12 



THE HISTORY OF TROPICAL MEDICINE 



After Celsus, medicine flourished in both the Eastern and the 

 Western Empires. Among the many writers of this period, atten- 

 tion may be drawn to Aretaeus of Cappadocia (a.d. 30-90), who 

 describes dysentery, and gives a long account of elephantiasis, 

 which he considered to be contagious by the inspired air. 



Graeco-Roman medicine reaches its zenith in Galen, who was born 

 at Pergamos a.d. 131, and died a.d. 210. He studied especially in 

 Alexandria, and carefully described tertian and quartan malaria. 



Byzantine Medicine. — After the fall of Rome Byzantium became 

 the principal city of the world, but as Garrison so ably puts it — 



' the degeneration of the mind and body with consequent relaxations of morals 

 led to mysticism, to the respect for the authority of magic and of the super- 

 natural which was to pave the way to the bigotry, dogmatism, and mental 

 inertia of the Middle Ages.' 



There is, therefore, no surprise in finding that in one thousand 

 years of Imperial rule Byzantium produced only four compilations 

 — -viz., those by Oribasius of Sardianus, by iEtius of Amida (a town 

 in Mesopotamia), by Alexander of Tralles, and by Paul of iEgina, 

 and some lesser works, among which may be mentioned that by 

 Actuarius on the urine. 



All these works are of interest, but perhaps that by Paul of 

 iEgina; which appeared at the end of the seventh century, deserves 

 a little further attention. It gives a synopsis of medicine from the 

 time of Galen up to nearly the end of the seventh century. In the 

 second book considerable space is devoted to the malarial fevers, 

 and there is also a section on * Plague,' but what is meant by this 

 is not certain, though Procopius, of the sixth century, is said to have 

 written an account of glandular plague. There is also an article on 

 siriasis, by which was meant an inflammation of the brain in young 

 children. In the third book information is given concerning 

 cholera, tenesmus, and dysentery. His fourth book is particularly 

 interesting, beginning with a description of elephantiasis grsecorum, 

 or leprosy. It contains an account of broad and round worms, 

 especially ascarides and dracunculus, and further describes the 

 bites of snakes, dogs, spiders, scorpions, centipedes, lizards, croco- 

 diles, and other animals. There is also a description of the stings 

 of wasps and bees, and an account of poisons. 



Byzantine medicine was superseded by Arabian medicine, and 

 finally ended with the fall of Constantinople. 



Arabian Medicine. — ^According to Garrison, Arabian medicine 

 takes its origin from Nestor, a Christian heretic priest, driven by 

 religious persecution from Byzantium to Edessa, in Mesopotamia, 

 where he began the study of medicine. Pursued even here by 

 religious hate, he fled into Persia, where he established the Gunde- 

 shdpur Medical College, wherein were trained the original founders 

 of Arabian medicine. 



Under the Bagdad Caliphs many Greek medical works were 

 translated into Arabic by Mesne and Johannitius, while under the 



