from the days of Hippocrates almost to our own, dominated medicine. All sorts of magical powers were attributed to Empedocles. The story of Pantheia whom he called back to life after a thirty days' trance has long clung in the imagination. You remember how Matthew Arnold describes him in the well-known poem, "Empedocles on Etna" But his power Swells with the swelling evil of this time, And holds men mute to see where it will rise. He could stay swift diseases in old days, Chain madmen by the music of his lyre, Cleanse to sweet airs the breath of poisonous streams, And in the mountain-chinks inter the winds. This he could do of old--5 a quotation which will give you an idea of some of the powers attributed to this wonder-working physician. But of no one of the men of this remarkable circle have we such definite information as of the Crotonian physician Democedes, whose story is given at length by Herodotus; and his story has also the great importance of showing that, even at this early period, a well-devised scheme of public medical service existed in the Greek cities. It dates from the second half of the sixth century B. C.-fully two generations before Hippocrates. A Crotonian, Democedes by name, was found among the slaves of Oroetes. Of his fame as a physician someone had heard and he was called in to treat the dislocated ankle of King Darius. The wily Greek, longing for his home, feared that if he confessed to a knowledge of medicine there would be no chance of escape, but under threat of torture he undertook a treatment which proved successful. Then Herodotus tells his story-how, ill treated at home in Crotona, Democedes went to Egina, where he set up as a physician and in the second year the State of Ægina hired his services at the price of a talent. In the third year, the Athenians engaged him at 100 minæ; and in the fourth, Polycrates of Samos at two talents. Democedes shared the misfortunes of Polycrates and was taken prisoner by Orotes. Then Herodotus tells how he cured Atossa, the daughter of Cyrus and wife of Darius, of a severe abscess of the 5 Poetical Works of Matthew Arnold, Macmillan & Co., 1898, p. 440. breast, but on condition that she help him to escape, and she induced her husband to send an expedition of exploration to Greece under the guidance of Democedes, but with the instructions at all costs to bring back the much prized physician. From Tarentum, Democedes escaped to his native city, but the Persians followed him, and it was with the greatest difficulty that he escaped from their hands. Deprived of their guide, the Persians gave up the expedition and sailed for Asia. In palliation of his flight, Democedes sent a message to Darius that he was engaged to the daughter of Milo, the wrestler, who was in high repute with the King." 7 Plato has several references to these state physicians, who were evidently elected by a public assembly: "When the assembly meets to elect a physician," and the office was yearly, for in "The Statesman" we find the following: "When the year of office has expired, the pilot, or physician has to come before a court of review" to answer any charges. The physician must have been in practice for some time and attained eminence, before he was deemed worthy of the post of state physician. “If you and I were physicians, and were advising one another that we were competent to practice as state-physicians, should I not ask about you, and would you not ask about me, Well, but how about Socrates himself, has he good health? and was anyone else ever known to be cured by him whether slave or freeman?"7a The well-known editor of Herodotus, R. W. Macan, Master of University College, Oxford, in his Hellenikon. A Sheaf of Sonnets after Herodotus (Oxford, 1898) has included a poem which may be quoted in connection with this incident: NOSTALGY Atossa, child of Cyrus king of kings, healed by Greek science of a morbid breast, gave lord Dareios neither love nor rest till he fulfilled her vain imaginings. "Sir, show our Persian folk your sceptre's wings! nor who in Asia and in Greece might bleed, 7 Jowett: Dialogues of Plato, 3d ed., Statesman, Vol. IV, p. 502 (Stephanus, II, 298 E). 7a Jowett: Dialogues of Plato, 3d ed., Gorgias, Vol. II, p. 407 (Stephanus, I, 514 D). All that is known of these state physicians has been collected by Pohl, who has traced their evolution into Roman times. That they were secular, independent of the Esculapian temples, that they were well paid, that there was keen competition to get the most distinguished men, that they were paid by a special tax and that they were much esteemed-are facts to be gleaned from Herodotus and from the inscriptions. The lapidary records, extending over 1000 years, collected by Professor Oehler of Reina, throw an important light on the state of medicine in Greece and Rome. Greek vases give representations of these state doctors at work. Dr. E. Pottier has published one showing the treatment of a patient in the clinic. sb 8a That dissections were practised by this group of nature philosophers is shown not only by the studies of Alcmæon, but we have evidence that one of the latest of them, Diogenes of Apollonia, must have made elaborate dissections. In the "Historia Animalium" of Aristotle occurs his account of the blood vessels, which is by far the most elaborate met with in the literature until the writings of Galen. It has, too, the great merit of accuracy (if we bear in mind the fact that it was not until after Aristotle that arteries and veins were differentiated), and indications are given as to the vessels from which blood may be drawn. ASKLEPIOS No god made with hands, to use the scriptural phrase, had a more successful "run" than Asklepios-for more than a thousand years the consoler and healer of the sons of men. Shorn of his divine attributes he remains our patron saint, our emblematic God of Healing, whose figure with the serpents appears in our seals and charters. He was originally a Thessalian chieftain, whose sons, Machaon and Podalirius, became famous physicians and fought in the Trojan War. Nestor, you may remember, carried off the former, declaring, in the oft-quoted phrase, that a doctor was better worth saving than many warriors unskilled in the treatment of wounds. 8 R. Pohl: De Græcorum medicis publicis, Berolini, Reimer, 1905; also Janus, Harlem, 1905, X, 491-494. sa J. Oehler: Janus, Harlem, 1909, XIV, 4; 111. 8b E. Pottier: Une clinique grecque au Ve siècle, Monuments et Mémoires, XIII, p. 149, Paris, 1906 (Fondation Eugène Piot). 9 The Works of Aristotle, Oxford, Clarendon Press, Vol. IV, 1910, Bk. III, Chaps. II-IV, pp. 511b-515b. |