Greece was now become subservient to the superior genius of Rome, and we must there look for the progressive steps of medical improvement. Rome, formed by the rude tribes of ferocious banditti, wanted for many ages little more than those chirurgical aids which their mode of life rendered indispensable. Epidemic fevers, however, were at times violent and fatal, from the Pontine marshes, which were at no great distance from this capital of the world. Yet, for nearly 600 years, they were said to be without medical aid, and their only resources to have apparently been blind empiricism, superstitious charms, or religious ceremonies. Temples seem to have been erected to Fe-bris, and their most destructive enemy, thus raised to the rank of a goddess, was worshipped. In various parts of the city subordinate deities of the same kind were introduced; and no less than three goddesses, Intercidona, Pilumna, and Deverra, were propitiated by offerings to confine Sylvanus, who was supposed to be inimical to women in child bed. In the year 321 ab urbe condita, a temple was erected to Apollo for the health and safety of the Roman people; and in 470 AEsculapius, or rather his emblem, a snake, was brought to Rome by a solemn embassy, sent for the purpose to Epidaurus. The snake took refuge in an island in the Tiber, and there the temple of the god was erected. This fact is of considerable importance in the history of medicine, since it proves that the worship of AEsculapius was continued in Greece in that era, and consequently that traces of the records from which, as a sacred fountain, Hippocrates drew a great part of his observations, were still preserved. Some of the votive tablets hung up in this new temple are preserved by Grater, and of a date so late as the age of the Antonines; but these are in Greek, and seem to have owed their origin to the gratitude or superstition of some Greeks who at that time resided in the city.

It indeed appears singular, that, while Rome was so little distant from Naples, a Greek city, who traced their original to the Rhodians, among whom AEscu-lapius was worshipped, they should have had no traces of medicine; especially as the Pythagorean philosophy was brought from thence, or from the farther provinces, styled Magna Graecia, to the Roman kings. The testimony of Pliny, however, is positive; nor is it repelled by Dionysius of Halicarnassus, who remarks, in two distinct epidemics, viz. of the years of 282 and 401 ab urbe condita, that the disease was so violent, as to baffle the skill of the physicians; for such would be the language, whatever the medical aid might have been. The stern patriotism of Marcus Cato seems to have prevented the increasing influence of the Grecian physic; and, from authority, or complaisance, Pliny fixed the period of 600 (strictly 535) years, during which no physicians were to be found in Rome. It must be obvious, as we have already insinuated, that this could not be strictly true; for some resources, either ridiculous or superstitious, must have been sought for when disease occurred. The diaetetic system, the virtues of cabbage, adopted from the school of Pythagoras, and the superstitious attachment to the Asclepiadae, could not have sufficed; but we find little- to substitute in their place. The Roman records fail us, and the authority of Cato is supreme. We mean not, in this account, to allude to a law said to be introduced by Cato, prohibiting the Grecian practice; for at the time of the arrival of Archagathus from Greece, he was but fifteen years old; but, as we have remarked, to his influence in prevent-ing the increase of the prevailing fashion. The fame of Archagathus quickly faded; for, though at first styled Vulnerarius, he was soon stigmatized by the appellation Carnifex. Of the practice of Cato, who wished to supersede the Grecian system, we have hints from Pliny. Plutarch, and his own remaining works. He did not enjoin abstinence, but allowed his patients to eat vegetables (Pliny says cabbage, exclusively), ducks, pigeons, or hares. In fractures and dislocations, his remedy was a charm, consisting of hard words, without a meaning. The English reader may find some amusement on this subject in the memoirs of Martinus Scriblerus.

The bad success of the severer practice of Archagathus soon rendered his successors more gentle in their operations; but that some remains of the active Greek surgery continued to prevail we learn from Plutarch, who informs us, that, when C. Marius suffered the extirpation of the varices of one leg without a groan, he declined the attempt on the other, saying, that the advantages did not compensate for the sufferings.

Numerous works have been written to prove, that physicians at Rome were slaves, liberti, or foreigners. The opponents of this opinion have been equally voluminous. We must, as usual, give the result of our inquiry without engaging in the controversy. It seems clear that the greater number of practitioners were of the description mentioned, but it is equally certain that many were of a superior character. Archagathus himself was received at first with great ardour, and a house purchased for him; nor, on the decline of his credit, was he apparently deprived of it. He was also raised to the rank of a Roman citizen; and the Aquilian law declares, that, if any physician neglects a slave after any operation, he shall be pronounced guilty of a crime. By the same law, an action will lie against a physician, who, by the unskilful use of the knife or of medicine, shall kill a slave; and Ulpian decides, that a midwife, in the same circumstances, shall be pronounced equally guilty. These regulations must relate to free, men, and the Aquilian law is confessedly anterior to the age of the Caesars, for all physicians were by Julius Caesar raised to the rank of Roman citizens. Varro is also explicit on this subject, when he discusses the question for what farms it is preferable to have artificers, among which he reckons medical assistants, occasionally hired, and to what kinds it is better to have slaves attached. In the time of Cato, also, the Phoenicians had been driven from Sicily by the Romans, and the Macedonians from Greece. The Grecians had therefore recovered a great