192 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



relations to the healing art. To the Egyptian deity Isis, the wife and 

 sister of Osiris, peculiar medical skill was attributed^ and a multitude 

 of diseases were regarded as the effects of her anger. According to 

 tradition she had given unequivocal proof of her power by the restora- 

 tion of her son Orus to life. She was the reputed discoverer also of 

 several remedies, and even as late as Galen the materia medica con- 

 tained several compounds which bore her name : thus, in the symboli- 

 cal language of the Egyptian priestly physicians, the vervain was called 

 the " tears of Isis." 



According to the annals of Grecian mythology, Hygeia, daughter 

 of ^sculapius, the god of medicine, was worshiped in the temples of 

 Argos as the goddess of health. In art, Hygeia is represented as a 

 virgin wearing an expression of benevolence and kindness, and hold- 

 ing in one hand a serpent which is feeding from a cup in the other. 

 She was regarded as the goddess both of physical and mental health, 

 thereby personifying the aphorism, "Mens sana in corpore sano." 

 The Greeks also ascribed medical power to Juno, who, under the name 

 of Lucina, was held to preside over the birth of children, and to Ocy- 

 ro?, daughter of the Centaur Cheiron, who was renowned for his skill 

 in surgery and medicine. The sorceresses Medea and Circe were said 

 to make use of herbs in their enchantments and for the purpose of 

 counteracting the effects of poisons. These and similar fables prob- 

 ably preserve in allegoric form facts connected with the practice of 

 medicine by women in the remotest antiquity. The writings of Homer 

 have been examined to ascertain his testimony, but, with the exception 

 of slight reference to woman's part in nursing wounded warriors, he 

 contributes nothing to the subject under consideration. 



The learned among the Celts, the Druids, were at the same time 

 judges, legislators, priests, and physicians. By persuading the people 

 that they maintained intimate relations with the gods, they succeeded 

 in imposing their authority on the ignorant masses. " Their wives, 

 who were called Alraunes, exercised the calling of sorceresses, causing 

 considerable evil by their witchcraft, but caring for warriors wounded 

 in battle. They gathered those plants to which they attributed magic 

 virtues and they unraveled dreams " (Dunglison), 



The first female practitioner who received a medical education 

 appears to be Agnodice, a young Athenian woman who lived about 

 300 B. c. To satisfy her desire for knowledge she disguised herself in 

 male attire, and, braving the fatal results of detection, dared to attend 

 the schools of medicine forbidden to her sex. Among her instructors 

 was numbered Herophilus, the greatest anatomist of antiquity and the 

 first who dissected human subjects. After completing her studies, 

 Agnodice preserved her disguise and practiced her chosen calling in 

 the Grecian capital with great success, giving particular attention to 

 the diseases of her own sex. The physicians of Athens becoming jeal- 

 ous of Agnodice's great reputation and lucrative practice, summoned 



