Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1909-09-29
MEDICINE OF THE ANClENTS
GREEK SCIENCE ANTEDATES
TIME OF HIPPoCRATES.
Early Ways Of Treating Common
Bodily Ills-Knowledge
of the Asiatics.
From the Boston Globe.

From the Boston Globe.
Many people are under the erroneous
impression that medical science made it's
first appearance in Greece with Hippoc-
rates. That he had been the first ply
stefan without ancestors. that he could not
have profited by what had been done
in medicine before his time, because
nothing had been produced before.
From the literature OF the two peoples.
the East Indians and the Greeks. who
had made early advances in civilization.
and who left to us the most ancient writ
ten monuments, we learn that even In
the remotest epochs men had some
knowledge of medical science, and that
some of them devoted themselves pa4ticu-
larly to this study. In fact, In some
stanzas of Beldic hymns 0ndian) we
notice that mention Is made or physicians
and sickness. In some or the literature
Of that time mention is made of methods
many of the common Ills. such as child
birth complications. hemorrhages, septic
conditions, etc.
Probably no other people has influenced
SO much the development OF medical
science as the Greek. Indeed, Greek med
icine may be considered the beginning OF
modern medicine, the formation of the
several systems now ruling. The medi-
cal science or the cdSI liuldh, dAlhoN6H
considered by many as the most ancient,
unfortunately leaves to us no-literature,
and the medicine of the Egyptians was
confined almost exclusively to hygiene
and dietetics.
The Caste Of Priests.
Generally speaking. nearly all OF the
medicine of the oriental people was bar
rem fruit. Such medical knowledge was
confined to narrow limits and was con-
sidered the private property of the caste
of priests and tied by the faith In des-
tiny and by many superstitions made no
progress whatever. even when the orien-
tai peoples came under the influence OF
the Greek school. =:
existed than the epic. which was both
religious and heroic poetry. Man of that
period imprinted In 1t his very soul OF
passions, and 1t is there we see all his
knowledge and seeds OF later DAY ciVih@a-
ton.
In every literary and medical question
we must look for the foundation theories
to the grand old epic Of Homer. His
"Iliad' and odyssey two Immortal
works of the Greek genius, contain &C
tualiy the seed in part of the medical
knowledge of later periods. the anatom-
ical terms therein used are the same as
those used by Hippocrates. and again
many Of them are still In use by the pres
us from remote ages hardly one has suf-
fered a material change. The rules gov
erning the care Of dangerous wounds
were well established at that time as
| may be inferred from Agamemnon con n,
ISOLATION to Menelaus, when wounded IN
battle In these words: THE skillful ply
stefan will apply remedies and use means
to relieve the great pain.
Again this knowledge Is exemplneo IN
record of the treatment of the wounded
Eurypilus by Patroclus, who was a dis
ciple of Achilles, which says that with
hot water he washed the WOUND ana
with his hand applied soothing medicine
until all pain ceased. then dried the
wound and arrested the hemorrhage COM
pletely..
Remedy for Sorrow.
Later on, in the odyssey" we learn
of a remedy to "chase away SORROW.
which was given to Telemachus by
| Helena to drive away his melancholy at
the loss of his father.
From Homer we learn. therefore, that
medical science did not originate with
Hippocrates, nor does this wise scientist
claim that distinction for himself. For
he says In one Of his publications on
ancient medicines: Medical science has
existed Of old and had beginning and
a traced road in which many good things
have been found in the course Of time,
and the rest will be added if capable
man knows what has been known al
ready and will search for more from the
beginning"
Many works attributed to Hippocrates
were not written by him. because in them
the teachings Of the school of knidos
are largely represented, a school which
in ancient times was as justly celebrat-
ed as the one Of Kos.
This fact. although It detracts son,e-
what from the work Of Hippocrates, great
ly honors the Greek genius. showing as
it does that Greece at that epoch had
many and great physicians.