Iphiclus had no children, and he asked Melampus to tell him how he could become a father. He advised him to take the rust from a knife, and drink it in water during ten days. The remedy was eminently successful, and is the first instance in which a preparation of iron is known to have been prescribed in medicine. He cured the daughters of Prœtus by giving them hellebore (which has been called Melampodium by botanists), and he received the eldest of the princesses in marriage. He cured the women of Argos of a severe distemper which made them insane, and the king showed his gratitude by giving him part of his kingdom. He received divine honours after his death, and temples were raised to him. THE MEDICINE OF HOMER. As Homer is supposed to have lived about 850 B.C., a study of such references as are to be found in the _Iliad_ and _Odyssey_ which relate to medicine and surgery will throw an important light on the state of the healing art as it was practised at that early period of Greek history. There is little mention of disease in Homer. We read of sudden death, pestilence, and the troubles of old age, but there is hardly any fixed morbid condition noticed. Although the poet exhibits considerable acquaintance with medical lore, and the human body in health and disease, he could have had little or no acquaintance with anatomy, because amongst Greeks, as amongst Jews, it was considered a profanation to dissect or mutilate the human corpse. It was not till the rise of the Alexandrian school in the golden age of the Ptolemies that this sentiment was overcome. Still Homer must have known that it was the custom of the Egyptians to embalm their dead, as he refers to the process in the _Iliad_,[337] where Thetis poured into the nostrils of the corpse red nectar and ambrosia to preserve it from putrefaction. Ambrosia is referred to by Virgil as useful for healing wounds, and nectar was supposed to preserve flesh from decay. Homer’s heroes seem to have been singularly healthy folk; their only demand for the services of the army surgeons arose from the accidents of war. MACHAON distinguished himself in surgery, and PODALIRIUS is reputed to have been the first phlebotomist. Their services would be chiefly required for extracting arrow-heads and spear-heads, checking hæmorrhage by compression and styptic applications, and laying soothing ointments on wounded and bruised surfaces. Beyond these minor duties of the army surgeon, we find little record of their work. Mention is not made of amputations, of setting of fractures, or tying of arteries. Wounds were probed by Machaon, surgeon to Menelaus (Book IV.).