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,[63] 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 imperishable, 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 asclepion[64] consisted essentially of a building with a more or less hygienical site, usually in the country and near a fountain,[65] sometimes a mineral one, in which the arts of healing were practiced by priests or disciples of Æsculapius, called asclepiades. In all, the influence of the god was generally believed to be an essential factor; and hence in each an image of him was to be found. But the fully-equipped institution had many appliances, as has been shown in the account given of the one at Epidaurus. Arrangements for exercises, baths, and other means which were brought to bear to restore people to health were duly provided and were in many instances elaborate. The asclepiades claimed that they were descended directly from the god of whom they were the disciples. They were not, at any time, mere priests; that is, ministers of religion. Indeed, it has been asserted that “there is no sign in the Homeric poems of the subordination of medicine to religion.”[66]