n-ordinary,
were created by the emperors, as were also city and district physicians.
In the year 133 A.D. Hadrian granted immunity from taxes and military
service to physicians in recognition of their public services.

The city and district physicians, known as the archiatri populaires,
treated and cared for the poor without remuneration, having a position
and salary fixed by law and paid them semi-annually. These were
honorable positions, and the archiatri were obliged to give instruction
in medicine, without pay, to the poor students. They were allowed to
receive fees and donations from their patients, but not, however,
until the danger from the malady was past. Special laws were enacted to
protect them, and any person subjecting them to an insult was liable to
a fine "not exceeding one thousand pounds."

An example of Roman practicality is shown in the method of treating
hemorrhage, as described by Aulus Cornelius Celsus (53 B.C. to 7 A.D.).
Hippocrates and Hippocratic writers treated hemorrhage by application of
cold, pressure, styptics, and sometimes by actual cauterizing; but they
knew nothing of the simple method of stopping a hemorrhage by a ligature
tied around the bleeding vessel. Celsus not only recommended tying the
end of the injured vessel, but describes the method of applying two
ligatures before the artery is divided by the surgeon--a common practice
among surgeons at the present time. The cut is made between these two,
and thus hemorrhage is avoided from either end of the divided vessel.

Another Roman surgeon, Heliodorus, not only describes the use of
the ligature in stopping hemorrhage, but also the practice of
torsion--twisting smaller vessels, which causes their lining membrane to
contract in a manner that produces coagulation and stops hemorrhage. It
is remarkable that so simple and practical a method as the use of the
ligature in stopping hemorrhage could have gone out of use, once it had
been discovered; but during the Middle Ages it was almost entirely lost
sight of, and was not reintroduced until the time of Ambroise Pare, in
the sixteenth century.

Even at a very early period the Romans recognized the advantage of
surgical methods on the field of battle. Each soldier was supplied with
bandages, and was probably instructed in applying them, something in the
same manner as is done now in all modern armies. The Romans also made
use of military hospitals and had established a rude but very prac