and customs of which they could not see or feel the justice, and a state of society in which gross. offences against the laws will be punished in a spirit of humanity and charity. Such is the distinction between the society of to-day and that of a few centuries since. But the mollifying change, such as it is, has been brought about by discoveries related to medical science by medical philosophers, especially by studies in morbid psychology.

If mankind are still floundering in the slough of ignorance and superstition, and suffering unnecessary ills of body and mind, it is through no fault of the medical sciences, nor the labors and discoveries of medical men. They have set beacons at every cross-road from barbarism to civilization, pointing the wayfarer the way to health and happiness, the truth, and the life. Surely, it is not their fault if they be not heeded.

FIRST: THE MYTHICAL PERIOD

CHAPTER I

THE ORIGIN OF MEDICINE

Part I.-From the Origin to Moses

LE CLERC, with extraordinary patience

M. and erudition, has traced the origin of

medicine to the gods and goddesses of every country and almost every race, without finding any people who possessed a monopoly of it. The conclusion at which he finally arrived was that "the first man was the first physician" (le premier homme a été le premier médecin), which in a certain sense must be true, of course, since instinct teaches all beings possessing sensibility the rudiments of caring for their wounds. This instinct is also possessed by plants.

Primitive peoples have very generally regarded medicine as coming from God, and the men who practised the art as divine. "The Pagans of all antiquity," says M. Le Clerc, in his learned "Histoire de la Médecine," "believed that the gods were the authors of medicine." And the

"Toute l'Antiquité Payenne a été dans la créance que les dieux étaient les auteurs de la médecine."

celebrated orator, Cicero, declared it to be an art "consecrated to the immortal gods." Galen declared a similar sentiment, namely, that the Greeks attributed the invention of the medical art to the sons of the gods, or to some one near to their parents who were instructed by the gods. Hippocrates held the same opinion. "Those who were the first to find the secret of curing maladies," said he, "have judged it to be an art meriting the distinction of having been instituted by God. Such is the common sentiment," he said. And among the Jews of antiquity, since to them all knowledge was derived direct from God, nothing was more natural than that the means of curing disease should have likewise come from Him.

It may not be uninteresting to pause here for a moment to inquire into the source of the reason for this widespread belief as to the divine origin of medicine, although a clue to it has been given in the prologue of this work. One may find in the erudite work of M. Le Clerc, whom I have already quoted, much light on the subject. As to the manner of discovering medicinal virtues of herbs, Le Clerc cites the fable of Glaucus, son of Minos, king of Crete. While at play, this young son of Minos fell into a barrel of honey and was suffocated. It so happened that a diviner, named Polyidus, discovered at a distance what had happened and came and found the boy. Minos, seeing from his dress the avocation of Polyidus, insisted upon his restoring to life his son. As the