THE GROWTH OF MEDICINE
FROM THE EARLIEST TIMES TO ABOUT 1800
PUBLISHED ON THE FOUNDATION
ESTABLISHED IN MEMORY OF
WILLIAM CHAUNCEY WILLIAMS
OF THE CLASS OF 1822, YALE MEDICAL SCHOOL
AND OF
WILLIAM COOK WILLIAMS
OF THE CLASS OF 1850, YALE MEDICAL SCHOOL
THE GROWTH OF MEDICINE
FROM THE EARLIEST TIMES
TO ABOUT 1800
BY
ALBERT H. BUCK, B.A., M.D.
_Formerly Clinical Professor of Diseases of the Ear, Columbia
University, New York--Consulting Aural Surgeon,
New York Eye and Ear Infirmary; etc._
[Illustration]
NEW HAVEN: YALE UNIVERSITY PRESS
LONDON: HUMPHREY MILFORD
OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS
MDCCCCXVII
COPYRIGHT, 1917
BY YALE UNIVERSITY PRESS
First published, February, 1917
THE WILLIAMS MEMORIAL PUBLICATION FUND
The present volume is the first work published by the Yale University
Press on the Williams Memorial Publication Fund. This Foundation
was established June 15, 1916, by a gift made to Yale University by
Dr. George C. F. Williams, of Hartford, a member of the Class of
1878, Yale School of Medicine, where three generations of his family
studied--his father, William Cook Williams, in the Class of 1850, and
his grandfather, William Chauncey Williams, in the Class of 1822.
PREFACE
Very few persons will challenge the truth of the statement that in the
United States and Canada there are not many physicians who possess
even a slight knowledge concerning the manner in which the science
of medicine has attained its present power as an agency for good, or
concerning the men who played the chief parts in bringing about this
great result. Up to the present time no blame may justly be attached to
any individuals or to any educational institutions for this prevailing
lack of knowledge, and for two very good reasons, _viz._: first,
in a newly settled country, in which the population grows by leaps and
bounds through the influx of foreign immigrants, the training of young
men for the degree of M.D. must necessarily be almost entirely of a
practical character, and consequently the teaching of such a subject
as the history of medicine would be quite out of place; and, second,
the treatises on this subject which are purchasable by English-speaking
physicians are of rather too scientific a character to appeal either
to the undergraduate or to the busy practitioner. The first of the
reasons named, it may now safely be assumed, is rapidly losing its
validity, if indeed it has not already ceased entirely to afford a
legitimate excuse for neglecting the study of this branch of medical
science. On the other hand, the second reason mentioned is still in
force,--so far at least as the present writer knows,--and, if such be
the case, it certainly cannot fail to act as a deterrent influence of
great potency. Here, then, is my apology for attempting to prepare an
account of the history of medicine which shall present the essential
facts truthfully and with a sufficient degree of attractiveness to
win the continuing interest of the reader; which shall place before
him, and especially before those who are just at the threshold of
their professional career, word pictures of those physicians of past
ages whose lives may safely be taken as models worthy to be copied;
and which shall describe, so far as I am able to do this, the methods
which they employed to advance the science of medicine, to gain genuine
professional success, and to merit the enduring esteem of later
generations of physicians. If my efforts prove successful in producing
this kind of history it is fair to expect that, in a comparatively
short time, those physicians whose interest may have been aroused by
the perusal of this less complete and more popular work, will demand
something of a more exhaustive character--a book, for example, like the
admirable history which Max Neuburger, of Vienna, is now publishing,
and of which two volumes have already issued from the press (the
first in 1906 and the second in 1911).[1] It is to this work and the
excellent history written by the late Dr. Haeser, of Breslau, that I
am chiefly indebted for the information supplied in these pages; and
I therefore desire to make special mention here of this indebtedness.
The other sources from which I have been an occasional borrower are
all mentioned in the “List of Authorities Consulted.” Footnotes and
cross-references in the text interfere greatly with one’s pleasure in
reading a book, and I have therefore not hesitated to introduce them
sparingly.
It gives me a special pleasure to call attention here to the
far-sighted generosity displayed by the founder of The Williams
Memorial Fund in making it practicable henceforth for the Yale
University Press to accept for publication medical treatises which
deal with the historical and scientific questions of this branch of
knowledge, but which for sound business reasons cannot be published on
a merely commercial basis.
And I have the further pleasure of expressing my real appreciation
of the skill with which the University Press has solved the problems
of a suitable size and style of type for this volume, and of the
sound advice which it has given with regard to the extent to which
the effectiveness of the book may be increased by the introduction of
pictorial illustrations.
To my friend, Lawrence F. Abbott, of New York, I am deeply indebted for
the valuable assistance which he has rendered me throughout the entire
progress of this work. Indeed, without this assistance, I doubt whether
I should have had the courage to remain at my post to the very end.
ALBERT H. BUCK.
Cornwall, N. Y., December 29, 1916.
CONTENTS
PART I. ANCIENT MEDICINE
PAGE
Preface ix
Chapter I. Development of the Science and Art of Medicine 3
Chapter II. Oriental Medicine 11
Chapter III. Oriental Medicine (continued) 25
Chapter IV. Greek Medicine at the Dawn of History 46
Chapter V. The Significance of the Serpent in the Statues
and Votive Offerings Exposed to View in the
Aesculapian Temples 62
Chapter VI. The Beginnings of a Rational System of Medicine
in Greece 67
Chapter VII. Hippocrates the Great 81
Chapter VIII. Brief Extracts from Some of the Hippocratic
Writings 89
Chapter IX. The State of Greek Medicine after the Events
of the Peloponnesian War; the Founding of Alexandria
in Egypt, at the Mouth of the Nile; and the Development
of Different Sects in Medicine 96
Chapter X. Erasistratus and Herophilus, the Two Great
Leaders in Medicine at Alexandria; the Founding of
New Sects 104
Chapter XI. Asclepiades, the Introducer of Greek Medicine
into Rome 116
Chapter XII. The State of Medicine at Rome after the Death
of Asclepiades; the Founding of the School of the
Methodists 129
Chapter XIII. The Further History of Methodism at Rome,
and the Development of Two New Sects, viz., the
Pneumatists and the Eclectics.--A General Survey of
the Subject of Sects in Medicine 138
Chapter XIV. Well-known Medical Authors of the Early
Centuries of the Christian Era 151
Chapter XV. Claudius Galen 160
Chapter XVI. The Influence of Christianity upon the
Evolution of Medicine 179
PART II. MEDIAEVAL MEDICINE
Chapter XVII. The Condition of Medicine at Byzantium
during the Early Part of the Middle Ages 191
Chapter XVIII. Beginning of the Arab Renaissance under the
Caliphs of Bagdad 203
Chapter XIX. Further Advance of the Arab Renaissance
during the Ninth and Succeeding Centuries of the
Christian Era 212
Chapter XX. Hospitals and Monasteries in the Middle Ages 235
Chapter XXI. Medical Instruction at Salerno, Italy, in the
Middle Ages 243
Chapter XXII. Early Evidences of the Influence of the
Renaissance upon the Progress of Medicine in Western
Europe 259
Chapter XXIII. Further Progress of Medicine and Surgery
in Western Europe during the Thirteenth, Fourteenth
and a Part of the Fifteenth Centuries 269
Chapter XXIV. During the Latter Half of the Middle Ages
Surgery Assumes the Most Prominent Place in the
Advance of Medical Science 292
Chapter XXV. Brief History of the Allied Sciences--Pharmacy,
Chemistry and Balneotherapeutics 315
PART III. MEDICINE DURING THE RENAISSANCE