ABSTRACT
The earliest beginnings of the science of medicine among the Greeks were as always in primitive medical practice, based on magical religion. Æsculapius, the god of the healing art, had a numerous priesthood, in which secret knowledge of the forces of nature and their use for the curing of disease was jealously guarded and handed down from generation to generation. Pilgrimages were made to the temples of Æsculapius by crowds of sick persons — both those in real and those in imaginary ill health — to be cured of their maladies; and the latter class, the hypochondriacs, were not slow to spread abroad and confirm stories of the most wonderful miracles of healing performed there. Immense hospitals were erected in the neighbourhood of these temples for the benefit of those who required lengthy treatment, and the very necessity of having to watch over and follow the course of these patients' diseases must naturally have created a large supply of purely empirical observations of immense value to the sacerdotal miracle-workers, who were thus enabled to estimate the result of their methods of treatment. In time there grew up, as a result of the widespread adoption of these empirical observations and methods, a class of purely secular healers, no longer directly associated with the temples of Æsculapius, who nevertheless, in order to denote the origin of their art and to take advantage of the confidence inspired by religious belief, called themselves Asclepiads — that is, descendants of Æsculapius. As other professions did at that time, they formed a private guild, the members of which taught their art preferably only to sons and kinsmen. Outsiders too were able by paying large sums to obtain an insight into the secrets of the profession, while the children of the family of Asclepiads always had the right to receive free instruction from any of their father's colleagues. The wording of the oath which the young physician had to swear before being allowed to begin the practice of his profession is still extant. By this oath he pledged himself to help teachers and his professional colleagues, give free instruction to their sons, share with them any fresh experiences and discoveries, to the best of his ability heal the sick, and refrain from mixing poisons and producing abortions.
