Thus was this famous revolution in medicine effected, not from superior judgment, more extensive observation, or experience, but from ignorance of what former practitioners had taught, and indolence, which rendered him unwilling to learn. It was easier to construct a fanciful romance than to study by the midnight lamp, and some late systematics have thought the same. The whole was rendered fashionable by his eloquence.

and the comparative pleasantness of his medical directions.

We must not, however, suppose, as has been too common with medical historians, that Asclepiades had no prototype or rival. Celsus expressly remarks, that he borrowed from Cleophantus, a physician of a former era; and Pliny observes that the use of wine, as directed by Asclepiades, was borrowed from the same author, whose period is uncertain, though we approach it by finding that his scholar Mnemon flourished in the time of Ptolemy Euergetes. One sarcasm of his rivals has been mentioned, where he is referred to the butchers and cooks, as able to give him correcter physiological views than he possessed. Cicero also, the friend of Asclepiades, highly praises Crater as, and bitterly laments the death of Alexion. We may likewise mention, though it might more properly occur in another place, that Crateras the herbalist, highly commended by Pliny and Dioscorides was probably the first who drew figures of plants. He lived, however, in the time of Mithridates, and must be distinguished from a physician of the same name, the cotemporary of Hippocrates; nor is it too late to add, that many Asclepiades flourished in subsequent eras, whose works and opinions, without great care, may be confounded with those of the Bithynian.

The sect of Asclepiades seems not to have been at once established. Alexander Philalethes, his scholar, taught in Asia; and Artorius, the physician of Augustus, who perished at sea, Ab. U. C 722, was also a follower of this celebrated innovator. Artorius has been confounded with Antonius Musa; but he had been dead ten years, when the latter succeeded in the cure of the emperor, after his former physician had failed. Who that physician was is not certainly known. If we trust the emendation of P. Harduin, he was called Camelliua; and this name occurs not only on inscriptions preserved by Gruter,but on medals. What the disease of Augustus was we are not informed; probably a debilitated system, which A. Musa cured by cold bathing, cold drinks, and lettuces, which Camelius' scruples had forbidden. The gratitude of Augustus was unbounded. His pecuniary rewards were immense: he was allowed to wear the ring; and immunities were not only granted to him, but to all who exercised the same art. Suetonius adds, that his statue, made of brass, was placed next that of AEsculapiys. We have no reason to suppose that Musa was a follower of Asclepiades; for he is spoken of by Galen as intimately acquainted with the whole science of medicine.

Whether it arose from the slow progress of the plans of Asclepiades, or from the alterations and improvements of Themison, that the latter has been considered as the founder of the methodic sect, is uncertain. Such, however, is the general language of medical history, and we must follow her steps. Themison has been highly commended by his cotemporaries and successors, and his name was long synonymous with that of an able physician. Yet we cannot but recollect the line of Juvenal:

Quot Themison aegros autumno occiderat uno.

Asclepiades chiefly considered the causes of diseases: Themison thought it only necessary to connect them by some common symptom, and divided diseases into the stricta, laxa, and mixta. By these terms we must not understand, with the generality of authors, constricted and relaxed fibres, or a mixture of both, but diseases attended with impeded or increased secretions, or too great discharges from one part, and too little from another. These principles afforded a path for physicians, and hence the sect (from via) was styled the methodic. In the first case he directs evacuants, in the second restringents, and in the third to oppose, by either class of remedies, the most dangerous disease. Such was the system he taught in advanced age; but the methodic doctrine had not yet been polished with care, so that we shall speak of Themison as an individual only in this place.

Themison neglected the precepts of Asclepiades in many respects, particularly in giving aloes and scam-mony, in allowing cold water after bleeding, and in not observing the due periods for giving nourishment, exciting evacuations, or bleeding. It is remarkable that in the writings of the methodic sect we find the first traces of bleeding with leeches; and Coelius Aurelianus relates a singular fact of Themison, that, having been bit by a mad animal, or possibly remaining too long with a friend labouring under an hydrophobia, he contracted the same disease. He cured himself; but, when he attempted to explain the method, he relapsed. This must have been a high degree of hypochondriasis. He was the author of many works, from which Coelius Aurelianus has preserved short extracts; but we can select nothing very important, except his praises of plantago, a plant supposed to be discovered by himself.

The system of Themison seems to have had no very violent opponent, or defendant: so far as we can collect, the opinions of physicians vibrated between the pores of Asclepiades,and the stricture or laxity of Themison, and practitioners seem to have reasoned with some freedom, though with no striking marks of genius or ability. A work intitled Problemata Medica, ascribed to Cassius, who seems to have lived about the end of the reign of Augustus, and the beginning of that of Tiberius, displays some marks of judgment and discrimination; but in his reasoning he seems to lean rather to the opinions of Asclepiades than Themison- We must not, however, conceal that the problems have been attributed to a later author, who is by no means a servile follower of the Rhetorician's doctrines. His practice, as we learn from Celsus, was far from irrational, and he freely gave cold water in fevers. Galen and Scribonius Largus mention a remedy of Cassius, called colice, as useful in colic pains. It consisted of carminatives, spices, opium, and saffron. This receipt Cassius left, apparently, to his servant Atimetus, whom he bequeathed to Tiberius, and from him Scribonius received it.