Chap. 7.] OPINIONS OK THE ANCIENT PHYSICIANS. 3/5 



live without any physicians at all, though not, for all that, 

 without the aid of medicine. Such, for instance, was the llo- 

 man 25 people, for a period of more than six hundred years ; a 

 people, too, which has never shown itself slow to adopt all 

 useful arts, and which even welcomed the medical art with 

 avidity, until, after a fair experience of it, there was found 

 good reason to condemn it. 



CHAP. 6. WHO FIRST PRACTISED AS A PHYSICIAN AT HOME, AND 



AT WHAT PERIOD. 



And, indeed, it appears to me not amiss to take the present 

 opportunity of reviewing some remarkable facts in the days of 

 our forefathers connected with this subject. Cassius Hemina, 26 

 one of our most ancient writers, says that the first physician 

 that visited Rome was Archagathus, the son of Lysanias, who 

 came over from Peloponnesus, in the year of the City 535, L. 

 .^Emilius and M. Livius being consuls. He states also, that the 

 right of free citizenship 27 was- gran ted him, and that he had a 

 shop 28 provided for his practice at the public expense in the 

 Acilian Cross- way ; 29 that from his practice he received the 

 name of " Yulnerarius ;" 80 that on his arrival he was greatly 

 welcomed at first, but that soon afterwards, from the cruelty 

 displayed by him in cutting and searing his patients, he ac- 

 quired the new name of " Carnifex," 31 and brought his art and 

 physicians in general into considerable disrepute. 



That such was the fact, we may readily understand from the 

 words of M. Cato, a man whose authority stands so high of 

 itself, that but little weight is added to it by the triumph 32 

 which he gained, and the Censorship which he held. I shall, 

 therefore, give his own words in reference to this subject. 



CHAP. 7. THE OPINIONS ENTERTAINED BY THE ROMANS ON THE 



ANCIENT PHYSICIANS. 



" Concerning those Greeks, son Marcus, I will speak to you 



Bastitani, a people of Spain ; and Eusebius, the more ancient inhabitants 

 of Spain. 25 See B. xx. c. 33. 



26 See end of B. xii. 27 " Jus Quiritium." 



28 "Tabernam." A surgery, in fact, the same as the '* iatreion" of the 

 Greeks. 



29 Or " carrefour " " compitum." The Acilian Gens pretended to be 

 under the especial tutelage of the gods of medicine. 



30 The " Wound-curer," from u vulnus," a wound. 



31 " Executioner," or " hangman." 33 For his conquests in Spain. 



