Outlines of Greek and Roman Medicine, by James Sands Elliott This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of docx

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of Greek and Roman Medicine, by

James Sands Elliott

This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with

almost no restrictions whatsoever You may copy it, give it away or

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Title: Outlines of Greek and Roman

Medicine

Author: James Sands Elliott

Release Date: May 5, 2007 [EBook #21325] Language: English

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK GREEK AND ROMAN MEDICINE ***

Produced by Suzanne Lybarger, LN

Yaddanapudi, Brian Janes

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OUTLINES OF GREEK AND

ROMAN MEDICINE

ASKLEPIOS The ancient Greek Deity of Healing.

From Wellcome's Medical Diary (Copyright)

By permission of Burroughs Wellcome & Co.

OUTLINES OF GREEK AND ROMAN

MEDICINE

BY

JAMES SANDS

ELLIOTT, M.D., Ch.B.(Edin.)

Editor of the "New Zealand Medical Journal," Honorary Surgeon to the Wellington Hospital, New

Zealand.

Illustratedmilford house inc

bostonThis Milford House edition is anunabridged republication of the edition

of 1914.

Published in 1971 by MILFORDHOUSE INC Boston, MassachusettsLibrary of Congress Catalogue CardNumber 76-165987

Standard Book Number 0-87821-036-9Printed in the U.S.A

TO MY FATHER

I was stimulated to write these Outlines

of Greek and Roman Medicine by arecent sojourn in the south-eastern part

of Europe The name of the bookdefines, to some extent, its limitations,for my desire has been to give merely ageneral outline of the most importantstages in the advancement of the healingart in the two Empires to which moderncivilization is most deeply indebted.There are a few great works on thehistory of medicine by continentalwriters, such, for instance, as those by

the German writers, Baas, Sprengel, andPuschmann, but, generally speaking, thesubject has been much neglected.

I cherish the hope that this little workmay appeal to doctors, to medicalstudents, and to those of the public whoare interested in a narration of theprogress of knowledge, and who realizethat the investigation of the body inhealth and disease has been one of themost important features of humanendeavour

censure for neglect of its own history,and pity 'tis that so many practitionersknow nothing of the story of their art

discoveries are only re-discoveries; asBacon wrote: "Medicine is a sciencewhich hath been, as we have said, moreprofessed than laboured, and yet morelaboured than advanced; the labourhaving been, in my judgment, rather incircle than in progression For I findmuch iteration, and small progression."

Of late years, however, the History ofMedicine has been coming into itskingdom Universities are establishingcourses of lectures on the subject, andthe Royal Society of Medicine recentlyinstituted a historical section

The material I have used in this book hasbeen gathered from many sources, and,

as far as possible, references have beengiven, but I have sought for, and taken,

information wherever it could best befound As Montaigne wrote: "I have hereonly made a nosegay of culled flowers,and have brought nothing of my own butthe thread that ties them together."

I have to express my indebtedness to myfriend, Mr J Scott Riddell, M.V.O.,M.A., M.B., C.M., Senior Surgeon,Aberdeen Royal Infirmary, for his greatkindness in reading the proof-sheets,preparing the index and seeing this bookthrough the press and so removing one ofthe difficulties which an author writingoverseas has to encounter; also to mypublishers for their courtesy andattention

James Sands Elliott

New Zealand January 5, 1914.

Temple of ÆsculapiusArchagathus

Domestic MedicineGreek Doctors

Classification of RenouardPythagoras

Democedes

Greek Philosophers

CHAPTER III

Hippocrates

His life and works

His influence on Medicine

CHAPTER IV

Plato, Aristotle, the School ofAlexandria, and Empiricism.Plato

Aristotle

Alexandrian School

Its Origin

Its Influence

Oculists in Rome

CHAPTER VII

Physicians from the Time ofAugustus to the Death of Nero.Celsus

His life and works

His influence on MedicineMeges of Sidon

of the Christian Era.

CHAPTER IX.

Galen

His life and works

His influence on Medicine

CHAPTER X

The Later Roman and ByzantinePeriod

Beginning of DeclineNeoplatonism

Cabalists and GnosticsObject of Christ's MissionStoics

Constantine and JustinianGladiatorial Games

Christian PhilanthropyDemon Theories of Diseasereceive the Church's

Opinions of AncientPhysicians on GymnasticsThe Athletes

The Baths

Description of Baths atPompeii

Public Health Regulations

APPENDIX

Fees in Ancient Times

INDEX

(Caton)

OUTLINES OF Greek and Roman

Medicine

CHAPTER I.

EARLY ROMAN

MEDICINE.

Origin of Healing — Temples —

Lectisternium — Temple of Æsculapius

— Archagathus — Domestic Medicine — Greek Doctors — Cloaca Maxima — Aqueducts — State of the early Empire.

The origin of the healing art in AncientRome is shrouded in uncertainty Theearliest practice of medicine wasundoubtedly theurgic, and common to allprimitive peoples The offices of priest

and of medicine-man were combined inone person, and magic was invoked totake the place of knowledge There ismuch scope for the exercise of theimagination in attempting to follow thecourse of early man in his efforts tobring plants into medicinal use Thatsome of the indigenous plants hadtherapeutic properties was often anaccidental discovery, leading in the nextplace to experiment and observation.Cornelius Agrippa, in his book on occultphilosophy, states that mankind haslearned the use of many remedies fromanimals It has even been suggested thatthe use of the enema was discovered byobserving a long-beaked bird drawing

up water into its beak, and injecting the

water into the bowel The practice ofhealing, crude and imperfect, progressedslowly in ancient times and wasconducted in much the same way inRome, and among the Egyptians, theJews, the Chaldeans, Hindus andParsees, and the Chinese and Tartars.

proficiency in philosophy and medicine,and to this people, as well as to theSabines, the Ancient Romans were

Pompilius, of Sabine origin, who wasKing of Rome 715 b.c., studied physicalscience, and, as Livy relates, was struck

by lightning and killed as the result ofhis experiments, and it has thereforebeen inferred that these experiments

related to the investigation of electricity.

It is surprising to find in the TwelveTables of Numa references to dentaloperations In early times, it is certainthat the Romans were more prone tolearn the superstitions of other peoplesthan to acquire much useful knowledge.They were cosmopolitan in medical art

as in religion They had acquaintancewith the domestic medicine known to allsavages, a little rude surgery, andprescriptions from the Sibylline books,and had much recourse to magic It was

to Greece that the Romans first owedtheir knowledge of healing, and of artand science generally, but at no time didthe Romans equal the Greeks in mentalculture

Pliny states that "the Roman people formore than six hundred years were not,indeed, without medicine, but they werewithout physicians." They usedtraditional family recipes, and hadnumerous gods and goddesses of diseaseand healing Febris was the god of fever,Mephitis the god of stench; Fessoniaaided the weary, and "Sweet Cloacina"presided over the drains The plague-stricken appealed to the goddessAngeronia, women to Fluonia andUterina Ossipaga took care of the bones

of children, and Carna was the deitypresiding over the abdominal organs.Temples were erected in Rome in 467b.c in honour of Apollo, the reputedfather of Æsculapius, and in 460 b.c in

honour of Æsculapius of Epidaurus Tenyears later a pestilence raged in the city,and a temple was built in honour of theGoddess Salus By order of the Sibylline

books, in 399 b.c., the first lectisternium

was held in Rome to combat apestilence This was a festival of Greekorigin It was a time of prayer andsacrifice; the images of the gods werelaid upon a couch, and a meal wasspread on a table before them Thesefestivals were repeated as occasiondemanded, and the device of driving anail into the temple of Jupiter to wardoff "the pestilence that walketh indarkness," and "destruction that wasteth

at noonday" was begun 360 b.c Asevidence of the want of proper surgical

knowledge, the fact is recorded by Livythat after the Battle of Sutrium (309 b.c.)more soldiers died of wounds than werekilled in action The worship ofÆsculapius was begun by the Romans

2 9 1 b.c., and the Egyptian Isis andSerapis were also invoked for theirhealing powers

At the time of the great plague in Rome( 2 9 1 b.c.), ambassadors were sent toEpidaurus, in accordance with theadvice of the Sibylline books, to seekaid from Æsculapius They returnedwith a statue of the god, but as their boatpassed up the Tiber a serpent which hadlain concealed during the voyage glidedfrom the boat, and landing on the bankwas welcomed by the people in the

belief that the god himself had come totheir aid The Temple of Æsculapius,which was built after this plague in 291b.c., was situated on the island of theTiber Tradition states that, when theTarquins were expelled, their cropswere thrown into the river, and soilaccumulated thereon until ultimately theisland was formed In consequence ofthe strange happening of the serpentlanding from the ship the end of theisland on which the Temple ofÆsculapius stood was shaped into theform of the bow of a ship, and theserpent of Æsculapius was sculpturedupon it in relief.

The island is not far from the ÆmilianBridge, of which one broken arch

Ovid represents this divinity as speakingthus:—

"I come to leave my shrine;

This serpent view, that with

ambitious play

My staff encircles, mark him

every way;

His form—though larger,

nobler, I'll assume,And, changed as gods

should be, bring aid

to Rome."

(Ovid, "Metamorphoses,"

xv.)

He is said to have resumed his naturalform on the island of the Tiber.

"And now no more the

drooping citymourns;

Joy is again restored and

health returns."

It was the custom for patients to sleepunder the portico of the Temple ofÆsculapius, hoping that the god of thehealing art might inspire them in dreams

as to the system of cure they shouldadopt for their illnesses Sick slaveswere left there by their masters, but thenumber increased to such an extent thatthe Emperor Claudius put a stop to thecruel practice The Church of St

Bartholomew now stands on the ruins ofthe Temple of Æsculapius.

Even in very early times, however,

practitioners, though not so wellsupplied as some other nations The Lex

punishment for the doctor who neglected

a sick slave In Plutarch's "Life of Cato"(the Censor, who was born in 234 b.c.),

we read of a Roman ambassador whowas sent to the King of Bithynia, in AsiaMinor, and who had his skull trepanned.The first regular doctor in Rome wasArchagathus, who began practice in thecity 219 b.c., when the authoritiesreceived him favourably and bought a

surgery for him; but his methods wererather violent, and he made much use ofthe knife and caustics, earning forhimself the title of "butcher," and thushaving fallen into disfavour, he was glad

to depart from Rome A College of

established 154 b.c., but this was not ateaching college in the present meaning

of the term

The doctors of Ancient Rome took noregular course of study, nor were anystandards specified, but as a ruleknowledge was acquired by pupilage to

a practising physician, for which ahonorarium was paid Subsequently theArchiatri, after the manner of tradeguilds, received apprentices, but Pliny

had cause to complain of the system ofmedical education, or rather, to deplorethe want of it He wrote: "Peoplebelieved in anyone who gave himself outfor a doctor, even if the falsehooddirectly entailed the greatest danger.Unfortunately, there is no law whichpunishes doctors for ignorance, and noone takes revenge on a doctor if throughhis fault someone dies It is permittedhim by our danger to learn for the future,

at our death to make experiments, and,without having to fear punishment, to set

at naught the life of a human being."Before the time when Greek doctorssettled in Rome, medical treatment wasmainly under the direct charge of thehead of each household The father of a

family had great powers conferred uponhim by the Roman law, and wasphysician as well as judge over hisfamily If he took his new-born infant inhis arms he recognized him as his son,but otherwise the child had no claimupon him He could inflict the most dire

household for which they had no redress.Cato, the Elder, who died in b.c 149,wrote a guide to domestic medicine forthe use of Roman fathers of theRepublic, but he was a quack and full ofself-conceit He hated the physicianspractising in Rome, who were mostlyGreeks, and thought that their knowledgewas much inferior to his own Plutarchrelates that Cato knew of the answer

given to the King of Persia by

professionally, "I will never make use of

my art in favour of barbarians who areenemies of the Greeks," and pretended tobelieve that all Greek physicians werebound by the same rule, and animated bythe same motives However, Cato did agreat deal of good by attempting tolessen the vice and luxury of his age.The Greeks in Rome were looked ataskance as foreign adventurers, andthere is no doubt that although manywere honourable men, others came toRome merely to make money out of thesuperstitious beliefs and credulity of theRoman people Fine clothes, a goodhouse, and the giving of entertainments,

were the best introduction to practicethat some of these practitioners coulddevise.

The medical opinions of Cato throw asidelight upon the state of medicine inhis time He attempted to curedislocations by uttering a nonsensical

incantation: "Huat hanat ista pista sista

damiato damnaustra!" He considered

ducks, geese and hares a light andsuitable diet for the sick, and had nofaith in fasting

Although the darkness was prolongedand intense before the dawn of medicalscience in Rome, yet, in ancient times,there was a considerable amount ofknowledge of sanitation The great