Greek Medicine.—From the earliest times, as indicated by passages in the Homeric poems, the Greeks practised simple forms of surgery in such matters as the treatment of the wounded.65 In the historic age of Greece we find temple or wonder-working medicine, practised in temples of Asklepios, especially at Epidaurus; and at the same time a school of medicine, of the Asklepiadae, seated in the island of Kos.
A lively account of temple-healing is given in the Plutus of Aristophanes, where the slave Karion relates the experiences of his master and himself when passing the night in the temple.66 Examples of the votive offerings deposited in the temples by those who had been made whole have been mentioned in the section on Religion and Superstition, p. 47 ff., and are to be seen in Cases 103-106.
The more serious side of Greek medicine is inseparably connected with the name of Hippokrates (born 460 B.C.), though the Koan school had existed some time before his birth. The Asklepiadae were originally members of a single clan, but the admission of persons from outside soon made the clan into a medical school. The famous Hippokratean oath, imposed upon members of the Koan school, shows the standard set up before the medical profession: "I will conduct the treatment of the sick for their advantage, to the best of my ability and judgment, and I will abstain from all evil and all injustice. I will administer poison to none, if asked to do so, nor will I ever make such a suggestion. I will pass my life and exercise my art in innocence and purity." In Greece there were both public and private physicians. There were further dispensaries, or perhaps more accurately surgeries, called ἰατρεῖα. These were furnished with the necessary surgical and medical appliances. The scene from a fifth century vase-painting (No. 556; fig. 223)67 depicts a young surgeon at work in an ἰατρεῖον. He is operating on a patient's arm (perhaps bleeding him), while another man, also wounded in the arm, sits before him. A dwarf slave is ushering other patients into the surgery, where bleeding-cups are seen hanging on the wall. Patients also went to the ἰατρεῖα to get draughts of medicine.68 Before the Alexandrian age it is probable that medicine was in advance of surgery, for up to that time no scientific study of anatomy had been attempted. Aristotle observes that the internal organs of the human body were in his time very little known,69 and what dissection there was must have been practised on animals. The terracotta model (No. 122; fig. 36, above) of the heart, liver, lungs and kidneys shows how vague the ancient idea as to the position of these organs sometimes was.
Roman Medicine.—Medical science for a long time made but little progress in Rome. The Greek physician Archagathos, who began to practise there in 219 B.C., became extremely unpopular owing to his bold methods of surgery.70 The Roman doctors were chiefly of Greek nationality, and not infrequently were slaves or freedmen. Julius Caesar encouraged foreign physicians to settle in Rome by granting them citizenship, and under the early Empire Rome was overcrowded with medical men, if we may believe Pliny and Martial.71
The objects illustrating Greek and Roman Medicine and Surgery are exhibited in part of Table-Case H. First in importance are the surgical instruments, a selection of which is shown in fig. 224. With rare exceptions these instruments are of bronze. The principal varieties are here represented. There are several knives or bistouries, an excellent example being the one from Myndos in Asia Minor, with the upper part of the handle inlaid with silver (No. 557; fig. 224g). The lower part of the handle was in iron, and has fallen away. The heavier bronze blades must have been used for various purposes in connection with dissecting. The forceps is fairly common. The interesting variety seen on the right of the illustration (k) with its fine toothed ends (No. 558) is probably an uvula forceps, used for crushing the part intended to be amputated. An instrument frequently found is the spatula or "spathomele" (No. 559; fig. 224 a-c, e, f), so called from its flat broad end. This was principally employed for mixing and spreading ointments, while the olive-shaped ends were used as probes. Other instruments which call for notice are the fine-toothed surgical saw (No. 560; fig. 224h), the sharp hook (No. 561; fig. 224d), used for "seizing and raising small pieces of tissue for excision, and for fixing and retracting the edges of wounds." The bifurcated probes (No. 562) were perhaps used for the extraction of arrows and other weapons. A curious instrument (No. 563), the use of which was for long a puzzle, appears to be a folding drill-bow and has been completed accordingly.
More elaborate than any of these are the examples of surgical appliances which have been found in the excavations at Pompeii, and are now at Naples. These are represented here by a group of electrotype reproductions, including anal and vaginal specula, and other objects (No. 564).
The bronze cupping-vessel (No. 565) should be noticed. Similar vessels are seen suspended on the walls of the surgery depicted in the vase-scene figured above (fig. 223). Burning lint or some other lighted substance was placed in the vessel to rarify the air, and its mouth was then applied to the part from which blood was to be extracted. One such cupping vessel appears on the marble relief in the Phigaleian Room, representing a physician named Jason treating a boy with a swollen stomach (Fig. 225). Compare a similar consultation on an engraved gem, under the immediate superintendence of Asklepios. The bronze box (No. 566), probably from the Cyrenaica, was almost certainly used by a Roman physician for his drugs. It is divided into several compartments, each furnished with a separate cover, and has a sliding lid. Boxes of a precisely similar character have been found with surgical instruments. Compare also the cast from Athens of a votive relief with a fitted case of instruments (No. 567).
A very interesting class of antiquities is furnished by the stamps of oculists (No. 569). These take the form of square or oblong plates, generally of steatite or slate. On the edges are engraved inscriptions, giving the name of the oculist, the name of his specific, and its purpose. These salves were pounded on the stone into a paste. They generally bear a Greek name, such as Diasmyrnes, Crocodes, etc., indicating their composition. They appear to have been made up into the form of sticks impressed with the engraved edge of the stone, and put into cylindrical bronze boxes, which have from time to time been found with Roman surgical instruments. One or two examples of the stamps may be given: "Saffron ointment for scars and discharges prepared by Junius Taurus after the prescription of Paccius"72 (fig. 226, bottom). "The anodyne of Q. Junius Taurus for every kind of defective eyesight."73 Puff names for the drugs, such as "Invincible," "Inimitable," also occur. An engraved gem, from a drug compounder's ring has a seated Athena and the legend HEROPHILI OPOBALSAMUM—"Balsam of Herophilus" (No. 570). Whether the balsam was named in honour of the founder of scientific anatomy, or of a more obscure oculist of the first century B.C., or of an unknown drug-seller cannot be determined. A set of Roman lead weights, probably used for the weighing of drugs, is here exhibited. They are marked 1 to 10, the unit probably being the scripulum of 18 grains (No. 571). Two small lead pots placed near the weights were used for holding eye-salves. One from Corfu bears the letters A T; the other, from Athens, has the tripod of Apollo, the god of healing, and is inscribed "The Lykian salve from Musaeos" (No. 572). Near these pots are spoons with channels for melting and pouring the salves into wounds (No. 573). A piece of stone with corrugated surfaces is thought to be for rolling pills (No. 574). The ivory figure of a dwarf afflicted with a peculiar form of spinal curvature causing pigeon-breastedness is a work of considerable spirit, probably of the third century A.D. (No. 574*).
(563) Cat. of Bronzes, 2674; Journ. of Hellenic Stud. 34, p. 116; (567) Svoronos, Athen. Nationalmus. xlvii, 1378; (568) Cf. Espérandieu, Signacula Medicorum Oculariorum; (574*) Papers of the Brit. School at Rome, iv, pp. 279-282.
See on ancient medicine and surgery generally, Daremberg and Saglio, s.v. Chirurgia, Medicus; Milne, Surgical Instruments in Greek and Roman Times; Deneffe, Étude sur la trousse d'un chirurgien gallo-romain du IIIe siècle (found near Paris, 1880).
65: Cf. Il. iv. 218; xi. 844.
66: Ar. Plut. 653 ff.
67: See Mon. Piot, XIII. (1906), pl. xiii., p. 149 ff. From a vase in a private collection in Paris.
68: Plat., Leg. i. 646: τοὺς εἰς τὰ ἰατρεῖα αὐτοὺς βαδίζοντας ἐπὶ φαρμακοποσίαν.
69: Hist. An. i. 16.
70: Plin., H.N. xxix. 12 f.
71:
Plin., H.N. xxix. 11: hinc illae circa aegros miserae sententiarum
concertationes, hinc illa infelix monimenti inscriptio: turba se medicorum
periisse.
Cf. Martial, v. 9.
72: Juni Tauri crocod(es) Paccian(um) ad cicat(rices) et reum(a).
73: Q. Jun(i) Tauri anodynum ad omn(em) lippit(udinem).