[60] Professor A. C. Merriam, in Gaillard’s Medical Journal, May, 1885.
[61] Professor Merriam’s article; also L’Asclépieion d’Athenès, by Paul Girard, Paris, 1882. An interesting little book, in which much may be learned about asclepia and the asclepiades. The Athenian asclepion was quite famous, and existed until beyond the fifth century.
[62] Natural History, xxii, 2.
[63] In reference to the asclepia or asclepions, as he calls them, Draper says: “An edict of Constantine suppressed those establishments.” And again: “The asclepion of Cnidus continued until the time of Constantine, when it was destroyed along with many other pagan establishments.” History of the Intellectual Development of Europe, pp. 386 and 397. Revised edition. New York, 1876.
[64] Asclepion is from Asclepios, the Greek form of the name of the god of medicine. In Greek it is ἀσκληπιεῖον, meaning Temple of Asclepios. Æsculapium is of similar meaning.
[65] Vitruvius, who flourished in the first century before our era, expresses the opinion that “natural consistency” suggests the selection of situations affording the advantages of “salubrious air and water” for “temples erected to Æsculapius, to the goddess of health, and such other divinities as possess the power of curing diseases.” It materially helped the divinities. See second edition of his work on Architecture, p. 11, by Joseph Swift. London, 1860.
[66] Encyclopædia Britannica, ninth edition.
[67] See William Adams’ edition of the Genuine Works of Hippocrates. Two volumes. London, 1849.
[68] Hygeia and Panacea, both daughters of Æsculapius.
[69] Treatment.