54 



DB. E. ANGUS SMITH ON ANCIENT AND 



"Hippocrates also allayed a pestilence that came to the 

 Greeks from Illyria and Peonia by this remedy. He ordered 

 fires to be lighted through the whole state, with flowers, with 

 the most fragrant garlands and ointments, and perfumery, so 

 that a purer, clearer, and fresher air should be spread about. 

 Galen also says, that the air, becoming pestilential by res- 

 piration, becomes a poison. 



" The same Hippocrates preserved many towns in Greece 

 from pestilence, having stopped the windows, changed the 

 doors, and let in the north wind by new windows ; for which 

 they gave him honours formerly given to Hercules. 



** Also the learned VarroTerentius, when the island Corcyra 

 was filled with sick and dead, stopped the windows, changed 

 the doors, and let in the north wind by new windows, keeping 

 his family and companions in health."* 



We see, from these extracts, that a general idea of sanitary 

 truth had risen in various times and places, sometimes marked 

 by magnificence as the leading principle, sometimes by useful- 

 ness. The great water-works were for use, absolute necessity 

 prompting the origin — munificent and enlarged feelings sug- 

 gesting the scale. The same may be said of the baths, which, 

 however, rose up to be a great curse to Rome, as the early 

 Roman washing was more akin to the modern practice of the 



* Phillipi Beroaldi de terrao Motu et Pestilentia, cum Annotationibus Galeni. 



Perhaps I may be allowed to introduce here a short note. In the book above 

 mentioned there are notes on Galen, or rather comments on his translators and 

 interpreters. In speaking of vapicr}, he says — "Quod genus pisoium, Galenus 

 csetericiae Gneoi Soriptores appellant vapKijp id interpres ineptfe nimis vertit in 

 stnporem, propterea quod GrsDC^ vapKtj dicitur stupor, unde narcotica dicta 

 tnedicamenta, quibus utimur in sectione mcmbrorum quasi stuporem indu- 

 centibus, ut citra sensum cruciatus fiat sectio ;" that is, " The kind of fishes 

 called by Galen and other Greek writers vapKij, the translator hae verj' absurdly 

 termed stupor, because in Greek PapKt} do69 (at other times) mean stupor; whence 

 the term, in Medicine, Narcotics, which we use in cutting off limbs, producing a 

 stupor so that the amputation is made without pain." This is another instance 

 of the want of teaching even in a profession. The practice seems to have gone 

 oat, and there is no distinct record of the reason. 



