h the temple. The
Emperor Asoka founded many hospitals in Hindustan, and Buddhists and
Mohammedans both possessed hospitals ("Encyclopaedia Britannica").

Patients were attracted to temples, not only by receiving the services
of the priest-physicians, but also in the superstitious belief that
special virtue attached to the precincts of sacred buildings. Thus, in
the temples of AEsculapius, sick people tried to get as near to the altar
as possible. "It may fairly be surmised that the disuse of these temples
in Christian times made the necessity of hospitals more apparent, and so
led to their institution, in much the same way as in this country the
suppression of monasteries, which had largely relieved the indigent
poor, made the necessity of poor laws immediately evident."[37] During
Hadrian's reign the first notice of a military hospital appears.

The _iatria_, or _tabernae medicae_, described by Galen and others, were
not for in-patients, but of the nature of dispensaries for the reception
of out-patients. Seneca refers to valetudinaria, rooms set aside for the
sick in large private houses. The first hospital in Rome in Christian
times was founded by Fabiola, a wealthy lady, at the end of the fourth
century. Attached to it was a convalescent home in the country.
Pulcheria, later, built and endowed several hospitals at Constantinople,
and these subsequently increased in number. Pauline abandoned wealth and
social position and went to Jerusalem, and there established a hospital
and sisterhood under the direction of St. Jerome. St. Augustine founded
a hospital at Hippo. McCabe states justly: "In the new religious order a
philanthropic heroism was evolved that was certainly new to Europe. In
the whole story of Stoicism there is no figure like that of a Catherine
of Sienna sucking the sores of a leper, or a Vincent de Paul." It
appears evident that Christianity was an important factor in the
foundation of hospitals and charitable institutions, not directly, but
from its beneficent influence on the character of individuals; and the
Roman Church, in this respect, acted in conformity with the teachings of
the Christian faith.

Of greater importance is the consideration of the influence of
Christianity, and of the Church, on the investigation and elimination of
disease. In this matter the Church deserves the severest censure. It is
no exaggeration to say that she hindered the scientific progress of the
world for centuries. Sh