"In the fourth century there were not a few eminent physicians in Byzantium, Alexandria, and Asia Minor; still on the whole the Byzantine system stifled mental activity, and medical literature was represented only by such encyclopedias as those of Oribasius, Aetius, and Paul of Aegina, compilations which notwithstanding, by salvage of writings which might otherwise have been utterly lost, did priceless service to the historian. And, beside these, the endless succession of herbaries, recipe books, and antidotariums, like lower organisms, propagated their futile kind."