That they were secular, independent of the AEsculapian temples, that they were well paid, that there was keen competition to get the most distinguished men, that they were paid by a special tax and that they were much esteemed--are facts to be gleaned from Herodotus and from the inscriptions.

The lapidary records, extending over 1000 years, collected by Professor Oehler( 8a) of Reina, throw an important light on the state of medicine in Greece and Rome.

Greek vases give representations of these state doctors at work.

Dr.E.Pottier has published one showing the treatment of a patient in the clinic.( 8b) (8) R.Pohl: De Graecorum medicis publicis, Berolini, Reimer, 1905; also Janus, Harlem, 1905, X, 491-494.
(8a) J Oehler: Janus, Harlem, 1909, XIV, 4; 111.
(8b) E.Pottier: Une clinique grecque au Ve siecle, Monuments et Memoires, XIII, p.149.Paris, 1906 (Fondation Eugene Piot).
That dissections were practiced by this group of nature philosophers is shown not only by the studies of Alcmaeon, but we have evidence that one of the latest of them, Diogenes of Apollonia, must have made elaborate dissections.

In the "Historia Animalium"(9) of Aristotle occurs his account of the blood vessels, which is by far the most elaborate met with in the literature until the writings of Galen.