HAMILTON SCIENTIFIC ASSOCIATION. 35 



deans diseases were ascribed to demons. Oracles were sought from 

 Beelzebub. The Talmud, A. D. 200-250, ascribes diseases to evil 

 external influences, constitutional vice or magic. 



Indian medical records are fourth in the roll of antiquity- 

 Diseases were natural or supernatural — the latter due to demons. 

 Disease was also caused by the unequal action of the five elements 

 — ether, air, fire, water, earth. 



The Chinese attributed disease to spirits, wind, cold and warm 

 humors, etc. By feeling the pulse the cause and seat of the dis- 

 ease might be determined. 



Various gods presided over the physical destinies of the Jap- 

 anese, Disease was treated by appealing to these gods or by em- 

 ploying conjurers to cure with their charms. 



In Africa, all the negro tribes had magicians who employed 

 talismans or magic potions to overcome the malign influences from 

 which the sick suffered ; or witch doctors were employed to search 

 out the witches who caused disease and death. 



To the Greeks, however, belongs the honor of assimilating the 

 crude medical ideas of the more ancient nations and of elevating 

 and developing them into a liberal science. Like all other people, 

 they assigned to medicine as its founders and supporters certain 

 ever ruling gods and godesses, ^sculapius being the proper god of 

 medicine. 



Hippocrates (B. C. 460-370) was the creator of profane medi- 

 cine. He based his views on the assumption that the body and its 

 constituents were composed of the four elements — water, fire, air, 

 earth, with their cardinal properties— dryness, warmth, moisture, 

 coldness. The body constituents were the cardinal fluids — yellow 

 bile, blood, mucus and black bile. Health consisted in a uniform 

 action and reaction of these, one upon another, while irregularity 

 of action produced disease. The fundamental condition of life 

 was heat, the evaporation of which produced death. 



The Humoral System of Pathology was followed by the system 

 of Solidism propounded by Asclepiades (B. C. 128-56J, in which 

 matter consisted of extremely small, fragile, formless collections of 



