large fortune during the reign of Nero (54-68 A. D.) and apparently succeeded in persuading this monarch that he was a great physician. Here are some facts which appear to justify Galen's dislike for Thessalus: In a letter to Nero the latter writes: "I have founded a new medical sect, the only genuine one in existence. I was forced to do so because the physicians who preceded me had failed to discover anything that is likely to promote health or to drive away disease; even Hippocrates himself having laid down doctrines which are positively harmful." His vanity, according to Le Clerc, reached such a pitch that he called himself the "conqueror of physicians."[1] Pliny corroborates the latter statement in the following words: "When he assumed the title of 'conqueror of physicians,' a title which was engraved, according to his instructions, on his tomb in the Appian Way." Notwithstanding his unbounded conceit, Thessalus appears to have made several important improvements in the doctrines of the Methodists. He is also, as it appears, entitled to the credit of having been the first to inaugurate the practice of giving systematic instruction at the bedside; thus establishing for all time a most valuable precedent for the guidance of his successors.
"He was an excellent practitioner and an original thinker. . . .
He was also a prolific writer, as is shown by the number
and variety of treatises which—as we are assured by Caelius
Aurelianus—were composed by him." The same authority speaks
of him as "a leader among our chiefs," thus affording good evidence
of the degree of esteem in which he was held by the members
of his own school. The fact that pupils came in throngs to be
taught by him shows clearly how thoroughly he understood the
needs of the physicians of Rome. (Meyer-Steineg.)
Thessalus, notwithstanding his declaration that medicine
might readily be taught in six months, wrote a larger
number of treatises on professional topics than any student
of medicine could possibly read and digest in the course ofis the word employed in the original Greek.]
- ↑ [Greek: Iatronikês
