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
Among the interesting objects which may be seen at the Museum of the
History of Medicine in Jena, Germany, there are several of these
terra-cotta images (votive offerings) representing pathological
conditions; and among them the writer noticed more particularly one
which reproduced faithfully, though in diminutive size, the appearances
presented by cancer of the female breast. (Fig. 7.) There were also a
very carefully modeled statuette of the trunk of a woman affected with
ascites, and an admirable representation of a case of facial paralysis.
(Fig. 8.) These objects were obtained by Professor Meyer-Steineg on the
occasion of a recent visit to the ruins of the temple of Cos and other
similar ruins in Greece and Asia Minor. The British Museum possesses
many objects of the same character.
[Illustration: FIG. 6. BAS-RELIEF OF AESCULAPIUS, ACCOMPANIED BY
WOMEN AND CHILDREN, IN THE PRESENCE OF AN ENORMOUS SERPENT.
The original is in the National Museum at Athens.]
[Illustration: FIG. 7. FEMALE BUST SHOWING CANCER OF ONE BREAST.
(Courtesy of Prof. Dr. Meyer-Steineg, of Jena, Germany.)]
It is not known at what precise date the _iatreia_, or small
private hospitals, first made their appearance, but it was about the
time when the religious character of the therapeutic work done in
the Asclepieia gave place to treatment of a more distinctly medical
character. Then, in addition to these _iatreia_, there were
schools for gladiators and institutions in which gymnastic exercises
were zealously cultivated; and in these places there was a frequent
demand for advice in regard to questions of diet, and for surgical
aid in the setting of broken bones, the reducing of dislocations,
and the curing of bruises and sprains. As may readily be understood,
the Asclepieia could not furnish the sort of professional aid which
these institutions needed, and thus a further stimulus was given to
the complete separation of the two kinds of medical practice--that
connected with the temple and that conducted by outside physicians.
In Plato’s “Republic” (Book III., Chapter 15) mention is made of a
certain Herodicus (of Selymbria; about 450 B. C.) who effected many
cures by a method of treatment which combined athletic exercises
with dieting. He gained considerable celebrity in this way, and is
undoubtedly entitled to the credit of having been the first to call
serious attention to the value of this plan of treating certain
maladies. But, unfortunately, he made use of it in not a few instances
where it proved harmful rather than beneficial to the patient, and thus
brought discredit upon the method.
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