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Notes  on  Ancient  Medicine. 
Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
Nov.,  1921. 
of  all  knowledge  of  medicine.  The  works  of  others  who  may  have 
written  before  his  time  do  not  exist,  and  it  is  a  further  fact  that  all 
writings  on  medical  subjects  from  the  time  of  Hippocrates  to  the 
founding  of  the  school  at  Alexandria  by  Serapion  and  Philinus,  in 
the  third  century  B.  C,  have  also  vanished;  the  school  referred  to 
is  itself  known  only  by  references  to  it  in  other  literature. 
Then  followed  many  writers  on  medicine  and  related  sciences, 
some  of  whom  were  not  physicians,  so  that  the  literature  is  clogged 
with  "views"  of  persons  who  could  not  write  with  authority.  To 
one  going  over  some  of  the  literature  it  seems  that  every  philosopher 
felt  himself  capable  of  settling  definitely  mooted  questions  in  medi- 
cine and,  further,  that  every  one  who  could  write  at  all  deemed  him- 
self a  philosopher.  It  would  be  impossible  in  the  scope  of  this  paper 
to  give  a  chronology  noting  the  more  important  writers  of  ancient 
times  on  medical  subjects ;  it  should  suffice  to  indicate  in  the  proper 
places  the  times  at  which  they  lived. 
Differences  of  opinion  early  led  to  the  formation  of  several 
medical  sects,  the  more  important  of  which  may  briefly  be  noted  here. 
The  Dogmatici  were  apparently  the  parent-stock  of  our  beloved  allo- 
paths of  today;  they  approached  the  study  of  medicine  in]  a/truly  scien- 
tific manner  and  later  on  more  will  be  said  concerning  their  division 
of  the. subject.  Opposed  to  the  Dogmatici  were  the  Empirici  and 
they  were  the  first  to  cut  into  the  practice  of  the  "regulars."  They 
founded  the  school  at  Alexandria,  basing  their  teachings  on  what 
they  termed  The  Tripod  of  Medicine,  which  consisted  of  observa- 
tion (or  autopsy),  history,  and  analogy.  Observation  included  what 
the  practioners  noted  during  the  course  of  an  illness,  history  con- 
templated the  written  notes  left  by  other  writers  in  like  conditions, 
and  analogy  or  the  substitution  of  one  thing  for  another,  was  what 
they  were  thrown  back  upon  when  called  to  treat  a  case  in  which 
there  was  no  precedent  to  follow,  and  the  indications  were  obscure. 
Sagacity  and  sound  judgment  contributed  greatly  to  the  success  of 
this  sect,  they  had  only  to  combat  the  vague,  half-baked  theories  of 
the  regulars,  but  their  rejection  of  the  study  of  anatomy,  physiology 
and  pathology  made  of  them  simply  high-class  experimentalists. 
Three  of  the  followers  (or  leaders)  of  this  sect,  Sextus,  Marcellus, 
and  Plinius  Valerianus,  have  left  writings.  As  Marcellus  lived  in 
the  fourth  century  A.  D.,  the  sect  existed  at  least  600  years.  Ignor- 
ant and  indiscriminate  experimenting  is  blamed  as  the  cause  for 
