Outlines of Greek and Roman Medicine

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Title: Outlines of Greek and Roman Medicine

Author: James Sands Elliott

Release Date: May 5, 2007 [EBook #21325]

Language: English

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OUTLINES OF GREEK AND ROMAN MEDICINE

ASKLEPIOS

The ancient Greek Deity of Healing.

From Wellcome's Medical Diary (Copyright)

By permission of Burroughs Wellcome & Co.

OUTLINES OF GREEK AND ROMAN MEDICINE

BY

JAMES SANDS ELLIOTT, M.D., Ch.B.(Edin.)

Editor of the New Zealand Medical Journal,

Honorary Surgeon to the Wellington Hospital, New Zealand.

Illustrated

milford house inc.

boston

This Milford House edition is an unabridged republication of the edition of 1914.

Published in 1971 by MILFORD HOUSE INC. Boston, Massachusetts

Library of Congress Catalogue Card Number 76-165987

Standard Book Number 0-87821-036-9

Printed in the U.S.A.

TO MY FATHER

PREFACE.

I was stimulated to write these Outlines of Greek and Roman Medicine by a recent sojourn in the south-eastern part of Europe. The name of the book defines, to some extent, its limitations, for my desire has been to give merely a general outline of the most important stages in the advancement of the healing art in the two Empires to which modern civilization is most deeply indebted. There are a few great works on the history of medicine by continental writers, such, for instance, as those by the German writers, Baas, Sprengel, and Puschmann, but, generally speaking, the subject has been much neglected.

I cherish the hope that this little work may appeal to doctors, to medical students, and to those of the public who are interested in a narration of the progress of knowledge, and who realize that the investigation of the body in health and disease has been one of the most important features of human endeavour.

The medical profession deserves censure for neglect of its own history, and pity 'tis that so many practitioners know nothing of the story of their art. For this reason many reputed discoveries are only re-discoveries; as Bacon wrote: Medicine is a science which hath been, as we have said, more professed than laboured, and yet more laboured than advanced; the labour having been, in my judgment, rather in circle than in progression. For I find much iteration, and small progression. Of late years, however, the History of Medicine has been coming into its kingdom. Universities are establishing courses of lectures on the subject, and the Royal Society of Medicine recently instituted a historical section.

The material I have used in this book has been gathered from many sources, and, as far as possible, references have been given, but I have sought for, and taken, information wherever it could best be found. As Montaigne wrote: I have here only made a nosegay of culled flowers, and have brought nothing of my own but the thread that ties them together.

I have to express my indebtedness to my friend, Mr. J. Scott Riddell, M.V.O., M.A., M.B., C.M., Senior Surgeon, Aberdeen Royal Infirmary, for his great kindness in reading the proof-sheets, preparing the index and seeing this book through the press and so removing one of the difficulties which an author writing overseas has to encounter; also to my publishers for their courtesy and attention.

James Sands Elliott.

Wellington,

New Zealand.

January 5, 1914.

CONTENTS.

Page

PREFACE.vii

CONTENTS.ix

ILLUSTRATIONS.xii

CHAPTER I.

Early Roman Medicine.1

Origin of Healing

Temples

Lectisternium

Temple of Æsculapius

Archagathus

Domestic Medicine

Greek Doctors

Cloaca Maxima

Aqueducts

State of the early Empire

CHAPTER II.

Early Greek Medicine.13

Apollo

Æsculapius

Temples

Serpents

Gods of Health

Melampus

Homer

Machaon

Podalarius

Temples of Æsculapius

Methods of Treatment

Gymnasia

Classification of Renouard

Pythagoras

Democedes

Greek Philosophers

CHAPTER III.

Hippocrates.25

His life and works

His influence on Medicine

CHAPTER IV.

Plato, Aristotle, the School of Alexandria, and Empiricism.39

Plato

Aristotle

Alexandrian School

Its Origin

Its Influence

Lithotomy

Herophilus

Erasistratus

Cleombrotus

Chrysippos

Anatomy

Empiricism

Serapion of Alexandria

CHAPTER V.

Roman Medicine at the end of the Republic and the Beginning of the Empire.51

Asclepiades of Prusa

Themison of Laodicea

Methodism

Wounds of Julius Cæsar

Systems of Philosophy

State of the country

Roman quacks

Slaves and Freedmen

Lucius Horatillavus

CHAPTER VI.

In the Reign of the Cæsars to the Death of Nero.63

Augustus

His illnesses

Antonius Musa

Mæcenas

Tiberius

Caligula

Claudius

Nero

Seneca

Astrology

Archiater

Women poisoners

Oculists in Rome

CHAPTER VII.

Physicians from the Time of Augustus to the Death of Nero.72

Celsus

His life and works

His influence on Medicine

Meges of Sidon

Apollonius of Tyana

Alleged miracles

Vettius Valleus

Scribonius Longus

Andromachus

Thessalus of Tralles

Pliny

CHAPTER VIII.

The First and Second Centuries of the Christian Era.86

Athenæus

Pneumatism

Eclectics

Agathinus

Aretæus

Archigenes

Dioscorides

Cassius Felix

Pestilence in Rome

Ancient surgical instruments

Herodotus

Heliodorus

Cælius Aurelianus

Soranus

Rufus of Ephesus

Marinus

Quintus

CHAPTER IX.

Galen.96

His life and works

His influence on Medicine

CHAPTER X.

The Later Roman and Byzantine Period.111

Beginning of Decline

Neoplatonism

Antyllus

Oribasius

Magnus

Jacobus Psychristus

Adamantius

Meletius

Nemesius

Ætius

Alexander of Tralles

The Plague

Moschion

Paulus Ægineta

Decline of Healing Art

CHAPTER XI.

Influence of Christianity on Altruism and the Healing Art.127

Essenes

Cabalists and Gnostics

Object of Christ's Mission

Stoics

Constantine and Justinian

Gladiatorial Games

Orphanages

Support of the Poor

Hospitals

Their Foundation

Christianity and Hospitals

Fabiola

Christian Philanthropy

Demon Theories of Disease receive the Church's Sanction

Monastic Medicine

Miracles of Healing

St. Paul

St. Luke

Proclus

Practice of Anatomy denounced

Christianity the prime factor in promoting Altruism

CHAPTER XII.

Gymnasia and Baths.143

Gymnastics

Vitruvius

Opinions of Ancient Physicians on Gymnastics

The Athletes

The Baths

Description of Baths at Pompeii

Thermæ

Baths of Caracalla

CHAPTER XIII.

Sanitation.155

Water-supply

Its extent

The Aqueducts

Distribution in city

Drainage

Disposal of the Dead

Cremation and Burial

Catacombs

Public Health Regulations

APPENDIX.

Fees in Ancient Times162

INDEX.163

ILLUSTRATIONS.

Asklepios, the ancient Greek Deity of Healingfrontispiece

Machaon (Son of Asklepios), the first Greek Military Surgeon, attending to the wounded Menelausp. 17

Plate I.—Bust of Æsculapiusface p. 13

Plate II.—Hygeia, the Greek Deity of Healthface p. 15

Plate III.—Facade of Temple of Asklepios, restored (Delfrasse)face p. 18

Plate IV.—Health Temple, restored (Caton)face p. 20

OUTLINES OF

Greek and Roman Medicine

CHAPTER I.

EARLY ROMAN MEDICINE.

Origin of Healing — Temples — Lectisternium — Temple of Æsculapius — Archagathus — Domestic Medicine — Greek Doctors — Cloaca Maxima — Aqueducts — State of the early Empire.

The origin of the healing art in Ancient Rome is shrouded in uncertainty. The earliest practice of medicine was undoubtedly theurgic, and common to all primitive peoples. The offices of priest and of medicine-man were combined in one person, and magic was invoked to take the place of knowledge. There is much scope for the exercise of the imagination in attempting to follow the course of early man in his efforts to bring plants into medicinal use. That some of the indigenous plants had therapeutic properties was often an accidental discovery, leading in the next place to experiment and observation. Cornelius Agrippa, in his book on occult philosophy, states that mankind has learned the use of many remedies from animals. It has even been suggested that the use of the enema was discovered by observing a long-beaked bird drawing up water into its beak, and injecting the water into the bowel. The practice of healing, crude and imperfect, progressed slowly in ancient times and was conducted in much the same way in Rome, and among the Egyptians, the Jews, the Chaldeans, Hindus and Parsees, and the Chinese and Tartars.

The Etruscans had considerable proficiency in philosophy and medicine, and to this people, as well as to the Sabines, the Ancient Romans were indebted for knowledge. Numa Pompilius, of Sabine origin, who was King of Rome 715 B.C., studied physical science, and, as Livy relates, was struck by lightning and killed as the result of his experiments, and it has therefore been inferred that these experiments related to the investigation of electricity. It is surprising to find in the Twelve Tables of Numa references to dental operations. In early times, it is certain that the Romans were more prone to learn the superstitions of other peoples than to acquire much useful knowledge. They were cosmopolitan in medical art as in religion. They had acquaintance with the domestic medicine known to all savages, a little rude surgery, and prescriptions from the Sibylline books, and had much recourse to magic. It was to Greece that the Romans first owed their knowledge of healing, and of art and science generally, but at no time did the Romans equal the Greeks in mental culture.

Pliny states that the Roman people for more than six hundred years were not, indeed, without medicine, but they were without physicians. They used traditional family recipes, and had numerous gods and goddesses of disease and healing. Febris was the god of fever, Mephitis the god of stench; Fessonia aided the weary, and Sweet Cloacina presided over the drains. The plague-stricken appealed to the goddess Angeronia, women to Fluonia and Uterina. Ossipaga took care of the bones of children, and Carna was the deity presiding over the abdominal organs.

Temples were erected in Rome in 467 B.C. in honour of Apollo, the reputed father of Æsculapius, and in 460 B.C. in honour of Æsculapius of Epidaurus. Ten years later a pestilence raged in the city, and a temple was built in honour of the Goddess Salus. By order of the Sibylline books, in 399 B.C., the first lectisternium was held in Rome to combat a pestilence. This was a festival of Greek origin. It was a time of prayer and sacrifice; the images of the gods were laid upon a couch, and a meal was spread on a table before them. These festivals were repeated as occasion demanded, and the device of driving a nail into the temple of Jupiter to ward off the pestilence that walketh in darkness, and destruction that wasteth at noonday was begun 360 B.C. As evidence of the want of proper surgical knowledge, the fact is recorded by Livy that after the Battle of Sutrium (309 B.C.) more soldiers died of wounds than were killed in action. The worship of Æsculapius was begun by the Romans 291 B.C., and the Egyptian Isis and Serapis were also invoked for their healing powers.

At the time of the great plague in Rome (291 B.C.), ambassadors were sent to Epidaurus, in accordance with the advice of the Sibylline books, to seek aid from Æsculapius. They returned with a statue of the god, but as their boat passed up the Tiber a serpent which had lain concealed during the voyage glided from the boat, and landing on the bank was welcomed by the people in the belief that the god himself had come to their aid. The Temple of Æsculapius, which was built after this plague in 291 B.C., was situated on the island of the Tiber. Tradition states that, when the Tarquins were expelled, their crops were thrown into the river, and soil accumulated thereon until ultimately the island was formed. In consequence of the strange happening of the serpent landing from the ship the end of the island on which the Temple of Æsculapius stood was shaped into the form of the bow of a ship, and the serpent of Æsculapius was sculptured upon it in relief.

The island is not far from the Æmilian Bridge, of which one broken arch remains.

Ovid represents this divinity as speaking thus:—

"I come to leave my shrine;

This serpent view, that with ambitious play

My staff encircles, mark him every way;

His form—though larger, nobler, I'll assume,

And, changed as gods should be, bring aid to Rome."

(Ovid, Metamorphoses, xv.)

He is said to have resumed his natural form on the island of the Tiber.

"And now no more the drooping city