Opening the text

The growth of medicine from the earliest times to about 1800Buck, Albert H. (Albert Henry)

History

The growth of medicine from the earliest times to about 1800

Name: The growth of medicine from the earliest times to about 1800
Author: Buck, Albert H. (Albert Henry)

Buck, Albert H. (Albert Henry)

Medicine -- History

_Aëtius._--Aëtius was a native of Amida, in Mesopotamia, and
he lived during the early part of the sixth century A. D., under
the Emperor Justinian I. He studied medicine at Alexandria and then
settled in Constantinople, where he was appointed to the double office
of private physician to the emperor and commanding officer of his
body-guard (_Comes obsequii_),--an arrangement which made it
practicable for the emperor to have his physician near his person on
all possible occasions. Almost nothing is known about the subsequent
private life and professional career of Aëtius beyond the facts that
he was a Christian and that he wrote a treatise on medicine in sixteen
books, which together form a large volume. The work, says Le Clerc, is
almost entirely a compilation from the treatises of earlier writers
on medicine and surgery; the best parts of the book being those which
relate to the pathology and treatment of internal diseases, to materia
medica, and to ophthalmology. The Christianity of Aëtius, like that of
Alexander of Tralles, and other physicians of a later period, appears
to have permitted a belief in magical remedies. For example, Aëtius
gives formulae containing the names of the Saviour and the Holy Martyrs
for exorcising certain maladies, and he recommends the employment of
amulets. The subject of baths is treated by him quite thoroughly, and
he lays stress upon the importance of physical exercise as a means of
maintaining one’s health. Freind, the author of an English history of
medicine which was very popular in its day,[44] quotes the following
remedy for gout from the treatise of Aëtius:--

    In September to drink milk;
    in October to eat garlick;
    in November to abstain from bathing;
    in December not to eat cabbage;
    in January to take a glass of pure wine in the morning;
    in February to eat no beet;
    in March to mix sweet things both in eatables and drinkables;
    in April not to eat horseradish;
    nor in May the fish called Polypus;
    in June to drink cold water;--and so on through the remainder of
      the year.

At the end of the French version of “_Les Oeuvres de Rufus
d’Éphèse_” (translated from the Greek by Daremberg and Ruelle)
will be found fragments of some of the books of Aëtius; in 1899 J.
Hirschberg translated into German Book VII. (eye diseases) of the
same author; and, two years later (1901) Max Wegscheider published a
German version of Book XVI. (obstetrics and gynaecology). No other
translations of the writings of Aëtius into either French, German or
English are--so far as I am able to learn--available.

Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.

Opening the text

The growth of medicine from the earliest times to about 1800Buck, Albert H. (Albert Henry)

History

The growth of medicine from the earliest times to about 1800

Buck, Albert H. (Albert Henry)

Medicine -- History

_Aëtius._--Aëtius was a native of Amida, in Mesopotamia, and
he lived during the early part of the sixth century A. D., under
the Emperor Justinian I. He studied medicine at Alexandria and then
settled in Constantinople, where he was appointed to the double office
of private physician to the emperor and commanding officer of his
body-guard (_Comes obsequii_),--an arrangement which made it
practicable for the emperor to have his physician near his person on
all possible occasions. Almost nothing is known about the subsequent
private life and professional career of Aëtius beyond the facts that
he was a Christian and that he wrote a treatise on medicine in sixteen
books, which together form a large volume. The work, says Le Clerc, is
almost entirely a compilation from the treatises of earlier writers
on medicine and surgery; the best parts of the book being those which
relate to the pathology and treatment of internal diseases, to materia
medica, and to ophthalmology. The Christianity of Aëtius, like that of
Alexander of Tralles, and other physicians of a later period, appears
to have permitted a belief in magical remedies. For example, Aëtius
gives formulae containing the names of the Saviour and the Holy Martyrs
for exorcising certain maladies, and he recommends the employment of
amulets. The subject of baths is treated by him quite thoroughly, and
he lays stress upon the importance of physical exercise as a means of
maintaining one’s health. Freind, the author of an English history of
medicine which was very popular in its day,[44] quotes the following
remedy for gout from the treatise of Aëtius:--

    In September to drink milk;
    in October to eat garlick;
    in November to abstain from bathing;
    in December not to eat cabbage;
    in January to take a glass of pure wine in the morning;
    in February to eat no beet;
    in March to mix sweet things both in eatables and drinkables;
    in April not to eat horseradish;
    nor in May the fish called Polypus;
    in June to drink cold water;--and so on through the remainder of
      the year.

At the end of the French version of “_Les Oeuvres de Rufus
d’Éphèse_” (translated from the Greek by Daremberg and Ruelle)
will be found fragments of some of the books of Aëtius; in 1899 J.
Hirschberg translated into German Book VII. (eye diseases) of the
same author; and, two years later (1901) Max Wegscheider published a
German version of Book XVI. (obstetrics and gynaecology). No other
translations of the writings of Aëtius into either French, German or
English are--so far as I am able to learn--available.

Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.

The growth of medicine from the earliest times to about 1800

The growth of medicine from the earliest times to about 1800

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