Physicians from the Time of Augustus to the Death of Nero : Part 2

Outlines of Greek and Roman Medicine
by James Sands Elliott

(Page 8 of 15)

(2) Anatomy. - Celsus understood fairly well the situation of the internal organs, and knew well the anatomy of the chest and female pelvis. His knowledge of the skeleton was particularly complete and accurate. He describes very fully the bones of the head, including the perforated plate of the ethmoid bone, the sutures, the teeth, and the skeletal bones generally. Portal states that Celsus knew of the semicircular canals. He understood the structure of the joints, and points out that cartilage is part of their formation.

Celsus wrote: "It is both cruel and superfluous to dissect the bodies of the living, but to dissect those of the dead is necessary for learners, for they ought to know the position and order which dead bodies show better than a living and wounded man. But even the other things which can only be observed in the living, practice itself will show in the cures of the wounded, a little more slowly but somewhat more tenderly."

(3) Medicine. - His treatment of fevers was excellent, for he recognized that fever was an effort of Nature to throw off morbid materials. His recipes are not so complicated, but more sensible and effective than those of his immediate successors. He understood the use of enemas and artificial feeding. In cases of insanity he recognized that improvement followed the use of narcotics in the treatment of the accompanying insomnia. He recognized also morbid illusions. He recommended lotions and salves for the treatment of some eye diseases.

Although Celsus practised phlebotomy, he discountenanced very strongly its excessive use. The physicians in Rome, in his time, carried bleeding to great extremes. "It is not," wrote Celsus, "a new thing to let blood from the veins, but it is new that there is scarcely a malady in which blood is not drawn. Formerly they bled young men, and women who were not pregnant, but it had not been seen till our days that children, pregnant women, and old men were bled." The reason for bleeding the strong and plethoric was to afford outlet to an excessive supply of blood, and the weak and anæmic were similarly treated to get rid of evil humours, so that hardly any sick person could escape this drastic treatment.

Emetics were greatly used in the time of Celsus. Voluptuaries made use of them to excite an appetite for food, and they used them after eating heavy meals to prepare the stomach for a second bout of gluttony. Many gourmands took an emetic daily. Celsus said that emetics should not be used as a frequent practice if the attainment of old age was desired.

Celsus excelled as a compiler, and had the faculty of selecting the most admirable contributions to the art of healing from previous medical writers. His writings also give an account of what was best in the medical practice of Rome about his own time. He had a great love for learning, and it is remarkable that he was attracted to the study of medicine, for he was a patrician, and members of his class considered study of that kind beneath the dignity of their rank.

In the Augustan age, when literature in Rome reached its highest level, the literary style of Celsus was fit to be classed with that of the great writers of his time. He was never quoted as a great authority on medicine or surgery by later medical writers; and Pliny refers to him as a literary man, and not as a practising physician. From the fact that he elaborated no new system, and founded no new medical sect, it is not strange that he had no disciples.

In later centuries his works were used as a textbook for students, not only for the information they supplied, but also because of their excellence as literature.

Parts of the foregoing synopsis of the writings of Celsus are drawn from the writings of Hermann Baas and of Berdoe.

Meges of Sidon (20 B.C.) was a famous surgeon who practised in Rome shortly before the time of Celsus. He was regarded by Celsus as the most skilful surgeon of that period, and his works, of which nothing now remains, were quoted by Celsus, and also referred to by Pliny. Meges was a follower of Themison. He is said to have invented instruments used in cutting for stone, and he wrote on tumours of the breast and dislocation of the knee. There have been several famous doctors called Eudemus. One of these was an anatomist in the third century before Christ, and a contemporary, according to Galen, of Herophilus and Erasistratus. He gave great attention to the anatomy and physiology of the nervous system. There was, however, another Eudemus, a physician of Rome, who became entangled in an intrigue with the wife of the son of the Emperor Tiberius. He aided her in an attempt to poison her husband in A.D. 23. He was put to torture, and finally executed by order of Tiberius.

Apollonius of Tyana was born four years before the Christian era, in the time of Augustus Cæsar, and is known chiefly for the parallel that has been drawn by ancient and modern writers between his supposed miracles and those of the Saviour. His doings as described by Philostratus are extraordinary and incredible, and he was put forward by the Eclectics in opposition to the unique powers claimed by Christ and believed in by His followers. Apollonius is said to have studied the philosophy of the Platonic, Sceptic, Epicurean, Peripatetic and Pythagorean schools, and to have adopted that of Pythagoras. He schooled himself in early manhood in the asceticism of that philosophy. He abstained from animal food and strong drink, wore white linen garments and sandals made of bark, and let his hair grow long. For five years he preserved a mystic silence, and during this period the truths of philosophy became known to him. He had interviews with the Magi in Asia Minor, and learned strange secrets from the Brahmans in India. In Greece he visited the temples and oracles, and exercised his powers of healing.

Published in 1971 by Milford House Inc. Boston, MA.