The Early History of India, from 600 B.C. to the Muhammadan Conquest, including the Invasion of Alexander the Great c29.81

c29.81

¹ Sir H. Burdett (*Encycl. Brit.*, 11th ed., s.v. Hospitals) states that in Christian days no establishments for the relief of the sick were founded until the reign of Constantine (A. D. 306–37). Late in the fourth century Basil founded a leper hospital at Caesarea, and St. Chrysostom established a hospital at Constantinople. A law of Justinian (A. D. 527–62) recognized *nosocomia* or hospitals among ecclesiastical institutions. The Maison Dieu or Hôtel Dieu of Paris is sometimes alleged to be the oldest European hospital. It dates from the seventh century (Florence Nightingale in *Chambers's Encycl.*, 1904).