lo THE HISTORY OF TROPICAL MEDICINE 



have made a model in brass of the method to be adopted- — or, at 

 all events, of the worm — in imitation of Egyptian customs. 



Again, in the First Book of Samuel, chapters v. and vi., there is 

 an account of a disease spreading among the inhabitants of the 

 cities of Ashdod, Gath, Ekron, and Beth-shemesh, in which places 

 no fewer than 50,070 men are said to have died. This disease was, 

 without doubt, Oriental plague. The only point necessary in order 

 to understand the reference is to remember that ' emerods ' are 

 buboes. It is, further, interesting to observe that these ancient 

 people noted that the ' mice ' died and marred the land, showing 

 that the plague affected both man and rat. 



No one can fail to be impressed by the careful hygienic precau- 

 tions of the Mosaic period. For example, consider how animals 

 were divided into the clean and unclean, the reason for this being 

 that the priests, in preparing them for sacrifice, noted the presence 

 of parasites in the flesh or the viscera of certain animals, which were 

 therefore to be avoided. It is true that the classification of dis- 

 ease was very simple- — viz. , into acute disorders, called ' plague ' ; 

 and chronic disorders, with some sort of eruption, called ' leprosy ' 

 ■ — but the extremely stringent quarantine rules very likely did a 

 great deal of good, though doubtless unkind to the unfortunate 

 sufferer. 



During their captivity in Babylon the Jews were brought into 

 contact with Babylonian, Assyrian, and Grecian influences, and it is 

 possible with Indian influences also. After this period^ — i.e., about 

 150 B.C. — there existed in Palestine a curious sect called the Essenes, 

 who were also known as the Healers, or Therapeutists. Still later 

 appeared the Talmud, which contains surgical, medical, pathological, 

 and anatomical information, much of which was doubtless from 

 Grecian sources. Afterwards Jewish doctors are to be found 

 associated with the Alexandrian School and the Arabs. 



Grecian Medicine. — As in India, so in Greece, medicine began with 

 a Divine origin, in the latter from Apollo, who taught Cheiron the 

 Centaur, who, in his turn, instructed iEsculapius, whose sons are 

 mentioned as surgeons by Homer. Then comes the period of the 

 Philosophers, among whom Pythagoras may be mentioned, and 

 the establishment of the schools of the Asclepiades, of which the 

 most celebrated is Cos, because there lived Hippocrates, who was 

 supposed to be descended from iEsculapius, and is said to have 

 been bom about 460 B.C. His forefathers appear to have been 

 attached to this ancient temple of health, and there is no doubt 

 that he himself practised in the Asclepion of Cos, of which an 

 excellent account has recently been given by Caton. 



The writings of Hippocrates, the most eminent of the eight 

 physicians called by that name, are most interesting; for he clearly 

 distinguished intermittent fevers from continuous fevers. Further, 

 he recognized quotidian, tertian, and quartan fevers, and noted 

 their frequency in summer and autumn, and their occurrence near 

 stagnant water and after rains. He also mentions relapsing fever, 



