The medicine and doctors of Horace / by Eugene F. Cordell.

Date:
[1901?]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The medicine and doctors of Horace / by Eugene F. Cordell. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    [3341 seized with a cold, or any other casualty should confine you to your bed, is there any one upon whom you can rely to stay Mdth you, prepare the fomentations and beseech the doctor to bring you back to health and restore you to your children and dear relatives ? This passage recalls a letter written by Cicero to his learned freedman, Tiro, in which he urges the invalid to spare no expense— another fee to the doctor may make him more attentive. Opimiiis, another miser, who thinks himself poor, although surrounded by heaps of silver and gold, is seized with a prodigious lethargy. His heir, with unconcealed joy, is scouring about the house in search of keys and coffers. Then the quick-witted and faithful physician rouses his pa- tient in the following way: He orders a table to be brought in and the bags of money to be poiired out upon it and sev- eral persons to begin counting it. At the ring of the coin, the sick man jumps upon his feet, whereupon the doctor ad- dresses him thus: Do you not know that your ravenous heir will carry off your treasures unless you watch them ? Not while I am still alive ? Why, certainly ■ rouse your- self, man! But what must I do ? Why, you must have food and restoratives; you are almost bloodless, already. Come no foolishness, take this bowl of gruel. How much did it cost ? Oh, a trifle. But tell me exactly. Two pence. Alas! what does it matter whether I die of disease or by robbery and extravagance ? The disinter- ested character of the doctor is well brought out in this scene. ' 0 Jupiter! thou who causest men to suffer and re- movest their afflictions (cries the mother of a boy confined [235] to bed for five months), if this quartan chill shall at thy command leave my child, on thy fast day he shall be placed naked in the Tiber.' Should chance or the doctor relieve the patient from his imminent danger, the superstitious [234] 13 Roman Life in tlie Days of Cicero, by Prof. Church, 1881. '^Sat. II, 3, 142. . See Celsus Lib. Ill, 20, who says it is a dangerous acute disease with paroxysms and fever, probably congestive chill. 16 Sat. II, 3, 88.