Modern Athletics 1868

8 MODERN ATHLETICS. pected to be a victor in each event ? It is something fear­ ful to think of, and yet a passage in Herodotus (Book IX., chap. 33) seems to look that way. The father of history, in his pleasantgossiping style, tells there astory of Tisamenus, who at Plateea was the divine officiating on the Grecian side. The Pythian oracle told him that he should win five great contests. He naturally tookthis to mean the pentathlon, and accordingly trained hard. He would have gained the Olympicprize had he notbeen beaten in the wrestling byHieronymus. So he missed it by one, as Herodotus says, daicecov TrevraeBKonva, p a Zv TruXtuoyui edpufie vixav OAv/xTrtaSa. This is one of those "nuts to crack," which examiners are fond of giving in the OxfordSchools. The ancients trained hard, and held the relation be­ tween medicine and gymnastics to be so close, that the one was as necessary to cure disease as the other was to preserve the health. Hence G-ymnasia were dedicated to Apollon, the god alike of the healing and the fine arts. The directors of these establishments practised as phy­ sicians, while the subordinate attendants w"erderessers," both alike deriving their occupation and their skill from their experience. One noted character (Herodicus) is celebrated by Plato as combiningin his own person the three allied professions, as they were then considered, of sophist, gymnasiarch,and physician; and, likfeashionable doctors among ourselves,he sometimes severely tried the confidence of his patients, if he did not abuse it, whenhe tested their training by prescribing a walk from Athens to Megara and back again, a distance of more than twenty-four Englishmiles, without resting. Indeed, ma­ licious people said he killed the weakand feverish by his strong remedies, violentexercises, and dry rubbing. The regular practitioners stigmatisedhim as an "advertiser" and a quack. Certain it is that he was successful in dealing with cases—his own included—beyond their skill. The story is that e"njoying" (as honest country folskay) bad health, hetried gymnastics onhimself, and, perfectly succeeding, proceeded to practise onothers. The college of physicians of that day were the Asclepiadaa, the pro- fessional^ descendants of yEscukpius, "the blameless healer" (tVw (i^vp-vv)of Homer, whose father (later legend said) was Apollon, and whose sons, Machaon and Poda- lirius, were army surgeons beforeTroy. Herodicus inter-