Of natural medicine we hear of none recommended by the father of Egyptian physic, except the herb mnly, which he gave to Ulysses in order tosecure him from the enchantments of Circe ; and the herb mercury, of which he first discovered the use. His successors employed venesec tion, cathartics, emetics, and clusters there is no proof, however, that this prac tice was established by Hermes ; on the contrary, the Egyptians themselves pre tended, that the first hint of those reme dies was taken from some observations on brute animals. Venesection was taught them by the hippopotamus, which is said to perform this operation upon itself ; on these occasions, he comes out of the ri ver, and strikes his leg against a sharp pointed reed; as he takes care to direct the stroke against a vein, the conse quence must be a considerable effusion of blood ; and this being suffered to run as long as the creature think proper, he at last stops up the orifice with mud. The hint of clusters was taken from the ibis, a bird which is said to give itself clysters with its bill, &c. tbey used venesection, however, but very little, probahiy On ac count of the warmth of the climateu and the exhibition of the remedies %rave mentioned,joined with abstinence, form ed most of their practice.
The Greeks too had several persons to whom they attributed the invention of physic, particularly Prometheus, Apollo or Pun, and Msculapius ; which last was the most celebrated of any ; but here we must observe, that as the Greeks were a very warlike people, the physic seems to be little else than what is now called surgery, or the cure of wounds, fractures, &c.: hence )Esculapius, and his pupils Chiron, Machaon, and Podalirius, are celebrated by Homer only for their skill in curing these, without any mention of their attempting the cure of internal diseases. We are not, however, to suppose that they confined themselves entirely to surgery; they no doubt would occasion ally prescribe for internal disorders, but as they were most frequentlyconversant with wounds, we may naturally suppose the greatest part of their skill to have consist ed in knowing how to cure these. If we may believe the poets, indeed, the know ledge of medicine seems to have been very generally diffused.
Almost all the heroes of antiquity are reported to have been physicians as well as warriors. Most of them \ rere taught physic by the Centaur Chiron ; from him Hercules received instractim sin the me. dicinal art, in which he is said to have been no less expert than in feats of arms. Several plants were called by his name ; from whence some think it propable that he found out their virtues, though others are of opinion that they bore the name of this renowned hero, on account of their great efficacy in removing diseases. Aria tzus, King of Arcadia, was also one of Chiron's scholars, and supposed to have discovered the use of the drug called silphium, by some thought to be asafcc tide.
Theseus, Telemon, Jason, Peleus, and his son Achilles, were all renowned for their knowledge in the art of physic ; the last is said to have discovered the use of verdigris in cleansing foul ulcers. All of
them, however, seem to have been infe rior in knowledge to ePalamedes, who prevented the plague from coming into the Grecian camp, after it had ravaged most of the cities of Hellespont, and even Troy itself. His method was, to confine his soldiers to a spare diet, and oblige them to use much exercise.
The practice of these ancient Greek physicians, notwithstanding the praises bestowed upon them by their poets,seems to have been very limited, and in some cues even pernicious. All the external remedies applied to Homer's wounded heroes were fomentations; while inwardly their physicians gave them wine, some times mingled with cheese scraped down; a great deal of their physic also con sisted in charms, incantations, amulets, &c. of which, as they are common to all superstitious and ignorant nations, it is superfluous to take any further notice. In this way the art of medicine continued among the Greeks for many ages. As its first professors knew nothing of the ani mal economy, and as little of the theory of diseases, it is plain, that whatever they did, must have been in consequence of mere random trials, or empiricism, in the most strict and proper sense of the word. Indeed, it is evidently impossible that this, or almost any other art could originate from any other source than trials of this kind : accordingly we find that some ancient nations were accus tomed to expose their sick in temples and by the sides of highways, that they might receive the advice of every one who passed.
Among the Greeks, however, /Escu lapius was reckoned the most eminent practitioner of his time, and his name continued to be revered after his death. He was ranked among the gods ; and the principal knowledge of the medicinal art remained with his family to the time of Hippocrates, who reckoned himself the seventeenth in a lineal descent from JEsculapius, and who was truly the first who treated of medicine in a regular and rational manner.
Hippocrates, who is supposed to have lived four hundred years before the birth of Christ, lathe most ancient author whose writings have descended to the present day : and he is hence justly regarded as the father of medicine. In his period, and indeed till a century or two ago, the distinct branches of medicine and surgery were studied and practised by the same person. Hippocrates, therefore, has been universally regarded as having contribu ted equally to our physiological and ana tomical knowledge of the human frame, and the few anecdotes relating to him for which we can find room have been already communicated to the reader under the article Asoustr. We shall here there fore only add those opinions of the Coan sage, which more immediately apply to the science of therapeutics, and which are more entitled to general attention.