216 



MINERAL WATERS. 



Their special use in the different forms of diseases of 

 the Liver. 



Mineral Waters have been used in medical practice 

 since the days when ^Esculapius was worshipped 

 throughout Ancient Greece. 



It is recorded that in olden times the pm 

 medicine was conducted in temples dedicated to that 

 purpose. 



Fifty years after the destruction of the kingdom of 

 1'riam, there was elevated at Titai. i >pon- 



nesus, the first temple in honour of yKsculapius. \ 

 soon the worship of this god was spivad throughout 

 Greece, whence it passed into Asia, Africa, and Italy. 

 Among a multitude of temples which \\i-re conseci 

 to him, those at Epidaurus, in tin- iVloponnesus, at 

 nuns, in Asia, on the island of Cos, now ('nidus, 

 and at Cyrene, a city of Lybia : inilarly remark- 



able. In the templ< of Kpiduurus tin-re was a statin- ol 

 colossal size, representing the god of imdirine, 

 under the figure of an old man seated on a throne, 

 holding in one hand a sceptre, and resting the other on 

 the head of an enormous serpent; a dog, an emblem of 

 vigilance, reposed at his feet. This statue, made of 

 gold and ivory, was the work of Trasymedus. Socrates, 

 in his last discourse with his i'riends, requested them to 

 offer a cock as a sacrifice for him to 



