Page:The growth of medicine from the earliest times to about 1800.djvu/171

 *berg, Prussia, and a German translation of the work (by Lüneberg and Huber) was published in Munich in 1894. Moschion, who was probably a pupil of Soranus, wrote a popular treatise on the same subject for the use of mid-*wives, and in this book he has reproduced much of the material which is to be found in the work of his master. The treatise written by Caelius Aurelianus on acute and chronic diseases is admitted by him to be founded on that which Soranus wrote on the same subject. In fact, as Daremberg states, the work of the former represents almost a translation (into Latin) of Soranus' treatise. The sources just named are the principal ones from which our knowledge of this author is derived.

Soranus was a prolific writer; the treatises which he wrote and which deal with a great variety of subjects, number thirty in all. The majority of these works, however, have been lost. He had many followers and his influence upon medical science was very great, not simply during his lifetime, but also for several centuries after his death. He commanded the respect and confidence of the opponents of Methodism as well as of the members of his own sect. One of his most pronounced traits of character was his readiness to condemn, on every possible occasion, superstitious practices, such as the employment of amulets, magnets, etc. He was also a very persistent and earnest advocate of the gentler and more rational obstetric methods. For example, he disapproved of the reckless employment of remedies for hastening the expulsion of the foetus, of the practice of succussion (which was carried out by the aid of a ladder), of making the pregnant woman run up and down stairs, of a resort to rough mechanical procedures for extracting the placenta, etc. The following quotation from one of Soranus' treatises (Gynaeciorum, Lib. I., cap. 19) reveals clearly what sort of a man and physician he was:—

There is a disagreement; for some reject destructive practices, calling to witness Hippocrates, who says, "I will give nothing whatever destructive" and deeming it the special province of medicine to guard and preserve what nature generates. Another