_The State of Medical Knowledge at the Time of the Siege of Troy._--It is from Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey that our authoritative knowledge of the most ancient Greek medicine is derived. In the former work mention is made of Aesculapius and his two sons, Machaon and Podalirius, both of whom accompanied Agamemnon and the Greek host in their expedition against Troy. According to this author’s account they served in the double capacity of surgeons to the army and valiant leaders of troops. In order that the reader may judge for himself just what is the nature of the evidence furnished by Homer with regard to the medical knowledge of that period, it seems desirable to introduce here a few of the more characteristic references which the poet makes to spear, javelin and arrow wounds, to the injuries caused by fragments of rocks hurled by the assailants, and to various remedial measures, both surgical and medical, employed for the relief of the wounded or sick warriors. There are at least one hundred such passages in the Iliad alone, but the few which are here cited will serve as adequate examples of Homer’s familiarity with anatomy and with some of the methods of treating spear and arrow wounds,--a familiarity which indicates that the poet must have had some medical training. Thus he; and not unmoved Machaon heard: They through the crowd, and through the widespread host, Together took their way; but when they came Where fair-hair’d Menelaüs, wounded, stood, Around him in a ring the best of Greece, And in the midst the godlike chief himself, From the close-fitting belt the shaft he drew, With sharp return of pain; the sparkling belt He loosen’d, and the doublet underneath, And coat of mail, the work of Arm’rer’s hand. But when the wound appeared in sight, where struck The stinging arrow, from the clotted blood He cleans’d it, and applied with skilful hand The healing ointments, which, in friendly guise, The learned Chiron to his father gave. (Book IV. of the Iliad, Lines 221–259.) * * * * *