AmAp0rur;imrm"}     The  Evolution  of  Nostrum  Vending.  169 
of  a  worship  of  Asclepius'(^Esculapius).  The  patient  after  prelimi- 
nary ablution,  prayer  and  sacrifice,  was  permitted  to  sleep  at  the 
feet  of  the  statue  of  the  god,  and  in  his  sleep  the  proper  remedy  was 
revealed  in  a  dream. 
The  Egyptian  practice  of  medicine  was  mainly  in  the  hands  of  the 
priests  and  astrologers,  and  the  compounding  was  done  in  the  most 
secret  manner. 
The  various  schools,  and  systems  of  medicine  throughout  the 
period  of  Roman  supremacy  were  likewise  a  mixture  of  which  super- 
stition and  . religion  were  prominent  components. 
In  Germany,  despite  the  spirit  of  reform  and  the  revolution  of  the 
practice  introduced  by  Paracelsus,  no  real  advance  was  made  until 
comparatively  modern  times.  Even  his  early  training  was  tinctured 
with  the  prevailing  theory  and  search  for  the  Philosopher's  Elixir. 
His  peculiar  visionary  theories  regarding  the  composition  of  the 
body  and  its  relation  to  nature  and  disease  had  but  few  advocates, 
and  he  himself  was  considered  by  many  to  be  only  a  sorcerer  and 
impostor.  His  study  of  nature  was  directed  principally  to  gather- 
ing together  facts  and  information  regarding  the  action  of  mineral  or 
chemical,  drugs.  While  advocating  the  use  of  chemicals,  he  did  not 
entirely  exclude  the  vegetable  remedies,  and  he  will  ever  be  remem- 
bered as  the  originator  of  tincture  of  opium  and  the  common  name 
laudanum,  which  it  will  always  retain.  His  work  can  be  considered 
mainly  as  a  search  for  specifics,  and  many  of  his  followers  are  said 
to  have  rapidly  degenerated  into  mystical  quacks  and  impostors. 
The  work  of  the  alchemists  who  devoted  their  entire  lives  in  per- 
severing researches  in  the  hope  of  discovering  the  Elixir  Vitas  and 
the  Philosopher's  Stone  have  left  their  indelible  impression  upon 
the  practice  of  both  medicine  and  pharmacy.  Their  progress,  how- 
ever, was  likewise  through  the  sea  of  mysticism,  and  their  extensive 
processes  in  many  cases  but  attested  their  ignorance  of  real  science, 
and  their  nostrums  were  purposely  shrouded  in  mystery  as  deep  and 
black  as  their  own  art. 
In  the  Middle  Ages  the  monasteries  were  the  chief  homes  of 
medical  learning  and  the  practice  was  a  mixture  of  superstition  and 
religion  with  such  relics  of  knowledge  as  had  been  preserved  from 
the  early  Greek  and  Roman  writers.  For  centuries  some  of  these 
monasteries  were  noted  for  the  medicines  which  they  prepared,  and 
their  secret  remedies  were  sold  and  exported  in  every  direction. 
