Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-05-22
ANTIQUE MEDICINE.
MANY "New" Medical Discoveries
Known to the Ancients.
From the Lancet.

From the Lancet.
NJ. O. van Schoor in an essay in the Jour-
nal de Pharmacie for March on the evolu-
ton of medicine accentuates the truth of
the adage Nil novi sub sole. Some of his
Illustrations are worth giving. Hippocrates
was aware of the patches in the intest nes
the discovery of which is ascribed to
Peyer $1,000, and Caspar Aselli Q60O) is
wrongfully said to have discovered chylif
erous vessels to which Herophilus and
Erasistratus drew attention t210 B. Co..
The pancreattc duct, the discovery of which
is attributed to Hoffman and Wirsung
C1630), is mentioned by Eudemus. con- en-
porary of Galen. Again Alcaeon. who lived
in the fourth century before Christ, refers
to the auditory duct, which afterward bore
the name of eustachian tube. The same
thing has occurred in therapeutics. Many
remedies that were employed in remote
antiquity fell into disuse and were again in
troduced into practice at later date. Thus,
arsenic was used as a febrifuge by Len
titus and Hippocrates recommended it for
cancerous affections. The most recent re-
searches have resulted in the employment
of arsenic for the same purpose in the form
of organic compOunds-e.g., the cacodylates
and arrhenal Pythagoras recognized the
diuretic value of squill. but its use lapsed
fol long period.
Opium has been found In the dwellings Of
the inhabitants of the lake villages OF
Switzerland as well as In ancient Egyptian
tombs, but afterward 1t appears to have
been forgotten during several centuries
Hippocrates employed this drug freely as
! a sedative, and afterward 1t had a vogue
in the middle ages. Even Paracelsus did
not scruple to use this vegetable drug In
the case of one Kornel Won Lichtenfels. who
had vainly tried other practitioners with
out being cured. Paracelsus speedily ef-
fected a cure. but 1t Is OF interest, to note
that the patient refused to pay the fee
which had been agreed upon before the
treatment was begun. The case was tried
before the court at Basic. with the result
that the fee was reduced to a few forms:
This so angered Paracelsus that he re-
preached the judge, and SO brought about
his Punishment and the loss of the chair
which he occupied in the university. A
remedy known to Galen was the male fern.
brought to the notice of Louis XIV by a
ouack.
In surgery it is no less true that some
Of the methods employed by modern adj
vanced surgeons were known to the an
clients. Thus Hippocrates mentioned in
tubation of the larnyx, and Coelius Aure-
lianus gave instances of the successful ope-
ration of tracheotOmy. Praxagoras ven-
tured to perform a laparotomy and en-
ployed Intestinal s'7tures. Operations for
hernia were performed $50 BE-, and Sera-
pion removed diseased kidneys. Puncture
of the thorax in empyema was rediscovered
in 1850 after having been forgotten appar-
emily for centuries. That the practice of
asepsis is not entirely modern is shown by
the fact that contemporaries of Hippoc-
rates were In the habit of dipping their In
struments in boiling water.
In the thirteenth century 1t was custom
airy before operating to administer to pa
tients by means OF sponges placed IN the