the author stated that the work dealt
with twenty thousand important matters, and was compiled from two
thousand volumes.

Although Pliny was not a physician he writes about medicine, and paints
a picture of the state of medical knowledge of his time. His own
opinions on the subject are of no value. He believed that magic is a
branch of medicine, and was optimistic enough to hold that there is a
score of remedies for every disease. His writings upon the virtues of
medicines derived from the human body, from fish, and from plants are
more picturesque than accurate.

FOOTNOTES:

[20] H. N., xxix, 5.

CHAPTER VIII.

THE FIRST AND SECOND CENTURIES OF THE CHRISTIAN ERA.

Athenaeus--Pneumatism--Eclectics--Agathinus--Aretaeus--Archigenes--
Dioscorides--Cassius Felix--Pestilence in Rome--Ancient surgical
instruments--Herodotus--Heliodorus--Caelius Aurelianus--Soranus--
Rufus of Ephesus--Marinus--Quintus.

_Athenaeus_, of Cilicia, a Stoic and Peripatetic, founded in Rome the
sect of the _Pneumatists_ about the year A.D. 69. It was inspired by the
philosophy of Plato. The pneuma, or spirit, was in their opinion the
cause of health and of disease. They believed that dilatation of the
arteries drives onward the pneuma, and contraction of the arteries
drives it in a contrary direction. The pneuma passes from the heart to
the arteries. Their theories also had reference to the elements. Thus,
the union of heat and moisture maintains health; heat and dryness cause
acute diseases; cold and moisture cause chronic diseases; cold and
dryness cause mental depression, and at death there are both dryness and
coldness. In spite of these strange opinions the Pneumatists made some
scientific progress, and recognized some diseases hitherto unknown.
Galen wrote of the Pneumatists: "They would rather betray their country
than abjure their opinions." The founder of the sect of Pneumatists was
a very prolific writer, for the twenty-ninth volume of one of his works
is quoted by Oribasius. The teaching of the Pneumatists speedily gave
way to that of the _Eclectics_, of whom Galen was by far the most
celebrated. They tried to reconcile the teaching of the Dogmatists,
Methodists, and Empirics, and adopted what they considered to be the
best teaching of each sect. The Eclectics were very similar to, if not
identical with, the _Episynthetics_, founded by a pupil of Athenaeus, by
name, _Agathinus_. He was a Spartan by