0"T' LAERT> "! - USP

THE TIME OF HIPPOKRATES. 67
The BrjfwatevovTe,, the " people's doctors " were elected by
the community. In Athens, the candidates desirous of
idling such posts had to present themselves at a public
meeting of the citizens, to give information concerning
their education and to name the master from whom they
had learned the healing art. In the election, which probably
was conducted in the same way as those of other
public officers, the most able candidate came off victorious.*
Similar to that of Athens must have been the procedure
for.the appointment of public medical officers in the other
towns of Greece. Their salaries were levied upon the town
and its environs, as were the sums required for providing
music and other things for the public advantage. In an
inscription discovered at Delphi which however dates from
a somewhat later period (214-163 B.C.) it is mentioned that
some had immunity from this tax.f Besides the State
subsidy the amount of which depended upon the work
the doctors had to do and the wealth of the town, the
public medical officers probably had an Iatreion erected and
maintained at the cost of the public.} There they received
patients who sought professional assistance at their hands,
and imparted medical teaching. The public medical officers
were summoned in the case of epidemics to give directions
calculated to remove the same, and attended the authorities
as experts. Their particular duty, however, consisted in
the treatment of sick people without charge. The public
in establishing a doctor in this way wished especially to
assure themselves that in case of necessity their citizens
should at all times find medical aid at hand. Although
from the information that has reached us it is not certain
that free treatment was exclusively for the poor, it may be
assumed that this was practically the case and people of
* XENOPHON : Memorab. iv, 25.—PLATO: Gorgias, C. IC, 70.— Politikos, c.
2 > 37-—Cf- also BOCKH: Staatshaushalt der Athener 1, c. 21.
f C. WESCHER and P. FOUCART : Inscriptions k Delphes, Paris 1863, p. 20,
No. 16.
X Cf. VERCOUTRE : " La Medecine publique dans l'antiquite grecque" in the
.Revue Archeologique, Paris 1880, Ser. ii, T. 39, p. 332.