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112
0
ANCIENT TIMES.
The convalescent homes* and sick rooms which the
great landlords caused to be built for their family -
domestics and numerous slaves, may also have afforded,^\
opportunity for practical teaching in the examination
and treatment of the sick. In any case it was here that|tj
the slaves, who were trained for doctors at the wish of
their lords, were instructed in the healing art. The military \
hospitals, with stalls for sick horses, which were established
wherever masses of troops were collected, must have some- '\
times subserved a similar purpose.t ,
The buildings, which ANTONINUS PlUS caused to be ',
erected in the vicinity of the temples of ASKLEPIOS at
Epidauros and on the island in the Tiber cannot be looked
upon as institutions for the sick. They were to give
admission to dying persons and pregnant women over- |
taken by the pains of labour, so that the sanctuaries should 'I
be kept pure and undefiled.J
Care and treatment of patients in Iatreia and other
institutions of that kind was comparatively rare in ancient
times. Patients were for the most part visited in their.*
dwellings by the doctors. For this reason instruction .,
in the practice of medicine was more common there |
than in Iatreia and hospitals. The doctors used to".^
be accompanied by. the students of medicine while ,
visiting the sick and in a suitable case explained
to them the symptoms and treatment of the disease.
By this the pupils were guided in forming their own j
judgment of pathological changes by observation and*"|
manipulation of the ailing body. When the sick rnanf
PHILISKUS was treated by the doctors SELEUCUS and
STRATOKLES they brought with them, as PHILOSTRATUS§
narrates, more than 30 pupils. The witty epigram off
* COLUMELLA: de re rusticaxi, 1. xii, 3.—SENECA: de iia i, 16. nat. qusesMI
i, pisef.—TACITUS : de orat. dial., c. 21.
f HYGINUS : de munit. castrorum, c. 34.
X PAUSANIAS ii, 27.
§ PHILOSTRATUS : Vita Apollonii Tyan. viii, 7. ,