pores themselves, as contradistinguished from the fluid contained within them, may also cause disease. Farther on, when the proper time arrives for considering the sect of the Methodists, I shall have occasion to discuss this subject again, and particularly that part of it which relates to pathology. In the meantime, however, I cannot resist the impulse to say a few words about the remarkable insight possessed by Asclepiades into the manner of construction of the human body, as manifested by this very brief but very significant anatomical and physiological description. Upon a first reading one might easily get the impression that Asclepiades has reference to only one kind or system of "pores" or channels—viz., such as serve for the circulation of tissue juices alone. But, upon a closer scrutiny of the text, one finds some warrant for suspecting that he had in mind more than one system of such channels; for he states distinctly that the fluid circulating in these pores contains larger particles composed of blood and smaller ones which consist of vapor (spiritus) or heat. The question suggests itself: Could a man who had no knowledge of Harvey's discovery, who did not possess a microscope, and who at the same time believed—as did all the ancients—that air circulated in the arteries and blood in the veins, come any nearer to the actual truth than did Asclepiades? His description needs very few alterations and additions to make it fit correctly the system of terminal arterio-venous channels known to-day as arterioles and capillaries.
Methods of Treatment Adopted by Asclepiades.—The prevailing methods of treating diseases in Rome were not approved by Asclepiades, and he lost no opportunity of giving expression to this disapproval. In the first place, he protested vigorously against the practice of prescribing on every possible occasion purgatives and remedies capable of producing vomiting. He had a decided preference for gentler measures, his idea being that a physician should cure his patients tuto, celeriter, et jucunde—safely, quickly and agreeably. Le Clerc adds that this is a fine sentiment, but that its realization in actual practice is something
