Medical symbolism in connection with historical studies in the arts of healing and hygiene / Illustrated. By Thomas S. Sozinskey.

  • Sozinskey, Thomas S., 1852?-1889.
Date:
1891
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Medical symbolism in connection with historical studies in the arts of healing and hygiene / Illustrated. By Thomas S. Sozinskey. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University.

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    In thein there was undoubtedly much highly creditable medical knowledge in exercise. The same was prob- ably the case in most, or perhaps all, others, especially in later times; but it is in respect to those only that we have indubitable evidence of the fact. Of the two schools, the adherents of the Cnidian paid special atten- tion to the symptoms of individual cases, and avoided, as much as possible, powerful cathartics, bleeding, and other active means of cure. Whatever may have been the success of the various asclepia, institutions which were finally blotted out in the early part of the fourth century by Constantine, the first Christian emperor,1 that of Cos was destined to make the greatest impress on the medicine of the future. It was the good fortune of this institution to have in connection with it, at the acme of its career, a great author as well as physician. Hippocrates, a native of the island, rendered the fame of the Coan school im- perishable, and gave to his fellow-men throughout the world, in all time to come, a legacy of incalculable value. Through this early and great medical writer his alma mater has been made, in a manner, that of the medical man of all ages. From Cos sprang forth at the touch of a humble man, afterward called appreciatively the divine old man, a mass of medical knowledge, wonderfully pure and good, which constitutes the main body of the real medical science of our own day. An asclepion2 consisted essentially of a building 1 In reference to the asclepia or asclepions, as he calls them, Draper says : An edict of Constantine suppressed those establishments. And again : The asclepion of Cnidus continued until the t me of Constantine, when it was destroyed along with many other pagan establishments. History of the Intellectual Development of Europe, pp. 386 and 397. Revised edition. New York, 1876. a Asclepion is from Asclepios, the Greek form of the name of the god of medicine. In Greek it is aoK?i7]niE~tov, meaning Temple of Asclepios. iEseulapium is of similar meaning.