780 
Notes  on  Ancient  Medicine. 
(  Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
(       Nov.,  1921. 
himself  was  the  inventor  of  it."  Shaw,  in  his  preface  to  "The 
Doctor's  Dilemma,"  was  not  more  hypercritical. 
"Much  emulation,  imposture,  malice  there  is  amongst  them  (phy- 
sicians) ;  if  they  be  honest  and  mean  well,  yet  a  knave  apothecary, 
that  administers  the  physick  and  makes  the  medicine,  may  do  in- 
finite harm,  by  his  old  obsolete  doses,  adulterine  drugs,  bad  mix- 
tures. *  *  *  But  it  is  their  ignorance  that  does  more  harm  than 
their  rashness;  their  art  is  wholly  conjecturall  (if  it  be  an  art),  un- 
certain, imperfect,  and  got  by  killing  of  men:  They  are  a  kind  of 
butchers,  leeches,  men-slayers;  chirurgeons  and  apothecaries  espe- 
cially, that  are  indeed  the  physicians,  hangmen  and  common  execu- 
tioners; though  to  say  truth,  physicians  themselves  are  not  far  be- 
hind." 
Thus  while  Burton  quotes  his  authorities  he  is  quick  to  make  it 
plain  that  he  does  not  always  accept  their  points  of  view:  "But  I 
will  urge  these  cavilling  and  contumelious  arguments  no  further  lest 
some  physician  might  mistake  me,  and  deny  me  physick  when  I  am 
sick;  for  my  part,  I  a  well  perswaded  of  physick;  I  can  distinguish 
the  abuse  f  rom.the  use  in  this  and  many  other  arts  and  sciences ;  wine 
and  drunkenness  are  two  distinct  things." 
Archagathus,  who  lived  in  the  latter  part  of  the  third  century 
B.  C,  was  the  first  foreign  surgeon  to  settle  in  Rome.  At  first  he  was 
well  received,  a  shop  was  provided  for  him,  and  he  was  given  the 
honorable  title  Vulnerarius  (healer?).  However,  on  account  of  the 
frequency  with  which  he  used  knife  and  cautery,  the  Romans  soon 
changed  his  title  to  Carnifex  (executioner). 
The  science  of  medicine  was,  by  the  Dogmatici,  divided  into 
anatomy  and  physiology,  aetiology,  pathology,  hygiene,  symptom- 
atology (including  diagnosis),  and  therapeutics,  which  also  included 
pharmacy,  surgery,  and  the  regimen  to  be  followed  in  illness  which 
was  contemplated  under  the  division  of  dietetics.  In  the  follow- 
ing an  effort  will  be  made  to  show  by  notes  and  quotations  some  of 
the  conditions  that  existed  in  early  days,  which  will  present  to  the 
reader  a  means  for  calculating  the  enormous  strides  which  have 
been  made  in  the  development  of  the  science. 
Alcmaeon,  who  lived  about  540  B.  C,  was  the  first  man  who  dis- 
sected animals;  the  dissection  of  the  bodies  of  human  beings  did 
not  come  until  a  much  later  date.  He  is  credited  with  having  dis- 
covered the  eustachian  tube.    He  maintained  that  goats  breathe 
