THE FATHERS OF MEDICINE.
Though Æsculapius is said to have lived so near to the time of the
Trojan war, yet the Greeks knew very little about him. The superstition
of the time gave him a position among the gods, and as he was adored
under the character of the genius of physic, it came at last to be
doubted whether he was ever a mortal; consequently his priests were
obliged for their own sakes to make themselves masters of all the
physic that the master could teach, that they might be qualified to
give advice to those who applied to them; their prescriptions passed
for the suggestions of the gods, the cures for the miraculous. But both
diseases and remedies were carefully recorded. Strabo tells us that
from these registers in the temple of Æsculapius at Cos, Hippocrates
formed his plan for a proper diet.
Hippocrates, the wise physician and father of medicine, was according
to Soranus the son of Heraclides and Phænaretes, descended from
Hercules and Æsculapius. He was a Coan by birth, and was first
instructed by his father, and then by Herodicus, and Democritus of
Abdua, the philosopher. He flourished at the time of the Peloponnesian
war, and after being instructed in physic and the arts, left his own
country for Thessaly, where his fame soon became known, even as far
as Persia. He was sent for by Perdiccás, King of Macedonia, who was
then thought to be consumptive, but Hippocrates diagnosed it to be a
disease of the mind, and soon cured the king. He is also said to have
delivered his own country from a war with the Athenians by prevailing
upon the Thessalians to come to their assistance, for which he received
great honours from the Coans. He taught his art with great candour and
liberality to those who were desirous to learn, and at length died full
of honours, it is said, in his ninetieth year, and was buried between
Gyrton and Larissa. A quaint old tradition states that at his tomb a
swarm of bees settled and made their honey for a long time, with which
children troubled with aphthas, anointed by their nurses at the grave,
were easily cured.
He was by no means covetous of money, but grave in his behaviour and a
lover of Greece, as appears from his curing those of that nation with
the utmost diligence, and freeing many of their cities from the plague,
for which he acquired great honours.
At first the art of healing was accounted a branch of philosophy, so
that the cure of diseases and the study of nature owed their rise
to the same persons. Among the many philosophers skilled in the art
the most celebrated were Pythagoras, Empedocles, Democritus, and
Hippocrates of Cos. After them came Diodes the Carystian, Praxagoras,
and Chrysippus, with Hierphilus and Erasistratus, many of whom
practised their art in entirely different ways. At this period physic
was divided into three schools; the first cured by diet, the second
by medicines, the third by manual operations. Those who treated by
dietetic methods endeavoured to extend their views farther with the
assistance of natural philosophy. Then came Serapion, the apostle of
practice and experience, and afterwards Asclepiades, who worked a
revolution in medical science as then practised.
The knowledge of both surgery and medicine even in the time of Celsus
is very remarkable, and many of the forms of administration of medicine
are employed at the present day. The enema was largely used by the
ancients, a common one being hydromel, described by Dioscorides as
being made by mixing two parts of water to one of honey; sea-water was
also employed for the same purpose, and Celsus recommends the copious
drinking of hot water as a laxative remedy.
Asclepiades was the originator of massage and friction, and in his
book of general remedies describes his treatment, which is similar to
that performed to-day. Poultices of meal of various descriptions were
commonly employed, linseed or fenugreek being the favourite media.
Asclepiades studied in Alexandria, and after practising in Greece
and Asia Minor, finally settled in Rome in the early part of the
first century B.C. Here he soon met with success, and established
a reputation for great skill. He was the physician and friend of
Cicero, and probably also the instructor of Lucretius in the Epicurean
philosophy, of which he was an enthusiastic advocate.
He believed the body to be composed of atoms or particles, with spaces
between, through which, like a sieve, various atoms of other shapes
were continually passing in and out of the body.
In practice he believed in curing his patients with as little
discomfort as possible, which doubtless helped to make him popular. He
was averse to the employment of violent remedies and the excessive use
of emetics and purgatives so much favoured by his fellow-practitioners.
He advocated the use of music as a soothing agent, and was strongly in
favour of bathing frequently and of massage.
He strongly believed in wine as a remedial agent, which it has been
said may have accounted for his popularity with the Roman ladies, with
whom as a physician he was in great demand. He lived to a very advanced
age, and died it is stated from the effects of a fall.
Galen, born at Pergamus in the year A.D. 131, studied in the school
of Alexandria, which then had a considerable reputation, and there he
formulated his system of treatment founded on his knowledge of anatomy
and on observation. His fame having spread abroad, he travelled to
Rome and became physician to the Emperor Marcus Aurelius. According to
Galen, the health of the body depended on an equal and uniform mixture
of solids and liquids, and its sickness arose from their inequality;
consequently, the physician should foresee illness. He was a profound
student of anatomy in his early career, and afterwards turned his
attention to physiology. His views as to inflammation, intermittent
fevers, and his system of antipathies and sympathies, place him very
much above his predecessors.
“In the beginning of the fifth century,” says Lacroix, “the practice of
medicine, like that of surgery, which was not yet a distinct branch,
continued to be free without any authorisation being required. There
were even women who, like the Druidesses of the Gauls, treated the
sick.” Charmers, unconscious, no doubt, of the occult forces which they
set to work, attempted to cure neuralgic pains, country bone-setters to
mend fractured limbs, while oculists and impostors of the worst kind
travelled the country.
It was not until the close of the eighth century that a regular course
of medical instruction was founded, the first of the kind being
organised at Salerno, in the kingdom of Naples.
Alexander of Tralles, a noted physician, flourished in the middle of
the sixth century. No Greek doctor equalled him since the days of
Hippocrates in regard to his knowledge of his art in those primitive
days. He is said to have possessed to a high degree the art of
diagnosis, and he laid down as a principle, that no decision should
be arrived at as to the treatment of a case until the specific causes
of disease had been carefully considered. His depreciation of violent
aperients, his views on melancholia and gout, and his generally
common-sense treatment, stamped him as a man of superior attainments
and ability. He was the first to resort to bleeding from the jugular
vein, and to use iron in certain diseases affecting the blood.
It must not be imagined that the Roman practitioners of medicine were
ill-paid, for it is recorded that Stertimus made some £6500 a year, and
Canie, a surgeon, is said to have received £2000 for one operation,
which contrasts well with fees of modern times. Votive offerings for
health to the Roman deities were frequent, and sometimes consisted of
land, animals, coin, jewellery, and other articles. Other bribes which
have been discovered near ancient shrines are terra-cotta figures of
deities, human beings, animals, and also portions of human anatomy,
such as the liver or stomach. This superstition still exists, and is
practised in many parts of Italy, the peasants making votive offerings
similar to those of two thousand years ago.
The object of offering models of various portions of the body to
special deities, was doubtless to propitiate the god to heal that
special part in which the patient believed his complaint originated.
This custom of making offerings to the gods, called _donaria_ by the
Romans, originated at a very early period. They often took the form
of land, buildings, cattle, tools of trade, jewellery, and cast-off
clothes. Thus the temple of Artemis Brauronia was filled with women’s
clothing. In the temples of the healing gods, instruments of surgery,
pharmaceutical appliances, painted tablets representing miraculous
healings, and great numbers of models of various parts of the human
frame, composed of metal, stone, and terra-cotta, were deposited.
Many of these ancient temples of healing were magnificent buildings
with richly-decorated interiors, while others were simply shrines
or grottos at the source of some hot spring or mineral water, where
hundreds of those afflicted with various ailments flocked to bathe or
drink the water. The priests in charge regulated the use of the waters
and prescribed for the patients. After completing the course it was
customary for the patient to throw an offering into the water, in the
form of a silver cup, a coin, or some terra-cotta model of a limb, and
then drag himself off, muttering a prayer. Others would hang their
gifts on the walls, or deposit them at the feet of the statues of the
gods placed around.
Magnificent offerings, such as goblets of valuable metal with votive
inscriptions, have been occasionally found, and other ornaments of gold
and silver. It is said, however, that _donaria_ of precious metals
were after a time melted down and disposed of by the priests.
Grateful patients or surgeons sometimes offered surgical instruments as
a thanksgiving for a successful surgical operation; thus it is stated
Erostratus offered to Apollo in the Temple of Delphus a forceps of
lead, to show how little he approved of the fingers as a medium for
extracting teeth. Drs. Sambon, Allaire, and others, who have discovered
a large number of _donaria_ of the Etruscan and Roman period, found
among the pottery, invalid feeding-cups and feeding-bottles for
infants. Many of the latter were modelled in the form of the female
breast, and others in the shapes of animals. These articles were often
placed in the tombs of young children who had died in babyhood, instead
of the dishes of various foods which were deposited in the tombs of
adults.
Among other _donaria_ discovered, are models of the limbs and viscera
of the human body in clay, showing upon them the marks of the various
diseases from which the votaries had suffered. Thus the ancient temples
must have presented a curious appearance, festooned on walls and
ceilings with these numerous models, all of which told a tale of human
suffering.