535 



" By admitting the view of the subject here advocated, we 

 reconcile another historical confliction which has been ineffec- 

 tually attempted to be explained. The Athenians had a law 

 which declared that ' no slave or female should learn the art 

 of medicine.' But abundant proof has been adduced that 

 slave-physicians were not uncommon in Greece. The law did 

 not prohibit slaves from being the assistants of physicians, and 

 therefore could not prevent then- casually acquiring whatever 

 medical knowledge might fall in their way. As reported by 

 Hyginus, the edict enjoined that ' ne quis servus disceret 

 artem medicam ;' the meaning probably being that the slave 

 should not undergo the regular course of study and discipline 

 of the art, and thus put himself on a footing of equality with 

 the rank of the regularly quahfied physician. An edict pro- 

 fessing to restrain a slave from learning, that is, hearing and 

 remembering what he heard, would be as impossible in its 

 administration as absurd in its conception. 



" On the whole, I conceive that all historic records concur 

 in showing that the real profession of medicine was never one 

 of slavery ; and that it has never been otherwise than honoura- 

 ble and elevated, being studied by poets, philosophers, holy 

 persons, monarchs, and men of learning. 



" Perhaps Apuleius places the slave-physician in his true 

 position, when he says, ' Themisson noster servus' (not the 

 pupil of Asclepiades) ' medicinae non ignarus,' qu. die. not 

 altogether ignorant of medicine." 



VOL. IV. 2 H 



