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THE MEDICAL PROFESSION IN ROME. I 27
that I hoped to find the best instruction."* In the same
way PLUTARCH thought that everyone should be able to
feel his own pulse intelligently and to recognize what
affected him beneficially or injuriously.t Moreover the
ethical side of the medical calling was prominently
brought into notice by some authors. " The doctor should
not be constrained to visit the sick " writes LuciANj " he
should not be intimidated or brought to them by force but
should go freely and willingly." It is impossible to char­
acterize the high dignity, the ideal worth of the healing art
better than in the words of SENECA : " People pay the
doctor for his trouble ; for his kindness they still remain in
his debt." " Thinkest thou " he says elsewhere " that thou
owest the doctor and the teacher nothing more than his
fee ? We think that great reverence and love are due to
both. We have received from them priceless benefits
from the doctor health and life, from the teacher the noble
culture of the soul. Both are our friends and deserve our
most sincere thanks not so much by their merchantable art
as by their frank good-will."§
Even at an earlier period the necessity of medical aid
led to such appointments as family doctors, doctors for
communities, the army,, and societies. Rich people who
possessed large establishments and many slaves took care
to have a doctor at command at any time in case of
sickness. With this object they made a contract with a
neighbouring doctor, which bound the latter for a yearly
salary to afford any medical services required. || Still more
convenient for them was it when there existed in their
household a slave with medical knowledge whom they
could trust with the care of the health of themselves and
their relatives.^ Slaves of this kind were much in request
* GELLIUS: Noct. Attic, xviii, 10.
f PLUTARCH : de sanitate tuenda praec. c. 24-25.
X LUCIAN : Abdicatus (The disowned son), c. 23.
§ SENECA: de benefic. vi, 15, 16, 17.
|| VARRO: de re rustica. i, 16.
*TT SUETON : Nero, c. 2.—Calig. c. 8.—SENECA : de benef. iii, 24. \ \