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80 FIRST PERIOD—ANTIQUITY

wondered at if very few doctors of that epoch have merited being recorded
in history.
Among these few, the name Asclepiades (born at Prusa, in Asia Minor;
died in Rome ninety-six years B.C.) shines with particular lustre. He
was the founder of the "methodic school," whose curative precepts,
largely based upon hygiene, come nearer to those of modern scientific
medicine. Unfortunately, all the writings of this great physician, whose
name is almost as glorious as that of Hippocrates, have been lost; we
do not know, therefore, whether and in how far he contributed to the
development of our specialty.
But one of the first places in the history of dental art is due without
doubt to Cornelius Celsus, of whom we will now speak.
Cornelius Celsus. The historical researches in regard to the life
of this celebrated author have given but meagre results. It is uncertain
whether his birthplace was Rome or Verona. The precise dates of his
birth and death are also unknown; but it is very probable that he was
born about thirty years before Christ, and that he died during the fifth
decade of the first century.
Aulus Cornelius Celsus belonged to the illustrious patrician family
of the Cornelii. He was a man of great erudition, and wrote on the
most varied subjects, and among others, on agriculture, on rhetoric,
on the art of warfare, on medicine, etc. All these writings, however, are
lost to us excepting his excellent treatise on medicine.
Some historians consider that Celsus was a true doctor by profession;
others, instead, hold that he never undertook the cure of the sick. Neither
the one nor the other of these opinions is quite acceptable; and it is much
more likely, as Daremberg observes in his valuable Histoire des Sciences
Medicales, that Celsus was one of those philiatri mentioned by Galen,
who had studied medicine rather from books than at the bedside of the
sick, but who, although not doctors by profession, in case of necessity,
put their knowledge and skill into practice on behalf of their relations
and friends.^
The work of Celsus, gathered in great part from Greek authors, has
an especial value, because it sums up, in an admirable manner, the whole
of the medical and surgical science of the ancients, from the earliest
times up to the days of Augustus.
The first book of the work De Medicina^ does not contain anything
ot great importance in regard to dentistry. The following hygienic pre-
cept is, however, worthy of note: "After rising, if it be not winter, the
mouth should be rinsed with a quantity of fresh water." In regard to

15, Hist. Relations of Medicine and Surgery, Allbutt.
' Sec note, p. (C. M.)
A. Corn. Ceisi de Medieina lil)ri octo, I'atavii, MDCCXXII.
'