In the _Republic of Plato_, Book III., we find that medical aid was largely in request in Greece to relieve the indolent and voluptuous from the consequences of self-indulgence. It was thought by Socrates disgraceful to compel the clever sons of Asclepius to attend to such diseases as flatulence and catarrh; it seemed ridiculous to the philosopher to pay so much attention to regimen and diet as to drag on a miserable existence as an invalid in the doctor’s hands. When a carpenter was ill, he expected his doctor to cure him with an emetic or a purge, the cautery or an operation; if he were ordered a long course of diet, he would tell his doctor that he had no time to be ill, and he would go about his business regardless of consequences. Æsculapius, it was maintained, revealed the healing art for the benefit of those whose constitutions were naturally sound; he expelled their disorders by drugs and the use of the knife, without interfering with their usual avocations; but when he found they were hopelessly incurable, he would not attempt to prolong a miserable life by rules and diet, as such persons would be of no use either to themselves or the state. Constitutionally diseased persons and the intemperate livers were to be left to be dealt with by Nature, so that they might die of their diseases. CHAPTER III. POST-HIPPOCRATIC GREEK MEDICINE.—THE SCHOOLS OF MEDICINE. The Dogmatic School.—Praxagoras of Cos.—Aristotle.—The School of Alexandria.—Theophrastus the Botanist.—The great Anatomists, Erasistratus and Hierophilus, and the Schools they founded.—The Empiric School. THE DOGMATIC SCHOOL.