136 The Evolution of Medical Science. 



living now who can remember when a man was likely to be 

 lynched, in this country, if it was known that he had taken 

 part in the dissection of a human body. 



The only speck of sunshine for progressive Medicine, 

 over a period of thousands of years, was wlien the Ptol- 

 emies founded and cared for the Alexandrian library, allow- 

 ing human dissections, and encouraging the importation of 

 all sorts of remedies from every part of the earth. Then 

 arose a large number of able anatomists and physicians, 

 who added extensively to human knowledge and redeemed 

 the Art of Medicine from the region of downright super- 

 stition.* But while Egypt was thus basking in the light 

 of Science, Rome was depending upon charms and incanta- 

 tions to heal her sick. At every epidemic they built a 

 temple to pacify the supposed angry gods. Soon, however, 

 they borrowed from their more fortunate neighbors much 

 of their skill and knowledge. Celsus has shown us that 

 this was really no beggarly amount. They were able to 

 perform operations for hernia, calculus, intestinal wounds, 

 and cataract. They could use the catheter, trephine, lig- 

 ature severed arteries, and remove hemorrhoids. They 

 used lead plaster for the same purposes as we do to-day, 

 and employed opium as successfully in curing dysentery. 

 About this time, too, some cathartics had been discovered. 

 A generation later, Galen compiled the medical knowledge 

 of the times, after which an era of darkness set in, Avhen 

 men's minds were frozen into set forms for twelve hundred 

 years. Christianity, such as it then was, soon became a 

 power in the land, and it was the sworn foe to medical 

 progress. It was willing enougli, usually, to accept acquired 

 facts, l)ut no new ones were allowed to be promulgated, nor 

 etforts made to discover them. As the Bible was the only 

 guide in matters theological, so Galen became the sole 

 authority in matters medical. To dare to differ from Galen 

 Avas to raise a similar tempest to daring to differ from Christ. 

 Dissecting human bodies, under Paganism, was a niis- 

 tlemeanor ; under Christianity it became the most horrible 

 of crimes. From time to time the church would rise iip in 

 arms against medical men because of some new discovery. 

 Then all medicine would for a season be denrnmced. The 

 doctors were charged witli sorcery and unhiwi'ul com])act 

 with the devil, crimes ])uiiisliable by burning at the stake. f 



* rcters' I'ictorial History of Ancient riiarniucy. !>. is. 

 t White's Warfare of Science, \i. 77. 



