er to walk upon
thorns, but to have sound feet as thou hast decreed."

The priests did not neglect the natural means of healing. The
inscriptions show that great attention was paid to diet, exercise,
massage and bathing, and that when necessary, drugs were used. Birth and
death were believed to defile the sacred precincts, and it was not until
the time of the Antonines that provision was made at Epidaurus for these
contingencies.

One practice of the temple was of special interest, viz., the incubation
sleep, in which dreams were suggested to the patients. In the religion
of Babylonia, an important part was played by the mystery of sleep, and
the interpretation of dreams; and no doubt from the East the Greeks took
over the practice of divination in sleep, for in the AEsculapian
cult also, the incubation sleep played a most important role. That it
continued in later times is well indicated in the orations of Aristides,
the arch-neurasthenic of ancient history, who was a great dreamer of
dreams. The oracle of Amphiaraus in Attica sent dreams into the hearts
of his consultants. "The priests take the inquirer, and keep him fasting
from food for one day, and from wine for three days, to give him perfect
spiritual lucidity to absorb the divine communication" (Phillimore's
"Apollonius of Tyana," Bk. II, Ch. XXXVII). How incubation sleep was
carried into the Christian Church, its association with St. Cosmas and
St. Damian and other saints, its practice throughout the Middle Ages,
and its continuation to our own time may be read in the careful study
of the subject made by Miss Hamilton (now Mrs. Dickens).(18) There are
still in parts of Greece and in Asia Minor shrines at which incubation
is practiced regularly, and if one may judge from the reports, with as
great success as in Epidaurus. At one place in Britain, Christchurch
in Monmouthshire, incubation was carried on till the early part of the
nineteenth century. Now the profession has come back to the study
of dreams,(19) and there are professors as ready to give suggestive
interpretations to them, as in the days of Aristides. As usual,
Aristotle seems to have said the last word on the subject: "Even
scientific physicians tell us that one should pay diligent attention to
dreams, and to hold this view is reasonable also for those who are not
practitioners but speculative philosophers,"(20) but it is asking too
much to think that the Deity would trouble to send dreams to very