Making due allowance for the debasing fable with which every great name or talent is overlaid, it is rational to suppose that Chiron, the teacher of Esculapius, was one of those shepherd philosophers, who like their Babylonian brethren absorbed all the knowledge of the times; but Homer gives us other examples in support of this idea. Chiron was the preceptor of Achilles, and when Machaon is himself wounded, Patroclus is sent by Achilles to his assistance; on his arrival he is urged by Eurypylus, to “Draw the deadly dart, With luke-warm water wash the gore away: With healing balm the raging smart allay, Such as sage _Chiron_, sire of pharmacy, Once taught Achilles, and Achilles thee.”—_Pope._ He also complains that “Of two great _surgeons_, Podalirius stands This hour surrounded by the Trojan bands, And great _Machaon_ wounded in his tent Now wants the succour which so oft he lent.” Then “Patroclus cut the forky steel away, And in his hand a bitter root he pressed, The wound he washed and styptic juice infused, The closing flesh that instant ceased to glow, The wound to torture and the blood to flow.” Machaon seems to have largely shared the goodwill of the Grecian hosts. Nestor, in his anxiety, says:— A wise Physician skilled in wounds to heal, Is more than _armies_ to the public weal. Military leaders in our days have no such weakness as this. Studied neglect seems to them the befitting recompense of those on whom they must necessarily rely for the health and sanitary welfare of their troops.