He chose a middle way between the doctrines of the Dogmatists and Empirics. Writing of the Methodists, Celsus says: “They assert that the knowledge of no cause whatever bears the least relation to the method of cure; and that it is sufficient to observe some general symptoms of distempers; and that there are three kinds of diseases, one bound, another loose, and the third a mixture of these.”[462] Sometimes the excretions of the sick are too small, sometimes too large; one particular excretion may be in excess, another deficient; the observation of these things constitutes the art of medicine, which they defined as a certain way of proceeding, which the Greeks called _Method_. They deduced indications of treatment from analogies in symptoms, and made a bold classification of diseases; accurate as a rule in their diagnosis, they were usually successful and rational in their therapeutics. They entirely ignored any consideration of the remote causes of diseases; their only object was to cure their patients without speculating as to the reasons why they had become sick. They repudiated the _Vis medicatrix_ theory. EUDEMUS (B.C. 15) was a disciple of Themison. Cælius Aurelianus says of him that in his practice he used to order clysters of cold water for patients suffering from the iliac passion. It is probable that he was the friend and physician of Livilla, and the man who poisoned her husband Drusus. Tacitus speaks of him, saying that he made a great parade of many secret remedies, with a view to extol his own abilities as a doctor. It is possible, however, that this may not have been the same Eudemus as the disciple of Themison the Methodist, as there were several other physicians of that name. Our Eudemus made many observations on hydrophobia, and remarked how rarely any sufferer recovered who was attacked by it. He was put to death by order of Tiberius. MEGES, of Sidon (B.C. 20), was a famous surgeon, and a follower of Themison. He invented instruments used in cutting for the stone. He made observations on tumours of the breast and forward dislocations of the knee. He was regarded by Celsus as the most skilful of those who exercised the art of surgery. VECTIUS VALLENS (_circ._ A.D. 37) was a pupil of Apuleius Celsus, and was well known for his connection with Messalina, the wife of Claudius. He belonged to Themison’s sect, and is introduced by Pliny in fact as the author of an improvement upon it. It was the practice of all the adherents of the Methodist school of medicine to pretend that by the changes they had introduced into the system they had originated a new one.[463] SCRIBONIUS LARGUS (A.D. 45) is said to have been physician to Claudius, and to have accompanied him to Britain. He wrote several medical works in Latin. He was the first to prescribe the electricity of the electric ray in cases of headache.[464]