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4 HISTOEY OP DENTAL SUEGERY

nntil the time wlien their skill nml reputations were finally supplanted by
the superior skill of the Greeks.
The Greek philosopher, Thales, studied at Miletus and establisKed a
school of philosophy and medicine in pAirope about 780 B. C. ; Pythagoras
studied at Thebes and established his school about 581) B. C, in Italy. These
two hundred years were an important epoch in medical science and art in
Greece, where, up to that time, they had occupied an exceedingly degraded
position. The priests of Ajjollo were the practitioners and professors, and
most of them substituted delivering of oracles for the prescription of medicines
or surgical treatment. The few men who still practiced the healing art set up
an ojjposition god in the name of Aesculapius, who was from this time
on represented as the son of Apollo. Numerous temples were erected to him,
to which the sick resorted for treatment. Those of Cos and Cnidus were the
principal ones. As Aesculapius had been represented as the son of Apollo,
so his priests were represented, each of them, as descendants of Aesculapius,
and they called themselves Aesclepiadae. Priests were the only physicians of
fvntiquity.
The Christian church has cannonized Saint Apollonia as the j)atron saint of
dentistry. This is of a parallel to the ancient Greeks who looked upon
Aesculapius as a god. Homer speaks of "the blameless physician whose
sons were serving in tlic Greek army at the siege of Troy," when referring
to him. A peculiar l>reed of serpents was sacrificed to Aesculapius, the
sale of which was a source of great revenue to these priests. Aesculapius,
under the image of a serpent, was worshipped by the Eomans, and if Eusebius
is to l)e credited, the Egyptian Aesculapius was worshipped under the form
of a divine serpent.
In Arabia, India and China tlie serpent was looked upon as the symbol
of life. Oriental nations believed it to l>e the most cunning of all animals,
and immortal. The emperors of China bore the image of a serpent upon
their breasts long before Moses made the brazen serpent to cure the children of
Israel from the bites of the fiery serpent.
The winged wand entwisted by two serpents, known as the "caduceus," is
a symbol of prosperity ; the rod represents jjower : the serpents represent wis-
dom, and the two wings. ])eace and activity. This has long been the emblem
of medicine, and in the army of the United States it is the hospital steward's
insignia of office.
The practice of the healing art in the early days, under pagan as well as
under early Christian civilization, was based upon the Ijelief that disease was