Outlines of the Ancient History of Medicine

•^,HY OUTLINES OF THE ANCIENT HISTORY OF MEDICINE. .. i • • '< . • : ,u , a ; i- i x » - . I OUTLINES OF THE ANCIENT HISTORY OF MEDICINE BEING A VIEW OF THE PROGRESS OF THE HEALING ART AMONG THE EGYPTIANS, GREEKS, ROMANS, AND ARABIANS. BY D. M. MOIR, SURGEON. WILLIAM BLACKWOOD, EDINBURGH; AND T. CADELL, LONDON. MDCCCCXXXI. \ l%b NEILL & CO., Printers, Old Fislsnarket. TO JOHN WILSON, ESQ. PROFESSOR OF MORAL PHILOSOPHY IN THE UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH, THE FOLLOWING PAGES ARE INSCRIBED, AS A TESTIMONY OF HIGH RESPECT AN D ARM I RATION, BY HIS OBLIGED FRIEND THE AUTHOR. Musselburgh, 16th April 1831 . - • . • . .. ' ’ . ... PREFACE. The purpose of the following pages is to exhi- bit a sketch of the more prominent features in the annals of ancient Medicine, from the belief that such a hook is required, and might proVe at least not unacceptable to the general, as well as the professional reader. The Author is quite aware, that, in a mere literary point of view, he has not done himself that justice, which a more expanded way of treating his ample materials would have afford- ed ; but he has preferred sacrificing this point, in order that, by using condensation to the ut- most extent consistent with perspicuity, he might render the hook a more portable manual for the practitioner and student. It would have been 31 PREFACE. much easier to have made the volume a large than a small one ; but, while convinced that a knowledge of the general outlines presented by Medical History—of the principles which guided the practice of our predecessors—must be useful to the profession, he felt also aware, that it ought not to be encumbered with unnecessary repeti- tions or details ; and that the object in view was only to point out discoveries, improvements, and alterations in the treatment of diseases, to discriminate between the true and false philosophy of the various schools, and to determine the claims of successive professors of the Healing Art to the attention and gratitude of posterity. This he may not have accomplished to the read- be al- er’s satisfaction or liis own ; but he may lowed to put in a claim, if not tor infallibility, at least for impartiality and candour. It has almost been a matter of regret to the Author, that the nature of his subject has in a manner compelled him to cumber his pages with a seemingly pedantic display of learned autlio- PREFACE. Ill rities; but lie begs to be apologized for two reasons—the first of which is, that the text would have been stripped of half its utility with- second, that a great part of out them ; and the them having been pointed out to him by Fabri- cius, Le Clerc, Shulzius, Casiri, Portal, Sprengel, Cabanis, and other medical historians of the Continent, the merit of the original research belongs not to him, who can be looked on in no higher light than a selector from the ample and occasionally heterogeneous materials, which they have heaped together for the illustration of their subject. In the last division of the work, dedi- cated to Arabian physic, he has been boundless- ly indebted to the admirable History of Dr Freind —a composition which does honour to the Medi- cal Literature of England. To the professional reader an historical ac- quaintance with the healing art, and with the comparative merits of those who, in different ages and countries, have advanced it to its present state, is not a matter of mere curiosity. All who IV PREFACE. are conversant with medical literature must be aware how often time and talents have been mis- spent, not only in the defence of deceptive theories, and erroneous modes of practice, but in the account of alleged discoveries, which have proved, in fact, to be only resuscitations of doctrines which were once supposed to he valuable, and have long ago been exploded as unimportant or useless. It is not only necessary, therefore, to be acquainted with the system which obtains for the time being, but to have at least some notion of the opinions which regulated the treatment of diseases in bypast ages ; else, like the mill-horse, we may work in a circle, tread the same ground over and over again, and, without progressing, leave matters just as we found them. Without this knowledge, a practitioner, however observant, and however wide the range of his personal experience, must ever remain only half medicine is perhaps, informed ; for, although beyond all other arts or sciences, essentially practical, —and books, without the bedside of the PREFACE. V patient, can never form the real physician, —yet the most valuable deductions are those, which are confirmed hy an extensive comparison of what is seen with what is read ; and diseases can only he, at best, empirically treated, if our attention is not constantly directed to their originating causes. The present volume takes a succinct view of the various branches of the Healing Art, —the different theories of disease, and the progress and improvements of Anatomy, Surgery, and Materia Medica from the earliest ages, till the almost total eclipse of knowledge in the twelfth century. —— CONTENTS. SECTION FIRST. Pa g< Chap. I. —Supposed Origin of Medicine—Mythological Fictions, 1 Chap. II.—Mythological Era of Medicine continued Practice among the Ancient Greeks—Esculapius the Asclepiades, 7 Chap. III.—Mythological Era continued—The Ascle- piades—Schools of Rhodes, Cos, Cnidos, and Italy,... 17 Chap. IV.—Pythagoras—Empedocles—Alcmaeon—Acron — Herodicus—Heraclitus—Democritus, Chap. V—General Observations on the State of Medi- cine anterior to the appearance of Hippocrates, 37 SECTION SECOND. Chap. I —Life and Times of Hippocrates— His Philo- sophical Doctrines, and Medical Writings, 43 Chap. II.—The Dogmatists and Successors of Hippo- crates—The Schools of Cnidos and Italy—Plato Diodes—.Chrysippus of Solis—Praxagoras, 67 / — — CONTENTS. Page Chap. III.—Of Aristotle and the Peripatetic School,.... 81 Chap. IV.— Herophilus—Erasistratus—and the Medi- cal School of Alexandria, 91 Chap. V. ^Asclepiades — Themison — Soranus Ctelius Aurelianus—and the Methodic School, 105 Chap. VI.—Pneumatics and Eclectics A. C. Celsus Aretseus, and others, 123 Chap. VII.—Rufus—Pedacius Dioscorides— the Elder Pliny, and others, 137 Chap. VIII.—On the Life and Writings of Claudius Galen, 145 Chap. IX.—Decline of Medicine—the Cabbalists—Ori- basius and Numesius, 165 Chap. X.—Theophilus—Paulus iEgineta— Actuarius— Myrepsus—>and Extinction of the Greek School, 188 SECTION THIRD. Chap. I. —Origin and Progress of Medical Science in Arabia—Mesue, Honain,Serapion, Alkhendi, and Rha- zes, 201. Chap. II—Introduction of Chemistry into Medicine Haly-Abbas, 225 Chap. III.—Life and Writings of Avicenna, 237 Chap. IV—Serapion the Younger—Mesue the Younger —and Albucasis, 253 Chap. V.—Avenzoar—Averrhoes — and Extinction of the Arabian School, 264 OUTLINES. m . OUTLINES. SECTION FIRST. CHAPTER I. SUPPOSED ORIGIN OF MEDICINE—MYTHOLOGICAL FICTIONS. Much needless speculation has been excited regarding the probable origin of Medicine ; and some authors have gone the length of calling in divine inter- position.'^ For this there seems little necessity ; if we are allowed the position, that mankind have been the same in all ages. Indeed we have still opportunities ofjudging what must have been the first rude attempt at alleviating bodily malady, from the accounts of travellers, who have recently visited tribes, yet in the first stage of (1) Nec Dews intersit nisi dignvs vindice nodus. The voice of antiquity, however, claimed the origin of medicine as a not unworthy opportunity. In the third book of the Tusculan Questions, Cicero confesses the general opi- nion, — Deorum immortalium inventioni consecrata est Ars Medica. Pliny makes the like declaration, — Diis primum inventores suos assignavit Medi- cina, cuiloque dicavit. Lib. 29. cap. 1. A 2 OUTLINES OF THE civilization. Among' the North American Indians, the Africans, the New Hollanders, among every congregation of human beings “ from Indus to the Pole,” we find traces of physic and surgery ; for this simple reason, that everywhere we find diseases, and, of course, efforts towards their cure or alleviation. It matters little whether the imperfect knowledge they possess has been derived from accident or inge- nuity. It is indisputable that we find it there. Dis- ease is almost as old as man himself ; and so must have been medicine. (1) It will readily he granted, that the properties of particular substances, animal and vegetable, could not long remain undiscovered, because they must have produced particular effects on the human frame. Discoveries thus made, whether accidentally or not, would be treasured up ; and new ones, from time to time, added from observation and experience. Every family and tribe must have thus had some tradition- ary stores, which, as communication increased, would naturally merge into the common fund. Even from the inferior animals some lessons might be derived ; (1) As the early physic of all countries must be essentially alike, as dic- tated by the same necessity, it has not been thought necessary to follow authors more voluminously, in devoting a separate account to various tribes or nations. By the curious on these subjects, much entertainment may be gleaned from Le Clerc’s “ Histoire de la Medccine,” premiere partie, liv. ii. c. 3., where will be found such gleanings of Jewish medicine as may be derived from Scripture; and, from Jourdan’s Translation of Kurt Sprengel’s work, bearing the same title, many equally interesting notices may be ob- tained regarding the mythological eras of medicine among the Chinese and Hindoos. ( Vol. i. sect. 2.) —See also Dr Millar’s Disquisitions on the History of Medicine. It is to be regretted that a work so admirably commenced, should have dropped with the mere traditional ages of Greece and Egypt.

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