which is perfectly consistent with the narrative of Herodotus.
[466] Herodot. iii, 88; vii, 2.
[467] Herodot. vii, 3. ἡ γὰρ Ἄτοσσα εἶχε τὸ πᾶν κράτος. Compare the description given of the ascendency of the savage Sultana Parysatis over her son Artaxerxês Mnêmon (Plutarch, Artaxerxês, c. 16, 19, 23).
[468] Herodot. iii, 131. ἀσκευής περ ἐὼν, καὶ ἔχων οὐδὲν τῶν ὅσα περὶ τὴν τέχνην ἔστιν ἐργαλήϊα,—the description refers to surgical rather than to medical practice.
That curious assemblage of the cases of particular patients with remarks, known in the works of Hippokratês, under the title Ἐπιδήμιαι (Notes of visits to different cities), is very illustrative of what Herodotus here mentions about Dêmokêdês. Consult, also, the valuable Prolegomena of M. Littré, in his edition of Hippokratês now in course of publication, as to the character, means of action, and itinerant habits of the Grecian ἰατροί: see particularly the preface to vol. v, p. 12, where he enumerates the various places visited and noted by Hippokratês. The greater number of the Hippokratic observations refer to various parts of Thrace, Macedonia, and Thessaly; but there are some, also, which refer to patients in the islands of Syros and Delos, at Athens, Salamis, Elis, Corinth, and Œniadæ in Akarnania. “On voit par là combien étoit juste le nom de Periodeutes ou voyageurs donnés à ces anciens médecins.”
Again, M. Littré, in the same preface, p. 25, illustrates the proceedings and residence of the ancient ἰατρός: “On se tromperoit si on se représentoit la demeure d’un médecin d’alors comme celle d’un médecin d’aujourd’hui. La maison du médecin de l’antiquité, du moins au temps d’Hippocrate et aux époques voisines, renfermoit un local destiné à la pratique d’un grand nombre d’opérations, contenant les machines et les instrumens nécessaires, et de plus étant aussi une boutique de pharmacie. Ce local se nommait ἰατρεῖον.” See Plato, Legg. i, p. 646, iv, p. 720. Timæus accused Aristotle of having begun as a surgeon, practising to great profit in surgery, or ἰατρεῖον, and having quitted this occupation late in life, to devote himself to the study of science,—σοφιστὴν ὀψιμαθῆ καὶ μισητὸν ὑπάρχοντα, καὶ τὸ πολυτίμητον ἰατρεῖον ἀρτίως ἀποκεκλεικότα (Polyb. xii, 9).
See, also, the Remarques Retrospectives attached by M. Littré to volume iv, of the same work (pp. 654-658), where he dwells upon the intimate union of surgical and medical practice in antiquity. At the same time, it must be remarked that a passage in the remarkable medical oath, published in the collection of Hippokratic treatises, recognizes in the plainest manner the distinction between the physician and the operator,—the former binds himself by this oath not to perform the operation “even of lithotomy, but to leave it to the operators, or workmen:” Οὐ τεμέω δὲ οὐδὲ μὴν λιθιῶντας, ἐκχωρήσω δὲ ἐργάστῃσιν ἀνδράσι πρήξιος τῆσδε (Œuvres d’Hippocrate, vol. iv, p. 630, ed. Littré). M. Littré (p. 617) contests this explanation, remarking that the various Hippokratic treatises represent the ἰατρός as performing all sorts of operations, even such as require violent and mechanical dealing. But the words of the oath are so explicit, that it seems more reasonable to assign to the oath itself a later date than the treatises, when the habits of practitioners may have changed.
[469] About the Persian habit of sending to Egypt for surgeons, compare Herodot. iii, 1.
[470] Herodot iii, 129. τὸν δὲ ὡς ἐξεῦρον ἐν τοῖσι Ὀροίτεω ἀνδραπόδοισι ὅκου δὴ ἀπημελημένον, παρῆγον ἐς μέσον, πέδας τε ἕλκοντα καὶ ῥάκεσιν ἐσθημένον.
[471] Herodot. iii, 130. The golden stater was equal to about 1l. 1s. 3d. English money (Hussey, Ancient Weights, vii, 3, p. 103).