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INTRODUCTION.
for the representatives of all knowledge*—the priests. To
them, people looked the more readily for help, inasmuch as
the origin of these diseases, being dark and mysterious,
was ascribed to supernatural powers. The priests took
care, by prayers and offerings to appease the anger of the
gods and to enlist their sympathy. By these measures they
instilled hope and confidence into the minds of the sick—in
fact they subjected them to " expectant treatment." Here,
however, it could not fail to be noticed, that results did
not always tally with expectations; often indeed expected
results entirely failed to occur at the very time when the
public attention was directed to the matter, as in the case
of widely devastating pestilences. Unless the priests were
willing to lose their reputation, which was injuriously
affected by these disappointments, it became necessary for
them to aim at ensuring a greater influence upon the
course of the prevailing diseases, by ordering diet and
drugs. For this, they felt the want of medical knowledge,
which they now sought to acquire by careful observation of
the phenomena of diseases and by investigation of their
causes and means of cure. In course of time they collected
a quantity of information which, transmitted by word of
mouth or by writing, became the property of later generations
and by these was rendered more and more complete. The
practice of the healing art was now exercised according to
strict rules and the acquisition of the required knowledge
was pursued systematically.
Medicine was included among the subjects which were
taught in the Temple-schools, and the priests took care
that the medical knowledge acquired there should be
bound up so closely with religious exercises, held in awe
* " The Sanscrit vaidya from vid, to know, and the Latin medicus from medh,
to be wise, point out that the Doctor has received his name from his insioht." CH.
LASSEN : Indische Alterthumskunde, London u'nd Leipzig 1874, Bd. ii, S. ei7.
Of. AD. PICTET : Etymologische Forschungen iiber die alteste Arzneikunst bei den
Indogermanen in der Zeitschrift fur vergleichende Sprachforschung, Bd. v, S. 24
et seq., Berlin 1856.