MEDICINB. 



Ml. UK-INK. 



portrait on on* ride, with an inscription on the reverse. The flnt 

 coronation medal appears in the reign of Edward VI. The medal* of 

 Quwn Maty are numeral*, and very interesting from tho device* they 

 bear. There an many fine and beautiful medal* of Elizabeth. The 

 Scotch coronation medal of Chartea I. U of gold, and WM struck at 

 Edinburgh. Brlot was the beat artut of this reign. It U remarkable 

 a* being the first struck in Britain with a legend on the edge. 

 Specimens of thia medal in gold are very scarce. The medal* of the 

 Commonwealth and of Charlea II. are by Simon, and by the Roettien, 

 Dutch engraver*, who were succeeded by Croker, engraver in the reign 

 of Anne. Thoae of Queen Anne are interesting from their being 

 charged with the achievement* of the great Duke of Marlborough. 

 Soon after thia a Ueneveae artist, of the name of Dasrier, was employed 

 upon the medal* of the lung* of England, and executed many portrait* 

 of royal and other ilhitriou characters. Natter, the celebrated gem 

 engraver, made medal* in the reign of George III. In recent times 

 maiiy admirable medal* have been engraved by the Wyons, and 

 Pintruoci, a celebrated gem engraver. 



The only Oriental nation that appears to have issued medals at an 

 early period is the Chinese, military medals having been used during 

 the Man dynasty, A.D. 10, and being kept up till the present day. 

 Few or no medals exist of Indian states, except the supposed gold 

 medal of Jehanghir, A.D. 1611, representing that monarch holding a 

 flower on one side, and the constellation Leo on the other, which in 

 probably a coin ; and the large piece of Shah Jehan, made at Delhi, 

 A.D. 1617. 



The study of medals is, in iU class, of great importance. It is indis- 

 pensable to the historian and the antiquary, and hardly less valuable 

 to the man of taste. To the former, medals often afford information 

 that cannot be obtained by other means, in the inscriptions, legends, 

 and allegories with which they are charged ; while to the artist and 

 connoisseur many of them offer not only exceedingly beautiful examples 

 of art, but, if their authenticity can be depended on, a series of medals 

 of any nation is one of the best authorities that can be consulted for 

 the state of the arU of design of any particular period. 

 . Modern medals differ in their art and treatment greatly from the 

 Roman medallions, the last representing a few political and religious 

 idea* treated in an allegorical manner, while medals represent the busts 

 of distinguished persons, or of allegorical personages, subjects treated 

 in an allegorical manner derived from the antique, or various events 

 represented in a pictorial rather than a glyphic manner sieges, build- 

 ings, edifices, instruments, machines, and other objects of nature, art, 

 or civilisation. Amongst the moderns, medals take the place of 

 honorary rewards for merit, either in intellectual acquirements, mili- 

 tary, civil, or social services, and have replaced the crowns, trappings, 

 and torque* presented by Greece and Home to illustrious citizens. 

 A* early as Henry IV. of France, and during the 17th century, it 

 became the practice for monarch* to present medals, having their 

 portrait*, attached to gold chains, to warriors, statesmen, and men of 

 letter*. Such chains and medal* were presented by the Parliament 

 in the days of the Commonwealth to Blake and his captains, and 

 Elizabeth conferred similar rewards on those who aided to overthrow 

 the Armada. While, too, the medallions convey little information 

 beyond that imparted by coins, the range of subjects in modern 

 medal* will convey to posterity representations of buildings, inven- 

 tions, and events probably long after all other knowledge of them has 

 perished, and will prove invaluable aids to the future students of 

 chronology, hi*tory,and the arts. 



It would bo an almost endless task to enumerate the works that 

 have been written on medals. The principal works on modern medal* 

 an those of Menetrier, Kleurcmont, Godenneachc, Lenormant, and 

 Millingen, for those of France ; Van Loon has described those of 

 Belgium and the Low Countries ; Hedlinger and Brenner those of 

 Sweden, Denmark, and Russia ; Evelyn and Pinkerton those of Eng- 

 land ; MaBiichelli, the Italian medal* of the Cinque-Cento period ; Klutz, 

 the satyrical pieces; and Koehne, some of Germany. See Bolzcnthal, 

 !l . skizzen zur Kunstgeachichto dcr Medaillen -Arbeit,' 8vo, Berlin, 

 : . 



MEDICINE. The earliest reeord* of the practice of medicine are 

 extremely obscure. Among the Jews it appear* to have been entirely 

 confined to the priesta, and the whole art seems to have consisted in 

 the prevention of contagion by isolation and cleanliness, and the admin- 

 istration of a few uncertain remedies. The Egyptians, according to 

 the account of Herodotus, must have made some little progress; 

 zing medicine* and emetics were well known to them and much 

 I ; and such wai the subdivision of labour, that there were physt- 

 for every separate complaint, some for the eyes, others for the 

 head, others for the teeth, othem for the abdominal parts, ami 



. . which did not manifest thenuelve* by outward visible 



ymjitom*. IH.T.K].. ii. 84.) It appear* however that hi the time of 

 Uanu* UM nob of Hyta*pe, tho Greek* possessed at least more skill 

 tiun 0>e Egyptians, (Herod., Hi. 1.) The Greeks probably derived 

 their knowWge of medicine, with that of many other art*, from Egypt, 

 whence Chir.-n, UM CcnUur of their fables, I* mid to have fin! 

 duced it among them. Hi* pupil /Beculapiu* [.*SCCLAPIUS, ii 

 Div.lsn much improved the art, that be was deified; and Maehaon 

 and Podaliriu*, hi* sons, accompanied the Grecian army to the Diego of 

 Troy. From circumrtanow mentioned in the < Iliad/ it would appear 



that their practice was almost entirely confined to the treatment of 

 wounds, and that charms and incantation" formed a considerable 

 portion of the means which they employed. The descendant* of 

 jGsoulapius were for many yeors.tho chief practitioners of medicine : 

 they were called Asolepiadte, and were the priesta of the temple* erected 

 in honour of their progenitor, to which the sick were accustomed to 

 resort for advice and the application of remedies. 



In the Oth century before the Christian era, medicine, with other 

 sciences, began to be more philosophically studied in Greece, and 

 among the first of those who devoted much of their time to tho in- 

 vestigation of the structure and functions of the animal body was 

 Pythagoras. His pupils Dcmocritus and Heraclitus appear also to 

 have added considerably to the knowledge both of anatomy and of 

 practical medicine, and their contemporary Herodicus first introduced 

 the practice of gymnastic exercises, which afterwards formed so large 

 a part of medical treatment. [GYMNASTICS.] But the most remark- 

 able man in the history of medicine in Greece was Hippocrates, one of 

 the Asclepiadx, who was born at Cos (where one of the chief temples 

 was erected), B.C. 460, and was the pupil of Heraclitus and Herodicus. 

 [HIPPOCRATES, in Bioo. Div.] The improvements which he made in 

 medicine (and many of which are detailed in the article referred to) 

 were so considerable, that for many centuries his successors appear to 

 have been content to follow him in reverential imitation. His sons, 

 Theesalus and Draco, and his son-in-law Polybius, were the most 

 renowned of his descendants, and they are generally regarded as the 

 founders of the medical sect or school which was called the Jlippo- 

 cratean or Dogmatic sect. 



Tho establishment of the Alexandrian school of philosophy forms the 

 next most important epoch. The science of medicine was assiduously 

 cultivated, and the human body was first dissected in Alexandria by 

 Erasistratus and Herophilua. [HEROPniLCS, in Bioo. Drv.] Thu 

 former was the pupil of Chrysippus, a violent opponent of the I 

 cratio school, and a bold innovator in medicine, with whom probably 

 originated the schism in consequence of which, for some centuries, 

 every physician ranged himself in one of two sects, tho Dogmatists and 

 the Empirics. The Dogmatists held that disease could not be securely 

 treated, except on the foundation of a knowledge of the healthy struc- 

 ture and actions of the body, and of the influence of remedies and 

 the effects of disease upon it; while the Empirics maintained that 

 such knowledge was not only unnecessary, but unattainable, and 

 that simple experience should be the only guide to practice. The 

 progress ;of the science was greatly arrested by the observation of 

 facts being neglected in the ardour with which each party argued 

 its own cause, and the dispute only seemed to cease with tho introduc- 

 tion of a new sect. 



During the early periods of the Roman empire medicine seems to 

 have been little cultivated, and, according to Pliny (xxix. 1), Rome 

 was for 600 years without professed physicians, though not entirely 

 without medical knowledge. The first individual of any eminence who 

 practised medicine in Rome was Asclepiades of Bithynia [ASCI.KPIADEB, 

 in Bioo. Div,], who lived in the century before the commencement of 

 the Christian era ; but he does not appear to have advanced the know- 

 ledge of the science. He was succeeded by m> pupil Themison, the 

 founder of a sect called Methodics, who held doctrines nearly inter- 

 mediate between those of the Dogmatists and of the Empirics. A large 

 majority of succeeding physicians attached themselves to this sect, and 

 among them were Soranus and Aurelianus, whose writing* are the 

 principal that remain of this period. 



About two centuries later the Methodics were divided into numerous 

 sect*, as the doctrines of particular physicians became more generally 

 received. The chief of these sects were the Pneumatics and the 

 ins. The former are represented by their in .. riti-r, 



Arcticus [AiiETjEUS, in Bioo. Div.], who lived in the reign of Vespasian, 

 and the chief points of their doctrines are detailed in his life. Uf tho 

 Eclectic*, the most celebrated was Archigcnes, of Apamea, who prac- 

 tised at Rome in tho time of Trajan. But the most remarkable writer 

 of this age was Celsus, in whose work, ' De Medicine.,' the progress and 

 condition of medicine previously to and during hi* life are amply 

 detailed. [CELSUS, in Bioo. Div.] Ho was the first native of Rome 

 who is known to have studied medicine, and tho only one who did so 

 with success. In his time medicine, which, as a science, might bo said 

 to have had ita origin with Hippocrates, hod mode considerable pro- 

 gress ; tho several sects of ita professors differed rather in their pre- 

 tensions than in any important point of knowledge ; the philosophical 

 learning, which some sought and others despised, was almost entirely 

 hypothetical, and had relation only to the doctrines c.f the mutual 

 actions of imaginary atom*, elements, and spiriU, but all Ind l>eeii alike 

 engaged in the study of practical medicine, and tlicir :ieeumiilatcd 

 experience hod by this time formed a very considerable amount of 

 useful knowledge. 



The individual whose history forms the next chief epoch in the 

 history of medicine is Galen; but it will bo unnecessary to repeat 

 what has already been said of his doctrines and practice. [(<AI i N, in 

 Bioo. Div.] For a long time after his death physicians were chiefly 

 <<. nj.ied in commenting on his works, and imitating, as closely as they 

 could, his practice. His writings were regarded as ultimate authority, 

 and everything that seemed opposed to them was at once rejected. 

 From tho time of Galen to the 7th century tho only uaiucs of any 



