A lecture, introductory to the course of surgical instruction in the Kentucky School of Medicine, 1854-55 / by Joshua B. Flint.

  • Flint, Joshua B. (Joshua Barker), 1801-1864.
Date:
1854
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A lecture, introductory to the course of surgical instruction in the Kentucky School of Medicine, 1854-55 / by Joshua B. Flint. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    those who ha^ resorted to them for relief, and returned to testify their gratitude for the cure. In some of the temples of Egypt the walls are covered ^Yith these votive tablets, and the exposition of them has furnished a most interesting archaeological essay, by a German scholar, who published in 1749, a book entitled, De incremente artis medicince, per expositionem cegrotorum in viis publicis et templis. Sprengel, in his History of Medicine, gives us translations of a number of the votive tablets, which this learned gentleman discovered in a temple on the isle of Tibre, and the reader cannot fail to observe that, although full of absurdities and superstitions, to a discriminating mind they would communicate much available information respecting the progress of diseases and the effects of remedies. As the same kind of inscriptions are found in the Grecian temples, it is believed that they furnished no inconsiderable share of that great mass of medical knowledge which made the basis of the instructions of Hippocrates, the first acknowledged teacher of our art; as it appears that his ancestors, for three hundred years, were serving as priests in the temple of iEsculapeus. Among the Israelites also, at the time of Moses, medical knowledge was trans- mitted by the Levites, who alone understood how to treat the leprosy, and possessed the exclusive right to practice medicine in that nation. To return to the clerico-medical feature in the universities — while it perpetuated the unbecoming union of secular and sacred professional duties, it legitimatized the best practice of the times, rendered it respectable by scientific associations, and invited to its service men of talents and position in the church. Exercised only by the ministers of religion, medicine necessarily participated in the honors, privileges and immunities which the clergy had accu- mulated, and, like theology, was the road to distinction in the church —to benefices, to the episcopate, to the cardinalate, and even to the papacy itself. According to the catalo;^ue of Beso- nius, the popes John XX. and John XXI. were both physicians, as was also the Cardinal Pierre of Amiens, and, on the authority of