tical
field-ambulance service. "In every troop or bandon of two or four
hundred men, eight or ten stout fellows were deputed to ride immediately
behind the fighting-line to pick up and rescue the wounded, for which
purpose their saddles had two stirrups on the left side, while they
themselves were provided with water-flasks, and perhaps applied
temporary bandages. They were encouraged by a reward of a piece of gold
for each man they rescued. 'Noscomi' were male nurses attached to the
military hospitals, but not inscribed 'on strength' of the legions, and
were probably for the most part of the servile class."(6)

From the time of the early Alexandrians, Herophilus and Erasistratus,
whose work we have already examined, there had been various anatomists
of some importance in the Alexandrian school, though none quite equal to
these earlier workers. The best-known names are those of Celsus (of
whom we have already spoken), who continued the work of anatomical
investigation, and Marinus, who lived during the reign of Nero,
and Rufus of Ephesus. Probably all of these would have been better
remembered by succeeding generations had their efforts not been eclipsed
by those of Galen. This greatest of ancient anatomists was born at
Pergamus of Greek parents. His father, Nicon, was an architect and a man
of considerable ability. Until his fifteenth year the youthful Galen was
instructed at home, chiefly by his father; but after that time he was
placed under suitable teachers for instruction in the philosophical
systems in vogue at that period. Shortly after this, however, the
superstitious Nicon, following the interpretations of a dream, decided
that his son should take up the study of medicine, and placed him under
the instruction of several learned physicians.

Galen was a tireless worker, making long tours into Asia Minor and
Palestine to improve himself in pharmacology, and studying anatomy
for some time at Alexandria. He appears to have been full of the
superstitions of the age, however, and early in his career made
an extended tour into western Asia in search of the chimerical
"jet-stone"--a stone possessing the peculiar qualities of "burning with
a bituminous odor and supposed to possess great potency in curing such
diseases as epilepsy, hysteria, and gout."

By the time he had reached his twenty-eighth year he had perfected his
education in medicine and returned to his home in Pergamus. Even at
that time he had acquired c