esmerism. They are all there, these modern puzzles, in
those old books of the long bygone seekers for wisdom." It is wonderful
how mankind in their pursuit of knowledge seem to have progressed in a
circle.

The influence which Christianity exerted upon the investigation of
medical science during the early centuries of our era will be considered
at length in a subsequent chapter.

_Antyllus_ was perhaps the greatest surgeon of antiquity. He lived
before the end of the fourth century A.D., for he is quoted by
Oribasius, but is not mentioned by Galen. The time in which he lived was
about the year A.D. 300. He was a voluminous writer, but his works have
perished except for quotations by later writers. The fragments of his
writings were collected and published in 1799. Antyllus performed an
operation for aneurism, which consisted in laying open the sac, turning
out the clots, securing the vessels above and below, and allowing the
wound to heal by granulation. As this operation was performed without
anaesthetics or antiseptics it was attended with great mortality, and the
risk of secondary haemorrhage was very great. Antyllus had operations for
the cure of stammering, for cataract, and for the treatment of
contractures by the method of tenotomy. He also removed enlarged glands
of the neck. It was part of the practice of Antyllus to ligature
arteries before cutting them, a method which was subsequently
"rediscovered" owing to neglect of the study of the history of medicine.
He gave directions for avoiding the carotid artery and internal jugular
vein in operations upon the neck.

A fragment of the writings of Antyllus is preserved by Paulus
AEgineta,[27] and shows the quality of the work done in bygone ages. It
is his description of the operation of tracheotomy, and runs as
follows:--

"When we proceed to perform this operation we must cut through some part
of the windpipe, below the larynx, about the third or fourth ring; for
to divide the whole would be dangerous. This place is commodious,
because it is not covered with any flesh, and because it has no vessels
situated near the divided part. Therefore, bending the head of the
patient backward, so that the windpipe may come more forward to the
view, we make a transverse section between two of the rings, so that in
this case not the cartilage but the membrane which unites the cartilages
together, is divided. If the operator be a little timid, he may first
stretch the skin