The history and practice of surgery in ancient and mediæval times / by James Swain.

  • Swain, James.
Date:
[1909]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The history and practice of surgery in ancient and mediæval times / by James Swain. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    renowned for their medical skill; and a stone tablet found in the Hieron Valley, near Epidaurus, where iEsculapius is said to have been born, seems to show a group of people asking the advice of yEsculapius and his family. According to Homer, disculapius and his sons were engaged in surgical work, acting like the army surgeons of modern times. Podalirius and Machaon were at the siege of Troy, and were employed in such operations as extracting barbed arrows by incision, and stopping hemorrhage from wounds. Machaon is credited with curing Philoctetes of a foul ulcer by cutting out the wound, washing it with wine, and applying healing herbs. This use of wine by the ancients was very com¬ mon. Doubtless the good it effected was due to the antiseptic properties of the alcohol contained in it, and at the present time a solution of alcohol is one of our valued antiseptics. In Homer no mention is made of any divine origin of iEsculapius—he is simply the blameless physieian ” ; but after his death wonderful birth-stories arose, as in the case of Alexander and other great men of ancient times. These legends ascribe the parentage of iEsculapius to Apollo and Coronis, and he is said to have been born by Caesarean section just before his mother was burnt in the flames to which the jealous Apollo had committed her. Many temples were erected in honour of yEsculapius after his deification, those at Epidauros, Cnidos and Cos being amongst the most important. At these temples the officiating priest— who might or might not be a physician—brought the sick person before an image of the god, and the necessary sacrifices were made accompanied by prayers and hymns and other ritual Snakes and dogs—both of which were sacred to iEsculapius —are said to have been trained to lick ulcers or other diseased s ^ conditions with their tongues. These snakes, which were quite harmless, were peculiar to Epidauros, where they abounded. Sometimes the god was said to appear in the form of a serpent, and the staff of Hfsculapius is represented with a snake, and remains as the symbol of the medical profession to this day.