skance as foreign adventurers, and
there is no doubt that although many were honourable men, others came to
Rome merely to make money out of the superstitious beliefs and credulity
of the Roman people. Fine clothes, a good house, and the giving of
entertainments, were the best introduction to practice that some of
these practitioners could devise.

The medical opinions of Cato throw a sidelight upon the state of
medicine in his time. He attempted to cure dislocations by uttering a
nonsensical incantation: "_Huat hanat ista pista sista damiato
damnaustra!_" He considered ducks, geese and hares a light and suitable
diet for the sick, and had no faith in fasting.

Although the darkness was prolonged and intense before the dawn of
medical science in Rome, yet, in ancient times, there was a considerable
amount of knowledge of sanitation. The great sewer of Rome, the _Cloaca
Maxima_, which drained the swampy valley between the Capitoline and
Palatine Hills, was built by order of Tarquinius Priscus in 616 B.C. It
is wonderful that at the present time the visitor may see this ancient
work in the Roman Forum, and trace its course to the Tiber. In the
Forum, too, to the left of the Temple of Castor, is the sacred district
of Juturna, the nymph of the healing springs which well up at the base
of the Palatine Hill. _Lacus Juturnae_ is a four-sided basin with a
pillar in the middle, on which rested a marble altar decorated with
figures in relief. Beside the basin are rooms for religious purposes.
These rooms are adorned with the gods of healing, AEsculapius with an
acolyte holding a cock, the Dioscuri and their horses, the head of
Serapis, and a headless statue of Apollo.

The Cloaca Maxima was formed of three tiers of arches, the vault within
the innermost tier being 14 ft. in diameter. The administration of the
sewers, in the time of the Republic, was in the hands of the censors,
but special officers called _curatores cloacarum_ were employed during
the Empire, and the workmen who repaired and cleansed the sewers were
condemned criminals. These ancient sewers, which have existed for
twenty-five centuries, are monuments to the wisdom and power of the
people who built them. In the time of Furius Camillus private drains
were connected with the public sewers which were flushed by aqueduct and
rain water. This system has prevailed throughout the centuries.

The Aqueducts were also marvellous works, and although they were added
to i