102 Greek Medicine 



The difficulty that the honest practitioner encounters is that 

 the sufferer, in the nature of the case, can hardly be brought 

 to believe that his ailment is what in fact it is, a lesion of the 

 mind. It is this which gives the miracle-monger his chance. 



Examine for a moment the two cases from Epidaurus, which 

 are quite typical of the series. We observe that the first is 

 described simply as a case of 'tape-worm' without any justifi- 

 cation for the diagnosis. It is not unfrequent nowadays for 

 thin and anxious patients to state, similarly without justifica- 

 tion, that they suffer from this condition. They attribute 

 certain common gastric experiences to this cause of which 

 perhaps they have learned from sensational advertisements, and 

 then they ask cure for a condition which they themselves have 

 diagnosed, but which has no existence in fact. Such a case is often 

 appropriately treated by suggestion. Though the elaborate- 

 ness of the suggestion in the temple cure is a little startling, 

 yet it can easily be paralleled from the legends of the Christian 

 saints. Moreover, we must remember that we are not here 

 dealing with an account set down by the patient herself, but 

 with an edificatory inscription put up by the temple officials. 



In the second inscription, the man with an abdominal 

 abscess, we have a much simpler state of affairs. It is evident 

 that an operation was actually performed by the priest mas- 

 querading as Asclepius, while the patient was held down by 

 the slaves. He is assured that all is a dream and departs cured 

 with the tell-tale comment ' and the floor of the Abaton was 

 covered with blood '. 



These cases might be multiplied indefinitely without great 

 profit for our particular theme, for in .such matters there is no 

 development, no evolution, no history. There can be no doubt 

 that a very large part of Greek practice was on this level, as is 

 a small part of modern medicine, but it is not a level with which 

 we are here dealing and we shall therefore pass it by. But 

 a word of caution must be added. Such temple worship has 



