the wise Centaur, was without doubt the first medical professor whose
name has been handed down. To Chiron is usually ascribed the honor of
having introduced among the Grecians the art of Medicine, in the
thirteenth century B. C. He was reputed to have been a learned chief or
prince of Thessaly, who was also a pioneer among equestrians, one who
preferred horseback as a means of locomotion, rather than the chariot,
or other prototype of the chaise, buggy, automobile, or bicycle. Hence
the superstition of that rude age gave him a place among the Centaurs.
He is reported moreover to have imparted instruction to the Argonauts,
and to the warriors who participated in the siege of Troy. From this
hero is derived the name of the plant centaury, owing to a legend of its
having been used with success as a healing application to a wound in
Chiron's foot.

The worship of Esculapius, as the god of healing, was widespread among
the Greeks, and lasted even into Christian times. Patients repaired to
the temples, just as relief is sought to-day by a devotional pilgrimage,
or by a resort to a sacred spring. The records of cures were inscribed
upon the columns or walls of the temple, and thus is believed to have
originated the custom of recording medical and surgical cases.[100:1]

The priests exerted a powerful influence upon the minds of applicants by
reciting wonderful tales, as they led them through the sacred precincts,
explaining in mystical language the miraculous cures which had been
performed there, and calling attention to the numerous votive offerings
and inscriptions upon the temple walls. It may readily be conceived,
wrote Richard J. Dunglison, M.D.,[100:2] that these procedures made a
deep impression upon the patients' minds, and the more so, because the
priests were wont to dwell especially upon the cures which had been
effected in analogous cases.

Moreover hydro-therapy was supplemented by massage, which often had
beneficial results in nervous affections; and fumigation of the
patients, before they received advice from the oracle, lent an air of
mystery. Those who were cured returned to express their gratitude and to
offer presents to the god, as well as to the priests. They usually also
brought some ornament for the adornment of the temple.

The act of sleeping in a sanctuary, in order to obtain medical relief,
either through revelations by dreams, or through a divine visitation,
was termed _incubation_.

According