Chap. 8.] EYILS EROM THE PRACTICE OF MEDICTOT. 377 
-^scnlapius, eYen after he was receiYed as a diYinity, was built 
without the City, and afterwards on an island f for this rea- 
son, too, it was, that when, long after the time of Cato, the 
Greeks were expelled from Italy, the physicians were not^^ 
exempted from the decree. And here I wilP^ improYe upon 
the foresight displayed by them. Medicine is the only one of 
the arts of Greece, that, lucratiYe as it is, the Eoman gravity 
has hitherto refused to cultivate. It is but Yery few of our 
fellow-citizens that have even attempted it, and so soon as ever 
they have done so, they have become deserters to the Greeks 
forth with. 'Nsj, even more than this, if they attempt to treat 
of it in any other language than Greek, they are sure to lose 
all credit, with the most ignorant even, and those who do not 
understand a word of Greek ; there being all the less confidence 
felt by our people in that which so nearly concerns their wel- 
fare, if it happens to be intelligible to them. In fact, this is 
the only one of all the arts, by Hercules ! in which the moment 
a man declares^^ himself to be an adept, he is at once believed, 
there being at the same time no imposture, the results of which 
are more fraught with peril. To all this, however, we give 
no attention, so seductive is the sweet influence of the hope 
entertained of his ultimate recovery by each. 
And then besides, there is no law in existence whereby 
to punish the ignorance of physicians, no instance before us 
of capital punishment inflicted. It is at the expense of our 
perils that they learn, and they experimentalize by putting us 
to death, a physician being the only person that can kill an- 
other with sovereign impunity. Nay, even more than this, all 
the blame is thrown upon the sick man only ; he is accused of 
disobedience forthwith, and it is the peVson who is dead and 
gone that is put upon his trial. It is the usage at Eome for 
the decuries*^ to pass examination under the censorship of the 
Formed by the river Tiber. See the Qusest. Rom. of Plutarch, on 
this subject. 
We have adopted Sillig's suggestion, and read "nec " for "et" here. 
The meaning, however, is very doubtful. 
39 « Augebo providentiam illorum." The meaning of this passage also 
is doubtful. 
By adopting that language instead of the Latin ; Sextins Niger, for in- 
stance. 
*i Diplomas seem to have been less cared for in those times than at the 
present day even, when quackery has so free a range. 
42 See B. iii. c. 26, and B. xxxiii. cc. 7, 8. 
