The AEsculapian temples may have furnished a rare field for empirical
enquiry. As with our modern hospitals, the larger temple had rich
libraries, full of valuable manuscripts and records of cases. That there
may have been secular Asklepiads connected with the temple, who were
freed entirely from its superstitious practices and theurgic rites, is
regarded as doubtful; yet is perhaps not so doubtful as one might think.
How often have we physicians to bow ourselves in the house of Rimmon!
It is very much the same today at Lourdes, where lay physicians have to
look after scores of patients whose faith is too weak or whose maladies
are too strong to be relieved by Our Lady of this famous shrine. Even in
the Christian era, there is evidence of the association of distinguished
physicians with AEsculapian temples. I notice that in one of his
anatomical treatises, Galen speaks with affection of a citizen of
Pergamos who has been a great benefactor of the AEsculapian temple of
that city. In "Marius, the Epicurean," Pater gives a delightful sketch
of one of those temple health resorts, and brings in Galen, stating that
he had himself undergone the temple sleep; but to this I can find no
reference in the general index of Galen's works.
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