This writer, who acquired considerable celebrity as a medical
authority, lived a little later than Aetius, towards the end of the
sixth century. He was a native of Tralles, in Lydia, and is much
esteemed by the principal medical historians, Sprengel, Leclerc,
Freind, and others who have studied his writings. Especially notable
is his independence of opinion; he does not hesitate occasionally to
criticise even Galen. He impresses strongly on his readers the danger
of becoming bound to a particular system of treatment. The causes of
each disease are to be found, and the practitioner is not to be guided
exclusively by symptoms. Among his favourite drugs were castorum, which
he gave in fevers and many other maladies; he had known several persons
snatched from the jaws of death by its use in lethargy (apoplexy); bole
Armeniac, in epilepsy and melancholia; grapes and other ripe fruits
instead of astringents in dysentery; rhubarb appeared as a medicine for
the first time in his writings, but only as an astringent; and he was
the first to use cantharides for blisters in gout instead of soothing
applications. His treatment of gout by internal remedies and regimen
recalls that of Aetius and is worth quoting. He prescribed an electuary
composed of myrrh, coral, cloves, rue, peony, and aristolochia. This
was to be taken regularly every day for a hundred days. Then it was to
be discontinued for fifteen days. After that it was to be recommenced
and continued during 460 days, but only taking a dose every other day;
then after another interval thirty-five more doses were to be taken on
alternate days, making 365 doses altogether in the course of nearly two
years. Meanwhile the diet was strictly regulated, and it may well be
that Alexander only provided the medicine to amuse his patient while
he cured the gout by a calculated reduction of his luxuries. Alexander
of Tralles was the author who recommended hermodactyls, supposed to be
a kind of colchicum in gout; a remedy which was forgotten until its
use was revived in a French proprietary medicine. His prescription
compounded hermodactyls, ginger, pepper, cummin seeds, anise seeds,
and scammony. He says it will enable sufferers who take it to walk
immediately. He is supposed to have been the first to advocate the
administration of iron for the removal of obstructions.