HEALING AMONG THE ANCIENTS.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XXXIX, Issue 10765, 13 May 1911, Page 3 (Supplement)

HEALING AMONG THE ANCIENTS.

(Hy Herkimer Xorthup

The art of healing is as old as man. Some system of stopping blood-ilow and binding up wounds has been common to men throughout the world, growing naturally from men's necessity and from this rude surgery the marvels of these latter days Lav© been, developed. It would seem reasonable to suppose that the xisc of medicine would hardly be as :incient as surgery, for the reason that man was forced, through injuries met iu combat- with-his foes and with beasts, to a rude practice of the latter before he would have awakened to the possibility of the former. The primitive instinct for roots and. herbs of curative powers, which animals share with man, must have led to an unconscious medication—if that term may be applied—from the very beginning of the race; but any consistent attempt to cure by means of drafts and. potions could hardly have come until man was' well out of the primeval period.

There is a theory held, by some, repudiated by others, that actual medical practice originated in all countries through religious observances. In ancient Egypt it was under the god Osiris and his wife Isis, and the temples and groves where it was taught were dedicated to the worship of these gods. Likewise in Greece, it was the god of health, zEsculapius, who was the presiding diety. The temples of iEsculapius usuallystood in their exquisite classic beauty, near a stream or springs which wore believed to have healing properties. The records of cures wrought were written on the walls or columns, and thus a "clinical record" was built up and clinical experience accumulated. One such temple, very famous, was on the island of Cos, and was the school where Hippocrates "the great" taught, earlv in the fourth century B.C.

Hippocrates was the perfect representation, in medicine, of the highest efforts of the Greek intellect, the same as his contemporaries were in philosophy or the arts. The character cf the physician and the practice of the medical art, as we now understand both, have come to us direct from this great- teacher. The Greeks taught the Romans: but there is a difference of opinion as to whether they taught, or were taught by, the Hindus. If the latter, then the Egyptian priesthood must have been the means of conveying the knowledge; if the former, then the Alexandrian campaign, bringing the Eastern and Western civilisations into contact, were responsible. Certainly there was a very highly developed medical knowledge among the Hindus, and a code purely Brahmin in origin. In their literature on the subject mention is made of an order lower than the regtdar physician and surgeon, which included barbers, nail-trim-mers (first mention of a manicure), earborers, and tooth-drawers. These were not within the Brahminical caste. The dissection of the human body seems possibly to have been suggested originally by the Egyptian disembowelling of the dead, previous to embalming. At any rate, the study of anatomy was carried on in the great medical school at Alexandria, founded about 300 8.C., in a very, complete manner. Human vivisection was also practised there upon criminals under sentence of death, who were given lo the physicians for this purpose. Ancient Egypt had made great progress before this time, however, as wellset fractures found in mummies testify. Artificial teeth are also found in mummies, and on the walls of temples are pictured patients undergoing operations, and others bandaged. The physicians of this period of Egyptian history seem always to have been specialists. The JewK were esjiecially .skilled in sanitary knowledge, and the Talmud' still gives hygienic laws to them. The medical knowledge of Egypt forms the basis of these, and the isolation of infectious diseases and their rules about diet show that they understood some of the fundamental essentials pretty thoroughly. Many of their remedies were rather extraordinary, to put it mildly, though the principles of the homcepathic school seem to have been rudely applied in .some cases: for instance, in the bite of a m:ul dog, the treatment is feeding the pat-ent the left lobe of the dog's liver, an early example of "like cures like." Apparently, there were fashionable watering places in Palestine in Talmudiedays, for it is made known that the bathing season at the hot baths of Dtiisis lusted twenty days, and that the hot baths of Tiberius have curative properties. Surgery was practised, for there are frequent references to blood-letting. The Talmud explains that the biblical reference to Daniel and his three friends, '•not even the scar of a lancet was upon them,*' was testimony to their health of bodv and moral purity. Jinny of the rabbinic rules of hygiene and dietetics stand a.s good to-day as thev did at their inception, and their medical formulas, although elaborated at the present time, served their purpose in a less enlightened age. and in numerous instances still have their excellent uses. In the second century A.D., the philosophy of the Sceptics became closely connectcd with one division of medical thought known as the empirics, and the influence of this lived through the age of Rome, and on up to- the beginning of the Middle Ages. The Romans themselves did not originate, nor at any time possess, a school of medicine distinctly their own: and Pliny says that they got on for six hundreds years without doctors. This is probably something of an exaggeration; but it is true that the nrst"pbvsician .in Rome of any prominence was a. Greek named Archagathus, who came there in 218 B.C. Finally there came about, through the introduction of one theory by this one and another theory by that so manv divisions of thought and practise ;, n( l each division so manifestly imperfect—that- manv'of the most eminent physicians of Gneeo-Roman times attempted to combine the good portion oi each system into a comprehensive whole. Under this combination they called themselves eclectics. \rahia preserved the scattered remains of Greek culture and the heritage of medical knowledge, although the Arabians themselves did little toward developing this bequest. They were hampered, especially m surgery, by the restrictions of their religion, which prevented them from studying anatomy, and their temperamental stoicism made them accept suffering, and not seek relief, but raiher refuse it. Graduallv. after the Mohammedan conquests, 'when learning began to be i>i the a«ccndenev, schools «t medicine, sometimes connected with hospitals and schools of pharmacy, sprang lip m all - the principal cities. At Damascus, under both Jewish and Christian tca- ! i-Ihts. the medical practise oi the Greeks was earnestly cultivated. I he -Vr-ibs also grew to know Indian medicine, and Indian physicians lived at the court of Bagdad. In Spam the Islamite rulers encouraged learning of every «ort and medical science shared in this. Much was due to the Jews m Spain, as , thev had alreadv established schools before the Moslem dominion. I'rom the tenth to thirteenth century, Arabian medicine was at its height here To mediau-al Europe tradition alone remained of the great ancient schools; therefore the Arabian school was of the greatest importance in the chain ot medical history. There must be a continuous thread—there is bound to he in all histoiv—but from the fifth to the tenth century it is very nearly lost. During this dim period the '>»"'asteries were the homes of learning. J he science did not advance under the labors of the monks, but it was preserved and saved from total oblivion. Superstition and magic were. liheraily tnixed with the scientific relics ot medicine proper hv these pious practitioners, and some of iheir works—written sometimes in Latin nnd\ sometimes in the native vernacular—are remarkable records of this blending. The Benedictines were the first to restore a higher standard in this, as m so manv other branches of learning. A Benedictine monastery was located at Salerno in Uie seventh century, but in uo wav connected with the famous medical school there, that being a secular institution. . This school was the one important one in Europe during the Middle Ages, and Salerno flourished as a resort, many roval personages going there for their health. TViJliara of Normandy, after-

J ward tlio Conqueror, is mentioned as a visitor.

Thr. wives and daughters of tho professors appear on the lists of teachers, and one woman, named Trotula, was celebrated as an instructor in the eleventh century. The decline of the School of Salerno began in the thirteenth century, hut it bridged the period between ancient and modern medicine; and, though its glories were gone long before, it continued in actual existence until dissolved by ail edict of Napoleon in 1311. In tho fourteenth century—the time of the Renaissance—- there began to be some real progress in medical science, and a general awakening to the possibilities' of its development. France was the lirst to realise the necessity of thorough education for surgeons, and to bring them up to the rank of physicians. Probably their handling of dead bodies in dissection, and the various other unpleasant necessities of their work, had been the occasion of the contempt in which they were held by people generally. They were the barbers and the undertakers, as well as being surgeons; and mention is made, in literature- of that period, of sending for the "barber".to bleed a patient. - Jik'eding has always prevailed up to a comparatively recent date. -Sometimes a vein was opened; at others a leech was applied; and from the latter practise the name "leech" came to m&in. physician.

With the sixteenth century came the great schools of Italy, and the Italian physicians of to-day' do a great amount of scientific research in their-work, although their facilities-arc not equal to those of other nations.

To Germany, more than to any other single, nation, we owe tho marvels of the medicine of to-day. Students from all parts of the world eagerly seek the classes and laboratories of her famous professors. A very high standard is probably the reason for the great success of German teaching, five years being the time required to obtain the degree of M.D. Tii England the physician of Henry VIII., Thomas Linacre, laid the first real scientific foundation for medical study. He possessed great influence at court, and this he used wisely, persuading the king to take the arbitrary power of licensing persons to practise medicine out of the bishops' hands, and to establish an examination, and the necessity of taking the degree from either the University at Cambridge or Oxford, in each of which he founded chairs for tho teaching of medicine. As late as 1745 the surgeon was still looked down upon in England, and associated with the barber in the corporation of barber surgeons; and although they separated in that year, the Royal College of Surgeons was not incorporated until fifty years later. The practise of medicine and the dispensing .of .drugs have always been closely associated. In England the apothecary, prescribing and dispensing his own drugs, is practically the family l>hysician. This is really the case- here also, for in the rural districts where drug-stores are unknown the physician carrying his drug-case with him is a familiar figure, and many of them have quite complete laboratories in their houses.

The opposition which prevailed at iirst to admitting women to the profession lias gradually passed away, and women have taken a definite place among physicians. This opposition gave rise to such intense feeling in some medical schools that open riots followed the admission of the first women students. The women physicians in Turkey have been one of the greatest blessings the women of that country have ever had. Even as Germany leads the world in the science of medicine, she might be said to lead in the opposition to women as physicians; and not until 1900 were, women allowed to take the examinations and matriculate in the German Universities. One woman, however, had received a degree from the University of Halle in 170-J, upon the recommendation of Frederick the Great. This woman, Mrs Dorothea Christiana Erxlcben. was actually, therefore, the first woman physician of the present age^—the pioneer of women in the profession—even though German opposition was the strongest and held out the longest.