Volume 1

The Cyclopaedia of practical medicine : comprising treatises on the nature and treatment of diseases, materia medica and therapeutics, medical jurisprudence, etc., etc. / edited by John Forbes ... Alexander Tweedie ... John Conolly.

Date:
1833-1835
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The Cyclopaedia of practical medicine : comprising treatises on the nature and treatment of diseases, materia medica and therapeutics, medical jurisprudence, etc., etc. / edited by John Forbes ... Alexander Tweedie ... John Conolly. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by King’s College London. The original may be consulted at King’s College London.

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    Phoenicia.* To certain individuals wlio migrated from these countries, the Greeks tliemselves were in the habit of referring the introduction of many of the most useful inventions, and during a considerable space of time all those who were desirous of ac- quiring a larger share of knowledge, either theoretical or practical, than was possessed by their countrymen, visited Egypt, us the great storehouse of science and learning. It is from this cause that we find so much analogy between the divinities that were worshipped in the two countries, <rs inventors or patrons of the various arts and sciences. Fur although they acrpiired new names on their being transferred into Europe, yet their attributes, and even their forms, clearly demonstrate their origin. This is par- ticularly the case with respect to medicine, so that in the Orus and riiouth of the Egyptians we may recognize the prototyjres of the Apollo and Hermes of the Greeks.-f it is not until comparatively at a late period, approaching to that of the Trojan war, that we find the names of actual personages who practised medicine in Greece; and of these, it is probable that some were natives of either Africa or Asia, who brought with them the information which they had acquired in their respective countries. (Jf those whoso history is better known, and who were acknowledged to be of Grecian origin, it was the general custom to travel into Egypt for the ])urpose of obtaining a knowledge of their art, and with this view they subnutted to a system of rigid discipline, and to a variety of irksome and burdensome ceremonies; and after all this laborious process, so far as the science of medicine is concerned, the result seems to have been little more than the knowledge of magic and incantations, with some rude notions respecting the application of external remedies for the cure of wounds and of cutaneous diseases, with a very imperfect idea of the anatomy of the human body, and a very inadequate con- ception of its functions.! The first native of Greece who is more particidarly singled out, as having intro- duced the art of medicine among his countrymen, is the centaur Chiron. There is much mystery attached to his character and to every thing connected with him, but what we may consider as the most probable conclusion is, that he was a prince of Thessaly, who lived about the thirteenth century before the Christian aera; that he was distinguished above his contemporaries for his knowledge of the arts of life, and that, after the manner of his countrymen, he w^as frequently seen on horseback, so as to give rise to the fabulous account of his compound form. He is particularly celebrated for his skill in medicine and in music, a combination, it may be remarked, that was said to have existed in many other individuals. We are not informed by what means he ob- tained his superior knowledge in medicine, but there are various circumstances, which lead us to conclude, that it was at that time regarded rather as a part of the education of all men of rank, than as attached to a particular profession. We accordingly find that he instructed the Argonauts in medicine, and the heroes who were engaged in the siege of Troy, and that all the kings and warriors of that period were more or less ac- quainted with the treatment of wounds, anil even with the practices which were adopted for the cure of internal diseiises.§ But although Chiron has the reputation of having introduced the art of medicine into Cireece, it is to his pupil jEsculapius, that by the common consent of antiquity, is ascribed the merit of having first devoted him.self to the cultivation of medicine as a science, and of having made it a distinct object of pursuit. The improvements which he made in the art were so considerable, as to have induced his countrymen, after his death, to pay him divine honours, to designate him as the God of physic, to erect temples to him in various parts of Greece,|| and to derive his origin from Apollo him- self. His history, when divested of all the fabulous appendages that were attached to it by his contemporaries, appears to be that he was a native of Epidaurus, that he was exposed in his infancy, probably in consequence of his illegitimate birth, that he was * Vide Bryant, ubi supra, et v. 2. p. 420 et snq. ct alibi. t Haller, liibl. Med. pract. lib. 1. §. 7, 8. Hnndertinark, in Ackerniann, Opuscula, Exerc. no. 1. t Herodotus, Euterpe, passim. Diodorus Siculus, lib. 1. passim. .Josephus, Aiiliq. Jud. lib. viii. cap. 2. §. Ct. Odyss. xix. 050 et seq. jTlneis, vii. 753 et seq. ^ I lias, xi. 030 et seq. Sprengcl. 1. 1. p. 112, 13. Ackernuvm, per. 1, cap. 3. §. 25—10. II A/iW(ini«.s, lib. i. cap. 21 ; ii 10; ii. 13; iii. 22 ; iv. 31 ; vii. 21 ; vii. 23; vii. 27 ; viii. 25. Strabo, lib. viii. p. .592 ; ix. 008; xiii. 899; xvi. 1097, a Casaubou, Amst. 1707. C7uv, part 1, liv. i. ch. 20. ’