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or at latest, to his pupil, Philip of Opuntium.*. As there are five bodies, observes the author of this dialogue, it is requisite to say that fire is the first, water the second, air the third, earth the fourth, and æther the fifth; and that in the domains of each of these is produced many an animal, and of every kind.t

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Athenæus, then, owed his reputation more to his attack upon the Methodists than to the modifica tions of Rationalism which he adopted. His own peculiar opinions were of only temporary notoriety. Agathinus of Lacedæmonia, who had been among his followers, undertook to reconcile the doctrines of his master with those of the other sects, and thus became the founder of the Episynthetics, or Ec lectics.

SECTION II.-The later Methodists of the Roman School.

Among the writers of the Roman school, it is not always easy to distinguish those who were of Gre cian birth, from those of Roman origin. As early as the reign of Augustus, the Greek became the accepted language of the court;§ and it had always been the language of the schools, and of science. Among the early Roman Medical writers forsak

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* Plato (Kuhn's edition), vol. vi. p. 195. † Ibid. vol. vi. p. 17. § Suetonius, in Life of Augustus.

Galen, vol. xix. 353.

ing their native language, were Sextus Niger and Julius Bassus, who are referred to by Pliny and others, but of whose writings we have no remains. They were both of the Methodic sect, as were also most of the practitioners at Rome between the reign of Augustus and that of Marcus Aurelius; of whom, besides those already mentioned, were the Greek physicians Andromachus, Thessalus, Philomenus, Archigenes, Heliodorus, Antyllus, and So

ranus.

Andromachus the elder, was of Crete, and a pupil of Diogenes of Babylon.*. He was physician to the emperor Nero, and the first to enjoy the official distinction of Archiater, a title to which we shall have occasion to return. He was celebrated for his theriaca, into which he introduced the flesh of vipers, to which, at that time, were ascribed wonderful effects as an antidote.

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Thessalus was a native of Tralles, in Lydia, and is spoken of by Plinyt and Galen, as a charlatan. He was a man of low origin, vulgar manners, and supercilious spirit. Though of the Methodic sect, he had too little regard for the opinions of others to be the strict follower of any theorist. With little knowledge of the literature of medicine, he held himself superior to all his predecessors, and boasted of being able to impart the whole art to his pupils in the space of six months. He flourished at Rome during the reign of Nero, and by his practice accumulated immense wealth. He was the author of

* Galen, in numerous passages. + Hist. Nat. lib. xxix. cap. v.

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several works, all of which have perished. Cælius Aurelianus attributes to him a treatise, in several books, on Dietetics; and another, also in several books, entitled "Comparatio."

Philomenus, another writer of the Methodic sect, flourished about this same epoch, and is occasionally quoted by Oribasius, Aetius, and Alexander Trallianus. He pointed out the affinity between dysentery and the prevailing fever of the season. He was the first to recommend assafoetida and frictions with tepid oil, for the treatment of tetanus. He wrote on the diseases of women, and on the removal of the foetus by artificial means.*

Archigenes of Apamea, in Syria, was in great repute at Rome, as a physician and surgeon. He flourished in the reign of Trajan. His works were numerous, and are often quoted with commendation, by Galen and others. He wrote ten books on fevers, three on local affections, also on the use of castor, and of hellebore in mentagra and other, cutaneous affections; and on surgical diseases, some fragments of which are still extant in the collections, of Nicetas. His description of the operation of amputating, is worthy of notice. He begins by retracting the integuments of the limb; he next applies a circular compress or tourniquet for controlling the loss of blood; he even recommends, when necessary, a preliminary operation for securing the bloodvessels and stitching them, before proceeding to the

* See Sprengel, tome ii. p. 31.

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Græcorum Chirurgici libri, e collectione Niceta, conversi et editi ab Antonio Cocchio. Florentiæ, fol. 1754, p. 118 and 154.

amputation. This he performs invariably at the joint, by a circular incision. After the removal of the limb, whatever hæmorrhage occurs he arrests by the actual cautery; taking due care not to apply the heated iron to the divided extremities of

nerves.

Heliodorus is also more particularly noted as a surgeon. Fragments of his writings on wounds of the head, on fractures of the skull, and other injuries, may also be found in Oribasius* and the collections of Nicetas. His remarks on injuries of the skull are judicious, and indicative of a careful observer; and his treatment, such as might be recommended at the present day. His dressings are light, his local applications simple, usually moist compresses, roseated oil, simple cerate, and tepid water. For controlling inflammation he resorts to low diet, and occasionally to venesection. He speaks of amputating in the continuity of the long bones, but looks upon operations above the knee and elbow as extremely dangerous, from loss of blood. To obviate this danger as far as possible at other points, he makes his incision first through those parts of the limb in which the bones are most superficial; he next saws through the bones; and he reserves his incision through the fleshy part of the limb, where the vessels are most numerous, to the last.

Antyllus, another surgeon, though not mentioned

Collect. lib. viii. chap. 3, 4, and elsewhere.

t. Page 90 to 105. pp. 124, 156.

by Galen, is by some writers presumed to have preceded him, whilst by others he is placed as late as the reign of Valerian. He is frequently mentioned by. the later Greeks. In the collections of Nicetas* is a

fragment of his on elastic or watery tumors of the head, superficial and deep-seated; including among the last, congenital or chronic hydrocephalus. The superficial varieties he encounters with fair hope of success, but with those more deeply seated he is indisposed to interfere. He treated humid asthma with suffumigations, placing the patient in such a position as readily to inhale the fumes from particles of aristolochia or clematis previously sprinkled over burning coals in a chaffing-dish or brasier. He operated on cataract by extraction; with Asclepiades, he recommends tracheotomy in threatened suffocation; and he treated hydrocele by incision.

Soranus of Ephesus, the second of that name, was educated in part at least at Alexandria, and praeticed with great eclat at Rome under the reigns of Trajan and Adrian. Ile was celebrated both as a teacher and practitioner; and is admitted to have been the ablest exponent of the Methodic doctrines, which he carried to their highest degree of popu larity. He was the first to mention the Dracunculus or Guinea worm (vena medinensis.) Among the fragments of his writings still preserved, we have a treatise on the female organs of generation, and another on fractures, which is contained in the col-.

* Page 121.

+ Oribasius, collect. lib. viir cap. 12.

Sprengel, tome ii. p. 94, from Rhazes and Paulus

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