Page 16 - My FlipBook

18 FIRST PERIOD—ANTIQUITT —

patient recovered, the respect and veneration of the people for the sacer-
dotal caste was considerably increased, whilst if he did not, this simply
meant that he or his family was not worthy of receiving the desired
pardon, or that, anyhow, the Divinity, for good reasons of his own,
would not grant it.
However, it being to the interest of the priests to obtain the greatest
possible number of cures, they did not limit themselves merely to offering
up prayers and sacrifices and to imposing on the patients the purifica-
tion of themselves and other religious exercises; they also put into practice
—always to the accompaniment of ritualistic words and ceremonies
the means of cure which their own experience and that of others sug-
gested to them. The art of healing the sick was transmitted from
generation to generation in the sacerdotal caste, acquiring an ever
greater development and complexity in proportion to the making of
new observations and fresh experiences. It is to be understood that
in this manner the priests became more and more skilful in the treat-
ment of disease; they were really the doctors of those times, albeit their
curative practices were mixed up with an ample dose of imposture.
This, at least in many cases, must have had, besides, the advantage of
acting favorably on the patients by means of suggestion.
We learn from Herodotus that the Babylonians used to carry the
sick into the public squares; the passers-by were expected to make
inquiries as to their illnesses, and if it so happened that they or any of
their acquaintances had been similarly afflicted, to come to the aid
of the patient by offering their advice and making known the means of
treatment that had effected recovery, exhortmg him, at the same time,
to have recourse to them.
This usage had without doubt its advantages, as it must have led,
little by little, to the recognition of such remedies as were most effica-
cious, among all those recommended, against the various maladies.
Another custom that served to furnish useful elements for the develop-
ment of the art of medicine was that of the votive tables, hung in the
temples by patients after their recovery, in sign of gratitude for having
received the invoked blessings. These tables contained a brief descrip-
tion of the malady and of the treatment that had proved useful in dis-
pelling it. If we reflect that dental affections are often of long duration
and very tormenting, the thought naturally suggests itself that among
the votive tables not a few must have referred to maladies of the teeth.
The numberless cases recorded by votive tables afforded precious
cHnical material, which without doubt was utilized in a great measure
by the ]:)riests in compiling the earliest medical writings, and, as we shall
see later, Hippocrates himself stored up all the medical records existing
in the celebrated temple of Cos.