abstain from all evil and all injustice. I will administer poison to none, if asked to do so, nor will I ever make such a suggestion. I will pass my life and exercise my art in innocence and purity." In Greece there were both public and private physicians. There were further dispensaries, or perhaps more accurately surgeries, called iarpeia. These were furnished with the necessary surgical and medical appliances. In the Acharnians of Aristophanes, Lamachos, on feeling unwell, asks to be carried into such an establishment conducted by one Pittalos.' The scene from a fifth century vase-painting (No. 433; fig. 188) depicts a young surgeon at work in an iarpetov. He is operating on a patient's arm (perhaps bleeding him), while another man, also wounded in the arm, sits before him. A dwarf slave is ushering other patients

2

into the surgery, where bleeding-cups are seen hanging on the wall. Patients also went to the larpeia to get draughts of medicine. Before the Alexandrian age it is probable that medicine was in advance of surgery, for up to that time no scientific study of anatomy had been attempted. Aristotle observes that the internal organs of the human body were in his time very little known, and what dissection there was must have been practised on animals. The terracotta model (No. 66; fig. 19, above) of the heart, liver, lungs and kidneys shows how vague the ancient idea as to the position of these organs sometimes was.

Roman Medicine.-Medical science for a long time made

1 Ach. 1222.

2 See Mon. Piot, XIII. (1906), pl. xiii., p. 149 ff. From a vase in a private collection in Paris.

* Plat., Leg. i. 646: τοὺς εἰς τὰ ἰατρεῖα αὐτοὺς βαδίζοντας ἐπὶ φαρμακοποσίαν.

4 Hist. An. i. 16.

but little progress in Rome. The Greek physician Archagathos, who began to practise there in 219 B.C., became extremely unpopular owing to his bold methods of surgery. The Roman doctors were chiefly of Greek nationality, and not infrequently were slaves or freedmen. Julius Caesar encouraged foreign

a b c d e f h i k

FIG. 189.-BRONZE SURGICAL INSTRUMENTS (No. 434, etc.). 1:2. physicians to settle in Rome by granting them citizenship, and under the early Empire Rome was overcrowded with medical men, if we may believe Pliny and Martial.2 Nor can the standard

1 Plin., H.N. xxix. 12 f.

2 Plin., H.N. xxix. 11: hinc illae circa aegros miserae sententiarum concertationes, hinc illa infelix monimenti inscriptio: turba se medicorum periisse. Cf. Martial, v. 9.

of medicine at Rome have been a high one if Pliny's testimony is trustworthy. He complains that charlatans abounded, and that the physician alone of men had liberty to kill.1 We cannot be surprised at such abuses, since it does not appear that any degree or licence was necessary to enable a man to practise medicine at Rome. In estimating the average skill of the medical profession in the first centuries of the Empire, we must bear in mind that the writings of Celsus and Galen are largely drawn from Greek sources, and are the work of exceptional men. They show, however, that the study of anatomy was very defective, largely owing to the prejudice against the dissection of the human body. The surgical instruments, on the other hand, had been brought to great perfection.

The objects illustrating Greek and Roman Medicine and Surgery are exhibited in part of Table-Case H. First in importance are the surgical instruments, a selection of which is shown in fig. 189. With rare exceptions these instruments are of bronze. The principal varieties are here represented. There are several knives or bistouries, an excellent example being the one from Myndos in Asia Minor, with the upper part of the handle inlaid with silver (No. 434; fig. 189g). The lower part of the handle was in iron, and has fallen away. The heavier bronze blades must have been used for various purposes in connection with dissecting. Forceps are fairly common. The interesting variety seen on the right of the illustration (k) with its fine toothed ends (No. 435) is probably an uvula forceps, used for crushing the part intended to be amputated. An instrument frequently found is the spatula or "spathomele" (No. 436; fig. 189a-c, e, f), so called from its flat broad end. This was principally employed for mixing and spreading ointments, while the olive-shaped ends were used as probes. Other instruments which call for notice are the fine-toothed surgical saw (No. 437; fig. 189h), the sharp hook (No. 438; fig. 189d), used for "seizing and raising small pieces of tissue for excision, and for fixing and retracting the edges of wounds." The bifurcated probes (No. 439) were perhaps used for the extraction of arrows and other weapons. The bronze cupping-vessel (No. 440) should be noticed. Similar vessels are seen suspended on the walls of the surgery depicted in the vase-scene figured above (fig. 188), and one appears on the marble relief in the Phigaleian Room (fig. 190), representing a physician named Jason treating a boy with a swollen stomach.2 Bleeding-cups are also sometimes repre1 Plin., H.N. xxix. 17 f. 2 Cat. of Sculpt., I. 629.

sented on coins, e.g. on those of Epidauros.

Burning lint or

some other lighted substance was placed in the vessel to exhaust the air, and its mouth was then applied to the part from which blood was to be extracted. The bronze box (No. 441), probably from the Cyrenaica, was almost certainly used by a Roman physician for his drugs. It is divided into several compartments, each furnished with a separate cover, and has a sliding lid. Boxes

FIG. 190.-MARBLE RELIEF. PHYSICIAN TREATING PATIENT.

Ht. 2 ft. 7 in.

of a precisely similar character have been found with surgical instruments.1

A very interesting class of antiquities is furnished by the stamps of oculists (No. 442). These take the form of square or oblong plates, generally of steatite or slate. On the edges are engraved inscriptions, giving the name of the oculist, the name of his specific, and its purpose. In 1854 the complete outfit of an

1 See Deneffe, Trousse d'un chirurgien gallo-romain, pl. 2.

oculist was discovered at Reims, with coins of Antoninus Pius and M. Aurelius. It consisted of 19 surgical instruments of bronze, two small balances, an oculist's stamp (bearing the name of C. Firmius Severus), and 40 grammes of collyria, the specifics above mentioned.' These salves were pounded on the stone into a paste, and then impressed with the engraved edge. They generally bear a Greek name, such as Diasmyrnes, Crocodes, etc., indicating their composition. They appear to have been made up into the form of sticks, and put into bronze cylindrical boxes, which have from time to time been found with Roman surgical instruments. One or two examples of the stamps may be given:

Two small lead pots placed near the weights were used for holding eye-salves. One from Corfu bears the letters A T; the other, from Athens, has the tripod of Apollo, the god of healing, and is inscribed "The Lykian salve from Musaeos" (No. 444). Near these pots are spoons with channels for melting and pouring the salves into wounds (No. 445).

Above the objects last mentioned are statuettes representing dwarfs in various states of deformity caused by spinal disease. The ivory figure of a dwarf afflicted with a peculiar form of spinal curvature causing pigeon-breastedness is a work of considerable spirit, probably of the third century A.D. (No. 446). The Romans under the Empire conceived a strange passion for acquiring slaves 1 Espérandieu, Signacula Med. Ocul., No. 67.