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[ THc BRIT8 8 FEB. 3, 1923) THE POST-HJPPOCRATIC SCHOOLS OF MEDICINE. IMXDICAL JO.TAu 187 I cold oil if tlle disease was one in which- the pores were l4w atrizk 3tE rtns relaxed. Yitli By means of these sumnmary metlhods of diagnosis and cure ON the Methodists tlloughlt tlley could dispense witlh all furtlher THE POST-IIPPOCRATIC SCHOOLS researchl. They made no iniquiry into causes whether remnote or proximate, for, from the momuent the causes had produced OF MEDICINE. tlleir effect-that is to say, from the muoment the disease was DELIVERED BEFORE THE ROYAIL COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS fornmed-it was tlhis, they said, which one lhad to cure. It OF LONDON, was from thle disease itself, they said, its nature, character, BY and cause, that one had to find the indications for treatmnent, R. 0. MOON, M.D., F.R.C.P. and not from anterior circumstances, whichi liad no influence; [Abstract.] and the nature of the disease consisted in having the pores too muclh conistricted or too much relaxed. (Conlcluded fromw page 143.) Tlle best known member of this school, and by some re- garded as tlhe real foun(ler of it, thouglh an absolute clharlatan, THE METHODISTS. was undoubtedly Thessalus of Tralles. He was the son of THE school of the Methodists seems in a sense to occupy an a weaver, wlhich occupation he followed in his youth, and had intermediate position between the opposing schools of the enjoyed none of the elements of a liberal educationi; from Dogmatists and Empirics. This name of Methodist is doubt- this resulted the pride of ignoranoe and scorn for the observa- less more familiar to English ears as the sobriquet jestingly tions of his predecessors. He considered that medicine could given by a Christ Church undergraduate to the sinall group of be learnt in six montlhs. He reversed the famous aphorism friends who gathered round the brothers Wesley in Oxford in of Hippocrates tllat "Life is slhort and Art is long," by saying the middle of the eighteenth century on account of their that "Art was short and Life was long"sI On a monument regular manner of life and behaviour. The name as origin- in the Appian Way he styled himself "Conqueror of Pliy- ally given had of course reference to intellectual and not sicians," and lhe wrote to the Emperor Nero saying that his moral qualities. In any case it was not very appropriate, medical predecessors lhad contributed nothing to science-tlie though the founders of the school did perlhaps commnit tllem- kind of statement which Nero miglht well lhave appreciated, selves to a more definite and precise theory of disease than So little did he know of Greek that he accused Hippocrates either the Dogmatists or Empirics. of causing the deatlh of his patients by overfeeding them. medicine to very terms, which This school reduced simple Thessalus, "founded a new sect, which is the ways for in thera- "I have," said may remind us in some of homoeopathy, only true one, being obliged to do so because none of the physicians peutics they adopted the principle of "contraria contrariis who have preceded me have found out aniything useful for the curantur," which is analogous though antagonistic to the preservation of health nor for banishing diseases, and Hippocrates system of Hahnemann. According to the Methodists the himself has uttered many harmful maxims on this subject." body consisted of atoms and pores, a doctrine derived from By dint of great flattery Tllessalus insinuated himself into Epicurus. To the atoms they paid but little attention, con- the houses of the great. According to Galen, who was, h1ow- centrating themselves on the pores. Now these pores were ever, the bitter enemy of the Metlhodist schlool, the manners said to be either in a state of too great contraction or too of Thessalus were submissive and slavish, very different great relaxation. from those of the ancient plhysicians, the descendants of . The foundation of the school of the Metlhodists synchronized Aesculapius, wlho gave commands to their patients like a with the migration of medicine from Alexandria to Rome as general to his soldiers or a prince to his subjects. Thessalus, the centre of intellectual activity, and 'tle entry of Greek on tlle contrary, obeyed Ihis patients like -a slave his medicine into Rome had been accomplished by the well master: if his patients wished to bathe he let them do so; if known and popular physician Asclepiades of Bithynia, who they wanted to take ice or snow he gave it them. Natur-Ally had adopted tlle doctrines of atomism from Democritus and Thessalus attracted a large number of pupils, mostly frogi Epicurus. Themison of Laodicea (fI. 50 B.C.), a pupil of this the artisan class, who were anxious to become doctors in six Aselepiades, founded the school of Methodism. Thlough, like months; he lhimself wrote five large -volumes which wvould his master, he followed the doctrines of atomism, unlike require almost that length of time to read through.- Asclepiades lhe concentrated his attention entirely on the Of a far higher calibre was Soranus of Ephesus, who may pores, paying lhardly any heed to the atoms. For the Metho- be regarded as one of the chief ornaments of the Methlodist dist generally, acute disease was a state of contraction (status sclhool. He came to Rome in the time of Trajan and strictus), while a chronic disease was a state of relaxation Hadrian (fl. A.D. 93-138). He was the first of the school to (status laxus). As regards therapeutics, there were for the offer a plausible reason for tlle rejection of the use of Methodists only two indications: (1) to relax the pores when purgatives-namely, that they- got rid indiscriminately of tllere was a constriction, (2) to constrict them wlhen there humours wlhich were wholesome and those whiclh were was a relaxation. Whlat could be simupler? Among the vicious. He always used venesection in pleurisy, because it tlherapeutic agents wliich were thought to have tlle desired clearly arose from a statuis strictus. He wrote a book on effects Wvere: gynaecology which showed that he had a wide knowledge of Relaxinig Agents. anatomy, a subject as a rule despised by the Metliodist- 1. Venesection; btut they practised this with caution, because anatomy seemed to have been- "bleeding " tendled to draw off the finer, the more vital atoms first, school, and his ideas on leavino the coarser ones behind. based on human and not merely on animal dissection, as 2. Cupping; of this they made frequent use-sometimes they had been the case with most of his predecessors. The wo kld cover nearly the whole body vith cupping glasses, as they great theologian Tertullibn spoke of hjim as " methodicae paiil no attentioni to the part affected. and his reputation well 3. Softening plasters. medicinae instructissimus," laoted 4. Warm driniks. on into the Middle Ages. 5. Diaphoretics. We should know but little of the Methlodist school were 6. Warm air. it not for the writings of Caelius Aurelianus, who lived in the 7. Sleep. fifth century; he was a native of Sicca, in Numidia, but 8. Exercise carried to the point of fatigue. practised and-taught in Rome. Like most other members of been very Constrictinig Agents or Astringents. the Methodist school his education had imperfect, 1. Darkne,s. and this perhaps explains the barbarism of hiis style and his 2. Cool air. complete ignorance of the Greek language. On the otlher 3. Cold wdter and acid drinks. hand, no ancient autlhor has more clearly set forth the 4. Decoctioni of quinices. of each disease, and it was a fortunate circumstance 5. Red wine, pure or diluted with water; the cold water had to diagnosis be taken in small quantities, for fear that if the patient took much that in the Middle Ages the 'monks selected him before all it would soften the tissues aind cause relaxation. otlhers for their guidance in the treatment of disease. 6. Vinegar, solution of alum, powdered chalk, lead plasters. As examples of acute diseases which depend on constric- the first tllree days of an illness they enjoined strict tion, Caelius Aurelianus gives us (1) madness, (2) letlhargy During (3) abstinence; then they administered food only every other whicll involved a stronger constriction than madness, day. Remedies were not given till the third day. During catalepsy, (4) pleurisy and pneumonia, (5) tumours. Clhronic the days of abstinence the patients only washed their mouths diseases depending on constriction were (1) headache, (2) with water and drank a little; apart from this tley were giddiness, (3) astlhma, (4) epilepsy, (5) jaundice, (6) obesity, covered with plasters and wool steeped in warn oil if the (7) suppression of the catamenia, (8) melancholy, (9) paralysis, disease was one in whlich the pores were contracted, and in (10) phthlisis, (11) colic. Tnz Brmn I88 FuB. 3, 19231 THE POST-HIPPOCRATIC SCHOOLS OP MEDICINE. MEDICAL JOUENAZI i As an example of acute disease caused by relaxation he drinking vessels, and they celebrated his birthday avery year. gives cholera, and of chronic diseases haemoptysis and Athens honoured him with bronze statues, and the number of diarrhoea, excess of the catamenia, and wasting. his pupils and friends is said to have exceeded the population Since these two general states of the body were sufficient of whole cities. to guide the physician in the knowledge and treatment of It is well to remember that at the time when Epicurus disease all etiology became superfluous, for there is no object was living at Athens the Grecianworld had seen tbe d6wntall in knowing the cause of constriction, for instance, so long as- of Thebes, the exile of Demosthenes, and the shipwreck of we are able to cttre it.

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