Page:The growth of medicine from the earliest times to about 1800.djvu/131

the ordinary ills of the body. One of the sons of Hippocrates, for example, served for some time in this capacity, and he is credited with the statement that "the physician who wishes to obtain the best training in surgery should enter the service of the army." There were eight surgeons officially connected with the "ten thousand" whom Xenophon led back to Greece after the famous campaign in Asia Minor. The army of Alexander the Great was accompanied by the most celebrated surgeons of that period. Upon a bronze tablet found at Idalium, on the Island of Cyprus, there is an inscription which dates back to the fifth century B. C., and which commemorates the merits of a physician named Onasilos, who, aided by his pupils, rendered valuable services, without any remuneration, during one of the wars of the Greeks; and in recognition of these services, the Government had bestowed upon him a stipend and had exempted him from taxation. It is further known that the Athenians lavishly heaped honors upon Hippocrates, initiating him at public expense into the mysteries of the Eleusinia, giving him a crown of gold, and distinguishing him in still other ways. These facts show how highly the rulers of that day appreciated the services of a competent physician; but, up to a comparatively recent date, it has not been so easy to demonstrate what was his position in the esteem of the community at large. The discovery, not many years ago, of two inscriptions in Greek throw a certain amount of light upon this very point. One of these, which bears the date of 388 B. C., states that its purpose is to commemorate the fact that the physician Euenor, who had been intrusted by the people with the work of supervising the preparation of all the drugs intended for use in the public hospital, had not only fulfilled his duty but had in addition spent large sums of his own money in the accomplishment of this work. Another inscription, which was unearthed in the Island of Carpathus, between Crete and Rhodes, and which is believed to date back to the end of the fourth or the beginning of the third century B. C., reads (in a somewhat abbreviated form) as follows: "In view of the fact