Remarks on army surgeons and their works / by Charles Alexander Gordon.

  • Gordon, C. A. (Charles Alexander), Sir, 1821-1899.
Date:
1870
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Remarks on army surgeons and their works / by Charles Alexander Gordon. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    24/132 (page 6)
    inian wiiio, and botli lie and his brolher ]>aid little attention tu tbeir jiatients, excejit to dress their wounds. “ It the men are sound,” they argued, “ wine and cheese will not hurt them ; if not, let them die and make room for better men.” Xeither father nor sons seem to have had any actual knowledge of pre- ventative medicine or hygiene, for we learn that on pestilence occurring in the Grecian camj), the only measures taken towards its mitigation or prevention consisted in incantations to Apollo and other deities. The Asclepiades, however, speedily began to acquire a knowledge of hygienic obsei-vances. Temperan ce, clean- liness, air, and exercise, were their great resources, and they ap- preciated the value of air, water, heat, light, and foodi, and liighly recommended exercise on horseback. For 600 years after the Trojan war little or no notice appears in regard to medicine and surgery. The practice of both was during that time confined to the Asclepiades, or lineal descen- dants of .dilsculapius, whose only knowledge descended orally from father to son, and whose three great schools at Ehode.s, Cos, and Cnidos are familiar to students of ancient histor}'. Medicine and priestcraft had become strangely mixed up toge- ther ; aud the mysteries of both, if we are to credit what is re- corded of them, were not only taught simultaneously, but were dispensed by the “ lady practitioners ” of those days. In the temples of .^sculapius the priests and priestesses, who were their guardians, prepared the remedies and directed their application. Offerings were made by their patients, who devoutly placed upon the altar such contributions as their means or gratitude led them to bestow; and the pious avarice of the medical priesthood afforded scope for ridicule to some of the satirical writers of the period. Do my readers desire to know more particularly the ordeal through which those who resorted to those “ establishments ” Avere put? The patients reposed on the skins of sacrificed i-ams, in order that they might procure celestial visions. As soon as they were believed to be asleep, a priest clothed in the dress of AUsculapius, imitating his manners, and accompanied by the daughters of the god, that is, by young actresses thoroughly tutored in their parts, entered, and solemnly delivered a medical opinion.* Not only did the temples here alluded to furnish the types from which some of our more recent institutions are probably taken as already mentioned, but they were in a manner Hydropathic establishments, being, as we learn, generally built on a high and healthy situation near mineral wells; and in ad- dition to the ordeal already described, patients on being received See “ Paris’i; Pluirmacologia,” pages 10 and 27.