Schola medicinae; or, the new universal history and school of medicine / translated into English from the original Latin and Greek edition, by William Rowley.
- Rowley, William, 1742-1806.
- Date:
- 1803
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Schola medicinae; or, the new universal history and school of medicine / translated into English from the original Latin and Greek edition, by William Rowley. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.
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![The third—“ The oracle of .Tlsculapius advised one Julian, who was vomiting blood, and given over by every person, to “ take some pine-nuts from the altar, and eat them with honey, for three days, &c. This cure is very probable; and, at present, pine-nuts, almonds, and demulcents, with honey, are recommended to hannoptoic patients. Abstinence from food in many cases was judicious, and will perform wonders. The fourth—“The oracle recommended one Valerius Aprus, a blind soldier, to anoint his eyes, for three days, with “ a collyrium, composed of the blood of a white cock and honey. When his eyes were restored he returned the God “ thanks publicly. This cure was either fabricated or superstitious, for the man could not have been blind ; but hiseyes were inflamed. We see, by these examples, what means the cunning priests used to impose upon their patients, and deceive the gaping multitude, at pleasure. There is scarcely an imposition, however irrational, which is not credited by the multitude. The history of Iphiclus the Argonaut, who had no heir, for which he consulted Mclampus, may be reckoned of this kind. Me first ordered the prophets to sacrifice two bulls, and when their entrails were cut into small pieces, Melampus procured birds to form his holy augury, which decided from the vulture, that Iphiclus should take a knife that was fi.xed in a holy oak, and drink the rust of it mixed with wine for ten days, that he would then be cured and become prolific : history adds that Iphiclus proceeded in this manner, and the event happened as the vates had foretold ; but indeed as steel taken with, wine is a very good strengthening medicine, it might remove the sterility of Iphiclus if arising from relaxation, if even the bulls had not been sacrificed, nor the birds brought into the mystery, nor was it indispensibly necessary for the steel to have been fixed in the sacred tree, but merely moistened with the acid juice of any vegetable ; but these decej)iions were practised for purposes already mentioned. Hippocrates even obliged his pupils to take an oath, not to reveal the secrets of the art, which was a great impediment to the progress of medicine. The extispiscia of the priests may be properly said to have been the origin of anatomy, since none but the most healthy animals were sacrificed, and from their constant practice of inspecting, and accurately investigating the entrails, they acquired a knowledge of the situation, shape, connection, order, and other peculiarities of an healthful animal body : although their experiments were totally confined to animals. These demonstrations were known to antiquity, particularly to the Romans, and Cicero .sacrificed victims to the gods, before he set out to the army, to satisfy the superstitious multitude about the future success of the war, wisely accommodating his refined intellectuals to vulgar prejudices. The custom of em balming bodies, which was a very ancient- practice, and already mentioned at large in Egyptian history, likewise greatly contributed to the acquisition of medical information. The management of wounds, or oiiginof surgery, which in after ages became a separate department, and Platner contends that it w as practised before physic. Cicero mentions that .Esculapius, son of Apollo, invented the probe, and w'as the first person that used bandage inw'ounds. Homer observes that his sons Podalirius and Machaon, physicians in the Trojan war, did not attend so much to medical as surgical cases, using the knife and exteinal ap])lications. Patroclus is next after them, who cured Eurypylus during the confinement of Podalirius by a wound. This same Poda- lirius is said to be tlie first who opened a vein, and ^Esculapius the third, whoever he might have been, w^as the first person who extracted teeth. Hippo crates himself was well acquainted with surgery, and instituted several operations. After him Diodes Carystius mentioned with respect by Cclsus, was celebrated in surgery, and invented an instrument to draw out darts; and Homer must have been well skilled in anatomy, to have given such an accurate description of wounds, so that some have not hesitated to assert that a tolerable compendium of the science of anatomy may be extracted from his works ; at least, it is evident, that in the age, when Homer wrote, surgery was known and practised. The surgical healing of wounds was extremely useful to medicine, and greatly contributed to its increase,* for the treat- ment of inflammation, suppuration, gangrene, and scirrhus seems to have been applied to internal diseases. The custom of butchers slaughtering animals, did not much increase the knowledge of the structure of the human body, yet the history and latent causes of diseases were sometimes illustrated by it. Thus they found that by daily and violent exercise fat animals became lean, and that the medulla of bones was totally exhausted by too great motion ; and also that by too much inactivity, biliary and urinary concretions, obstructions in the viscera were produced, I'emediable only, by ex- ercise and eating grass : these, and many other things were noticed, which were e lually applicable to men. i’he opening living animals for philosophical uses rendered assistance to medicine. Alcrateon the Crotonian, a pupil of e Pythagoras](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b2840743x_0055.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
