 
 military surgeons of, 103 
 
 physicians of, laws affecting, 
 102 
 
 Greek physicians at Rome, 53 
 Greeks, ancient, medicine of, 36, 
 38 
 wjitings of, 226 
 Guillemeau, 231 
 Gumnasoi, 102 
 
 Gunshot wounds a surgical novelty, 
 231 
 literature of, 243 
 modern treatment of, 243 
 Gymnasiaof ancient Greece, 48, 102 
 Gymnasiarch, 102 
 Gymnastic physicians, 102 
 
 HALES, Stephen, works of, 268 
 Haller, Albrecht von, 254 
 Haller, on generation, 263 
 
 physiological views' of, 262, 263 
 theory of irritability of, 254 
 views on the eye, 262 
 Hartsoeker, 242 
 Harvard college, medical school of, 
 
 instituted, 274 
 Harvey, William, 234 
 
 discovery of circulation by, 
 
 234. 
 views on generation, 242 
 Heister, Laurence, surgery of, 264 
 Heliodorus, 169 
 
 Helmont, Van, doctrines of, 228,236 
 Helvetius on the lungs, 261 
 Ilemelitus of Ephesus, 101 
 Henry IIL of France, case of, 232 
 Heraclides of Erythraja, 142 
 father of Hippocrates, 107 
 of Tarentum, 152 
 Hercules, worship of, 42 
 Hermes, books of, 25 
 Hermogenes of Tricea, 143 
 Hermondaville, Henry de, anato- 
 mical demonstrations of, 215 
 Hero, 143 
 Herodicus of Selybria, 51, 101, 102, 
 
 107 
 Herodotus, 169 
 Herophilus, 138, 144 
 
 anatomical discoveries of, 138 
 Hewson on the lymphatics. 263 
 Hochener, Philip, 229. (See Para- 
 celsus.) 
 Hhonain, 194 
 
 David-Ebn, 194 
 Isaac-Ebn, 194 
 Hieroglyphica of Horapollo, 25:
 
 282 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Hildegarde, Abbess of Rupertsberg, 
 
 practice of medicine by, 206 
 Hindoo laws on poisons, 66 
 Hindoos, medicine of, 65 
 
 pathology of, 67 
 Hippocrates, age of, 104 
 
 anatomical views of, 114- 
 aphorisms of, 267 
 biography of, 107 
 commentaries on, 267 
 comments of Galen on, 177 
 cures by, 108, 109 
 dietetics of, 117 
 pathology of, 115 
 physiological views of, 114 
 practice of, 117 
 public services of, 109 
 surgery of, 123 
 travels of, 108 
 views of, 104-125 
 works of, 49, 110, 223, 224, 225 
 Hippocrates, English, 246 
 Hoffmann, Frederick, 225 
 system of, 247, 250 
 Maurice, 240 
 Hollerius, 225 
 Horus, Egyptian king, 24 
 Hospital, public, in Persia, 181 
 Hugues, physician to French king, 
 
 204 
 Humoral pathology, 250, 252 
 Hunter, John, on the lymphatics, 
 263 
 physiological views of, 265 
 services of, 267 
 William, on the generative or- 
 gans, 263 
 on the lymphatics, 263 
 William, lectures by, in Ame- 
 rica, 273 
 Hygeia, worship of, 42 
 
 TCCUS of Tarentum, 101 
 
 I Icesias, 143 
 
 Ilithyia, healing powers of, 36 
 
 Indians, medicine of, 22 
 
 Inoculation for smallpox, 266 
 
 Instruments, surgical, early history 
 
 of, 20 
 Irritability, Haller's doctrine of. 
 
 254 - 
 Isis, medical powers of, 23 
 Israelites, medical history of, 58- 
 
 64 
 
 JAHIAH-Ebn-Masawaih, 194 
 -Ebn-Serapion, 195 
 Japanese, medical absurdities of, 80 
 
 medicine of, 22, 77 
 Jardin Royal, surgical lectures in, 
 
 244 
 Jenner, Edward, discovery of vac- 
 cination, 266 
 Jews, medicine of, 57 
 
 resemblance to the Egyptian, 
 j 58 
 
 j John of Alexandria, 186 
 of Milan, 209 
 Joubert, Laurent, 227 
 Julian, Clement, accoucheur, 245 
 
 KEILL, mathematical views of, 
 239 
 Khalaf-Ebn-Abbas-Abu'1-Kasem, 
 
 197 
 Kha-Reth-Ebn-Kaldaht of Takif, 189 
 King's evil, cure of, by the touch, 
 
 209 
 Krabadin, Arabic pharmacopoeia, 
 193 
 
 LACTEALS, discovery of, 240 
 Lancisi on the heart, 260, 261 
 Lancisi on the nervous system, 261 
 Lanfranc of Milan, 212 
 Laws affecting physicians in middle 
 
 ages, 203 
 Laxum, a division of diseases, 158, 
 
 165 
 Leach crafte, monk practitioners of, 
 
 205 
 Le Cat, on the nervous system, 262 
 Le Dran, Henry Francis, works of, 
 
 268 
 Leeches, first use of, 158 
 Leeuwenhoek, 242 
 Leibnitz, 236 
 Leone, 231 
 
 Leonicenus, Nicholas, 222 
 Leonides of Alexandria, 169 
 Lepra, cure of, by the Israelites, 59 
 Levites, cure of diseases by, 58, 60 
 Lexicographer, medical, first, 166 
 Libraries, celebrated ancient, 135- 
 
 137 
 Lieberkuhn, microscopic discoveries 
 
 of, 263 
 Ligature, use of, by Pare, 243
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Liliura Medicinae of De Gordon, 
 216 
 
 Linacre, Thomas, 224 
 
 Lister, Martin, Avorks of, 267 
 
 Lithotome cache of Come, 265 
 
 Lithotomists, distinguished, 231 
 of Alexandria, 143, 145 
 
 Lithotomy first performed by sur- 
 geons, 230 
 
 Lommius, 225 
 
 Lues Venerea in Italy, 222 
 
 Lully, Raymond, 215 
 
 Lycon of Troas, 142 
 
 Lymphatics of intestines, discoveries 
 in, 241 
 
 MACHAON, sonofyEsculapius,39 
 death of, 40 
 history of, 39 
 treament of wound of, 39 
 Maggi, 231 
 
 Magnetism, animal, 266 
 Magnus of Ephesus, 169 
 Malpighi, discoveries of, 235, 240, 
 
 241 
 Mantias, 142 
 
 Marcellus Empiricus, 179 
 Ficinus, 217 
 of Side, 178 
 Mascagni, worlc of, on lymphatics, 
 
 263, 265 
 Massa, 224 
 
 Massaria, professor at Pavia, 177 
 Mathematical physiologists, 239 
 
 sect, 238 
 Mauriceau, Francis, 244 
 Mayerne, treatment of Henry III. 
 
 by, 232 
 Mayow, John, on respiration, 240 
 Mead, Richard, works of, 248, 268 
 Meckel on the ear, 262 
 
 on the nervous system, 262 
 Medical schools of cathedrals and 
 convents, 203 
 ofthemonks, 201, 203, 207. 
 (See, also Colleges, Uni- 
 versity, &c.) 
 Medicin chirurgique, 212 
 Medicina expectans, 249 
 Medicina; established at Rome, 54 
 Medicine of Chinese, &c. (See 
 Chinese, &c.) 
 origin of, 17 
 Meibomius, anatomical work of, 245 
 
 Melampus, medical mythology of, 36 
 
 Menodorus, 143 
 
 Menodotus of Nicomedeia, 152 
 
 Mercurialis, works of, 225 
 
 Mesne, Arab medical teacher, 194 
 
 Metasyncrisis, 166 
 
 Methodic school, foundation of, 157 
 
 Methodists, cycles of, 169 
 
 Michelottion the lungs, Ac, 261 
 
 Microscope applied to physiology, 
 
 263 
 Middle ages, monk physicians of, 
 
 200 
 Middleton, Dr., dissection by, 273 
 Midwifery, male practitioners of, 
 
 in United States, 270 
 JMidwives at Rome, Greek origin of, 
 
 54 
 Military surgeons of Greece, 103 
 Milon, archbishop of Benevento, 205 
 Mithridates Eupator, medical skill 
 
 of, 153 
 Mohammed-Ebn-Secharjah-Abou- 
 
 Bekr-Arrasi, 195 
 Mondini de Luzzi, 214 
 Monk physicians, origin of, 63 
 
 of middle ages, 200 
 Monks, cures by, 201 
 
 origin of, 63 
 Monro, Alexander, on the foetus, 
 &c., 263 
 physiological views of, 263 
 Montagnana, Bartholomew, 218 
 Monte-Cassino, medical school of, 
 
 207 
 Morbus petechialis in Italy, 222 
 Morgagni, on the eye, 262 
 on the lungs, &c., 261 
 on the ovaries, 263 
 pathological anatomy of, 264 
 Morgan, John, lectures by, 273 
 Morton, Richard, 246 
 Moses, medical knowledge of, 58, 59 
 Mostanzer, Caliph, medical school 
 
 established by, 190 
 Moxa, use of in China and Japan, 77 
 Murcia, school of, 191 
 Musa, Antonius, freedman physi- 
 cian, 159 
 Musteus, medical mythology of, 36 
 Myrepsus, 189 
 
 NABOTH, on the uterus, 262 
 Nemesius and his work, 180
 
 284 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Nerves, discovery of, by Aristotle, 
 
 129 
 Nestor, treatment of Machaon by, 
 
 39 
 Nestorians', schools established by, 
 
 181 
 New York, first medical school in, 
 
 273 
 Nieander of Colophon, lo2 
 Niceratus, 157 
 Nichols, Frank, 248 
 Nicias of Miletus, 142 
 Nico of Agrigentum, 157 
 Nicolas of Alexandria, 188 
 Leonieenus, 223 
 Prsepositus, 210 
 Nonus, 187 
 Nose, operation for restoration of, 
 
 219, 232 
 Nuns, practice of medicine by, 206 
 
 OBSERYATIONES medieinales of 
 Lommius, 225 
 Oculists, scarcity of, in the fifteenth 
 
 century, 219 
 CEconomia Hippocratis, 225 
 Oribasius and his works, 180, 183 
 Orpheus, medical mythology of, 36 
 Orus, Egyptian king, 24 
 
 restoration of, 23 
 Osiris, 23, 24 
 Osteology, early Greek notions of, 52 
 
 PACCHIONI on the dura mater, 
 261 
 
 on the nervous system, 261 
 Palseostrophylax, 102 
 Palladius the latrosophist, 186 
 Panaceas, Chinese, 76 
 Pancreas, duct of, discovered, 240 
 Pandects of medicine, 194 
 Paracelsus, 228 
 
 chemical remedies of, 228 
 
 theories of, 228 
 Paraschistes or operators, 33 
 Pare, Ambrose, surgery of, 216, 
 
 231, 232, 242, 243 
 Pastophori, medical practice of, 27 
 Patroclus, surgery of, 40 
 Patin, Guy, 238 
 Paulus ^gineta, 186, 194 
 Pecquet, discovery of course of 
 chyle by, 240 
 
 Pelops, 171 
 
 Perdiccas, cure of, 108 
 Periodeutai or wandering practi- 
 tioners, 102 
 Perrault, 248 
 Persia, medicine in, 181 
 Petit, on the eye, 262 
 
 tourniquet of, 265 
 Peter Julian, the Spaniard, 215 
 Peyer on the intestinal glands, 245 
 Phacas, 142 
 
 Pharmacopoeia, chemico-medical of 
 Schroder, 230 
 
 of the London College, 230 
 
 first publication of, 193 
 Philagrias, 169 
 Philaretus, 185 
 Philinus of Cos, 147, 151 
 Philip of Csesarea, 166 
 Philonides of Dj-rrachium, 157 
 Philosenus of Cos, 143 
 Physician in ordinary, 188 
 
 surgical, 212 
 Physicians, ecclesiastical, 200 
 
 exempted from proscription, 54 
 
 fees of, in middle ages, 203 
 
 laws affecting, 203 
 
 punishment of, 25 
 Pic de la Mirandole, 218 
 Piso, C, 225 
 
 N., 225 
 Pitard, Jean, 212 
 Pitcairn, on respiration, 240 
 Plato, views of, 126 
 Pliny, 166 
 
 Pneuma, theory of, 177 
 Pneumatic sect, 167 
 Podalirius, son of -Ssculapius, 39 
 
 history of, 41 
 Poisons, Hindoo laws on, 66 
 Polemocrates, son of Machaon, 40 
 Polybus, son-in-law of Hippocrates, 
 
 111, 126 
 Porterfield, views of, 249, 255 
 
 on the eye, 262 
 Pott, Percival, on the spine, 268 
 Powder, sympathetic, of Digby, 236 
 Prjenotiones Coacee of Hippocrates, 
 
 49 
 Praxagoras of Cos, discoveries of, 
 
 132 
 Prayer, cure by. (See MoxKS, 
 
 Priest, Ac.) 
 Pregnant women, old laws in re- 
 gard to, 206
 
 INDEX. 
 
 285 
 
 Priest-practitioners of Egypt, 24, 
 26 
 
 diet of, 28 
 Priests, Grecian, cures by, 44 
 
 medicines of, 46 
 Printing, effect of invention of, 
 
 222 
 Prophets, miraculous cures by, 62 
 Prosper Alpinus, 225 
 Ptolemies, era of, 134 
 Pulse, Chinese exploration of, 75 
 Pyrrho, 147 
 Pyrrhonism, 147 
 Pythagoras, 87 
 
 dietetics of, 88 
 
 disciples of, 88 
 
 medical practice of, 92 
 
 views of, 87 
 Pythagoreans, views of, 89 
 
 rjUINTUS, 171 
 
 RAU, John James, 242 
 Ravenne, Jean de. Abbe of 
 Dijon, 205 
 
 Raynalde, Thomas, obstetrical work 
 of, 246 
 
 Remedies, new, publication of, 49 
 
 Revulsion, controversies on, 226 
 
 Rhazes and his works, 194, 195 
 
 Rhinoplasty first resorted to, 219, 
 232 
 
 Rhodion, Eucharius, 245 
 
 Riolan, John, 236, 238 
 
 Robert of England, cure of at Sa- 
 lernura, 209 
 
 Roger of Parma, 210, 212 
 
 Roland of Parma, 213 
 
 Remain, John de, 231 
 
 Roman practitioners, Pliny's opin- 
 ion of, 163 
 
 Romans, medicine of, 53 
 
 Greek origin of, 53 
 
 Rome, Greek physicians in, 53 
 
 Romualdus, 210 
 
 Rondelet, Guillaume, 227 
 
 Rosicrucians, principles of, 235 
 
 Rudbeck, Olaus, 241 
 
 Rufus Ephesius, first medical lexi- 
 cographer, 166 
 
 Rush, Benjamin, 274 
 
 Ruysch, Frederick, 242 
 
 SABOR-EBN-SAHEL, 193 
 Saladin, materia medica of, 218 
 Salerno. (See Saleijnum.) 
 Salernum, school of, 204, 207-211, 
 216 
 chief physicians of, 210 
 decline of, 216 
 dietetic precepts of, 209 
 dissection of animals by, 
 211 ^' 
 
 Salicet of Placentia, 213 
 Sammonicus Serenus, 178 
 Santorini on the nervous system, 
 261 
 on the ovaries, 263 
 Sanctorius, 242, 
 
 aphorisms of, 267 
 Saracens, medical progress of, 
 
 199 
 Saragossa, school of, 191 
 Satyrus, the anatomist, 171 
 Sauvages, 255 
 Savonarola, Michael, 218 
 Scarpa, physiological views of, 265 
 Scheikh-Reyes, 196 
 Schemin, worship of, 26 
 Schneider, Conrad Victor, 244 
 School of Salernum, Seville, Ac. 
 
 (See Salernum, Seville, «fec.) 
 Schroder, pharmacopoeia of, 230 
 Scientia Causalitatis, 24 
 Scultetup, John, 244 
 Scurvy, first appearance of, 222 
 Scythians, medicine of, 81 
 Senac, on the heart, 260 
 Sennertus, Daniel, 236 
 Serapion of Alexandria, 150, 152 
 
 the elder, 195 
 Serapis, a medical divinity, 26 
 Serpent bites, Hindoo treatment of, 
 
 67 
 Servetus, Michael, 233 
 Seth, Simon, work of, 187 
 Seville, school of, 191 
 Sextus Placitus Papiensis, 178 
 Shippen, Dr. William, lectures by, 
 
 273 
 Sigould, Abbe of Epernly, 205 
 Simson, views of, 249 
 Slave practitioners, prohibitions to, 
 
 103 
 Smallpox, first description of, 194 
 Soemmering, physiological views of, 
 
 265 
 Solidism, foundation of, 224
 
 286 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Soranus of Ephesus, 168 
 Spain, decline of science in, 213 
 medical schools and libraries 
 
 of, 191 
 medical science in, 198 
 Specialties, earliest practitioners 
 
 of, 30 
 Sphyrus, son of Machaon, 40 
 Spigelius, 242 
 Stahl, system of, 248 
 St. Cosme, Frere, 2fi4 
 Steno on lung structure, 240 
 Stephen of Athens, 186 
 
 of Edessa, 181 
 Straton of Berytus, 142 
 
 of Lampyacus, 142 
 Stratonicus, 171 
 Strictum, a division of diseases, 
 
 158, 165 
 Sudor Anglicanus, first appearance 
 
 of, 222 
 Surgeon-barbers. (See Barbers.) 
 Surgeons of Alexandria, 143 
 
 scarcity of, in 15th eenturj', 219 
 young, prohibitions to, 145 
 Surgery, origin of, 20 
 Surgical apparatus of Alexandria, 
 144 
 instruments, origin of, 20 
 
 presented to the temples, 
 49 
 Swammerdara on respiration, 240 
 Sydenham, 243 
 Sylvius, Francis, 241 
 Jacobus, 224, 233 
 de le Boe, 236 
 Symmachus and his pupils, 165 
 Sympathetic powder of Sir K. 
 
 Digby, 236 
 Syndesmology, early Greek notions 
 
 of, 52 
 Syphilis, literature of. 243 
 Syrna, cure of, by Podalirius, 41 
 Systems of medicine of Hoffmann, 
 Cullen.&c. (See Hoffmann, Cul- 
 LEN, <fcc.) 
 
 TAAUT, worship of, 24 
 Tablets, votive, 48, 107 
 Tagliacozzi, Gaspard, rhinoplastie 
 
 operation of, 219, 232 
 Talliocotian operation, 219, 232 
 Tarin, on the nervous system, 262 
 Temples of ^sculapius, 43, 107 
 
 Temples — 
 
 Grecian, practice of medicine 
 
 in, 43 
 guardians of, 47 
 practice of medicine in, 24, 
 87 
 Thales, theories of, 101 
 Theath or Thouth, worship of, 24 
 Thebesius on the heart, 260 
 Themison of Laodicea, 157 
 
 pathology and practice of, 158, 
 159 
 Theodocus, 189 
 Theodore of Canterbury, medical 
 
 teachings of, 201 
 Theodorus Priscianus, 178 
 Theodunus, 189 
 Theophrastus of Eresus, 131 
 Theophilus Philotheus, 185 
 Theosophy mingled with medicine, 
 
 209, 227 
 Thessalus, son of Hippocrates, 111, 
 
 126 
 Thessalus Trallianus, and his char- 
 latanry, 164 
 Thieddeg of Prague, 204 
 Tobias, bishop of Rosa, 202 
 Toledo, school of, 191 
 Touch, cure by, 209 
 Tourniquet of Petit, 265 
 Toxaris, 82 
 
 Toxicologists, royal, 153 
 Trallian, Alexander, 184 
 
 practice of, 185 
 Trepanning first performed by sur- 
 geons, 230 
 Trotula, 210 
 
 UNITED STATES, medical pro- 
 gress of. (See America.) 
 University of Naples founded, 210 
 of Messina founded, 210 
 of Peiinsylvania, foundation of, 
 273. (See also School, Col- 
 lege, <tc.) 
 Urinary diseases, treatment of, in 
 16th century, 231 
 
 VACCINATION, discovery of, 266 
 V Valentine, Basil, chemical dis- 
 coveries of, 220
 
 INDEX. 
 
 287 
 
 Valsalva, on the ear, 262 
 
 Van Helraont, 228, 23G 
 
 Van Swieten, commentaries of, 
 
 253 
 Vavasseur, Guillaume, 232 
 Veins, valves of, discovered, 233 
 Vena cava, valves of, first observed, 
 
 142 
 Vesalius, Andreas, 232, 233 
 Veterinary art, works on, 187 
 Vettius Valens, 159 
 Vianeo, Vincent, 219 
 Vicq d'Azyr, physiological views of, 
 
 265 
 Vigo the Genoese, works of, 231 
 Vieussens, Raymond, 240 
 Vindicianus, 178 
 Vision, study of organs of, 242 
 Votive tablets, 48, 107 
 
 WEPFER, J. J., 241 
 Wharton, Thomas, 241 
 Whytt, 253 
 
 Willis, Thomas, views of, 238, 241 
 Wine, Pramnian, prescribed, 39 
 Winslow, experiments on the 
 
 heart, 260 
 Wirsung, John George, 240 
 Wodestoke, William de, Abbot of 
 
 Croxton, 205 
 Wurz, Felix, 231 
 
 ZACUTUS Lusitanus, writings of, 
 240 
 Zamolxis,y82 
 Zeno of Cyprus, 179 
 Zenon of Laodicea, 142 
 Zinn on the eye, 262 
 Zwinger of Basle, 225 
 
 rHE END.
 
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