196 PROFESSIONAL INSTITUTIONS. 



surgeon to compound his own medicines, but a physician, 

 also, had a dispensary and sometimes a compounder: an 

 arrangement which still survives in country districts. Now 

 adays, however, both medical and surgical practitioners in 

 large places depute this part of their business to apothe 

 caries. 



But the apparent nonconformity to the evolutionary pro 

 cess disappears if we go back to the earlier stages. The 

 distinction between doctor and surgeon is not one which has 

 arisen by differentiation, but is one which asserted itself at 

 the outset. For while both had to cure bodily evils, the 

 one was concerned with evils supposed to be supernaturally 

 inflicted, and the other with evils that were naturally in 

 flicted the one with diseases ascribed to possessing demons, 

 the other with injuries caused by human beings, by beasts, 

 and by inanimate bodies. Hence we find in the records of 

 early civilizations more or less decided distinctions between 

 the two. 



&quot;The Brahmin was the physician; but the important manual 

 department of the profession could not be properly exercised by the 

 pure Brahmin ; and to meet this difficulty, at an early period, another 

 caste was formed, from the offspring of a Brahmin with a daughter of 

 a Vaishya.&quot; 



There is evidence implying that the division existed in 

 Egypt before the Christian era; and it is alleged that the 

 Arabians systematically divided physics, surgery, and phar 

 macy, into three distinct professions. Among the Greeks, 

 however, the separation of functions did not exist: &quot; the 

 Greek physician was likewise a surgeon &quot; and was likewise 

 a compounder of his own medicines. Bearing in mind these 

 scattered indications yielded by early societies, we must 

 accept in a qualified way the statements respecting the dis 

 tinctions between the two in mediaeval times throughout 

 Europe. When we remember that during the dark ages 

 the religious houses and priestly orders were the centres of 

 such culture and skill as existed, we may infer that priests 



