Physiologia Medica

MEDICAL PROSCENIA

...and the knowledge of herbalists is appropriate for cattle, just as the skills of shepherds and veterinarians pursue the care of beasts. These experts preserve health through suitable fodder or drive away diseases with medications. Finally, there is the medicine of Men themselves. This is as much more excellent than other ways of healing as the subject itself is more noble. For Man is easily the chief among all natural beings. According to Protagoras, man is the metron hapantōn measure of all things. To his healing, as if to a master-craft, the healings of all other beings ought to be referred, whether it is applied to his Soul or his Body.

The human medicine of the soul generally treats the solid knowledge of truth and the perfect possession of good. Burned with a desire for this, our first parents, misled by the sophistry of the Devil, sought to become like gods through the knowledge of good and evil. They cast themselves and their descendants into the horrific darkness of ignorance. Because of this, they are now forced to seek the bread of the mind, which is nourished by knowledge, through the labor and sweat of their brow, just as they do for the body. They must heal the most serious diseases of the intellect itself with certain aids. Secular philosophers try to heal the theoretical intellect. Divine philosophers do so much more certainly by introducing true doctrines and uprooting false ones. For this reason, Plato pronounced the elenchum logical refutation to be the megistēn kai lusitelestatēn katharseōs greatest and most beneficial of purifications. Lawmakers, philosophers, parents, spouses, masters, and friends heal the practical intellect. Thus Zamolxis, the god and king of the Getae, pronounced that no one will rightly heal the body unless he first heals the soul from the wicked appetite for harmful things,

by turning the soul away from disobedience and contempt for medicine. Thus Pliny, in book 25, chapter 2, reports that Gaius Valgius wrote to Augustus about the uses of herbs, beginning even with a religious preface: "That the majesty of that prince might always be healed especially of all human evils." If you look at the Method of healing applied to the soul, it happens either through examples of virtues or through precepts. Plato did not hesitate to call this zōēdan a way of life, and Horace called it piacula expiations. While the soul is purified from ignorance and wickedness, as the luxurious youth Polemon was restored to wisdom by the teachings of Xenophanes, it seems to be a species of magical metamorphosis. This is even more illustrious as the soul is superior to the body and is less subject to the will and command of another.

Human medicine of the body is likewise varied, according to the different respect of causes.

Regarding the Subject to which it is applied, in ancient Egypt there were individual doctors for individual parts of the body. Because of the vastness of the art, especially in large cities and great crowds of people, one person could hardly suffice for all types of diseases. Necessity itself persuaded the division of the care of ailments. Thus, some undertook the healing of internal things, and others the healing of external things. The common people call the latter Surgeons (Chirurgos) and the former Physicians (Physicos). Even elegance coaxed this necessity. Since burning, cutting, plucking, and twisting seemed unworthy of the medical mesousia essential dignity, they committed those duties to their servants. Archagathus the wound-healer, when he first came to Rome from the Peloponnese,