Page:The growth of medicine from the earliest times to about 1800.djvu/99

 In Plato's "Republic" (Book III., Chapter 15) mention is made of a certain Herodicus (of Selymbria; about 450 B. C.) who effected many cures by a method of treatment which combined athletic exercises with dieting. He gained considerable celebrity in this way, and is undoubtedly entitled to the credit of having been the first to call serious attention to the value of this plan of treating certain maladies. But, unfortunately, he made use of it in not a few instances where it proved harmful rather than beneficial to the patient, and thus brought discredit upon the method.

Already previous to the time at which the changes mentioned above took place, there had occurred still other changes in the character and practice of medicine. The business of cutting for stone in the bladder, for example, had been left entirely in the hands of men who made a specialty of this branch of medicine—men who might truthfully be called medical artisans. Then there was another class of men who devoted their energies to collecting medicinal roots and plants. They were a necessity to physicians, and constituted the first representatives of the modern apothecary. Still another change in the status of the Greek physicians had been slowly developing throughout this pre-Hippocratic period, a change which tended more and more to make them men of self-reliance and of considerable importance in their respective communities, and which indicated very clearly that they were steadily growing in skill and breadth of knowledge. As evidence of the correctness of this statement it is sufficient to mention the fact that Greek physicians had established so good a reputation that they were frequently called to see important cases at a great distance—in Egypt, in Persia, etc. But before further consideration is given to this subject of the development of the Greek physician during the period immediately preceding the appearance of the Hippocratic writings, it seems advisable to say a few words concerning the facilities for medical instruction which were available at that time.

Medical Instruction in Connection with the Asclepieia.—*