Medical inquiries and observations (Volume 1).

  • Rush, Benjamin, 1746-1813.
Date:
1805
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Medical inquiries and observations (Volume 1). Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    the divisions of their offices, into those of surgery, pharmacy, and midwifery, are likewise proofs of the declining state of a country. In the infancy of the Roman empire, the priest performed the office of a physician; so simple were the prin- ciples and practice of physic. It was only in the declension of the empire that physicians vied with the emperors of Rome in magnificence and splendour*. * The first regular practitioners of physic in Rome, were women and slaves. The profession was confined to them above six hundred years. The Romans, during this period, lived chiefly upon vegetables, particularly upon pulse ; and hence they were called, by their neighbours, pultifagi. They were likewise early inured to the healthy employ- ments of war and husbandry. Their diseases, of course, were too few and simple to render the cure of them an ob- ject of liberal profession. When their diseases became more numerous and complicated, their investigation and cure required the aids of philosophy. The profession from this time became liberal; and maintained a rank with the other professions which are founded upon the imperfection and depravity of human institutions. Physicians are as necessary in the advanced stages of society as surgeons, al- though their office is less ancient and certain. There are many artificial diseases, in which they give certain relief- and even where their art fails, their prescriptions are still necessary, in order to smooth the avenues of death.