During the severe epidemics which often raged in ancient Rome the oracles were consulted as to the means to be adopted to be rid of them; prayers were offered up to the Greek gods of healing as well as those of the state. But Greece had done more for the art of healing by her physicians than her gods could do, and in process of time the Romans found this out, and the native doctors were compelled to yield before the advance of Greek science. The works of the Greek physicians and surgeons, who had done so much for medical knowledge and advancement, gradually made their way amongst the Romans. These paved the way for Hellenic influence, in spite of the disreputable behaviour of some of the professors of the art of medicine, on whom the Romans with good excuse looked as quacks and foreigners whose only object was gain. We read of the erection at Rome of a temple in honour of Apollo the healer, 467 B.C., and of the building of a temple to Æsculapius of Epidaurus, 460 B.C. Ten years later the Romans built a temple to the goddess _Salus_ when the pestilence raged in their city. Lucina was first worshipped there 400 B.C. In 399 B.C. the first _lectisternium_, a festival of Greek origin, was held in Rome by order of the Sybilline books; it was held on exceptional occasions, the present being a time of fresh public distress on account of a pestilence which was raging. The images of the gods were laid on a couch; a table spread with a meal was placed before them, and solemn prayers and sacrifices were offered. A third _lectisternium_ was held at Rome 362 B.C. That he might obtain a cessation of the pestilence then raging in Rome, L. Manlius Imperiorus fixed a nail in the temple of Jupiter, B.C. 360. This holding of lectisternes and driving nails in the temple walls became the recognised method of dealing with such scourges, and painfully exhibits the powerlessness of mankind to deal with disease by theurgic means. Science alone can combat disease, the bed and board offered to the gods who cannot use them are now bestowed on health officers who can; we no longer drive nails in temple walls to remind deities that we are in trouble, but we send memorials to our colleges of physicians demanding suggestions for escaping a visitation of cholera; it is not sufficient to fix “a nail in a sure place,” it must be fixed in the right one. In the year 291 B.C., on the occasion of a pestilence in Rome, ten ambassadors were sent to Epidaurus to seek aid from the temple of Æsculapius. The god was sent to the afflicted city under the figure of a serpent. He comes to our towns now under the figure of a cask of carbolic acid. ARCHAGATHUS was the first person who regularly practised medicine in Rome. He was a Peloponnesian who settled in the city B.C. 219, and was welcomed with great respect by the authorities, who purchased a surgery or shop for him at the public expense, and gave him the “Jus Quiritium.”