In one short autumn!”[460]
Themison’s principles differed from those of his master in many respects, and besides rectifying his errors he introduced a greater precision into his system.[461]
He chose a middle way between the doctrines of the Dogmatists and Empirics. Writing of the Methodists, Celsus says: “They assert that the knowledge of no cause whatever bears the least relation to the method of cure; and that it is sufficient to observe some general symptoms of distempers; and that there are three kinds of diseases, one bound, another loose, and the third a mixture of these.”[462] Sometimes the excretions of the sick are too small, sometimes too large; one particular excretion may be in excess, another deficient; the observation of these things constitutes the art of medicine, which they defined as a certain way of proceeding, which the Greeks called Method. They deduced indications of treatment from analogies in symptoms, and made a bold classification of diseases; accurate as a rule in their diagnosis, they were usually successful and rational in their therapeutics. They entirely ignored any consideration of the remote causes of diseases; their only object was to cure their patients without speculating as to the reasons why they had become sick. They repudiated the Vis medicatrix theory.
Eudemus (B.C. 15) was a disciple of Themison. Cælius Aurelianus says of him that in his practice he used to order clysters of cold water for patients suffering from the iliac passion. It is probable that he was the friend and physician of Livilla, and the man who poisoned her husband Drusus. Tacitus speaks of him, saying that he made a great parade of many secret remedies, with a view to extol his own abilities as a doctor. It is possible, however, that this may not have been the same Eudemus as the disciple of Themison the Methodist, as there were several other physicians of that name. Our Eudemus made many observations on hydrophobia, and remarked how rarely any sufferer recovered who was attacked by it. He was put to death by order of Tiberius.
Meges, of Sidon (B.C. 20), was a famous surgeon, and a follower of Themison. He invented instruments used in cutting for the stone. He made observations on tumours of the breast and forward dislocations of the knee. He was regarded by Celsus as the most skilful of those who exercised the art of surgery.
Vectius Vallens (circ. A.D. 37) was a pupil of Apuleius Celsus, and was well known for his connection with Messalina, the wife of Claudius. He belonged to Themison’s sect, and is introduced by Pliny in fact as the author of an improvement upon it. It was the practice of all the adherents of the Methodist school of medicine to pretend that by the changes they had introduced into the system they had originated a new one.[463]
Scribonius Largus (A.D. 45) is said to have been physician to Claudius, and to have accompanied him to Britain. He wrote several medical works in Latin. He was the first to prescribe the electricity of the electric ray in cases of headache.[464]
A. Cornelius Celsus, who flourished between B.C. 50 and A.D. 7, was a celebrated patrician Roman writer on medicine, and an encyclopædic compiler of a very high order. It is disputed whether he was or was not a physician in actual practice; probably he was not. He practised certainly, but on his friends and servants, and not professionally. The medical practice of the period was for the most part in the hands of the Greeks. We owe little to the Romans that was original or important in connection with the healing art, yet in Celsus we have an elegant and accomplished historian of the medical art as it was practised in ancient Rome; he wrote not so much for doctors as for the instruction of the world at large. His works were not studied by medical men, at any rate, as anything more than mere literature. No medical writer of the old world quotes Celsus. Pliny merely refers to him as an author. Very probably he merely compiled his treatises, of which the most celebrated is his De Medicina, in the introductions to the 4th and 8th books of which there is evidence of his considerable knowledge of anatomy. He seems to have understood the anatomy of the chest and the situation of the greater viscera especially well, though of course in this respect falling far short of our present knowledge of the science, and not in every case fully up to that of the Greeks. His knowledge of surgery was considerable, especially that of the pelvic organs of the female. In osteology, or the science of the bones, he excelled. He accurately describes the bones of the skull, their sutures, and the teeth. His descriptions of the vertebræ and ribs, the bones of the pelvis and the upper and lower extremities, are accurate and careful. He understood the articulations, and is careful to emphasize the fact that cartilage is always found in their formation. He must have been acquainted with the perforated plate of the ethmoid bone, as he speaks of the many minute holes in the recess of the nasal cavities, and it is even inferred by Portal that he knew the semicircular canals.[465]
The 7th and 8th books of the De re Medicina relate entirely to surgery; this is of course Greek, which in its turn was probably of Egyptian and Indian origin. He describes operations such as we now call “plastic,” for restoring lost or defective portions of the nose, lips, and ears. These are constantly claimed as triumphs of modern surgery, and have been asserted to have been successful as the result of information derived from experiments on living animals. His description of lithotomy is that which was anciently practised in Alexandria, and was doubtless derived from India. Trephining the skull is described, and this again is proved not to have been invented in modern times, as some have thought. Even subcutaneous urethrotomy was a practice followed in the time of Celsus. We have also the first detailed description of the amputation of an extremity. Many ophthalmic operations are described according to the methods followed by the eye specialists of Alexandria.[466]
In his eight books on medicine the first four deal with internal complaints, such as usually yield to careful dieting. The fifth and sixth are concerned with external disorders, and contain many prescriptions for their treatment. The seventh and eighth, as we have seen, are exclusively surgical. Celsus followed principally Hippocrates and Asclepiades as his authorities. He transfers many passages from the Father of Medicine word for word. His favourite author was Asclepiades, and it is for that reason that he is held to be of the Methodical school of medicine. He was no believer in the mysterious numbers of the Pythagorean, and was evidently quite free from slavish devotion, even to his great authorities in medicine.