CHAPTER V. LATER ROMAN MEDICINE. The Eclectic and Pneumatic Sects.—Galen.—Neo-Platonism.—Oribasius and Ætius.—Influence of Christianity and the Rise of Hospitals.—Paulus Ægineta.—Ancient Surgical Instruments. THE SECT OF THE PNEUMATISTS. ATHENÆUS OF CILICIA about A.D. 69 founded at Rome the SECT OF THE PNEUMATISTS, at the time when the Methodists enjoyed their greatest reputation. They admitted an active principle of an immaterial nature, to which they gave the name of πνεῦμα, spirit. This principle caused the health or the diseases of the body, and the sect was named from it. Athenæus was a Stoic, who had adopted the doctrines of the Peripatetics. In addition to the _pneuma_, he developed the theory of the elements, and in them recognised the positive qualities of the animal frame. The union of heat and moisture is necessary for the preservation of health. Heat and dryness cause acute diseases, cold and moisture produce phlegmatic disorders, cold and dryness give rise to melancholy. At death, all things dry up and become cold.[488] Great services to pathology were rendered by the Pneumatic sect. Several new diseases were discovered by them; but they over refined their doctrines, especially that of fevers and the pulse; they thought this alternate contraction and dilatation of the arteries was the operation of the _pneuma_, or spirit passing from the heart. _Diastole_ or _dilatation_ pushes forward the spirit, the _systole_ or _contraction_ draws it back.[489] THE SECT OF THE ECLECTICS Derived their name from the fact that they selected from each of the other sects the opinions that seemed most probable. They seem to have agreed very nearly, if they were not actually identical with the sect known as the EPISYNTHETICS. They endeavoured to join the tenets of the Methodici to those of the Empiric and Dogmatic sects, and to reconcile their differences.[490] Amongst the most famous of the school were AGATHINUS OF SPARTA (1st cent. A.D.), who founded the Episynthetic sect, though Galen refers to him as among the Pneumatici. He was a pupil of Athenæus, and the tutor of Archigenes. None of his writings are extant. THEODORUS was a physician mentioned by Pliny.[491] ARCHIGENES OF APAMÆA, who practised in Rome (A.D. 98-117), was exceedingly famous. He is mentioned several times by Juvenal,[492] and was the most celebrated of the sect. He wrote on the pulse, and attempted the classification of fevers. Very few fragments of his works remain. He was the first to treat dysentery with opium.