Leaving these [shadowy] old-world stories, let us come down to [historic times], when we shall, as it were, tread on solid ground. From the very earliest times medicine and surgery were carefully studied in Ireland: and there was a distinct class of [professional] medical doctors, who underwent a course of education and practical training. A young man usually learned to be a physician by apprenticeship, i.e. by living in the house of a regular physician, and accompanying him on his visits to patients to learn his methods of treatment.
A king or a great chief had always a physician as part of his household, to attend to the health of his family. The usual [remuneration] of these men was a residence and a tract of land in the neighbourhood, free of all rent and taxes, together with certain allowances: and the medical man might, if he chose, practise for fee outside the household. Some of those in the service of great kings had castles, and lived in state like princes. Those not so [attached] lived on their fees, like many doctors of the present day: and the fees for the various operations or attendances were laid down in the Brehon Law.[30]
Though medical doctors were looked up to with great respect, they had to be very careful in exercising their profession. A leech who through carelessness, or wilful neglect, or gross want of skill, failed to cure a wound, might be brought before a brehon or judge, and if the case was proved home against him, he had to pay the same fine to the patient, as if he had inflicted the wound with his own hand.
XX.
ANCIENT IRISH PHYSICIANS: Part II.
Medicine, as a profession, like Law, History, &c., often ran in families in Ireland, descending regularly from father to son; and several Irish families were distinguished leeches for generations, such as the O'Shiels, the O'Cassidys, the O'Hickeys, and the O'Lees.
Each medical family kept a book, which was handed down [reverently] from father to son, and in which was written, in Irish or Latin, all the medical knowledge derived either from other books or from the actual experience of the various members of the family; and many of these old volumes, all in beautiful handwriting, are still preserved in Dublin and elsewhere. As showing the admirable spirit in which those good men studied and practised their profession, and how much they loved it, it is worth while to give a translation of the opening statement, a sort of preface, in the Irish language, written at the beginning of one of these books, in the year 1352.
"May the good God have mercy on us all. I have here collected practical rules of medicine from several works, for the honour of God, for the benefit of the Irish people, for the instruction of my pupils, and for the love of my friends and of my kindred. I have translated many of them into [Gaelic] from Latin books, containing the [lore] of the great leeches of Greece and Rome. These are sweet and profitable things which have been often tested by us and by our instructors.
"I pray God to bless those doctors who will use this book; and I lay it as an [injunction] on their souls, that they [extract] knowledge from it not by any means sparingly, and that they do not neglect the practical rules herein contained. More especially I charge them that they do their duty [devotedly] in cases where they receive no payment on account of the poverty of their patients.
"Let every physician, before he begins his treatment, offer up a secret prayer for the sick person, and implore the heavenly Father, the Physician and [Balm]-giver of all mankind, to prosper the work he is entering upon, and to save himself and his patient from failure."