30 PROCEEDl^'GS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM. vol. 65. 



GREEK AND K():\IAN MEDICINE 



The primitive period of Greek medicine is mostly mythical. It 

 begms Avith Mehimpus (about 1,400 years B. C.) and ends with Hip- 

 pocrates (460 B. C). The most prominent character during- this 

 jDeriod was Aesculapius, reputed son of Apollo and Coronis. As the 

 god of medicine he was Avorsliipped by Greeks and Romans every- 

 where. Temjiles were erected in his honor and served \)\ a priest- 

 hood of his descendants, called Asclepiadae. The sick were brought 

 to these temples, prayers and sacrifices offered, and treatment pre- 

 scribed as indicated by dreams or signs given in answer to the pray- 

 ers and sacrifices. Records of the cases, symptoms, treatment, and 

 results were carved upon votive tablets and Jiung upon the walls of 

 the temple. 



The philosoj^hic period began with Hippocrates (born 4()0 B. C), 

 believed to be the seventeenth in descent from Aesculapius. He is 

 styled '' The Father of Medicine,*' and it is justly said of him that 

 " the medical art as we now practice it, the character of the physician 

 as we now understand it, both date for us from Hippocrates."* He 

 separated medicine from priestcraft ; taught that disease was a 

 process governed by natural laws, and that the clew to proper treat- 

 ment was to be found in minute observations of its symptoms and 

 natural course. Surgery had already made much progress. Among 

 the surgical operations recorded are reduction of dislocations and 

 fractures, resection of bones, trephining, opening of abscesses of 

 kidneys and liver, operation for fistula and hemorrhoids, operations 

 on club feet, and sounding the bladder for stone. 



After Hippocrates came many celebrated Greek physicians noted 

 as authors and founders of various " schools '* of theoretical medicine, 

 such as " humoralist," " solidist," " vitalist," " empiricist,'* etc. The 

 most eminent of these later Greek physicians, and one whose influence 

 was most widespread and continuous, was Galen (born 130 A. D.). 

 He was a brilliant orator and voluminous writer, and the tendency 

 of his teachings was to harmonize the conflicting doctrines of the 

 several schools and to develop the more simple teachings and meth- 

 ods of Hippocrates. His works were authoritative down to a com- 

 paratively recent period. 



Dioscorides (born about 77 A. D.) was the most renowned writer 

 on materia medica. He makes mention of about 00 minerals. 700 

 plants, and 198 animal substances. 



Rome neither originated nor possessed an independent school of 

 medicine. Early Roman medicine was founded on superstitution and 

 practiced by magic arts. Later it was controlled liy Greek physicians, 

 though as a branch of philosophy it was expounded by Roman 

 teachei-s and writers. 



