The priests in the Aesculapian temples were not, as is generally assumed, physicians in the ordinary sense. They may have acquired some knowledge of the art, and they may even in some instances have been regularly trained physicians, but the important fact remains that they wished it to be understood that the treatment carried out in the temple was in accordance with revelations made to them by the god Aesculapius, and not the mere fruit of human knowledge. Consequently the intervention of regular physicians in the temple management of the sick must have appeared to them quite superfluous. For this reason, therefore, it is not likely that there existed, on the part of either the temple priests or the physicians, any feeling of animosity or opposition. It is more likely that the contrary was the case, for the evidence shows that the physicians--the Asclepiadae--paid most humble reverence to the sacred relics of Aesculapius, and placed the most implicit confidence in the opinions which he was supposed to give in desperate cases. [Illustration: FIG. 8. PARALYSIS OF THE LEFT FACIAL NERVE. (Courtesy of Prof. Dr. Meyer-Steineg, _Jenaer medizinisch-historische Beiträge_, Heft 2, 1912.)] While Puschmann does not say to what period in the history of these temples his statement applies, it is safe to assume that he had in mind only the earlier stages. When the systematic teachings of medical pupils began, those physicians who gave the instruction--viz., the Asclepiadae who were not at the same time priests--took up their abode somewhere in the neighborhood of the temple. Thus, medical schools were formed at different places, those of Rhodes, Crotone, Cyrene, Cos and Cnidus attaining the greatest celebrity. The pupil paid a fee for his instruction, and when his training was believed to be completed he was admitted into the association or brotherhood of the Asclepiadae upon taking the following oath, which for ages past has been known as “The Hippocratic Oath,” but which is now believed to have been formulated long before the time of Hippocrates:-- THE HIPPOCRATIC OATH I swear by Apollo the Physician and Aesculapius, and Hygieia and Panacea and all the gods and all the goddesses--and I make them my judges--that this mine oath and this my written engagement I will fulfil as far as power and discernment shall be mine. Him who taught me this art I will esteem even as I do my parents; he shall partake of my livelihood, and, if in want, shall share my goods. I will regard his issue as my brothers and will teach them this art without fee or written engagement if they shall wish to learn it. I will give instruction by precept, by discourse, and in all other ways, to my own sons, to those of him who taught me, to disciples bound by written engagements and sworn according to medical law, and to no other person.