PHYSICIAN (a Ovoids), a word derived from Oats, nature, which meant originally what we should now call a natural philosopher, or one of those persons who have for their object the investigation of nature and its laws, in opposition to of Vitro', or those who examine particu larly into the moral nature of men. (Pnitosoenv.] In English bow. ever the word physician is used only to designate the professors of the healing art, called in Greek farpoi, and in Latin nzedici ; while in most (if not all) other European lanaguages the derivatives of the Greek word are still employed in their original meaning, and the idea of healing is expressed either by some native word or by one derived from the Latin.* The origin and progress of physic, together with an account of the different medical sects, has been given already under MEDICINE; in the present article it is proposed to mention some of the most curious and interesting facts respecting the rank, education, &c., of the physicians of antiquity, and afterwards to state the legal qualifications for practising this branch of the medical profession in our own country.
In Greece and Asia Minor the profession of medicine seems to have been held in high esteem, for, not to mention the apotheosis of iEscu lapiva, who was considered as the father of it, there was a law at Athens that no female or stare should practise it (Hyginus, Fab.,' cap. 274); /Ellen mentions one of the laws of Zaleucus among the Epize phyrian Locrians, by which it was ordered that if any one during his illness should drink wine contrary to the orders of his physician, even if ho should recover, he should be put to death for his disobedience (` Var. Hist.' lib. ii., cap. 37); and there are extant several medals struck by the people of Smyrna in honour of different persons belong ing to the medical profession. (Mead's ' Dissertatio do Nummis qui busdam a Smyrnreia in I'd edicorum Honorem percussis; 4 to., Lend. 1724.) If the Decree of the Athenians (published among the letters of Hippo crates) be genuine, and if Soranua in Vita Hippocr.') can be depended on, the same honours were conferred upon that physician as had before been given to Hercules; lie was voted a golden crown, publicly initiated into the Eleusinisn mysteries,and maintained in the Prytaneum at the state's expenle. (See also Pliny, Hist. Nat.,' lib. vii., cap. 37.) Some idea of the income of n physician in those times may bo formed from the fact mentioned by Ilerodotus (lib. iii., cap. 1311, that the .1Eginetans (about the year B.O. 532, GI. 62, 11 paid Democedes from the public treasury one talent per annum for his services, that is (if we reckon, with Hussey, ' Anticnt Weights and Money, &c.' the ..Eginetan drachma to bo worth Is. lid.), not quite three hundred and forty-four pounds ; he afterwards received from the Athenians one hundred minx, that is (reckoning, with Hussey, the Attie drachma to bo worth 9ici.), rather more than four hundred and six pounds; and he was finally attracted to Samos by being offered by Polyerates a salary of two talents, that ii (if the Attic standard be meant) four hundred end eighty-seven pounds ten shillings. It should however be added that Valcicenaer daibta the accuracy of this statement of Ilerodotus with respect to the .eEginetans and Athenians (and apparently with reason), on the ground that the latter people, at the time of their greatest wealth, only allowed their ambassadors two drachma (or 18. 70) per day, that is, somewhat less than thirty pounds per annum. (Aristoph., Acharn.,' v. 66.) It seems to have been not uncommon in those times (as afterwards in the later Roman empire, see ARCHIATER in Broo. Drv.), for states to main tain physicians, who were paid at the public cost (Xenophon, Memor. Socr.; lib. iv., cap. 2, § 5 ; Plato, ‘Gorg.; § 23; Strabo, lib. iv., p. 125; Diod. Sic., lib. xii., cap. 13); and these again had attendants, for the most part slaves, who exercised their calling among people of low con dition. (Plato, ' De Leg.,' lib. iv., p. 720, ed. Steph.; Boeckh's Public Econ. of Athens,' vol. i., p. 160.) In the earlier times of the Roman republic physicians were unknown (Pliny, Hist. Nat.,' lib. xxix., cap. 5, ed. Tauchn.); and for some time afterwards the exercise of the profession was in a great measure con fined to persons of servile rank ; for the richer families having slaves who were skilled in all sorts of trades, &c., generally possessed one or more that understood medicine and surgery. (Middleton's Essay De
Medicorum spud Romanos degentium Conditions; Cantab., 1726, 4to., and the various answers to it that appeared on its publication.) To this practice however there were many exceptions; namely, the phy sician who was taken prisoner with Julius Caesar by the pirates at the island of Pharmacusa (Sueton., cap. 4), and who is called his friend by Plutarch (see Casaubon's Note on Sueton.); Archagathus, who, being the first foreign surgeon that settled at Rome, had a shop bought for him at the public expense, and was presented with the Jus Quiritium, A.U.C. 535, B.C. 219 (Cassius Hemina ap. Pliny, Hist. Nat,' lib. xxix., cap. 6); Artorius, who is known to have been a physician (Cml. Aurel. De Mori). Acut.; lib. iii., cap. 14, p. 224), and who is called the friend of Augustus (Plutarch, Vita Bruti,' cap. 41, ed. Tauchn., where how ever it should be noticed that some editions read 'Avr6stos, instead of 'Apr6pws); Asclapo, whom Cicero calls his friend (` Epist. ad Divers.,' lib. xiii., ep. 20); Asclepiades, the friend of Crassus the orator (Cic. `de °rat.; lib. L, cap. 14); Eudemus, who is called by Tacitus Annal.; lib. iv., cap. 3) the friend and physician of Livia ; end others. With respect to the income made by eminent physicians at the beginning of the Roman empire, we learn from Pliny (` Hist. Nat,' lib. xxix., cap. 5) that Albutius, Arruntius, Calpetanus, Cassius, and Rubrius gained two hundred and fifty thousand sesterces per annum, that is (reckoning with Hussey the mile nummi (sestertium) to be worth, before the reign of Augustus, 81. 17s. 1c/.) about two thousand two hundred and thirteen pounds ten shillings; that Quintus Stertinius made it a favour that he was content to receive from the emperor five hundred thousand sesterces per annum (or rather more than four thousand four hundred and twenty-seven pounds), as ho might have made six hundred thousand sesterces (or five thousand three hundred and twelve pounds ten shil lings) by his private practice ; and that he and his brother, who received the same annual income from the emperor Claudius, left between them at their death, notwithstanding large sums that they had spent in beautifying the city of Naples, the sum of thirty millions of sesterces (or two hundred and sixty-five thousand six hundred and twenty-five pounds). Of the previous medical education necessary to qualify a physician for the legal practice of his profession in the early times, we know nothing; afterwards however this was under the superintendence of the Archiatri. [Anon's:rut] Among the Arabians the medical profession appears to have been held in Ligh i esteem. Many of their chief physicians were Jews or Christians, and some apostatised to Mohammedanism: in some families the profession would seem to have been in a manner heredi tary, as in that of Aveuzoar (Ilas Zoher), five of whom successively belonged to it. (Reiske's 'Abulfedaa Annal. Moslem.; torn. iv., p. 669.) The qualifications necessary for practising medicine seem to have been rather slight, till the Caliph 11Inetader, s.n. :119 (A.D. 931), in consequence of an ignorant practitioner's having killed one of his patients, passed a law that no one should be allowed to practise until he had been licensed to do so by the chief physician. (Casiri, • Biblioth. Arabico-llisp. Escur.,' torn. i., p. 438.) Some idea of the consideration in which the Arabic and Moorish physicians were held may be gained from the fact that Sancho the Fat, king of Leon, was obliged to go in person to Cordova, A.D. 056 (s..n. 345), to be cured of an illness. (' Mariana,' 1. viii. c. 7, tom. L, p. 318; Conde, Dornin. des Arabes,' &c., t i., p. 448.) The first medical school that was established in Europe was that at Salerno (Salernitana Schola) towards the end of the 7th century ; the second was probably that at 31ontpelier, founded about a hundred yearn afterwards : their course of medical education is unknown, but they doubtless excerciscd a most beneficial influence on the acquire ments, and therefore on the personal rank and consideration of the physicians of the age. For a long time however the profession of medicine was almost entirely confined to the clergy, who indeed were the only persons in those days that possessed any share of learning. Surgery was however given np to the laity, as the clergy were pro hibited from undertaking any bloody operation.