Bostock observes in respect of Celsus: "He is the first native Roman physician whose name has been transmitted to us. Before his time all those who arrived at any degree of eminence were either Greeks or Asiatics; and it would appear that the native practitioners were either slaves or persons from the lower ranks of life." This is the reason probably that the profession at Rome was under ban of the upper ten thousand.

I

We have to pass with a bare allusion to one of the most illustrious men in ancient history, that of Pliny, the learned naturalist, but who was also learned in medicine and a distinguished chronicler of medical topics. Because he was not a member of the profession we cannot tarry on his name, but pass it over with warm admiration.

Luke, supposed to have been one of the Evangelists, is mentioned by St. Paul as a physician at Rome about the middle of the first century. It was as an Evangelist that he was known rather than as a physician. He distinguished himself by writing the Gospel that bears his name and also, it is said, by writing "The Acts of the Apostles." He has the distinction of writing the most reliable or trustworthy Gospel.

Then there is the famous, if not distinguished, slave, Antonius Musa, a pupil of Themison, who became the physician of the Emperor Augustus, and noted for the possession of great professional skill; also another slave, Scribonius Largus, who

lived in the reign of Claudius, who was distinguished in his day as a pharmacist. He left a work on pharmacy, which indicated much learning on that subject, but which was lacking in well digested knowledge. It was probably more or less useful at that day of imperfect knowledge of medicinal virtues.

Andromachus, who also followed the art of polypharmacy, a native of Crete, who lived in the reign of the notorious Nero, acquired distinction as the compounder of the celebrated Theriacum, which contained no less than sixty-one ingredients (some say sixty-six), all well-known and approved drugs. It is said to have been put together with great labor and skill, of which we cannot doubt; but which drug was the basis and which the corrigens the venturesome author gives us no information. It obtained a place in the pharmacopeias, however, where it was retained down to the last century. Andromachus has also the distinction of being the first physician to receive the title of Archiater, or principal physician.

Another name distinguished in the annals of medicine was that of Dioscorides. He was also a pharmacist, whose work on that subject was prized in its day, but valuable these days as a relic of pharmacal curiosity only. Dioscorides was born at Anazartus, in Cilicia. But little is known of the character of Dioscorides, notwithstanding his distinction of being the first person

to assume the great task of systematizing the drugs that were in use in his day. The date of his birth is not known, but he was a contemporary of Pliny, to whom we have referred, and is assumed to have lived in the first century A. D. His name merits more than a passing notice. He claims to have traversed Asia Minor, Greece, and Italy in search of materials for his "Materia Medica," which contains descriptions of more than five hundred plants. Galen spoke of his work in high praise, as being superior to any preceding work on materia medica. Nevertheless its classification of plants, while it is very crude and defective, deserves much credit for that period. What Galen was to medicine during the following centuries, Dioscorides was to botany and materia medica. For more than sixteen hundred years he was supreme in his line, and indeed not without influence in his specialty down to a more recent period. His work contains the famous Theriacum of Andromachus, which was so popular within living memory, but which has now been superseded by a rival prescription of Warburg's, which contains more than one hundred medicaments.

The following remedies entered into this notorious compound, as given by Russell: Squills, hedychroum, cinnamon, common pepper, juice of poppies, dried roses, water-germander, rapeseed, Illyrian iris, agaric, liquorice, opobalsam, myrrh, saffron, ginger, rhaponticum, cinquefoil,

calamint, horehound, stone-parsley, cassidory costus, white and long pepper, dittany, flowers of sweet rush, male-frankincense, turpentine, mastich, black cassia, spikenard, flowers of poley, storax, parsley seed, seseli, shepherd's pouch, bishop's weed, germander, ground pine, juice of hypocistis, Indian leaf, Celtic nard, spignel, gentian, anise, fennel seed, Lemnian earth, roasted chalcitis, amomum, sweet flag, balsamum, Pontic valerium, St.-John's-wort, acacia, gum, cardamom, carrot seed, galbanum, sagapen, bitumen, oposonax, castor, centaury, clematis, Attic honey, Falernian wine. Russell expresses a doubt if any of the physicians that prescribed this mixture knew anything of the toxic effects of any element that entered into it, excepting the last named ingredient. The doubt is well founded. The toxic effect of drugs, or what may be called their pathogenesis, could not be ascertained with certainty without systematic administration to subjects in health, a form of experimentation not in vogue at that time. To the ancients, the empirical method of finding the medicinal virtues of drugs was the only one that was employed. The directions for its use, and the ailments for which the medicine was prescribed and taken, give us a pretty clear idea of the status of medical knowledge of remedial agents during the mediaval period.

Part III.-Galenian Medicine

We have now to give some account of the most remarkable genius of his age, perhaps of any age. Hippocrates we have extolled as the greatest man of his time; but Hippocrates was not a genius. He lacked the versatility and imagination of genius. He was great as a man; but Galen was great as a genius superposed upon a great man. To great natural gifts to begin with, he added the powers of great industrious activity. His father, whose name was Nicon, was a man of rank and fortune, distinguished in belles-lettres and philosophy, who resided at Pergamus, in Asia Minor, where his son was born A. D. 131. His wife's name is not given, but she is spoken of as being a good manager of household affairs and of good character, but given to mauvaise humeur, and behaving as a wife toward her husband after the manner of Xantippe. To his son he gave every advantage of education that the world possessed. To complete his education, young Galen visited every centre of learning of the known world, and absorbed knowledge of every description from all sources. Alexandria was in her zenith at that time, about the beginning of the second century of the Christian era, and thither he went, after spending a brief period in Rome, for the study of the arts more than the science of medicine. Its science and philosophy he took with him, having become acquainted with the