bath in hot weather, hot baths for old people, the use of wine, and
three meals a day. The great principles of his practice were that
disease is to be overcome by that which is contrary to the disease
itself,--hence the name Allopathy, invented by the founder of
Homoeopathy to designate the fundamental principle of the general
practice,--and that nature is to be preserved by that which has relation
with nature. His "Commentaries on Hippocrates" served as a treasure of
medical criticism, from which succeeding annotators borrowed. No one
ever set before the medical profession a higher standard than Galen
advanced, and few have more nearly approached it. He did not attach
himself to any particular school, but studied the doctrines of each. The
works of Galen constituted the last production of ancient Roman
medicine, and from his day the decline in medical science was rapid,
until it was revived among the Arabs.

The physical sciences, it must be confessed, were not carried by the
ancients to any such length as geometry and astronomy. In physical
geography they were particularly deficient. Yet even this branch of
knowledge can boast of some eminent names. When men sailed timidly along
the coasts, and dared not explore distant seas, the true position and
characteristics of countries could not be ascertained with the
definiteness that it is at present. But geography was not utterly
neglected in those early times, nor was natural history.

Herodotus gives us most valuable information respecting the manners and
customs of Oriental and barbarous nations; and Pliny wrote a Natural
History in thirty-seven books, which is compiled from upwards of two
thousand volumes, and refers to twenty thousand matters of importance.
He was born 23 A.D., and was fifty-six when the eruption of Vesuvius
took place, which caused his death. Pliny cannot be called a scientific
genius in the sense understood by modern savants; nor was he an original
observer,--his materials being drawn up second-hand, like a modern
encyclopaedia. Nor did he evince great judgment in his selection: he had
a great love of the marvellous, and his work was often unintelligible;
but it remains a wonderful monument of human industry. His Natural
History treats of everything in the natural world,--of the heavenly
bodies, of the elements, of thunder and lightning, of the winds and
seasons, of the changes and phenomena of the earth, of countries and
nations, of seas and river