From the votive tablets found at Epidaurus, we get a very good idea of
the nature of the cases and of the cures. A large number of them have
now been deciphered. There are evidences of various forms of diseases
of the joints, affections of women, wounds, baldness, gout; but we are
again in the world of miracles, as you may judge from the following:
"Heraicus of Mytilene is bald and entreats the God to make his hair
grow. An ointment is applied over night and the next morning he has a
thick crop of hair."
There are indications that operations were performed and abscesses
opened. From one we gather that dropsy was treated in a novel way:
Asklepios cuts off the patient's head, holds him up by the heels, lets
the water run out, claps on the patient's head again. Here is one of the
invocations: "Oh, blessed Asklepios, God of Healing, it is thanks to
thy skill that Diophantes hopes to be relieved from his incurable and
horrible gout, no longer to move like a crab, no longer to walk upon
thorns, but to have sound feet as thou hast decreed."
The priests did not neglect the natural means of healing. The
inscriptions show that great attention was paid to diet, exercise,
massage and bathing, and that when necessary, drugs were used.
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