CHAPTER VI
THE BEGINNINGS OF A RATIONAL SYSTEM OF MEDICINE IN GREECE
With the lapse of time the religious and mystical features
of the treatment carried on at the Asclepieia gave place,
more and more, to rational methods, and eventually—it
is scarcely possible to mention a date, but probably not
many years before the Hippocratic period—these institutions
became centres for the spread of medical knowledge
of the most practical kind. This is particularly true of the
Asclepieion at Cos, where Hippocrates is believed to have
received his medical training. It is interesting to note that
the mystical features of the temple treatment—features
which certainly did not originate with Aesculapius himself
or with his sons, Machaon and Podalirius—eventually
proved powerless to stay the slow but sure advance of
sound medical knowledge. Even during the period when
these false elements seemed to be most strongly rooted
in the temple methods, there were forces at work which
in due time deprived them of much of their pernicious
power. This result was inevitable, for an organization
which, in order to prosper in its work of doing good to
humanity, depended upon the natural superstitiousness of
the people, could not possibly thrive for an indefinite
length of time. That the evil results did not develop sooner
than they did simply shows how powerful and stubborn is
the force of superstition. In the absence of trustworthy
historical evidence, hypothetical statements only can be
brought forward, but there can scarcely be any doubt but
that a genuine belief in the power of Aesculapius (deified)
to cure disease and restore health persisted for centuries.
The custom of recording the case histories on tablets or
