ARETÆUS, THE FORGOTTEN PHYSICIAN Whatever the final judgment may be, one thing stands out as certain -after Hippocrates, no single Greek author has equaled Aretæus, and no work in the entire literature so nearly approaches to the true spirit of Hippocratism, both in description of disease and in therapeutic principles, as the work of the Cappadocian. NEUBURGER: History of Medicine. Aretæus is one of the most original and eloquent writers of antiquity. Starting with a thoro acquaintance with the science of his day, taking Hippocrates as his model, and repudiating all futile speculations, he details the simple results of his own experience, in a systematic treatise of eight books on the history and treatment of acute and chronic diseases, and in a manner so striking and appropriate as rarely to have been excelled. WATSON: Ancient Medicine. 'WHO is Aretæus?' asked a distinguished Professor of Johns Hopkins University, on seeing the Cappadocian's name on a program. This question could well echo answerless thruout the medical world until it reached a medical historian. For Aretaus is a forgotten physician. A name once high in medical annals has fallen low; a star which once shone next to Hippocrates, has lost its lustre. Who is Aretæus? Hippocrates, Herophilus, Erasistratus, Galen, and other physicians of antiquity became authorities in the Middle Ages; during this long period, Aretæus was unknown, and his oblivion still survives. It is difficult to mention a subject or author who is not indexed at the Astor Library, but Aretæus has not a single card. This means obscurity indeed. Clio seems more solicitous of the destroyers, than of the healers, of men. We know when the Duke of Alva was born, and are not in doubt of the time of Attila's death. But we do not know whether the discoverer of the pulmonary circulation of the blood was born in 1509 or 1511; we are uncertain whether the father of modern surgery came into the world in 1510 or 1517; with regard to Paulus Ægineta, the guesses are wider: Le Clerc says he belongs to the fourth century; Vander Linden says he was born in the fifth century; Sprengel says he lived in the seventh century; Vossius says nothing. As far as Aretaus is concerned, there is a similar latitude of opinion: we have the consolation of knowing that he lived either in the first, second or third century. One reason for this uncertainty is that Aretæus quoted no author except Hippocrates; and no authors quoted him, except Aëtius and Paulus Ægineta, and as both of these writers lived considerably after the time of Aretæus, their reference to him furnishes no clew as to his period. He is also mentioned in the Euporista, formerly attributed to Dioscorides. If it were indeed the work of Dioscorides, it would practically solve the problem, as it is almost universally admitted that Dioscorides flourished in the first century. But it is now agreed that Euporista is not the composition of Dioscorides, but the work of a later age. According to some authors, the circumstance that neither Galen nor Aretæus mention each other, proves they were contemporaries. There is even a conflict as to whether he belonged to the Pneumatic School, or the School of Eclectics, or any school at all. In truth, had he founded a school, let it be as irrational as Perkinism, his fame would be more secure. It is quite certain that he lived in Alexandria, as he makes numerous references to the habits and therapeutics of the Egyptians; it is also probable that he resided in Italy, as he is familiar with the various brands of Italian wine: Fundan and Falernian, Signine and Surrentine. But all the biographic data that we know with certainty, can be expressed in one short sentence: Aretæus, a Greek physician of a Roman province in Asia Minor, described diseases in admirable Ionic. As he is invariably called Aretaus the Cappadocian, we may say a word concerning this territory. In the time of Herodotus, Cappadocia occupied a considerable portion of Asia Minor, extending from Mount Taurus to the shores of the Euxine. It was originally an independent kingdom, but the Persians divided it into two satrapies, one of which became known as Pontus, while the inland province retained its name of Cappadocia. Now began sanguinary struggles, and there were endless intrigues, assassinations, murders, slaughters, cold-blooded cruelties without beginning or end. In the year 17 A. D. Cappadocia became a Roman province, grew and prospered, and produced St. Gregory the ecclesiastic who is still celebrated, and Aretæus the physician who is forgotten. Some Greek seems to have had a prejudice against the province, for in the Anthology we find this couplet: A viper bit a Cappadocian's hide; But 'twas the viper, not the man, that died. But tho the ever-falling dust of time has almost covered him over, it cannot make the name of Aretæus as if it had not been, for Aretæus has reared unto himself a monument more enduring than brass-what say you, Quintus Horatius Flaccus? His seven-arched structure was as follows: Diseases Surgery Prophylaxis Gynecology Pharmacy It is true the dome has fallen and the base has disappeared, but enough remains to demonstrate that Aretæus was one of the greatest of ancient physicians. It is a delight to read Aretæus: he is not superstitious: his mind is not befuddled with outlandish theories: he is clear, rational and scientific; he does not indulge in any of those mystical speculations which disfigure the pages of Paracelsus. Moreover he is a stylist. No doubt the strangest passage Aretæus ever wrote was his fantastic account of the uterus: 'In the middle of the flanks of women lies the womb, a female viscus, closely resembling an animal, for it is moved of itself hither and thither in the flanks, also upwards in a direct line to below the cartilage of the thorax; and also obliquely to the right or the left either to the liver or spleen; and it likewise is subject to prolapses downwards, and in a word, is altogether erratic. It delights in fragrant smells, and advances towards them; and, it has an aversion to fetid smells, and flees from them: and, on the whole the womb is like an animal within an animal.' No medical author surpasses Aretæus in his vivid portrayal of disease. When he describes consumption, we must not read the symptoms twice to make a diagnosis. We hear the hoarse chronic cough, the clearing of the throat, the blood and pus spat up; we notice the sweats, the pallor, the cadaverous aspect; we see the bony fingers, the thickened joints, the curved nails, the sharp and slender nose, and the prominent Adam's apple; we see the narrow chest, the lips drawn over the teeth, the muscles of the arm gone, the ribs sticking thru the skin, the shoulder-blades projecting like wings of birds, and the eyes hollow and brilliant. His descriptions of tetanus, epilepsy, hysteria and asthma have been especially praised, but his picture of Satyriasis is as powerful as any: 'Satyrs, priests of Bacchus, in the paintings and statues, have the phallus erect, as the symbol of the divine performance. It is also a form of disease, in which the patient has erection of the genital organ, the appellation of satyriasis being derived from its resemblance to the figure of the god. It is an unrestrainable impulse to connection; but neither are they at all relieved by these embraces, nor is the tentigo soothed by many and repeated acts of sexual intercourse. Spasms of all the nerves, and tension of all the tendons, groins, and perineum, inflammation and pain of the |