LORD KENYON. 359 



In Egypt, a physician, who attempted to cure 

 a disease by means different from those which 

 were mentioned in the sacred books, forfeited 

 his own life, if his patient died. By the con- 

 fession of Hippocrates, medicine was regarded 

 by the Greeks as the lowest of the arts. The 

 oath which he exacted from his scholars, not to 

 commit some of the vilest crimes, and to keep 

 secret the knowledge which he should commu- 

 nicate to them, is a strong proof of the truth of 

 his observation. With the Greek comic writers, 

 " a son of Hippocrates/' was a term of derision. 

 So low indeed was the condition of physicians 

 in Greece, that Alexander the Great seems to 

 have been neither affected with remorse, nor 

 accused of cruelty, for crucifying Glaucus, the 

 physician of Hephasstion, though the death of 

 his favourite had been occasioned by his own 

 imprudence. Many learned men have shown 

 that, before Julius Caesar, the physicians in 

 Rome were, for the most part, if not alto- 

 gether, either freedmen or slaves. Afterwards, 

 medicine rose there somewhat in esteem, both 

 from the greater knowledge of its professors, 

 and the degradation of the former civil distinc- 

 tions in society ; but it was still attended with 

 so little respect, that even Galen was afraid 

 to prescribe some pepper in wine to Marcus 



