774 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



Solon, those injured on the battle-field were attended and nursed at the 

 expense of the community. Of the great Csesar it is well known that 

 he had a regular medical service in his armies. 



There is a word in the ancient Greek which has given rise to the 

 belief that Hellas may have had hospitals. But, as no facts and re- 

 ports sustain that supposition, it is probable that larpaov meant a medi- 

 cal office, a policlinic, perhaps, but not a hospital. Ileal hospitals 

 were not built by either Greek, Roman, or Hebrew. The common- 

 wealth of the latter was hierarchic and intolerant. The stranger 

 though he who was permitted to live in Judea was to be treated like 

 a member of the community was to be exterminated, and must not 

 be spared. Thus, while there are no proofs of the existence of hos- 

 pitals for the friend, a painstaking care in favor of the stranger was 

 out of the question. 



Antiquity, however, is not without its humane culture. The recon- 

 ciling feature in that immense picture of indifference and thoughtless- 

 ness is found in Buddhism. We have the reliable report of a genuine 

 hospital founded by a king in Ceylon, in the fifth century b. c. One 

 of his successors in the second century b. c. is credited with eighteen 

 hospitals under regular medical superintendence. In the East Indies 

 hospitals are mentioned in the third century. Nor have other civiliza- 

 tions been slow in outgrowing the humane exertions of Hellas, Rome, 

 and Palestine, for Prescott tells us that there were hospitals in Mexico 

 before the Christian Spaniards introduced the blessings of torture, in- 

 quisition, and extermination. And when finally the Christians, in the 

 second century after Christ, bethought themselves of the poor and'sick 

 and established hospitals, the largest and most effective ones were 

 founded in Asia Minor and Persia, where Buddhism had prepared both 

 means and public opinion Buddhism, under whose beneficent rules 

 aiding the poor and nursing the sick were two of the religious du- 

 ties of kings and princes. Nor has Christianity the claim of having 

 the first large hospitals. The Arabs had many good and large hos- 

 pitals about 1200. Cordova, in Spain, sustained fifty within its own 

 walls. 



The first information in regard to Christian hospitals dates back to 

 the second century ; other reports go back as far as the fourth, and a 

 few others to the sixth century. In most cases the establishments were 

 not exactly hospitals, but stopping-places and dormitories for pilgrims 

 on their way to Rome. To what extent such institutions were necessities 

 is best proved by the order of the so-called " Bridge-makers " {Hospi- 

 tallers Pontifes), whose original vocation it was to protect pilgrims 

 from the robberies and rapacity of the ferry-men on the large rivers. 

 They existed a long time, became rich and degenerated, and were 

 finally dissolved in 1672 by Louis XIV. 



The hierarchic character of the institutions calculated to benefit 

 the poor remained intact until the period of the Crusade wars. At 



