NATIONAL LIBRARY OF MEDICINE NATlONAl LIBRARY OF MEDICINE NATlONAl LIBRARY OF MEDICINE NATION 3NiDiaaw jo Aavaan ivnoiivn 3nidiq3vv jo Aavaan ivnoiivn snoiosw jo Aavaan ivnoiivn 3noiq NATIONAL LIBRARY OF MEDICINE NATIONAL LIBRARY OF MEDICINE NATlONAl LIBRARY OF MEDICINE NATION 0 P--- S ~* o 3Nma3w jo Aavaan ivnoiivn 3nioici3w jo Aavaan ivnoiivn 3noiq3w jo Aavaan ivnoiivn snidiq NATIONAL LIBRARY OF MEDICINE NATlONAl LIBRARY OF MEDICINE NATlONAl LIBRARY OF MEDICINE NATION ?- l « "» >3 a °- C5^ *" Sir ^ jNiDiasw jo Aavaan ivnoiivn snidiosw jo Aavaan ivnoiivn snoicjsw jo Aavaan ivnoiivn 3Noia ✓'XEJSK i y-^KXtVN f^RHr-\ o ^KXLV"S S NATIONAL LIBRARY OF MEDICINE NATIONAL LIBRARY OF MEDICINE NATIONAL LIBRARY OF MEDICINE NATION 3NiDia3w jo Aavaan ivnoiivn snidicjsw jo Aavaan ivnoiivn 3noio3w jo Aavaan ivnoiivn snidio o 3 \ ^ ( NATIONAL LIBRARY OF MEDICINE NATIONAL LIBRARY OF MEDICINE NATlONAl LIBRARY OF MEDICINE NATION jfft * tft 3NI3I01I. ... ...... ^ ft M3I03W J0 Wwn 1**011*1) 5 EET0tr3S0 U1 3NOI03VY jo Aavaan ivnoiivn 3noiq3w jo Aavaan ivnoiivn /•~< *a k .«*■• s A-JAl LIBRARY OF MEDlClME NATIONAL LIBRARY OF MEDICINE NATlOr- ibrary of medicine national library of medicine national library of medicine NATIONAL library of 10 Aavaan ivnoiivn AN (EPITOME OF THE History of Medicine. ROSWELl/f ARK,^.M., M.D., Professor of Surgery in the Medical Department of the IT.niversity of Buffalo, etc. BASED UPON A COURSE OF LECTURES DELIVERED IN THE UNIVERSITY OF BUFFALO. Illustrated with_Portnuts and Other Engravings. Philadelphia, New York, Chicago : THE F. A. DAVIS COMPANY, PUBLISHERS. 1897. 1807 COPYRIGHT, 1897, BY THE F. A. DAVIS COMPANY. [Registered at Stationers' Hall. London, Eng.] Philadelphia. Pa., TJ. S. A.: The Medical Bulletin Printing-House, 1916 Cherry Street " Dentin)/ Reserves for us Repose Enough.'''—Fekxel. TO MY COLLEAGUES IN THE MEDICAL FACULTY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF BUFFALO, Who Authorized and Encouraged this Fikst Attempt in the Medical Schools of this Country to Give Systematic Instruction in the History of the Science which they Teach, THIS BOOK Is Dedicated. PREFACE. The history of medicine has been sadly neglected in our medical schools. The valuable and fruitful lessons which it tells of ivhat not to do have been completely dis- regarded, and in consequence the same gross errors have over and over been repeated. The following pages repre- sent an effort to bring the most important facts and events comprised within such history into the compass of a med- ical curriculum, and, at the same time, to rehearse them in such manner that the book may be useful and acceptable to the interested layman.,—i.e., to popularize the subject, This effort first took form in a series of lectures given in the Medical Department of the University of Buffalo. The subject-matter of these lectures has been rearranged, enlarged, and edited, in order to make it more presentable for easy reading and reference. I have also tried, so far as I could in such brief space, to indicate the relationship which has ever existed between medicine, philosophy, natural science, theology, and even belles-lettres. Par- ticularly is the history of medicine inseparable from a con- sideration of the various notions and beliefs that have at times shaken the very foundation of Christendom and the Church, and for reasons which appear throughout the book. The history of medicine is really a history of human error and of human discovery. During the past two thousand years it is hard to say which has prevailed. Notwithstanding, had it not been for the latter the total 0) VI PREFACE. of the former would have been vastly greater. A large part of my effort has been devoted to considering the causes which conspired to prevent the more rapid develop- ment of our art. If among these the frowning or for- bidding attitude of the Church figures most prominently, it must not be regarded as any expression of a quarrel with the Church of to-day. But let any one interested read President White's History of the Warfare of Science with Theology, the best presentation of the subject, and he can take no issue with my statements. Reverence for the true, the beautiful, and the good has characterized physicians in all times and climes. But little of the true, the beautiful, or the good crept into the trans- actions of the Church for many centuries, and we suffer, to-day, more from its interference in time past than from all other causes combined. The same may be said of the- ology, which is as separate from religion as darkness from light. Only when students of science emancipated them- selves from the prejudices and superstitions of the theo- logians did medicine make more than barely perceptible progress. In this connection I would like to quote a paragraph from an article by King, in the Nineteenth Century for 1893: "The difficulties under which medical science labored may be estimated from the fact that dissection was forbidden by the clergy of the Middle Ages on the ground that it was impious to mutilate a form made in the image of God. We' do not find this pious objection interfering with such mutilation when effected by means of the rack and wheel and such other clerical, rather than medical, instruments." Written history is, to a certain extent at least, pla- PREFACE. Vll giarism ; and I make no apology for having borrowed niv facts from whatever source could best furnish them, but wish cheerfully and publicly to acknowledge my indebted- ness to the works mentioned below, those especially of Renouard, Baas, and Sprengel, and to various biographical dictionaries. I have not even scrupled to take bodily sentences or expressions from these authorities, but have tried to so indicate them when I could. The writer takes pleasure in acknowledging here the obligations which both he and the publishers feel to Dr. Joseph II. Hunt, of Brooklyn, X. Y., from whose extensive and valuable collection have been furnished the originals for most of the portraits in the following pages, and to Dr. F. P. Henry, Honorary Librarian of the College of Phy- sicians of Philadelphia, through whose courtesy was obtained the privilege of reproducing the illustrations of instruments and operations from some of the rare old works in the college library. The kind co-operation of these gentlemen has given a distinct and added value to the contents of this little work. List of Principal Works Consulted. Baas, Outlines of the History of Medicine. Translated by Henderson. New York, 1**9. BERDOE, Origin and Growth of the Healing Art. London, 1893. BOUCHUT, Hisioirc de la Medeeine. Paris, 1*73. Dezeimeris. Lettres sur PHistoirc de la Medeeine. Paris, 1838. Diet ion nai re Historique de la Jledecine. Paris, 1*2*. HAESER, Gesehichte der Medicin. Jena, 1*53. Hihsuh, Biographisches Lexikon des Herrorragenden der Aerzte aller Zeiten und Vdlher. Wien und Leipzig, 1**4. PORTAL, Histoire de I'Anatomic et de la Chirurgie. Paris, 1770. South, Memorials of the Craft of Surgery in England. London, 1886. Sprengel, Gesehichte der Chirurgie. Halle, 1819. CONTEXTS. CHAPTER I. PAGE Medicine Among the Hebrews, the Egyptians, the Orientals, the Chinese, and the Early Greeks.—The Asclepiadaj.— Further Arrangement into Periods (Renouard's Classification). The Age of Founda- tion.—The Primitive ; Sacred, or Mystic ; and Philosophic Periods. —Systems in Vogue : Dogmatism, Methodism, Empiricism, Eclec- ticism.—Hippocrates..................... 1-29 CHAPTER II. AGE OF Foundation {continued).—Anatomic Period: Influence of the Alexandrian Library. Herophilus and Erasistratus. Aretreus. Cel- sus. Galen.—Empiricism: Asclepiades.— Methodism: Themison. —Eclecticism. AGE OF Transition.—Greek Period: Oribasius. iEtius. Alexander of Trailes. Paulus iEgineta......... 30-56 CHAPTER III. Age of Transition (continued).—Arabic Period: Alkindus. Me^ue. Rhazes. Haly-Abbas. Avicenna. Albucassis. Avenzoar. Averroes. Maimonides.—School of Salem urn: Constantinus Africanus. Roger of Salerno. Roland of Parma. The Four Masters. John of Procida........................... ~>7-85 CHAPTER IV Age of Transition (concluded).—The School of Montpellier: Raimond Lulli. John of Gaddesden. Arnold of Villanova. Establishment of Various Universities. Gerard of Cremona. William of Salicet. Lanfranc. Mondino. Guy de Chauliac. Age of Renovation.— Erudite Period, including the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries. Thomas Linacre. Sylvius. Vesalius. Columbus. Enstachius. Fallopius. Fabricius ab Aquapendente. Fabricius Hildanus. . 86-113 CHAPTER V. AGE OF Renovation (continued).—Erudite Period (continued): Beni- vieni. Jean Fernel. Porta. Severino. Incorporation of Brother- (ix) x CONTENTS. hood of St. Come into the University of Paris. Ambroise Pare. Guillemeau. Influence of the Occult Sciences: Agrippa. Jerome Cardan. Paracelsus. Botal. Joubert. ......... 114-147 CHAPTER VI. Age of Renovation (continued).—Student-life During the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries. Ceremonials Previous to Dissection.— Reform Period: The Seventeenth, Eighteenth, and Nineteenth Centuries. Modern Realism in Medicine and Science. Introduc- tion of the Cell-doctrine. Discovery of the Circulation. William Harvey. Malpighi. Leuwenhoek. Correct Doctrine of Respira- tion. Discovery of the Lymphatic Circulation. The Nervous System. Discovery of Cinchona. Development in Obstetric Art, in Medical Jurisprudence, and in Oral Clinical Teaching. Van Helmont.—The latrochemical System : Le Boe. Thomas Willis. 148-170 CHAPTER VII. Age of RENOVATION (continued).—Iafromechanical School: Santoro. Borelli. Sydenham. Sir Thomas Browne.—Surgery: Denis. F. Collot. Dionis. Baulot (Frere Jacques). Scultetus. Ran. Wise- man. Cowper. Sir C. Wren the Discoverer of Hypodermatic Medication. Anatomical Discoveries. General Condition of the Profession During the Seventeenth Century. The Eighteenth Cent- ury. Boerhaave. Gaub.—Animism : Stahl.—Mechan ico-dynamic System: Hoffmann. Cullen.—Old Vienna School: Van Swieten. De Haen.— Vitalism: Bordeu. Erasmus Darwin.........171-202 CHAPTER VIII. Age of Renovation (continued).—Animal Magnetism : Mesmer. Braid. —Brunonianism : John Brown.—Realism: Pinel. Bichat. Aven- brugger. Werlhof. Frank.—Surgery: Petit. Desault. Scarpa. Gimbernat. Heister. Von Siebold. Richter. Cheselden. Monro (1st). Pott. John Hunter. B. Bell, J. Bell, C. Bell. Smellie. Denman. — Revival of Experimental Study: Haller. Winslow. Portal. Vicq d'Azyr. Morgagni.—Inoculation against Small-pox: Lady Montagu. Edward Jenner................203-229 CHAPTER IX. Age OF Renovation (continued).—The Eighteenth Century ; General Considerations. Foundation of Learned Societies, etc. The Royal College of Surgeons ; the Josephinum.—The Nineteenth Century Realistic Reaction Against Previous Idealism. Influence of Comte, of Claude Bernard, and of Charles Darwin. Influence Exerted by Other Sciences.—Theory of Excitement: Roeschlaub. CONTENTS. XI —Stimolo and Contrasfimolo: Rasori.—Homoeopathy: Hahnemann. —Isopathy, Elect rohonuropathy of Mattei.—Cranioscopy, or Phre- nology: Gall and Spurzheim.—The Physiological Theory: Broussais. —Paris Pathological School: Cruveilhier. Andral. Louis. Ma- •jendie. Trousseau. Claude Bernard.—British Medicine : Bell and Hall. Travers.—Germany, School of Natural Philosophy: Johannes Miiller.—School of Natural History: Schonlein.—New Vienna School: Rokitansky. Skoda.................230-252 CHAPTER X. Age of Transition (concluded).—New Vienna School (concluded): von Hebra. Czermak and Ttirck. Jiiger. Arlt. Gruber. Politzer.— German School of Physiological Medicine: Roser.—School of Rational Medicine : Henle.— Pseudoparacelsis>n: Rademacher.— Hydrothera- peutics: Priessnitz. — Modern Vitalism : Virchow. — Seminalism : Bouchut. — Parasitism and the Germ-theory: Davaine. Pasteur. Chauveau. Klebs. F. J. Colin. Koch. Lister.—Advances in Physical Diagnosis: Laennec. Piorry.—Surgery : Delpech. Stro- meyer. Sims. Bozeman. McDowell. Boyer. Larrey. Dupuytren. Cloquet. Civiale. Vidal. Velpeau. Malgaigne. Nelaton. Sir Astley Cooper. Brodie. Guthrie. Syme. Simpson. Langenbeck. Billroth. .........................253-275 CHAPTER XL History of Medicine in America. — The Colonial Physicians. Medical Study under Preceptors. Inoculation against Small-pox. Military Surgery During the Revolutionary War. Earliest Med- ical Teaching and Teachers in this Country. The First Medical Schools. Benjamin Rush. The First Medical Journals. Brief List of the Best-Known American Physicians and Surgeons. • . 276-299 CHAPTER XII. The History of An.esthesia.—Anaesthesia and Analgesia. Drugs Possessing Narcotic Properties in use since Prehistoric Times. Mandragora ; Hemp ; Hasheesh. Sulphuric Ether and the Men Concerned in its Introduction as an Anaesthetic—Long, Jackson, Wells, and Morton. Morton's First Public Demonstration of the Value of Ether. Morton Entitled to the Credit of its Introduc- tion. Chloroform and Sir James Simpson. Cocaine and Karl Koller............................300-315 CHAPTER XIII. The History of Antisepsis.—Sepsis, Asepsis, and Antisepsis. The Germ-theory of Disease. Gay-Lussac's Researches. Schwann. Tyndall. Pasteur. Davaine. Lord Lister and his Epoch-making CONTENTS. Revolution in Surgical Methods. Modifications of his Earlier Technique without Change in Underlying Principles, which Still Remain Unshaken. Changes Effected in Consequence. Com- parison of Old and Modern Statistics............ 316-329 CHAPTER XIV. Epitome of the History of Dentistry.—Rude Dentistry of Prehistoric Times. Early Instruments for Extraction Made of Lead. Dentistry on the Same Low Plane a*s Medicine During the First Half of the Christian Era. Dentistry Taught at the School of Salernum. Progress of the Art on the Continent. Prosthesis and Substitutes for Human Teeth. Introduction of Porcelain for Arti- ficial Teeth ; of Metal and of Vulcanized Rubber for Plates ; of Plaster for Impressions. From being a Trade, Dentistry is now a Profession, in which Americans lead the World. Statistics. . 330-341 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. FIG. PAGE 1. iEsculapius,.......................... 7 2. Offering to ^Esculapius,..................... 9 3. Hippocrates, ........,............ 19 4. Aulus Cornelius Celsus,..................... 35 5. The Conversion of Galen,.................... 37 (i. Averroes, ....................... 64 7. Andreas Vesalius,.................. 105 8. Title-page of The Seven Books of the Anatomy of the Human Body, by Andreas Vesalius, of Brussels, Physician to the Invincible Emperor Charles V,...... .... 106 9. IV, Forceps for Extracting Balls. F, A Denticulated Form of Forceps 108 10. Gabriel Fallopius,............109 11. Forms of Forceps for Enlarging AVounds,.............Ill 12. Body Showing Various Kinds of Wounds, . .......... 117 13. Mode of Extracting Leaden Bullets,...............121 14. Ambroise Pare,............ 124 15. Pliers, Iron for Actual Cautery, and Seton-needles, ......126 16. Swan's Beak, Used for Dilating the Track of a Wound and Extracting a Foreign Body, ... ...........129 17. Various Instruments for the Extraction of Balls,..........131 18. Speculums for the Mouth and Womb, etc.,........... 133 19. Amputation Instruments, ..............V.Vi 20. Different Forms of Trephines and Pliers,.............1:57 21. Philip Theophrastus Paracelsus,.................143 22. William Harvey, M.D., ....................156 23. Thomas Sydenham,......... ..... .... 173 24. Straight Saws and Divers Scraping Tools, Wherewith the Skull, Being Rotten or Having a Fissure, is Scraped Away, ...... 179 25. Surgical Treatment of Certain Dislocations, .........1*1 26. Various Operations on the Arms and Lower Limbs,.........1*5 27. Surgical Operations on the Breast, etc.,..............1*7 2*. Boerhaave,........................193 29. John Brown, M.D.,......................205 30. Ph. Pinel,.................. 207 31. Marie Francois Xavier Bichat, M.D.,...............208 32. William Hunter, M.D., F.R.S.,.................217 33. John Hunter, . . .....................218 34. J. F. Blumenbach, ......................223 35. Edward Jenner, M.D.,.....................227 36. Samuel Hahnemann, ......................242 37. Rudolph Virchow, ......................257 3*. Bernhard von Langenbeck,....................265 39. Theodor Billroth.,.................. ... 266 fxiii) XIV LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. KKi. PACK 40. sir Astley Cooper, Bart.. ........... 272 41. Sir Benjamin Collins Brodie, Bart., F. K.S.. ... ..... 273 42. B. Waterhouse, M.D.. 2*0 43. Surgeon's Hall, next to Philadelphia Dispensary, Fifth Street below Library Street. .... ...... 2*1 44. Benjamin Rush, M.D., .................. 2*4 45. George B. Wood, M.D., .....................2*6 40. Robley Dunglison, M.D.,....................2*7 17. Austin Flint. M.D.,.....................2** 4*. Isaac Ray. M.D., ...............2*9 49. Philip Syng Physick, M.D.,...................291 50. Ephraim McDowell, M.I)., ..................292 51. S. D. Cross. M.D.. LL.D.,...................294 52. J. Marion Sims. M.D., .................296 53. I). Hayes Agnew, M.D., LL.D.,.................297 54. William T. G. Morton, M.D.,........... .307 55. Dr. Morton Making the First Public Demonstration of Etherization at the Massachusetts General Hospital Surrounded by the Medical Staff of that Institution, October 16, 1846, . . .309 56. Lord Lister, M.D., D.C.L., LL.D., P.R.S.,............323 An Epitome of the History of Medicine. CHAPTER I. Medicine Among the Hebrews, the Egyptians, the Orientals, the Chinese, and the Early Greeks.—The Asclepiadte.—Further Arrangement into Periods (RenouanI's Classification). The Age of Foundation.—The Primitive ; Sacred, or Mystic ; and Philo- sophic Periods.—Systems in Vogue: Dogmatism, Methodism, Empiricism, Eclecticism.—Hippocrates, born 460 B.C. Of the origin of medicine but little need be said by way of preface, save that it must have been nearly contempo- raneous with the origin of civilization. The lower animals when sick or wounded instinctively lessen or alter their diet, seek seclusion and rest, and even in certain cases seek out some particular herb or healing substance. Thus, too, does the savage in his primitive state; and experience and superstition together have led nearly all the savage tribes into certain habits and forms in case of injury or disease. For us the history of medicine must necessarily begin with the written history of events, and its earliest endeavors need detain us but a very short time. Its earliest period is enveloped in profound obscurity, and so mingled with myth and fable as to be very uncertain. It embraces an indefinite time, during which medicine was not a science, but an undigested collection of experimental notions,— vaguely described, disfigured by tradition, and often made inutile by superstition and ignorance. The earliest records of probable authenticity are perhaps to be met with in the Scriptures, from which may be gathered here and there a fair notion of Egyptian knowledge and practice. Thus we read that Joseph commanded his servants and physicians to embalm him, this being about 1700 B.C. It shows that E<>vpt at that time possessed a class of men who practiced 2 THE HISTORY OF MEDICINE. the healing art, aiid that they also embalmed the dead, which must have both required and furnished a crude idea of general anatomy. We are also informed from other sources that so superstitious were the Egyptians that they not only scoffed at, but would stone, the embalmers, for whom they had sent, after the completion of their task. The probably mythical being whom the Egyptians called Thoth, whom the Greeks named Hermes and the Latins Mercury, passed among the Egyptians as the inventor of all sciences and arts. To him are attributed an enormous number of writings concerning all subjects. Some have considered him as identical with Bacchus, Zoroaster, Osiris, Isis, Serapis, Apollo, and even Shem, the son of Noah. Others have thought him to be a god. It is now almost certain that the books attributed to Hermes were not the work of any one hand or of any one age. The last six volumes of the forty-two composing the encyclopaedia, with which Hermes is credited, refer to medicine, and embrace a body of doctrines fairly complete and well arranged. Of these six, the first treats of anatomy; the second, of diseases; the third, of instruments; the fourth, of remedies; the fifth, of diseases of the eye; and the sixth, of diseases of women. In completeness and arrange- ment it rivals, if not surpasses, the Hippocratic collection, which it antedated by perhaps a thousand years. The Egyptians appear at first to have exposed their sick in public (at least, so says Strabo), so that if any of those who passed by had been similarly attacked they might give their advice for the benefit of the sufferers. In fact, according to Herodotus, the same custom prevailed among the Baby- lonians and Lusitanians. At a later date all who were thus cured were required to go to the temples and there inscribe their symptoms and what had helped them. The temples of Canopus and Vulcan at Memphis became the principal depots for these records, which were kept as carefully as were the archives of the nation, and were open MEDICINE AMONG THE EGYPTIANS. 3 for public reference. These records, being under the con- trol of the priests, were mainly studied by them, who later collected a great mass of facts of more or less importance, and endeavored to found upon the knowledge thus col- lected an exclusive practice of the art of medicine. In this way they formed their medical code, which was called by Diodorus the Hiera Sacra, Sacred Booh, from whose directions they were never allowed to swerve. It was per- haps this code which was later attributed to Hermes, and that made up the collection spoken of by Clement of Alex- andria. If in following these rules they could not save their patients they were held blameless, but were punished with death if any departure from them were not followed by success. I have spoken of embalming as practiced by the Egyptians. It was of three grades: the first reserved for men of position and means, which cost one talent, and according to which the brain was removed by an opening through the nasal fossae, and the intestines through an opening on the left side of the abdomen, after which both cavities were stuffed with spices and aromatics; then the body was washed and spread over with gum and wrapped in bandages of linen. The second grade was adopted by families of moderate means ; and the third was resorted to by the poor, consisting simply in the washing of the body and maceration in lye for seventy days. Pliny assures us that the kings of Egypt permitted the opening of corpses for the purpose of discovering the causes of disease, but this was only permitted by the Ptolemies, under whose reign anatomy was carried to a very high degree of cultivation. The medicine of the Hebrews is known generally through the Sacred Scriptures, especially through the writ- ings attributed to Moses, which embraced rules of the high- est sagacity, especially in public hygiene. The book of 4 THE HISTORY OF MEDICINE. Leviticus is largely made up of rules concerning matters of public health. In the eleventh chapter, for instance, meat of the rabbit and the hog is proscribed, as apparently injurious in the climate of Egypt and India; it, however, has been suggested that there was such variation of names Do or interpretation thereof as to make it possible that our rabbit and hog are not the animals alluded to by Moses. The twelfth and fifteenth chapters of the same book were designed to regulate the relation of man and wife and the purification of women, their outlines being still observed in some localities by certain sects, while the hygienic measure of circumcision then insisted upon is still observed as a religious rite among the descendants of Moses. For the prevention of the spread of leprosy, the measures suggested by Moses could not now be surpassed, although ancient authors have confounded under this name divers affections, probably including syphilis, to which, however, the same hygienic rules should apply. Next to Moses in medical lore should be mentioned Solomon, to whom is attributed a very high degree of knowledge of natural history, and who, Josephus claimed, had such perfect knowledge of the properties of all the productions of nature that he availed himself of it to compound remedies extremely useful, some of which had even the virtues necessary to cast out devils. The most conspicuous feature in the life of the Indian races is their division into castes, of which the most noble is that of the priests, or Brahmins, who in ancient times alone had the privilege of practicing medicine. Their Organon of Medicine, or collection of medical knowledge, was a book which they called Vagadasastir. It was not sys- tematically arranged, and in it demonology played a large role. They held the human body to consist of 100,000 parts, of which 17,000 were vessels, each one of which was composed of seven tubes, giving passage to ten species of gases, whicli by their conflicts engendered a number of dis- MEDICINE AMONG THE ORIENTALS. 5 eases. They placed the origin of the pulse in a reservoir located behind the umbilicus. This was four fingers wide by two long, and divided into 72,000 canals, distributed to all parts of the body. The physician examined not only the pulse of his patient, but the dejecta, consulted the stars, the flight of birds, noted any incidental occurrence during his visits, and made up his prognosis from a multitude of varying circumstances, omitting only those which were really valuable, namely, the symptoms indicating the state of the organs. Ancient Hindoo charlatan priests let fall from the end of a straw a drop of oil into the patient's water. If the oil was precipitated and attached itself to the bottom of the vessel, they predicted an unfavorable result; if, on the contrary, it floated, they gave a favorable prognosis. This is, so far as we know, the earliest recorded way of testing the specific gravity of the urine. With all their absurdities, however, the Indians appear to have done some things that we scarcely do to-day: they are said to have had an ointment that caused the cicatrices of variola to disappear, and they cured the bites of venom- ous serpents with remedies whose composition has been lost. The antiquity of the Chinese is simply lost in tradition and fable. From time immemorial their rulers have taken extraordinary care to prevent contact and interchange of ideas with foreigners. For 4000 years their manners, laws, religious beliefs, language, and territory have scarcely changed. In this respect they stand alone among the nations of the earth. They attribute the invention of medicine to one of their emperors named Hoam-ti, who was the third of the first dynasty, and whose supposititious date is 2687 B.C. He is considered to be the author of the work which still serves them as a medical guide. It is, however, more probably an apochryphal book. Its philosophy was of a sphvomic kind,—i.e., based upon the pulse, which they 6 THE HISTORY OF MEDICINE. divided into the supreme or celestial, the middle, and the inferior or terrestrial; by the examination of which the Chinese physician was supposed not only to show the seat of disease, but to judge of its duration and gravity. It is related that one of the ancient Chinese emperors directed the dead bodies of criminals to be opened, but this is ques- tionable, since it is certain that they have the most pro- found ignorance of rudimentary anatomy, and glaring errors abound in their system. Being thus replete with errors, and possessing no anatomical knowledge, their surgery was of the most barbarous type. No one dared attempt a bloody operation ; the reduction of hernia was unknown ; a cataract was regarded as beyond their resources; and even venesection was never practiced. On the other hand, they employed cups, and acupuncture, fomentation, plasters of all kinds, lotions, and baths. . The moxa, or red-hot button, was in constant use, and they had their magnetizers, who appear to have been convulsionists. For a long time there existed at Pekin an Imperial School of Medicine, but now there is no such organization nor any regulation for the privilege of practicing medicine or surgery since 1792. At least until lately the country and the cities were infested with quacks, who dealt out poison and death with im- punityr. They practiced most murderous methods in place of the principles of midwifery. Only since the civilized missionaries have penetrated into their country has there been any improvement in this condition of affairs. It is Greece which furnishes us with the most interesting and the most significant remains of the history of medicine during antiquity, as she furnishes every other art with the same historical advantages. During the period preceding the Trojan War there is little but myth and tradition. Leclerc catalogued some thirty divinities, heroes or heroines, who were supposed to have invented or culti- vated some of the branches of medicine. Melampus is MEDICINE AMONG THE GREEKS. 7 perhaps the first of these who immortalized himself by extraordinary cures, especially on the daughters of Proetus, King of Argos. These young princesses, having taken vows of celibacy, became subjects of hysterical monomania, with delusions, during which they imagined themselves transformed into cows and roamed the forests instead of the palaces. This nervous delusion spread to and involved many other women, and became a serious matter. Fig. 1.—JEscitlapius. (From a steel engraving of the marble statue in the Louvre.) Melampus, the shepherd, having observed the purgative effects upon goats of white hellebore, gave to the young women milk in which this plant had been steeped, thereby speedily effecting a cure. Scarcely less distinguished than Melampus was Chiron. He was mainly distinguished because he was the preceptor of JEscidapius, the most eminent of early Greeks in this field. By some iEsculapius was considered the son of Apollo by the nymph Coronis. 8 THE HISTORY OF MEDICINE. Several cities of Greece contended for the honor of his birthplace, as they did for that of Homer. That he was famous at the time of the Argonautic expedition is seen by the fact that the twins Castor and Pollux desired him to accompany^ the expedition as surgeon. Be his origin what it may, iEsculapius was the leading character in medicine of all the ancients, with the possible exception of Hermes among the Egyptians; in fact, some scholars consider the two identical. Temples were erected in his honor, priests were consecrated to them, and schools of instruction were there established, It is related that Pluto, god of hell, alarmed at the diminishing number of his daily arrivals, complained to Jupiter, who destroyed the audacious healer —on which account, some wit has said, " the modern chil- dren of iEsculapius abstain from performing prodigies." But the true iEsculapians, the successors of the demigod, were imitated or copied by the crowd of charlatans and quacks, calling themselves theosophs, thaumaturgs, and so on, and not alone at that date, but for generations and centuries thereafter, Paracelsus and Mesmer being fair examples of this class. The poet Pindar, who lived seven or eight hundred years after iEsculapius, says that he cured ulcers, wounds, fever, and pain of all who applied to him by enchantment, potions, incisions, and by external applications.1 The followers of iEsculapius, and the priests in the temples dedicated to him, soon formed a separate caste, transmitting from one to another, as a family heritage, their medical knowledge. At first no one was admitted to practice the sacred science unless he joined the priesthood, although later this secrecy was relaxed. They initiated strangers, provided they fulfilled the test which they made. Some kind of medical instruction was given in each temple. The three most celebrated temples to iEsculapius were that of Rhodes, already extinct by the time of Hippocrates; 1 Third Pythian Ode. iESCULAPIUS. 9 that of Cnidus, which published a small repertory; and finally that of Cos, most celebrated of all, because of the illustrious men who emanated from this school. In these temples votive tablets were fastened in large numbers, after the fashion of the Egyptians, the same giving the name of the patient, his affliction, and the manner of his cure. For example, such a one as this: "Julien vomited blood, and appeared lost beyond recovery. The oracle ordered him to tf Fig. 2.—Offering to ^sculapitjs. (From an engraving by George Cooke of a painting by Guerin.) take the pine-seeds from the altar, which they had three days mingled with honey; he did so, and was cured. Having solemnly thanked the god, he went away." There is reason to think that the priests of these temples made for their own uses much more minute and accurate accounts, which should be of some real service, since the writings which have come down to us evince a habit of close obser- vation and clear description of disease. During the Trojan 10 THE HISTORY OF MEDICINE. War two men are frequently mentioned by Homer as pos- sessing great surgical skill. These were Machaon and Podalirius. They were regarded as sons of .Esculapius, the former being the elder. The first account of venesec- tion, although not authentic, refers to the bleeding practiced by the latter upon the daughter of the King of Caria, upon whose shores Podalirius was cast by tempest after the ruin of Priam's kingdom. Whether he was the first of all men to practice it or not, it is certain that the act of venesection goes back long prior to the era of Hippocrates, who speaks of it as frequently performed. Many of the deities upon Olympus seem at one time or another to have usurped medical functions. Apollo, the reputed father of iEsculapius, appropriated nearly every- thing under the name of Paeon, who assumed the privilege of exciting or subduing epidemics. Juno was supposed to preside at accouchements, and in both the Iliad and Odyssey it is indicated that Apollo was considered as the cause of all the natural deaths among men, and Diana of those among women. The long Trojan War appears to have been an epoch- making event in the medical and surgical history of those times, as was the Civil War recently in our country. Certain vague and indefinite practices then took more fixed form, and from that time on medicine may be said to have been furnished with a history. After the dethronement of Priam and the destruction of his capital, navigation was free and unrestricted. The Hellenists covered with their colonies both shores of the Mediterranean, and their navi- gators even passed the pillars of Hercules. By these means the worship of iEsculapius passed from Greece into what is now Asia, Africa, and Italy. In his temple at Epidaurus was a statue of colossal size made of gold and ivory. The dialogues of Plato, especially the Phaedo, make it ap- parent that the cock was the animal sacrificed to him, and hence sacred to the god of medicine. The priests attached THE ASCLEPIAD^E. 11 to his worship were called Asclepiadce, or descendants of iEsculapius. The temples were usually hygienically located near thermal springs or fountains and among groves. Pilgrimages were made from all quarters, and these localities became veritable health-resorts. A well- regulated dietary, pure air, temperate habits, and faith stimulated to a fanatical degree combined and sufficed for cures which even nowadays would be regarded as wonder- ful. The priests prescribed venesection, purgatives, emetics, friction, sea-baths, and mineral waters, as they appeared to be indicated. The imagination of the patient was con- tinually stimulated, and at the same time controlled. Be- fore interrogating the oracles they must be purified by abstinence, prayer, and sacrifice. Sometimes they were obliged to lie in the temple for one or more nights. The gods sometimes revealed themselves in mysterious ways, at times devouring the cakes upon the altars under the guise of a serpent, or again causing dreams which were to be interpreted by the priests. There can be no doubt that sometimes, at least, the grossest frauds and the basest trickery were relied upon for the purpose of impressing the minds of those weakened by abstinence or influenced by drugs. Mercenary considerations were not lacking ; more- over, cures were often not obtained until zeal had been redoubled by largely increased contributions to the treasury of the temples. In the neighborhood of many of these temples serpents abounded, non-venomous and easily tamed. These were employed by the priests in various supernatural performances by which the ignorant people were astonished and profoundly impressed. In fact, the serpent and the serpent-myth played a very large role in the early history of medicine as well as that of religion and religious symbolism. It will thus be seen that during the space of about 700 years medicine underwent a translbrmation in Greece. It was first domestic and popular, practiced by shepherds, 12 THE HISTORY OF MEDICINE. soldiers, and others; then became sacerdotal; after the Trojan War it was confined to the vicinity of the temples and practiced in the name of some divinity; and finally it was wrapped in mystery and mystic symbolism, where superstition was played upon and credulity made to pay its reward. Down to the time of Hippocrates the Asclep- iadae rendered some genuine service to science, especially by inculcating habits of observation, in which Hippocrates excelled above all. Later, however, down to the time of the Christian era, medicine in the temples declined, and became, in fact, a system based upon the grossest jugglery. It is time now that we make a systematic attempt to classify events in the history of medicine, and to recognize certain distinct epochs as they have occurred. For this purpose I know of no better arrangement than that of Benouard, which, in the main, I shall follow, at least during the forepart of this book. In this sense he divides the past into three ages, known, respectively, as the Age of Foundation, the Age of Transition, and the Age of Renovation. Each of these chronological divisions is sub- divided into periods, of which the first contains four:— Age of Foundation.—1. The Primitive Period, or that of Instinct, beginning with myth, and ending with the destruction of Troy 1184 years before Christ. 2. The Sacred, or Mystic, Period, ending with the dispersion of the Pythagorean Society, 500 years before Christ. 3. The Philosophic Period, terminating with the foun- dation of the Alexandrian library, 320 years before Christ. 4. The Anatomic Period, ending with the death of Galen, about a.d. 200. The Second Age, or that of Transition, is divided into a fifth, or Greek Period, ending at the burning of the Alex- andrian library, a.d. 640, and a sixth, Arabic Period, ending with the revival of letters, a.d. 1400. classification. 13 The Third Age, or that of Renovation, includes the seventh, or Erudite Period, comprising the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, and eighth, or Reform Period, com- prising the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth cent- uries. Examining this table for a moment, it will be seen that so far we have dealt with the Primitive Period and the Sacred, or Mystic, Period. Before passing on to the Philo- sophic Period let us for a moment follow Renouard, who likens the three schools of medical belief in the earlier part of the Primary Age, or the Age of Foundation, to the three schools of cosmogony, which obtained among the Greeks. The first of these was headed by Pythagoras, who regarded the universe as inhabited by acknowledged sentient principles which governed all substances in a de- termined way for preconceived purposes. Animals, plants, and even minerals were supposed to possess vivifying spirits, and above them all was a supreme principle. To this school corresponded the so-called Dogmatic School of medicine, attributed to Hippocrates, which was the pre- cursor of modern vitalism, and regarded diseases as in- divisible units from beginning to termination; in other words, they consisted of a regular programme of character- istic systems, successive periods, and of long course, either for the better or worse; that was one of the characteristic dogmas of the Hippocratic teaching. The Second System of cosmogony was that founded by Leucippus and Democ- ritus, who explained all natural phenomena without re- course to the intervention of intelligent principles. All things for them existed as the necessary result of the eternal laws of matter. They denied preconceived purposes and ridiculed final causes. To this system corresponded that in medicine which has been termed Methodism (medically and literally speaking) and which recognized as its founders JEsculapius and Themison. The believers in this doctrine attempted to apply the atomic theory of Democ- 14 the history of medicine. ritus and Epicurus to the theory and practice of medicine. Atoms of various size were supposed to pass and repass without cessation through cavities or pores in the human body. So long as the atoms and pores maintained a nor- mal relationship of size and proportion health was main- tained, but it was deranged so soon as the exactness of these relations was destroyed or interfered with. The Dogmatists considered vital reaction as a primary phenom- enon, while with the Methodists it was secondary. The Third System of cosmogony, founded by Parmenides and Pyrrho, believed in the natural improvement of bodies in their endless reproduction and change, and concluded that wisdom consisted in remaining in doubt; in other words, they were the agnostics of that day. " What is the use," said they, " of fatiguing the mind in endeavoring to com- prehend what is beyond its capability 1" Later they were known as Skeptics and Zetetics, to indicate that they were always in search of truth without flattering themselves that they had found it. To them corresponded a third class of physicians, with Philinus and Serapis at their head, who deemed that proximate causes and primitive phenomena of disease were inaccessible to observation ; that all that is affirmed on these subjects is purely hypothetical, and hence unworthy of consideration in choosing treatment. For them objective symptoms—or, as we would say, signs— constituted the natural history of disease, they thus be- lieving that their remedies could only be suggested bv ex- perience, since nothing else could reveal itself to them. They therefore took the name of Empirics. Finally a fourth class of physicians arose who would not adopt any one of these systems exclusively, but chose from each what seemed to them most reasonable and satis- factory. They called themselves Eclectics, wishing thereby to imply that they made rational choice of what seemed best. The idea conveyed in the term "eclecticism" has been fairly criticised for this reason: eclecticism is in reality PYTHAGORAS. 15 neither a system nor a theory; it is individual pretension elevated to the dignity of dogma. The true eclectic recog- nizes no other rule than his particular taste, reason, or fancy, and two or more eclectics have little or nothing in common. If that were true two thousand years ago, it is not much less so to-day. The eclectic carefully avoids the discussion of principles, and has neither taste nor capacity for abstract reasoning, although he may be a good practitioner; not that he has no ideas, but that his ideas form no working system. With him medical tact—i.e., cultivated instinct —replaces principle. The eclectic of our day, however, is only an empiric in disguise,—that is, a man whose opinions are based on com- parison of observed facts, but whose theoretical ideas do not go beyond phenomena. In older days philosophy embraced the whole of human knowledge, and the philosopher was not permitted to be unacquainted with any of its branches. Now physics, metaphysics, natural history, etc., are arranged into separate sciences, and the sum-total of knowledge is too great to be compassed by any one man. Pythagoras was the last of the Greek sages who made use of hieroglyphic writings and transmitted his doc- trine in ancient language. Born at Samos, he was, first of all, an athlete; but one day, hearing a lecture on immortality of the soul, he was thereby so strongly attracted to philosophy that he renounced all other occupation to devote himself to it. He studied arduously in Egypt, in Phoenicia, in Chaldea, and even, it is said, in India, where he was initiated into the secrets of the Brahmins and Magi. Finally, returning to his own country, he was received by the tyrant Poly crates, but not made to feel at home. Starting on his travels again, he assisted at one of the Olympic games, and, being recognized, was warmly greeted. He sailed to the south of Italy, landed at Crotona, and lodged with Milo, the athlete. Commenc- 16 THE HISTORY OF MEDICINE. ing here his lectures, he soon gathered around him a great number of disciples, of whom he required a very severe novitiate, lasting even five or six years, during which they had to abstain almost entirely from conversation, and live upon a very frugal diet. Those only who persevered were initiated later into the mysteries of the order. His dis- ciples had for him most profound veneration, and were accustomed to decide all disputes with: "The master has said it." Pythagoras possessed immense knowledge; he invented the theorem of the square of the hypothenuse, and he first divided the year into 365 days and 6 hours. He seems to have suspected the movements of our planetary system. He traveled from place to place, and founded schools and communities wherever he went, which exer- cised, at least at first, only the happiest influence; but the success and influence which their learning gave them later made his disciples bold, and then dishonest, and his com- munities were finally dispersed by angry mobs, which forced their members to conceal or expatriate themselves; and so, even during the life-time of its founder, the Pytha- gorean Society was destroyed, and never reconstructed. With Pythagoras and his disciples numbers played a very important role, and the so-called language of numbers was first taught by him. He considered the unit as the essential principle of all things, and designated God by the figure 1 and matter by the figure 2, and then he expressed the universe by 12, as representing the juxtaposition of 1 and 2. As 12 results from multiplying 3 by 4, he con- ceived the universe as composed of three distinct worlds, each of which was developed in four concentric spheres, and these spheres corresponded to the primitive elements of fire, air, earth, and water. The application of the number 12 to express the universe Pythagoras had received from the Chaldeans and Egyptians—it being the origin of the institution of the zodiac. Although this is digressing, it serves to show what enormous importance the people of THE PYTHAGOREANS, 17 that time attached to numbers, especially to the ternary and quarternary periods in the determination of critical days in illness. Pythagoras was the founder of a philo- sophic system of great grandeur, beauty, and, in one sense, completion, embracing, as it does, and uniting by common bounds God, the universe, time, and eternity; furnishing an explanation of all natural phenomena, which, if not true, was at that time acceptable, and which appears in strong and favorable contrast as against the mythological systems of pagan priests. No wonder that it captivated the imagination and understanding of the thinking young men of that day. Had they continued in the original purity of life and thought in which he indoctrinated them there is no knowing how long the Pythagorean school might have continued. But after it had been dissolved by the storm of persecution, its members were scattered all over Greece and even beyond. Now no longer held by any bonds, many of them revealed the secrets of their doctrine, to which circumstance we owe the little knowl- edge thereof we now possess. The Pythagoreans apparently first introduced the custom of visiting patients in their own homes, and they went from city to city and house to house in performance of this duty. On this account they were called Periodic or Ambulant physicians, in opposition to the Asclepiadae, who prescribed only in the temples. Empedocles, of Agrigen- tum, well known in the history of philosophy, was perhaps the most famous of these physicians. Let the following incident witness his sagacity: Pestilential fevers period- ically ravaged his native city. He observed that their appearance coincided with the return of the sirocco, which blows in Sicily on its western side. He therefore advised to close by a wall, as by a dam, the narrow gorge from which this wind blew upon Agrigentum. His advice was followed and his city was made free from the pestilence. Again, the inhabitants of Selinus were ravaged by 2 18 THE HISTORY OF MEDICINE. epidemic disease. A sluggish stream filled the city with stagnant water from which mephitic vapors arose. Em- pedocles caused two small rivulets to be conducted into it, which made its current more rapid; the noxious vapors dispersed and the scourge subsided. The Gymnasia.—Before we proceed to a somewhat more detailed, but brief, account of Hippocrates, it is nec- essary to say a word or two of the ancient gymnasia of Greece, which were used long before the Asclepiadae had practiced or begun to teach. In these gymnasia were three orders of physicians: first, the director, called the Gym- nasiarch; second, the subdirector, or Gymnast, who directed the pharmaceutical treatment of the sick; and, lastly, the Iatroliptes, who put up prescriptions, anointed, bled, gave massage, dressed wounds and ulcers, reduced dislocations, treated abscesses, etc. Of the gymnasiarchs wonderful stories are told evincing their sagacity, which, though somewhat fabulous, indicate the possession of a very high degree of skill of a certain kind. Of one of the most celebrated of these, Herodicus, we may recall Plato's accusation, who reprimanded him severely for succeeding too well in prolonging the lives of the aged. Whatever else may be said, we must acknowledge that above all others the Greeks recognized the value of physical culture in the prevention of infirmity, and of all physical methods in the treatment of disease. By their wise enactments with reference to these matters they set an example which modern legislators have rarely, if ever, been wise enough to follow,—an example of compulsory physical training for the young,—and thereby built up a nation of athletes and a people of rugged constitution among whom disease was almost unknown. I come now to the so-called Philosophic Period, or the third period in the Age of Foundation, which is insepar- ably connected with the name of Hippocrates. This central figure in the history of ancient medicine was born on the HIPPOCRATES. 19 Island of Cos, of a family in which the practice of medi- cine was hereditary, who traced their ancestors on the male side to ^Esculapius, and on the female side to Hercules. The individual to whom every one refers under this name was the second of seven; the date of his birth goes back to 460 B.C., but of his life and his age at death we do not know; some say he lived to be over one hundred years of age. It is certain that he traveled widely, since his writings Fig. 3.—Hippocrates. evince the knowledge thus gained. He was a contemporary of Socrates, although somewhat younger, and lived in the age of Pericles,—the golden age for science and art in Greece. The Island of Cos is now called Stan-Co, and is situated not far from the coast of Ionia. Formerly it was consid- ered as having a most salubrious climate; now that it is under the dominion of the Turks, it is considered most unhealthy. It possessed a temple dedicated to iEsculapius 20 THE HISTORY OF MEDICINE. and a celebrated medical school. But Hippocrates, not satisfied with what he could learn here, visited the principal foreign cities, and seems to have been a most accurate and painstaking observer and collector of notes. That he achieved great renown in his life is known, since Plato and even Aristotle refer to him as their authority in very many matters. His children and grandchildren followed in his footsteps, and published their writings under the same name; it has, therefore, become difficult to distinguish his works from theirs. Finally, authors more unscrupulous, who bore no relationship to him, attached his name to their own writings. But the true were, as a rule, easily distinguished from the spurious, and were carefully sepa- rated by those in charge of the Alexandrian library. The enumeration of his writings by different authors varies very much. Renouard, who seems to have studied the subject very carefully, gives the following as appearing to him to be the authentic list of writings of Hippocrates the Second,—i.e., the Great: The Prognostic, the Apho- risms, the first and third books of Epidemics, that on Regimen in Acute Disease, that on Airs, Waters, and. Places, that on Articulations and Luxations, that on Fractures, and the Mochlic, or the treatise on instruments and reduction. This list does not comprise the fourth part of the entire Hippocratic collection, but its authenticity appears to be undoubted, and it suffices, as Renouard says, to justify the enthusiasm of his contemporaries and the admiration of posterity. Later, joined with the writings of Pythagoras, Plato, Aristotle, and others, they constituted the so-called Hippocratic collection, which was a definite part of the great libraries of Alexandria and Pergamos, and formed the most ancient authentic monument of medical science. Respect for the bodies of the dead was a religious ob- servance in all Greece, and prevented the dissection of the human body. Consequently the knowledge of anatomy- possessed by Hippocrates must have been meagre. Never- THE HIPPOCRATIC WRITINGS. 21 theless, he described lesions, like wounds of the head, of the heart, the glands, the nature of bones, etc. It being im- possible to establish a physiology^ without an anatomical basis, it is not strange that we find but little physiology in the Hippocratic writings, and that this little is very crude and incorrect. Arteries and veins were confounded, and nerves, tendons, ligaments, and membranes were repre- sented as analogous or interchangeable tissues. The physiologists of those days abandoned themselves to tran- scendental speculation concerning the nature and principles of life, which some placed in moisture, others in fire, etc. Speculation, thus run wild, prevented such accurate obser- vation as might have greatly enhanced the progress of physiological knowledge. Hippocrates wrote at least three treatises concerning hygiene: The first, on Airs, Waters, and Places ; the second, on Regimen j the third, on Salubrious Diet,— practically an abridgement of the preceding, in which he recommends the habit of taking one or two vomits sys- tematically every month. The classification of diseases into internal or medical, and external or surgical, is not modern, but is due to Hippocrates ; neither is it philosophic, although it is very convenient. With so little knowledge of physiology and pathology as the ancients had, it is not strange that they ascribed undue importance to external appearance; in other words, to what has been termed semeiotics, which occupies a very considerable place in the medical treatises of the Asclep- iadae. Indeed, the writings on this subject constitute more than one-eighth part of the entire Hippocratic col- lection. To prognosis, also, Hippocrates ascribed very great importance, saying that " The best physician is the one who is able to establish a prognosis, penetrating and exposing first of all, at the bedside, the present, the past, and the future of his patients, and adding what they omit in their statements. He gains their confidence, and being 22 THE HISTORY OF MEDICINE. convinced of his superiority of knowledge they do not hesitate to commit themselves entirely into his hands. He can treat, also, so much better their present condition in proportion as he shall be able from it to foresee the future," etc. To the careful scrutiny of facial appearances, the posi- tion, and other body-marks about the patient he attributed very great importance; in fact, so positive was he about these matters that he embodied the principal rules of semeiotics into aphorisms, to which, however, there came later so many exceptions that they lost much of their value. From certain passages in his book on Prediction, and from the book on Treatment, which is a part of the Hippocratic collection, it appears that it was the custom then of physicians to announce the probable issue of the disease upon the first or second visit,—a custom which still prevails in China and in Turkey. It gave the medical man the dignity of an oracle when right, but left him in a very awkward position when wrong. To Hippocrates we are indebted for the classification of sporadic, epidemic, and endemic forms, as well as for the division of disease into acute and chronic. Hippocrates wrote extensively on internal disease, including some par- ticular forms of it, such as epilepsy, which was called the sacred disease; also fragments on diseases of girls, relat- ing particularly to hysteria; also a book on the nature of woman, an extensive treatise on diseases of women, and a monograph on sterility. That Hippocrates was a remark- ably close observer of disease as it appeared to him his books amply prove; in fact, they almost make one think that close observation is one of the lost arts, being only open to the objection that too much weight was attached to insignificant external appearances, speculation on which detracted from consideration of the serious feature of the case. His therapeutics, considering the crude information of the time, was a vast improvement on that which had THE HIPPOCRATIC WRITINGS. 23 preceded, and really entitled him to his title of "Great Physician." Of external diseases and their surgical therapeutics he wrote fully: on The Laboratory of the Surgeon, dealing with dressings, bandaging, and operating; on Fractures; and on Articulations and Dislocations; showing much more anatomical knowledge than was possessed by his con- temporaries. The Mochlic was an abridgment of former treatises; in Wounds of the Head he formulated the dictum concerning the possible danger of trifling wounds and the possible recovery from those most serious, so often ascribed to Sir Astley Cooper. Other monographs, also, he wrote, on Diseases of the Eye, on Fistula, and on Haemorrhoids. He described only a small number of operations, however, and all the Hippocratic writings on surgery would make but a very incomplete treatise as compared with those that belong to the next historical epoch; all of which we have to ascribe—in the main—to prejudice against dissection and ignorance of anatomy. From the earliest times physicians and writers occupied themselves largely with obstetrics, as was most natural. The Hippocratic collection includes monographs on Gen- eration ; the Nature of the Infant; the Seventh Month of Pregnancy ; the Eighth Month of Pregnancy ; on Accouche- ment ; on Superfoetation ; on Dentition ; on Diseases of Women ; on Extraction of the Dead Foetus. The treatise on superfoetation concerned itself mainly with obstetrics. On epidemics Hippocrates writes extensively, showing that he had studied them carefully. He was among the first to connect meteorological phenomena with those of disease during given seasons of the year, expressing the hope that by the study of storms it would be possible to foresee the advent of the latter, and prepare for them. Seven books of the Hippocratic collection bear the title of Epidemics, although only two of them are exclusively devoted to this subject. In these books were contained a 24 THE HISTORY OF MEDICINE. long list of clinical observations relating to various diseases. They constituted really a clinical study of disease. The collection of Hippocrates's Aphorisms fills seven of the books ; no medical work of antiquity can compare with these. Physicians and philosophers of many centuries have professed for them the same veneration as the Pythagoreans manifested for their golden verses. They were considered the crowning glory of the collection. Even within a short time past the Faculty of Paris required aspirants for the medical degree to insert a certain number of these in their theses, and only the political revolution of France served to cause a discontinuance of this custom. These aphorisms formed, says Littre, " a succession of propositions in jux- taposition, but not united." It has always been and always will be disadvantageous for a work to be written in that style, since such aphorisms lose all their general sig- nificance ; and that which seems isolated in itself becomes more so when introduced into modern science, with which it has but little practical relationship. But not so if the mind conceive of the ideas which prevailed when these aphorisms were written ; in this light, when they seem most disjoined they are most related to a common doctrine by which they are united, and in this view they no longer appear as detached sentences. The school of the Asclepiadae has been responsible for certain theories which have been more or less prominent during the earlier historical days. One of these which prevailed throughout the Hippocratic works is that of Coction and Crisis. By the former term is meant thick- ening or elaboration of the humors in the body, which was supposed to be necessary for their elimination in some tangible form. Disease was regarded as an association of phenomena resulting from efforts made by the conservative principles of life to effect a coction,—i.e., a combination of the morbific matter in the economy, it being held that the latter could not be properly expelled until thus united and THE HIPPOCRATIC DOCTRINES. 25 prepared so as to form excrementitious material. This elaboration was supposed to be brought about by the vital principles, which some called nature (Physis), some spirit (Psyche), some breath (Pneuma), and some heat (Ther- mon). The gradual climax of morbid phenomena has, since the days of Hippocrates, been commonly known as Crisis ; it was regarded as the announcement of the completion of the union by coction. The day on which it was accomplished was termed critical, as were also the signs which preceded or accompanied it, and for the crisis the physician anxiously watched. Coction having been effected and crisis occurring, it only remained to evacuate the morbific material—which nature sometimes spontane- ously accomplished by the critical sweat, urination, or stools, or sometimes the physician had to come to her relief by the administration of diuretics, purgatives, etc. The term "critical period" was given to the number of days necessary for coction, which in its perfection was sup- posed to be four, the so-called quarternary, while the sep- tenary was also held in high consideration. Combination of figures after the Pythagorean fashion produced many complicated periods, however, and so periods of 34, 40, and 60 days were common. This doctrine of crisis in disease left an impress upon the medical mind not yet fully eliminated. Celsus was the most illustrious of its adherents, but it can be recognized plainly in the teach- ings of Galen, Sydenham, Stahl, Van Swieten, and many others. In explanation, it must be said that there have always existed diseases of nearly constant periods, these beino- nearly all of the infectious form, and that the whole "critical" doctrine is founded upon the recognition of this natural phenomenon. The Hippocratic books are full, also, of the four ele- ments,—earth, water, air, and fire ; four elementary quali- ties,—namely, heat, cold, dryness, and moisture; and the four cardinal humors,—blood, bile, atrabile, and phlegm. 26 THE HISTORY OF MEDICINE. Owing to the poverty of knowledge of physics and chemistry possessed by the ancients, and notwithstanding their errors and imperfections, the doctrine of Dogmatism, founded upon the theory of coction and humors, was the most intelligible and complete among the medical doctrines of antiquity, responding better, as it did, to the demands of the science of that day. That Hippocrates was a pro- found observer is shown in this: that he reminds both philosophers and physicians that the nature of man cannot be well known without the aid of medical observation, and that nothing should be affirmed concerning that nature until by our senses we have become certain of it. In this maxim he took position opposed to the Pythagorean doc- trine, and included therein the germ of a new philosophy of which Plato misconceived, and of which Aristotle had a very faint glimpse. Another prominent theory throughout the Hippocratic books is that of Fluxions, meaning thereby about what we would call congestions, or conditions which we would say were ordinarily caused by cold, though certain fluxions were supposed to be caused by heat, because the tissues thereby became rarefied, their pores enlarged, and their humor attenuated so that it flowed easily when compressed. The whole theory of fluxion was founded on the densest ignor- * © ance of tissues and the laws of physics, the body of man being sometimes likened to a sponge and sometimes to a sieve. The treatment recommended was almost as crazy as the theory. Certain other theories have complicated or disfigured the Hippocratic writings, and certain have been founded on the consideration of two elements—i.e., fire and earth—or on the consideration of one single element which was supposed to be air,—the breath, or pneuma; and there was—lastly—the theory of any excedent, which is very vague; of all of these we may say that thev are not of sufficient interest to demand expenditure of our time. HIPPOCRATES'S FOLLOWERS. 27 The eclat which the second (i.e., the Great) Hippocrates gave to the school of Asclepiadae in the Island of Cos long survived, and many members of his family followed in his footsteps. Among his most prominent successors were Polybius, Diodes, and Praxagoras, also of Cos,—the last of the Asclepiadae mentioned in history. Praxagoras was distinguished principally for his anatomical knowledge; like Aristotle, he supposed that the veins originated from the heart, but did not confound these vessels with the arteries, as his predecessors had done, but supposed that they contained only air, or the vital spirit. It has been claimed that he dissected the human body. He laid the foundation of sphygmology, or study of the pulse, since Hippocratic writers rarely alluded to arterial pulsations and described them as of only secondary importance. The predominating theory in the Island of Cos was that which made health dependent on the exact proportion and play of the elements of the body, and on perfect com- bination of the four cardinal humors. This was the prevailing doctrine,—i.e., the Ancient Medical Dogmatism, so named because it embraced the most profound dogmas in medicine, and was taught exclusively until the founda- tion of the school at Alexandria. Two men, however, more commonly ranked among philosophers than among physicians of antiquity, dissected the statements of Hippocrates, and embodied them more or less in their own teachings, and thus exercised a great influence on the progress of the human mind, particularly in the direction of medical study. The first of these was Plato, profound moralist, eloquent writer, and most versa- tile thinker of his day or any other. He undertook the study of disease, not by observation (the empirical or experimental method), but by pure intuition. He seemed to have never discovered that his meditations were taken in the wrong direction, and that the method did not con- duce to the discovery of abstract truths. He gave beauty 28 THE HISTORY OF MEDICINE. an abstract existence, and affirmed that all things beautiful are beautiful because of the presence of beauty. This reminds one of that famous response in the school of the Middle Ages to a question: " Why does opium produce sleep ?" the answer being: " Because it possesses the sleepy principle." Plato introduced into natural science a doctrine of final causes. He borrowed from Pythagoras the dogma of homogeneity of matter, and claimed that it had a triangular form. Aristotle, equally great thinker with Plato, but whose mental activity was manifest in other channels, was born in Stagyrus, in Macedonia. He was fascinated by the teachings of Plato, and attained such eminence as a student that King Philip of Macedon made him preceptor to his son Alexander, subsequently the Great, by whom he was later furnished with sufficient funds to form the first known museum in natural history,—a collection of rare objects of every sort, transmitted, many of them, by the royal hands of his former student from the remote depths of Asia. Aristotle, by long odds the greatest naturalist of antiquity, laid the first philosophic basis for empiricism. Fie admitted four elements—fire, air, earth, and water—and believed them susceptible of mutual transmutation. He studied the nature of the soul and that of the animal body; regarded heat and moisture as two conditions indispensable to life; described the brain with some accuracy, but without the least idea of its true function; said that the nerves pro- ceeded from the heart; termed the aorta a nervous vein ; and made various other mistakes which to us seem inex- cusable. Nevertheless, he was rich in many merits, and no one of his age studied or searched more things than he, nor introduced so many new facts. Although he never dissected human bodies, he nevertheless corrected errors in anatomy held to by the Hippocratic school. He dissected a large number of animals of every species, and noted the varieties of size and shape of hearts of various animals and ARISTOTLE. 29 birds. In other words, he created a comparative anatomy and physiology, and the plan that he traced was so com- plete that two thousand years later the great French natu- ralist Cuvier followed it quite closely. If he be charged with having propagated a taste for scholastic subtleties, he also furnished an example of patient and attentive observa- tion of Nature. His history of animals is a storehouse of knowledge, and his disciples cultivated with zeal anatomy, physiology, and natural history. His successor, Theo- phrastus, was the most eminent botanist of antiquity. It will thus be seen that Plato and Aristotle were the eminent propagators of two antagonistic opinions. One supposed knowledge to be derived by mental intuition, and the other that all ideas are due to sensation. Both count among moderns some partisans of the greatest acumen: Descartes, Leibnitz, and Kant being followers of Plato, and Bacon, Locke, Hume, and Condillac, of Aristotle. The excuse for stating these things, which appar- ently do not so closely concern the history of medicine, must be that of the learned interpreter of the doctrine of Cuvier, that " The first question in science is always a question of method." Hippocrates formed a transition between a period of mythology and that of history. His doctrine was received by contemporaries and by posterity with a veneration akin to worship. No other man ever obtained homage so ele- vated, constant, and universal. A little later ignorance reigned in the school that he made celebrated. Methods and theories were propagated there under the shadow of his name which he would have disowned. Medical science now changes its habitation as well as its aspect, and from the record of Hippocrates and his work we turn to the fourth period of the Age of Foun- dation,—namely, the Anatomic, which extends from the foundation of the Alexandrian library, 320 B.C., up to the death of Galen, about the year a.d. 200. CHAPTER II. Age of Foundation (continued).—Anatomic Period: Influence of the Alexan- drian Library. Herophilus and Erasistratus. Aretseus, f B.C. 170. Celsus, a.d. 1-65 (?). Galen, f 200.—Empiricism : Asclepiades, B.C. 100 (?).— Methodism: Themison, B.C. 50 (?).—Eclecticism. Age of Transition, a.d. 201-1400.—Greek Period: Oribasius, 326-403. .Etius, 502-575. Alexander of Tralles, 525-605. Paulus ^Egineta, 025-690. Fourth, or Anatomic, Period. — As already seen, Alexander the Great and his successors collected the in- tellectual and natural riches of the universe, as they knew them, and placed them at the disposal of studious men to benefit humanity; their complete value has not yet been exhausted, and never can be. This undertaking Avas carried out under conditions that made it one of extreme difficulty. Manuscripts were then rare and most costly; but few copies of a given work were in existence, often only one, and these were held almost priceless. Under these circumstances the establishment of a public library and of a museum was an act of philanthropy and liberality simply beyond eulogy, and did more to immortalize the founder of the collection than all his victories and other achievements. This appears to have also occurred to two of Alexander's lieutenants—one Eumenes, Governor of Pergamos, and the other, Ptolemy, Governor of Egypt. After the death of the conqueror his generals shook of all dependence upon the central government, and endeavored to centralize their own authority. But these two were the only ones among so many leaders who did not devote all their attention to armies and invasion, but interested themselves in commerce and arts. So active were they in the enterprise that Eumenes had gathered two hundred thousand volumes for the library at Pergamos, and Ptolemy six to seven hun- dred thousand for that of Alexandria. The latter was (30) THE ALEXANDRIAN SCHOOL. 31 divided into two parts, the greater and the lesser, the latter of which was kept in the temple of Serapis, hence known as the Serapium. These notable efforts to found enor- mous collections first excited praiseworthy rivalry among contemporaries and rulers, which, however, degenerated into contemptible jealousy, so that some of the rulers of Alexandria even went so far as to interdict the exportation of papyrus, in order to prevent the making of copies for the library of Pergamos. But the effect was unexpected, since it led to the invention of the paper of Pergamos, otherwise called parchment, which completely displaced the bark from which papyri were made. Be this as it was, the col- lection at Alexandria had a much more marked influence on the medical study of the future than that of Pergamos, and calls for our particular notice. About it sprang up first a collection of learned men, and then the inevitable result—a school of learning. It was Ptolemy Soter who called around him the most renowned men of his day. He provided them with homes adjoining the library, endowed them with salaries, and charged them with the classification and collation of manuscripts, or with the giving of instruc- tion by lectures and discussions. Ptolemy himself some- times took part in these feasts of reason, which became still more frequent and formal under his son Ptolemy Philadelphus. These were called the Feasts of the Muses and of Apollo,—i.e., htdi musarum,—and, consequently, the place where they were held came to be termed the " museum." Often the subjects for discussion were an- nounced in advance, and those who gained the most applause received rewards in accordance with the merits of their work. Among those who enjoyed these advan- tages under the reign of these two Ptolemies are promi- nently named two physicians, Herophilus and Erasistratus, the latter said to be the grandson of Aristotle. It was under this Philadelphus that the Hebrew wise men trans- lated into Greek the Holy Scriptures, which translation 32 THE HISTORY OF MEDICINE. has since been called the Septuagint—so called because it is supposed to have been translated by the members of the Sanhedrim, which was composed of about seventy men, or because, according to another legend, it was translated by seventy-two men in seventy-two hours. These savants of ancient Egypt, thus supported by the dynasty of the Lagides, gave the first place to the science of medicine. As regards this study, the school of Alexandria eclipsed almost from its origin the ancient schools of Cos and Pergamos, and during its existence was the leading institution of its kind in the world. At the time of Galen it was sufficient to have studied there, and even to have resided a short time in Alexandria, to obtain the reputation of being a phy- sician. Nearly all the scholars of these five centuries had received instruction in this school. The principal reason for its eminence in medical instruction was the practice of dissection of human bodies, which, under the Ptolemies, was allowed and recommended, and by which the science of medicine received an extraordinary impulse. Although the prejudice of Egyptians was very strong against those who touched a dead body, the Ptolemies themselves are said to have participated in this kind of anatomical study, thus destroying by their example the odium previously attached to dissection. Strange to say, however, the prac- tice of dissection fell into disuse toward the end of this Anatomic Period, and scholars preferred to indulge in subtle metaphysical discussions rather than study human tissues. But the principal reason for giving up this prac- tice was the Roman domination of Egypt, the Romans inconsistently, being perfectly willing to see any amount of bloodshed in the arena, and all sorts of inhumanities practiced upon living human beings, but holding that con- tact with a corpse was profanation; so that not a single anatomist of reputation had his origin in ancient Rome. " If on any occasion," says Renouard, " a foreign physician attached to the king or general desired to avail himself of HEROPHILUS. 33 the occasions that were afforded to examine the structures of the internal parts of the human body, he was obliged to conceal and carry off during the night some body aban- doned to the birds of prey." To complete the melancholy termination of the Anatomic Period, the labors of the writers of those days were all lost by the burning of the great library by Julius Caesar, which was the beginning of the chain of disasters with which Egypt was accursed under Roman dominion. Although Mark Antony, in- duced thereto by the endearments and solicitations of Cleopatra, transported the library of Pergamos to Alex- andria, even this was unavailing to restore the position of the school, since the atrocious and imbecile Caracalla took from the pensioners of the museum their privileges of common residence and every other advantage, and sup- pressed all public exhibitions and discussions. I can mention but few of the names most eminent during this Anatomic Period, and but a short account of the life and work of each. The first deserving of mention was Herophilus, who was born in Chalcedon about the end of the fourth century before Christ, and supposed to be the first to undertake sys- tematic dissection of the human body. The so-called Tor- cular Herophili, or common meeting-place of the sinuses at the occiput, named after him, gives evidence of his influ- ence upon the study of anatomy. He wrote on all depart- ments of medical science, concerning the eyes, the pulse, midwifery, etc., as well as numerous commentaries upon the Hippocratic writings,—describing the membranes of the brain and its vessels, the choroid plexus, the ventricles of the brain, the tunics of the eye, the intestinal canal, and certain portions of the vascular system. He alluded to the thoracic duct without knowing its purpose, and gave a more accurate description of the genitalia than any pre- vious writer. Strange to say, but little is known of his later life, and of his death absolutely nothing. 3 u THE HISTORY OF MEDICINE. Erasistratus was the son of Cleombrotus, a student of Metrodorus, and lived for some time at the court of Seleu- cus Nicator, whose son, Antiochus, he healed of a secret ailment, which happened to be a desperate love-affair with his mother-in-law, Stratonice. He wrote extensively on fevers, hygiene, paralyses, therapeutics, and many other subjects; regarded most diseases as due to overindulgence in food, which is not digested, and consequently putrefies. Plethora was for him the prevailing disease, against which he employed not only venesection, but fasting, and band- aging of the extremities. He was a diligent student of anatomy, and carefully described the brain in many of its grosser features, regarding it as the seat of the soul and the centre of the nerves. He also described more exactly than his predecessors the valves of the heart, which organ he regarded as the origin of veins and arteries. He discov- ered the lymph-vessels, and maintained, against Plato and others, that the epiglottis prevents the entrance of fluids into the lungs, but he supposed digestion to be produced by mechanical trituration in the stomach, and preferred gymnastics, exercise, diet, and baths to drugs or other therapeutic measures. He died about 280 B.C. Aretaeus, who died about 170 B.C., was one of the most brilliant lights of antiquity previous to the Christian era, but, in spite of all this, of his life very little is known. He came from Cappadocia about the end of the reign of Nero, and lived in Alexandria. That he lived in Alexandria is apparent from his numerous references to its location, to the habits and therapeutics of the Egyptians, and to the geography of the country. Furthermore, references to its diseases abound in his writings, so that it is made to appear that he had had the best advantages there, although he must have traveled extensively. But a small portion of his writings remain, and these consist, for the most part, of compendiums of pathology and therapeutics. He described disease, not in anatomical order from head to foot, but ARET^EUS. 35 under the classification of acute and chronic. With the exception of Hippocrates, he has shown himself the most free from vague, arbitrary speculation, and from the dog- matism of the schools of any writer of antiquity. He, more than any other up to his time, endeavored to found pathology upon a sound anatomical basis. For every picture of disease he endeavored to provide a suitable anatomical accompaniment. This appears particularly, for Fig. 4.—Al'lus Cornelius Celsus. instance, in his description of intestinal ulcers due to dys- entery, or the paralyses following brain affections, or his description of pharyngeal diphtherias, of which he gave a good account under the name of Syriac or Egyptian ulcers. Pulmonary tuberculosis, tetanus, and anal fistula are amply mentioned in his writings. His therapeutics were simple and rational; he laid great stress upon dietetic treatment. His surgical writings appear to have all been lost, but there is every reason to think that he brought to bear 36 THE HISTORY OF MEDICINE. upon external medicine the same good sense which he applied to internal affections. Cornelius Celsus, the most celebrated author for a number of centuries, was born in Rome about the time of Christ. Brilliant as he was, he exerted a wide-spread influence for centuries. The exact date of his death is unknown. He was a contemporary of the greatest philos- ophers, poets, and savants of Rome during its most brilliant period. He studied rhetoric, philosophy, the art of war, economics, and medicine—he was, in fact, a walking ency- clopaedia of the knowledge of his day; but it is in medicine that he shows to best advantage, and in his capacity as a physician he was and is best known. The direction in which Celsus appears to least advantage is in failure of power of direct observation, and in yielding unquestioning obedience to the views and dicta of Hippocrates, for whom he possessed the greatest reverence, not being able to brook any serious contradiction or opposition to his opinions. In this reverence for Hippocratic authority he was followed by many less prominent successors, the consequence being a failure to train men as observers, the endeavor beino; to © make them simply storehouses of information derived from Hippocratic writings. As a result, Celsus wrote but little, or else his writings are lost. He contented himself mostly with a mere commentary upon the writings which he so highly revered. But little of his writings remain, and these pertain mostly to the therapeutics of curable disease, dietetic, pharmaceutical, and surgical. Although he exer- cised great authority during his period, he was later totally supplanted by Galen, and his views are seldom mentioned in the writings of those subsequent to this great physician. His death must have taken place during the first century after Christ. Of all the students of Hippocratic dogmatism, the most earnest, skillful, and learned was Claudius Galen, a native of Pergamos, a place already celebrated for its temple GALEN. 37 dedicated to ^Esculapius, for its school of medicine, and for a library which had been removed to Alexandria. He was placed by his father under the most distinguished teachers in all of the sciences, and even as a young man showed extraordinary progress, and became early a disputant with the most erudite in grammar, history, mathematics, and philosophy. He has related how in two different dreams Fig. 5.—The Conversion of Galen. (From an old engraving published by R. Sayer & J. Bennett, London, 1775.) he was urged by Apollo to study medicine. He traveled widely for instruction, and remained some time in Alex- andria. On his return to his own country he was charged by its ruler to dress the wounded in the great circus, which furnished him opportunity for displaying all his anatomical knowledge and surgical skill. Not remaining long at home, he went to Rome, where his renown had preceded him, and where, by his brilliant elocution, his accurate 38 THE HISTORY OF MEDICINE. logic, and his profound erudition, as well as his versatility and practical skill, he at once took the highest place. But here his rapid success, his vanity, his disdain for his col- leagues, and his useless boasting, as well as his natural jealousy, gained him the enmity of nearly all his contem- poraries, and his stay at Rome was thereby made very disagreeable. In his work on Prenotions he accuses his colleagues of base jealousy and stupid ignorance, lavishes upon them such epithets as " thieves " and " pois- oners," and closes by saying that after having unmasked them he would leave them to their evil designs by abandon- ing the great city to seek a home in a smaller place, where the surroundings would be to him more congenial. This threat he carried out, but soon returned to Rome upon the invitation of the Emperors Marcus Aurelius and Lucius Verus, whose confidence, as well as that of their successors, he enjoyed. He is supposed to have lived to the age of seventy-one, and to have died about 200 A. d. Galen strongly denied being attached to any of the sects of his day, and regarded as slaves those who took the title of Hippocratists, Praxagoreans, Herophilists, and so on. Nevertheless, his predilection in favor of the Hippocratic writings is well marked, for he explains, comments upon, and expands them at length, refutes the objections of their adversaries, and gives them the highest place. He says: " No one before me has given the true method of treating disease; Hippocrates, I confess, has heretofore shown the path, but as he was the first to enter it he was not able to go as far as he wished. . . . He has not made all the necessary distinctions, and is often obscure, as is usually the case with ancients when they attempt to be concise. He says very little of complicated diseases; in a word, he has only sketched what another was to complete; he has opened the path, but has left it for a successor to enlarge and make it plain." This implies how he regarded himself as the successor of Hippocrates, and how little galen's theories. 39 weight he attached to the labors of others. He held that there were three sorts of principles in man : spirits, humors, and solids. Throughout his metaphysical speculations Galen reproduces and amplifies the Hippocratic dogmatism. Between perfect health and disease there were, he thought, eight kinds of temperaments or imperfect mixtures com- patible with the exercise of the functions of life. With Plato and Aristotle, he thought the human soul to be com- posed of three faculties or parts: the vegetative, residing in the liver; the irascible, having its seat in the heart; and the rational, which resides in the brain. He divided dis- eases of the solids of the body into what he called dis- tempers; he distinguished between the continued and intermittent fevers, regarding the quotidian as being caused by phlegm, the tertian as due to yellow bile, and the quartan as due to atrabile. In the doctrine of coction, crises, and critical days he agreed with Hippocrates; with him he also agreed in the positive statement that diseases are cured by their contraries. From all this it will be seen that Galen must be regarded as one of the earliest of Hippoc- ratic dogmatists. He was a most extensive writer, and it is said that the total number of his works exceeded one hundred. Flis contributions to anatomy were not insijjnifi- © cant. For myology he did a great deal. He wrote a monograph on the skeleton in which he recommended that bones be seen and handled, not merely studied from books, and that the student should go to Alexandria, where teachers would place before him the real human skeleton. It has been inferred that there was not, in his time, in Rome a single skeleton. He wrote fifteen books on anatomy, of which six are lacking; also an extensive treatise on the lesions of the human body, distributed among seventeen books which have come down to us. He is supposed to have introduced the term " symphysis," and he described nearly every bone in the human body. By him the muscles were no longer considered as inert masses 40 THE HISTORY OF MEDICINE. and tissue-layers serving to cover the bones, but he classified them according to their distinct functions, and studied sep- arately their form and uses. The location of the vessels and nerves between them was also noted, and it was proved that muscles were indispensable to the accomplishment of voluntary motions. Galen was, perhaps, the first vivisector of all, since he exposed muscles of living animals, and showed how alternate tension and relaxation of distinct groups set the bones in motion, after the manner of levers; he named a great number of them, but, curiously, took no note of others. His classification according to their uses is followed down to the present day—i.e., flexors, extensors, etc. The Hippocratic authors confounded the arteries with the veins. Praxagoras first distinguished two kinds of vessels which he supposed to contain air, whence the name artery. Aristotle and Erasistratus maintained this vieAv, which prevailed until the time of Galen, who devoted a book to the refutation of it, basing his argument upon the observation that always when an artery is wounded blood gushes out. How near he came to being the discoverer of the circulation may thus be seen. A little less reverence for authority and a little more capacity for observation would have placed him in possession of the knowledge, lack of which for so many centuries retarded the whole profession. He thought the veins originated from the liver —in this respect being behind Aristotle—but considered the heart as the common source of the arteries and veins. Even the portal system of veins confused him, and he erroneously described a superior and inferior aorta, but atoned for this by describing the umbilical veins and ar- teries. Aristotle also had supposed all the nerves orig- inated from the heart, but Galen stated that they are de- rived from the brain and spinal marrow, and pointed out two kinds of nerves: those of sensation, which he thought proceeded from the brain, and those of motion, which he WHAT GALEN DID FOR ANATOMY. 41 considered to originate in the spinal marrow. Thus, he described distinct nerves of sensation and motion, but sadly confused their anatomy. He seems also to have had some notion of the great sympathetic, although it was by no means accurate. He suggested the division of the prin- cipal nerves, in order to prove the fact that nervous energy is transmitted from the encephalon to other parts of the body. He speaks of glands, and thought they discharged their secretions through veins into the various cavities, but regarded them rather as receptacles of excrementitious matter than as agents for secretion of valuable fluids. He even regarded the mammae as glandular bodies in this sense, although he knew, of course, the value of their secretion. To Galen we owe the division of the body into cranial, thoracic, and abdominal cavities, whose proper viscera and envelopes he described. He spoke of the heart as having the appearance of a muscle, but differing from it. Fie regarded it as the source of natural heat, and the seat of anger and of violent passions. He appreciated that inspiration is carried on by enlargement of the thoracic cavity. He thought that atmospheric air entered the cavity of the cranium through the cribriform plate of the ethmoid and passed out by the same route, carrying with it excre- mentitious humors from the brain, which were discharged into the nasal fossae. But some portion of air thus entering remained, according to his views, and combined with the vital spirits in the anterior ventricles of the brain, from which combination originated the animal spirits and im- mediate agents of the rational soul. These acquired their last attenuation in the fourth ventricle, whence they would pass out drop by drop through a round, narrow tube. From this brief resume of the anatomy and physiology of Galen it will be seen that by the end of the second cent- ury of the Christian era immense progress had been made since the foundation of the Alexandrian school, and that it was due to the impetus in the study of anatomy given by 42 THE HISTORY OF MEDICINE. Herophilus and Erasistratus, who not only made numer- ous dissections, but resorted to frequent vivisections. It is even said that Herophilus did not hesitate to employ his knife on live criminals who were subjected to him for experiment; but this has been a popular tradition about almost every anatomist of antiquity, and there is no evi- dence in confirmation of the unkind rumor, although that such experiments might be legally and justly performed has occurred to the minds of many. But zeal for dissec- tion rapidly cooled off, and Galen barely mentions five or six men who devoted themselves to it in the space of nearly four hundred years down to his time. He speaks of Rufus of Ephesus,—who lived under Trajan of Marinus,—who wrote in the beginning of the second century A.D., and of Quintus, who instructed his own preceptor. None of them left a reputation, however, approaching that of Herophilus and Erasistratus, with whom Galen alone could compare by the number of his experiments and his discoveries. Galen strove as hard as one of his position might, by ex- ample and precept, to awaken in his contemporaries a desire for anatomical knowledge, but could not overcome their indifference. After him the practice of dissection appears to have been lost, either from the redoubled preju- dices of the superstitious, who opposed it, or as the result of the apathetic ignorance or the ignorant apathy of the physicians. It has been shown that, during the Hippocratic era and subsequently, the physicians even of primitive times fol- lowed more or less by instinct the empirical method. Acron of Agrigentum was a contemporary of Pythagoras, and affirmed that experience is the only true foundation of the healing art. Hippocrates, however, showed himself more anxious to report faithfully clinical facts than to dis- pute theoretical views. The surprising progress in anatomy and physiology made during the first portion of the Anatomic Period and GALEN'S INFLUENCE. 43 during the better days of the Alexandrian institute did not keep men from confounding several different points in the Hippocratic doctrine, by which confidence in the same was naturally shaken. Thus many new speculations were hazarded which nullified each other. In the midst of this confusion practitioners continued to seek in experience a refuge from the incessant variations of dogmatism and the sterile incertitude of the skeptics. Thus, empiricism as a school of practice became placed upon a firmer and firmer foundation, and the empirics of that day seem to have laid the true basis of our art. Their doctrine took at first a rapid growth, and Galen spoke of it with great regard. The circumstances under which it was proclaimed were most favorable for its propagation. Theories had fallen into confusion; practice, methods, and opinions were questionable. Everything was conjecture, and that which rested on the evidence of facts was by the empirics received with enthusiasm. Although founded on pure observation, it did not put an end to differences of opinion, and in the eyes of the ancients it lacked in solidity, because it did not attach itself to any philosophic theory then known. This doctrine was then best able to captivate physicians on ac- count of its simplicity, contrasted with the general inability to satisfy speculative minds; but for this very reason it subsequently fell into disgrace, and the term " empiricism " became synonymous with ignorance. For centuries con- demned and despised, it was revived from its long humili- ation under the name of the Experimental Method, and achieved, after the labors of Bacon, Locke, and Condillac, almost universal dominion in the sciences. This doctrine had been proclaimed for about a century during the period of which we now speak, but later led men into a fondness for secondary generalities or for the elevation and magnifying of trifles, which confused their minds and terminated its usefulness to science. Mean- while, a man of great intelligence, renowned as an elo- 44 THE HISTORY OF MEDICINE. cutionist, well versed in the doctrine of philosophers and grammarians—namely, Asclepiades, of Bythinia—came to Rome with the intention of teaching rhetoric. By his talent and personal address he soon became one of the most illustrious persons in the Roman Republic; so early as 150 B.C. he enjoyed a high reputation as a rhetorician, and was one of the intimate friends of Cicero; nevertheless, he abandoned letters, undertook the practice of medicine, and sought moreover to create a new system, being unwilling to follow in the track of his predecessors. Imbued with the philosophy of Epicurus, who was then in high repute, he deduced from it a theory which was in harmony with the philosophy of the day. He thought that the elements of the body existed from eternity ; that they were indi- visible, impalpable, and perceptible to the reason only. These elements he named atoms, which were supposed to be animated by perpetual motion, and from which, by their frequent encounters and fortuitous contention, all sensible phenomena were supposed to result. He explained the properties of the body by saying that compounds were aggregates of atoms, differing very much from atoms them- selves. Solid silver, he said, is white, but, reduced to powder, appears black; the horn of the goat, on the con- trary, is black, but if it be razed its particles are white. This, it will be seen, was the parent of our present atomic theory. He ridiculed the theories of Hippocrates concern- ing coction, crises, etc., and sarcastically called the Hippoc- ratic treatise on therapeutics "a meditation on death." Asclepiades based his own therapeutics on endeavors so to enlarge the pores of the human body that disease could find egress, or so to constrict them that it could not enter ; consequently he rejected all violent remedies, such as vomits, purges, etc., and his favorite remedies were hygienic,—for the most part bodily exercise. A celebrated disciple of Asclepiades was Themison, of Laodicea (b.c. 50), who was led by the teachings of his THE DOCTRINES OF GALEN'S SUCCESSORS. 45 master to lay the foundation of the so-called Methodism as opposed to Dogmatism in the school of Cos. By him and his followers a very arbitrary arrangement of diseases was made, according to what they considered the constrictive, or contractive; the fluxionary,—congested or relaxed; and the mixed forms. From this division of diseases it appears that, according to the methodists, there were only two kinds of therapeutic indications to follow,—namely, to relax where there was constriction, to constrict where there was relaxation. They, however, admitted a third credit- able result, which they called prophylactic; but the pure methodists, such as Coelius Aurelianus, admitted neither specific disease nor specific remedies, and erased from their materia medica purgatives, diuretics, emmenagogues, nauseants, etc. According to the methodist doctrine, the study of medi- cine was so abridged that one of its prominent exponents said that he felt able to teach the whole of medical science in six months. It made rapid progress, and consequently was most attractive to the numerous young neophytes who were anxious to finish their apprenticeship and hasten into practice. It is not one of the smallest of the services which Galen rendered to his time and to posterity that he demolished the sophistry of the methodists, demonstrated the insufficiency of their practice, and brought to bear upon them the wittiest satire, calling them the asses of Thessaly, alluding thereby to their lack of literature and medical instruction. In summing up, then, the basis for the various systems of medicine during this period of antiquity, it is seen that the most ancient doctrine of all—Dogmatism—directs our attention especially to the animal economy in health and disease; that it took account of the union of vital forces, of sympathies in the organism, and of nature's efforts to repel both internal and external deleterious influences, 46 THE HISTORY OF MEDICINE. which providential tendency manifests itself especially in certain acute diseases. This was the strong side of dog- matism. Its weak side consisted in this: that it was held that the causes of diseases inhere in the access of certain qualities and humors along with organic forces,—such as dryness or moisture in combination with bile or atrabile,— and the treatment was directed against these supposed causes. It was on account of this weakness that the enemies of dogmatism attacked it. The empirics opposed the idea that inaccessible and occult causes of disease could become the basis for rational treatment. They affirmed that there was no consistent relation of antago- nism or similitude between the disease and the remedies which cured it. The Methodists somewhat improved on the doctrine of empiricism, but ran wild in its improvement and erected over their fundamental theory such a superstructure of secondary and tertiary generalities as to cause the funda- mental part to be entirely obscured from sight. There were not lacking, in those days of old, certain educated physicians who more or less vaguely compre- hended that the entire truth of medicine did not inhere in any one of these systems, but that there was good and evil in each. These men, not being able to establish general rules, tried to decide practical questions according to their fancy or their reason. They assumed the name of Eclectics or Episynthetics, meaning thereby that they adopted no exclusive system, but selected from each that which seemed to them best. They did not constitute a sect, because they had no precise dogmas nor theories, but they should not be confounded with the Pyrrhonians, who held to doubt as a fundament doctrine, the true eclectic doubting only that which he could not understand. True eclecticism in medicine, however, is rather the absence of fixed principles, or, as Renouard says, it is " individualism erected into a dogma, which escapes refutation because it THE AGE OF TRANSITION. 47 is deficient in principle." Many became eclectics to avoid discussing principles, and made of it a shelter. In one sense, then, an eclectic is one destitute of profound con- victions, who sides with no particular party, is committed to no person or doctrine, and who is often so indifferent that he cannot judge with impartiality; consequently, to be truly eclectic is different from being an adherent of a school of eclecticism. During the historic period just reviewed, anatomy and physiology made most progress, next internal and external nosography, and next to these medical and surgical thera- peutics, and although Coelius Aurelianus and Aretaeus have left to us by far the best books issued up to their times, nevertheless not one of the writers of this period has achieved the distinction in which Hippocrates is held, since he, perhaps more than any other, combined intelli- gence, sincerity, disinterestedness, love of his art, and humanity. Under the classification of Renouard, already alluded to, the so-called Age of Transition includes centuries com- mencing with the death of Galen, about a.d. 201, and ending with the revival of letters in Europe, about the year 1400. The first period of this transition age is the so-called Greek Period, which ends with the burning of the Alexandrian library, a.d. 640. At the time when this historic period commenced all the known world was under the dominance of a single man. The power of Septimus Severus had more extent than that of Alexander the Great, and bid fair to be of a much longer existence. The Roman dominion, cemented by seven hundred years of bold and persevering govern- ment, seemed almost immovable. While the savages upon its frontiers occasionally troubled its peace, none were strong enough to penetrate its centres or place it in real peril. The great civil wars had ceased, or changed their object. 48 THE HISTORY OF MEDICINE. Both the people and the senate, those two eternal competi- tors, had gotten over the struggle for supreme power; monarchial government was accepted as a matter of fact, and the citizens contended only for choice of a master. Similar changes had taken place in the domain of the mind ; philosophical discussions, which were so essentially a part of the schools of the ancient Greeks, had nearly lost their interest and were being discontinued. Such disputes as took place related less to principle than to interpretation of the language of the teacher. In morals, Plato, Epicu- rus, and Zeno were followed until the principles of Chris- tianity gradually supplanted their teaching ; in physics and metaphysics the authority of Aristotle, and in medicine that of Galen, were simply undisputed. Conditions being such as these, there was naturally but one sect in medicine, and one method of study and practice. Medical science retrograded rather than progressed, sad to say, and was undisturbed by any remarkable revolution. The scepter of medicine passed from the hands of one nation to those of another, and the language of Hippocrates and Galen was later replaced, as will duly be seen, by that of Avicenna and Albucassis. But this Greek Period, which is one of transition, offers little for our consideration more than the lives and writings of four of its most emi- nent physicians, who by their study in the school of Alex- andria, and by their writings and teachings, left reputations which were sustained until the invasion of the Arabs. Of these it may be said that, while they did little or nothing original, and simply commented upon the writings of Hip- pocrates and Galen, they kept burning the torch of medical learning which else had been almost extinguished by their indolent contemporaries. Of these various commentators__ for they were little more than that—the first of any impor- tance after Galen was Oribasius, who was born in Perga- mos (326-403); he early attached himself to the fortunes of Julian the Apostate, and followed him into Gaul when THE GREEK PERIOD. 49 he was made its governor. Julian appreciated the good qualities of Oribasius, made him an intimate friend, and after he himself became emperor appointed his friend as quaestor at Constantinople. After the emperor's un- timely death, Oribasius remained faithful to his memory, but his jealous colleagues so falsely and so successfully misrepresented his fidelity that he was disgraced, spoiled of his office and property, and banished among a barbarous people. In this new field, however, he displayed such courage, effected such extraordinary cures, discoursed so eloquently, and so attached to himself the savage men around him, that he was by them regarded as a god. The fame of this homage in time reached the ears of the Em- perors Valens and Valentinianus, who recalled him, reim- bursed him for his losses, and permitted him to enjoy his high reputation and fortune to the end of his days. Fie was held to be the wisest man of his time, most skillful in medicine, and the most charming in conversation. He dedicated a collection of seventy books to Julian, his first patron, and edited, at a later period, an abridgment of this work for the benefit of his son. His principal merit con- sisted in reproducing the ideas of others with such clear- ness, order, and precision that the summaries that he gives of them are often preferable to the originals. What he has said of pregnant women, nursing, and the earliest educa- tion of the child has been copied literally by writers for twelve centuries since his time. It must be said of him, however, that his prepossession in favor of Galen was so great that he adopted servilely his ideas and even his words to such an extent that he has been surnamed " the ape of Galen." yEtius was born in Mesopotamia in the year 502 and died in 575. He studied at Alexandria, and afterward went to Constantinople, where he became a chamberlain at court. .Etius was the first medical man of any note who professed Christianity, as is shown by such passages as this one: he 50 THE HISTORY OF MEDICINE. said that in the composition of certain medicaments the following words should be repeated in a low voice: " May the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob deign to bestow upon this medicament such and such virtues." In another place he recommends that to extract a bone from the throat the following words be pronounced: " Bone—as Christ caused Lazarus to come forth from the sepulchre, as Jonah came out of the whale's belly—come out of the throat or go down." But he exhibits the same credulity in not doubting the miraculous virtues attributed by the quacks of his day to most remedies. Like Oribasius, he collected everything that he found remarkable in the writings of his predecessors, and has preserved certain fragments of antiquity which would other- wise have been lost. His work formed a complete manual of medicine and surgery, except that it lacked anatomical descriptions and references to dislocations and fractures. Alexander of Tralles (525-605), a city of Lydia, where Greek was spoken, was a son of the physician Stephen, and the most celebrated of five sons, who were all distinguished for their learning. He traveled extensively, and fixed his residence in Rome, where he became celebrated. He lived to an advanced age, and, being no longer able to practice, composed a treatise of twelve books, exclusively devoted to affections that did not require the aid of surgery. He pro- fessed the greatest veneration for Galen, but did not blindly adopt his opinions. He described the first reported case of excessive hunger and pain due to intestinal worms; he advised venesection in the foot rather than in the arm; but with all his sound judgment and mental enlightenment he had faith in amulets and talismans, and widely recommended them. It may be said for him, such was the universal prejudice of his age, the whole world being plunged in superstition, that it was necessary for every one to pav some tribute to the prevailing belief; and we may add that it is necessary to make this excuse for some who prac- PAULUS .EGINETA. 51 tice much nearer to ourselves than did those ancient physicians. Paul, or Paulus, surnamed ^Egineta (because he was born in the Island of iEgina), was among the last of the Greek physicians who have special interest for us. It is supposed that he died about a.d. 690. He traveled exten- sively, and his skill in surgery and obstetrics rendered him celebrated even among the Arabs, whose midwives sent for him in consultation from great distances. He composed a compendium of medicine, divided into seven books, and not only did not hesitate to borrow from his predecessors, but quoted from them most extensively ; a number of his chapters were taken almost verbatim from Oribasius; how- ever, he made no secret of it, but rather boasted that he had judiciously sought to appropriate the best of the writings of those he most revered. He showed originality, however, in the treatment of hydrocephalus, in advising paracentesis of the thorax and abdomen, in the extraction of calculi from the bladder, in the treatment of aneurism, the excision of hypertrophied mammae in men, etc. He was the first to describe varicose aneurism, and the first to perform the operation of bronchotomy after the method borrowed from Antyllus, of which he has transmitted a very detailed account. Of this Antyllus, by the way, it may be added, en passant, that he was one of the most distinguished and original surgeons of antiquity. He flourished during the third century after Christ; was the first to describe the extraction of small cataracts; and is, perhaps, best known to the surgical world to-day by his exceedingly bold plan of opening aneurisms, so successfully imitated a generation or so ago by James Syme. It has already been seen that before and during the early centuries of the Christian era the secrets and learning of the physicians tended to pass gradually into the hands of the priests. It was so in the temples of ancient Greece, it was so in Alexandria, it became so in Rome, it has been 52 THE HISTORY OF MEDICINE. so even in modern times, although only for brief periods of time. This has come about in some measure from the cupidity of the clerical orders, partly because it required a certain amount of intelligence and knowledge to become a priest, and partly because, owing to ignorance, credulity, and superstition, diseases have at all times been regarded by the ignorant as evidence of divine wrath and chastise- ment, or of diabolical or occult influences, rather than the effect of natural causes. Hence men have turned ever toward prayers, exorcism, and expiation, especially when exhorted thereto by the priests. This has been the sacer- dotal aspect of the practice of medicine in all times, and when the priests have usurped therapeutic functions they have done harm rather than good. So long as theology and science work hand in hand, each redounds to the credit of the other, but always in the history of man when theol- ogy has appropriated that which did not belong to it it has brought ridicule upon itself and has delayed the progress of knowledge. There have been frequent rebell- ions against religious authority in ancient as in modern times. For instance, at the commencement of the fifth century before Christ the Pythagoreans were dispersed, and the doctrines of Cos and Cnidus—i.e., the Hippocratic teachings—were promulgated; and, again, in the course of events, when the descendants of iEsculapius became servile attendants at the temple and adjuncts to the priesthood or a part of it. At first, in Alexandria, the physicians were supreme; their disciples, however, had the same blind reverence for authority that too many workers in the field of theology have evinced, and men once more practiced medicine on the traditions of the past, and in so doin"- allied themselves more and more to the temples. In Rome, at first, the oldest and best instructed of the relatives treated the diseases of his family as he understood them; simply shared this duty with its other members. Cato, the censor, was much engrossed with this domestic ROME DURING THE GREEK PERIOD. 53 medicine; he wrote a book in which he recommended cabbage as a sovereign remedy in many diseases. He venerated the number 3, as did the Pythagoreans; did not disdain to transmit to posterity certain medical words which it was believed should be repeated to assist in the reduction of dislocations and fractures. This old censor seemed to have a profound hatred for medical men, and most absurd ideas of their works and claims, although doubtless many Greek physicians who came to Rome merited the invectives which he launched against them. Then came Asclepiades, of Bythinia, as already mentioned, whose talents were far superior to those of his Roman con- temporaries, and who did not need to call to his aid charla- tanism and deceit. This medical hero unfortunately had many worthless and dishonest imitators, who appealed to superstition and ignorance in every dishonest way, and who desired to be judged by the luxury and elegance they dis- played. Hence for a long time in Rome medicine was practiced without license. The Emperor Anthony the Pious was the first to occupy himself with regulating the practice of medicine. He granted certain immunities, but did ask for proof of qualifications. A certain physician to Nero, Adromachus, was honored by the emperor with the title of Archiater,—i.e., royal healer,—but Galen, who was physician to Marcus Aurelius, never bore it. From the time of Constantine the Great, however, the title is fre- quently met with in the edicts of the emperors. In fact, there were two sorts of these,—one named the Palatine, who belonged to the household of the reigning monarch and who held high rank among the nobility; and the other called the Popular Archiaters, who were public-health offi- cers. No one could practice medicine in the jurisdiction of one of these without examination and authorization. Those who transgressed this regulation were punished with a fine of two thousand drachmas. The Popular Archiaters were pensioned by the city, enjoyed certain privileges, and 54 THE HISTORY OF MEDICINE. had to attend the poor gratuitously. Practitioners who were not members of the College of Archiaters had no pay, no rights, nor emoluments. The Popular Archia- ters were elected by the citizens from many candidates who had proved their capacity before the college of this medical organization. The evils of medical anarchy were thus remedied; this happy condition existed until the empire was broken up by barbarism. It is during this period—about 400 a.d.—that we first find a class of citizens to whom was delegated the duty of preparing drugs ordered by physicians. Their duties were in some respects similar to those of our apothe- caries, although in attainment and in social position they were far below the physicians. They were termed pharma- copolists. It is worth while to stop a moment to inquire what were the medical charitable institutions of antiquity. Even in the days of ancient Athens there was a certain gymnasium, called the Cynosarga, in which abandoned and illegitimate children were brought up at public ex- pense until such time as they were able to serve their country. A little later several private institutions of this kind were established. Rome in her earlier day never had such institutions. To be sure, she distributed provisions, or else remitted taxes, to parents who were unable to sup- port their children, or even permitted them to destroy their newborn children when unable to maintain them; but there were no bonds of sympathy which induced the patricians to succor the plebeians in time of disease and distress; slaves were cared for as were cattle. It is one of the debts we owe Christianity that, under its influence, the first almshouses and retreats were established in Rome. It has been said that the Emperor Marcus Aurelius first instituted anything like a dispensary service in the Sacred City. We are told, also, of an illustrious woman, St. Pauline, living in the midst of the greatest wealth and ANCIENT CHARITABLE INSTITUTIONS. 55 pomp, who retired from society and devoted her life to charity and self-denial. She went to Jerusalem, united with other Christian women of the same mission, and formed, under the direction of St. Jerome, a sisterhood whose members divided their time between reading sacred books and doing good works. They offered an asylum for the faithful and a hospice for the benefit of the indigent sick, and even established a home for convalescents outside the city-walls. After the model thus set, heathen emperors, Christian kings, and Moslem caliphs showed their zeal in this good direction by the erection of sumptuous edifices and other rich endowments for the relief of suffering human beings. Reviewing now the Greek period, let it be remembered that in the time of Galen animals were dissected, and that he made anatomical demonstrations on monkeys; that sometimes the corpses of the enemy were rudely dissected upon the field of battle, but that finally the practice of dissection fell into disuse, and human anatomy was studied only from books, the early Christians having evinced even more horror of the dead body for the purposes of anatom- ical study than did their pagan predecessors, while the Fathers of primitive times launched their anathemas against the dissection of human remains. Here, again, as usual, the interference of the church worked only general harm. This abandonment of anatomy contributed doubt- less to the decadence of medicine; by the rapid extension of Christianity the pagan schools were disorganized and broken up, the profane sciences (such as medicine) were discarded, and the teachers still remaining in the old schools were ruined. Passion for religious controversy was engendered and took the place of study or original research, even to such an extent as to hasten the fall of the Empire of the East. In addition to these factors, rev- erence for authority of the past—that terribly oppressive weight which has kept down so much which would other- 56 THE HISTORY OF MEDICINE. wise have risen early, and which has been the greatest enemy of human learning—permitted the explanation of natural phenomena to be sought only in the writings of revered ancients, and not in living beings. No one dared to advocate changes in regard to received doctrines, and there could be no such thing as progress. Only two men in the lapse of four centuries showed any originality; these were Alexander of Tralles and Paul of iEgina, whose lives have already been briefly rehearsed. It is with some relief, however, that we can think that this period, so unfruitful in scientific progress, was not so in social amelioration. By the organization of the institu- tions above alluded to charlatanism was checked, by the requirement of capability and good character society was benefited, and the charitable institutes of this epoch per- haps gave the world its best models in teaching and an insight into the most valuable means of medical instruc- tion. Of the old Greek Period, then, we may say that it accrues rather to the benefit of humanity than to that of science. CHAPTER III. Age of Transition (continued).—Arabic Period: a.d. 640-1400. Alkindus, 1873. Mesne, 777-857. Rhazes, 850-932. Haly-Abas, f 994. Avicenna, 980-1037. Albucassis, f 1122. Avenzoar, 1113-1161. Averroes, 1166- 1198. Maimonides, 1135-1204. School of Salernum: Constantinus Afri- canus, 1018-1 OK",. Roger of Salerno, 1210. Roland of Parma, 1250. The Four Masters, 1270 (?). John of Procida. The Arabic Period, which began with the second de- struction of the Alexandrian Library — 640 a.d. — ends with the fourteenth century. At the commencement of this period the Roman Empire of the West scarcely existed: the magnificent territory which composed it had been over- run and subdued by barbarous tribes from the forests of the North, while from its ruins had risen several independent kingdoms,—that of the Franks in Gallia, of the Visigoths in Spain, and of the Lombards in Italy. The last of the Western emperors of note was Justinian, whose army and generals—especially the genius and heroic devotion of Belisarius—threw some glory upon Italy, Sicily, Africa, and Spain. Meantime the Empire of the East, surrounded by enemies, and harassed from all directions, still sustained itself with vigor. The Turks had begun to show them- selves on the banks of the Danube; those eternal enemies of Rome—the Persians—made incessant war; and a new and terrible enemy had sprung up in the deserts of Arabia. Then came one who was at the same time legislator, prophet, and conqueror, and united under one faith and one leader tribes hitherto divided and warring against each other. Thus arose a powerful and enthusiastic nation, animated by thirst for conquest and ardor for proselytism. In less than a century after the first preaching of Mahomet, all of Arabia, India, Syria, and Egypt were in the hands of his followers. In the year 640 Amrou effected the conquest of Egypt, seized Alexandria, and the great library of five hundred thousand volumes was, by order of Omar (sue- (57) 58 THE HISTORY OF MEDICINE. cessor to Mahomet), delivered over to the flames; and the historian Abulpharagius declares that these books served for six months to heat the public baths, four thousand in number. Such were the first fruits of the establishment of Islam.* Happily, zeal of proselytism somewhat abated among the Mussulman princes, and religious fervor gave place to policy; so that the later Arabian caliphs showed themselves, in general, the protectors of the arts and sciences. Some, indeed, endeavored to collect the debris of the scattered treasures that had been so fortunate as to escape the ignorant fanaticism of their predecessors; and others, more tolerant even than the Christian princes of the time, received without distinction all men of merit who took refuge in their State, gave them employment, and recom- pensed them for their services. On this account philoso- phers and persecuted "heretics" sought an asylum among infidels, and found there the protection which Christianity- did not afford,—in return for which they gave their pro- tectors the benefits of Greek civilization. Of all the Moslem rulers, the most distinguished for love of learning and general enlightenment was Haroun- al-Raschid, the Charlemagne of the East, contemporary and emulator of the glory of the emperor of the Franks, the hero of a hundred Arabic poems, whose dominion extended from the borders of the Indus to the heart of the Spanish peninsula. He embellished Bagdad, his capital, with schools and hospitals. His son Almamon founded the Academy of Bagdad, which became the most celebrated of the age; likewise spared no pains to draw to his court the most illustrious men of all countries. He enjoined each of his ambassadors to purchase all the writings of the philosophers and physicians that could be found, and these he required to be translated into Arabic; his interpreter, Honain, a Christian, was employed at translating for forty- *See a very vigorous denial of this historical statement in The Nineteenth Century, October, 1894, page 555. THE ARABIANS AS PHYSICIANS. 59 five years, and received, for each book rendered into Arabic, literally its weight in gold. The eclat which the Moorish caliphs shed upon Spain from the tenth to the thirteenth century is well known. The cities of Cordova, Toledo, Seville, and Murcia pos- sessed public libraries and academies, and students from all parts of Europe flocked to them to be instructed in arts and sciences; the library of Cordova alone embraced more than two hundred and twenty-four thousand volumes. Thus it will be seen that the dominion of mental and temporal affairs passed from the Greeks and Romans to the Saracens. Arabian medicine constitutes one of the most interesting1 o chapters in the history of our art. An offspring from Greek schools, it was for nearly one hundred years the foster- mother of that art, and, although it gave rise to no great discovery nor wonderful step in advance during all this period, it nevertheless kept alive all the learning of the past, and clarified rather than made it turbid. In the sixth century the Nestorians (followers of Bishop Nestor), having been driven out of Syria, settled in Persia, Mesopotamia, and Arabia, and there founded schools and other institutions such as they had had at home,—schools in which, beside the ordinary philosophic studies, medicine received a share of attention. Thus it came about that by the seventh century Arabian physicians were everywhere known and in high repute. Naturally the basis for their studies embodied the writings of Hippocrates, Galen, Oribasius, and Paul of ^Egina; and the first Arabian works consisted solely of translations from the Greek, first out of their Syriac rendering, and later from the originals. Indeed, so much eminence was finally achieved by Arabian physicians that more than four hundred are known by name as authors. The first author deserving of mention was Bachtischua, of Nestorian stock, celebrated in Jondisapur, director of the medical school, and later physician to Caliph El-Mansur, 60 THE HISTORY OF MEDICINE, in Bagdad. Of his descendants several became well known in the same field. Alkindus—this being the Latin arrangement of his Arabic name—came from a Persian family, who lived first in Basara and later at the court of the caliphs El-Monon and El-Motasin, in Bagdad. He enjoyed a very high reputation as physician, philosopher, astronomer, and math- ematician, and died a.d. 873. Mesue, the first of his name, sometimes known as Janus Damascenus, was director of the hospital in Bagdad and physician to Haroun-al-Raschid. He was born in 777, wrote extensively (since at least forty of his works have been catalogued), and died in 857 in Samarra. Serapion the elder, also sometimes known as Janus Damascenus, and whose Arabic name was Serafiun, was born in Damascus—the exact data is not known—and died some time prior to a.d. 930. He was author of two vol- umes of aphorisms concerning the practice of medicine, which had at his time the greatest repute. The most celebrated of the early Arabian physicians was Rhazes, born in the Persian province of Khorassan a.d. 850. According to the historians of his nation he was a universal genius, equally famous in music, astronomy, mathematics, chemistry, and medicine; he was surnamed " The Experienced.'; At the age of fifty he was one of the most distinguished professors in the Academy of Bagdad, where students came from great distances to listen to him. Chosen from among a hundred colleagues to direct the grand hospital of that city, he displayed inde- fatigable zeal and most scholarly learning, even to his old age and in spite of loss of sight, which overtook him at the age of eighty, when his reputation was at its height. Two years after this misfortune—i.e., in 932—he died. His generosity, which was proverbial, and his compassion for the poor left him penniless at the time of his death. Some two hundred and thirty-seven monographs of his RHAZES. AVICENNA. 61 have been catalogued, though the greater number of his works are practically lost. Two treatises on medicine remain which afford excellent counsel in many respects; among other matters he advises:— " Study carefully the antecedents of the man to whose care you propose to confide all you have most dear in this world,—that is, your life and the lives of your wife and children. If the man is dissipated, is given to frivolous pleasures, cultivates with too much zeal the arts foreign to his profession, still more if he be addicted to wine and debauchery, refrain from committing into such hands lives so precious." His greatest publication was Continens—extracts compiled from all authors for his own use—divided into thirty-seven books, constituting an abridgment of the science of medicine and surgery up to his time; and, not- withstanding its imperfect state, this work was held in greatest reverence, and was a common source of knowledge among Orientals long after his day. Haly-Abbas, a Persian by birth, flourished fifty years after Rhazes, and died a.d. 994. His Almalela, in y twenty volumes, constituted a quite complete system of theory and practice of medicine, which, however, was in large measure taken from Rhazes's Continens. It is generally regarded as the best work of any of the phy- sicians of the Arabic Period; it is divided into three parts —a book on Health, a book on Death, and a book of Signs—and it is interesting to know that the portion devoted to midwifery and obstetrics was in the hands not / only of the profession, but also of the midwives. Avicenna—Latinized form of his Arabic name, Ebn Sina—was born in Bokhara in 980. From his earliest youth he manifested a remarkable disposition for scientific study, and it is claimed that he mastered the entire Koran at the age of ten years; also that he devoted his entire days and the greater part of his nights to research, master- 62 THE HISTORY OF MEDICINE. ing philosophy, mathematics, astronomy, and, later, medi- cine, which he studied at the university at Bagdad, in which city his talents were chiefly exhibited. He was received at court, loaded with favors, and elevated to the dignity of Vizier, but suddenly fell into disgrace, was deprived of property, imprisoned, and even threatened with execution. After two years, however, he was restored to liberty, and once more possessed the consideration of the public and the court, becoming the recipient of new honors. Meantime he had given himself up to intemperance, by which his previously robust constitution was undermined, and this, with excessive labor, brought about his demise at the too early age of fifty-six, in the year 1037. He was - author of several books, the chief being the Canon Medi- cinal, which remained a classic for six centuries, consti- tuting the medical code of Asia and Saracenic Europe ; no author since Galen had enjoyed so wide and extensive authority in the medical world; and in the various medical schools professors, for the most part, confined themselves to reading the Canon from their desks, explaining and commenting upon its text. The work was divided into five volumes, of which the first two comprised the prin- ciples of physiology, pathology, hygiene, and therapeutics, arranged to conform to the teachings of Aristotle and Galen; the third and fourth dealt with treatment; and the fifth was devoted to the preparation and composition of remedies. Avicenna appears to have surpassed in subtlety both Aristotle and Galen ; he was fond of meta- physical speculation, and his works were too much filled out with subtleties of language rather than with true science. Authors of this period were fond of torturing in every way possible the writings which they undertook to edit or quote from, and, instead of devoting themselves to original research, wasted time in seeking for vague and hidden meanings. That man was most esteemed as learned who could see the greatest subtlety in some passage from ALBUCASSIS. 63 one of the ancient writers; consequently, that which was obscure or unintelligible was deemed the most sublime and philosophic. A very brief study of the Canon, for instance, will show this, while in graphic pictures of disease the work by no means approaches those of Aretaeus or Alexander of Tralles, for Avicenna too often contented himself with mentioning merely a list of symptoms without indicating in any way their progression, characters, or duration. Undoubtedly just was the criticism of an Arabian poet: " His philosophy had no sound foundation, and his medical knowledge availed him naught for the possession of personal health and long life." Albucassis was born in Zahra, near Cordova, about the beginning of the eleventh century, and is supposed to have died a.d. 1122, at the advanced age of one hundred and one. He was author of an abridgment, or compilation, devoted to the practice of medicine, the only novelty of which is a small portion devoted to surgery, in which are described certain instruments. He says :— " I have detailed briefly the methods of operations; I have described all necessary instruments, and I present their forms by means of drawings; in a word, I have omitted nothing of what can shed light to the profession. But one of the principal reasons why it is so rare to meet a successful surgeon is that the apprenticeship of this branch is very long, and he who devotes himself to it must be versed in the science of anatomy, of which Galen has transmitted us the knowledge. ... In fine, no one should permit himself to attempt this difficult art without having a perfect knowledge of anatomy and the action of remedies." Not a word is said about dissections, however, from which we conclude that they were not tolerated in his time. He resorted enthusiastically to the cautery, and recom- mended it in spontaneous luxations and the commence- ment of curvature of the spine. He refers particularly to 64 THE HISTORY OF MEDICINE. instrumental delivery and the extraction of the after-birth, and, when speaking of fractures and dislocations, he remarks: " This part of surgery has been abandoned to men of vulgar and uncultivated minds, for which reason it has fallen into undeserved contempt." Avenzoar, born in 1113, of a Spanish family which had many illustrious scions, was instructed in medicine by his father, and ultimately achieved great celebrity through- FlG. 6.—AVERROES. (From an engraving of a picture by Raffaello in theVatican.) out Spain and Africa; for a time he lived at the court of the Prince of Seville, loaded with honors and presents, and finally was made Vizier. Among other works he wrote a treatise on renal diseases, in which he outlined the treat- ment of calculus and described an operation therefor. He died in 1161. Averroes (as he is generally known, though his Arabic name was Aben Roschd) was born a.d. 1166, in Cordova, AVERROES. MAIMONIDES. 65 where his father held official position. After being grounded in philosophy, mathematics, and other sciences he became a pupil in medicine under Avenzoar. The greater part of his life was passed in Seville, where he was greatly esteemed and finally knighted. In 1195 he was called to the court of the King of Spain and Morocco, in Cordova, where he received the highest honors, only, however, through some misunderstanding, to be disgraced; but he soon afterward recovered his former position and dignities. He wrote extensively not only on medicine, but on philosophy, his writings taking throughout a more or less dialectic character. He died in 1198, and from him descended a number of physicians who achieved more or less reputation. Maimonides was born in Cordova, A.D. 1135. He early devoted himself to the Talmud, and in his extended travels visited Jerusalem; he even founded a school of philosophy in the East, which, however, had only a brief existence. He died in 1204. He ranked higher in philosophy than in medical art, and seems to have been imbued with the methods of his teacher, Averroes, and is generally regarded as a theorist rather than as a practical physician, although he wrote more or less on medical topics, and is particularly remembered for an essay upon poisons. He was about the last of the Arabians who deserves special mention. During the period which was nearing its close at the time of the death of Maimonides, the Arabs embraced with much ardor the study of medicine, and translated into their language nearly all the treasures that had been amassed by the Greeks; indeed, the preservation of many of the great writings which would otherwise have been © © lost is due solely to this fact. Strange to say, however, the Arabians neglected Latin authors, and apparently pos- sessed no knowledge of Celsus or Coelius Aurelianus. As religious prejudices prohibited dissections, they were 5 66 THE HISTORY OF MEDICINE. obliged to rely solely upon the anatomical descriptions of Galen, and succeeded in increasing the errors of the orig- inal by inaccurate translations. So far as originality of observation goes, the Arabians were in most respects behind the Greeks; nevertheless, they were the first to differentiate eruptive fevers, to which the latter paid little or no attention. The Arabian school also supplied the knowledge of purgatives, such as cassia and manna, which replaced the drastics employed by the ancients; also the mode of preparation of syrups, tinctures, distilled waters, pomades, and plasters. While the Arabians were gradually rising by their power, intelligence, and renown, the Greeks were de- clining in inverse ratio; the genius, courage, and ancient virtues of the latter grew weaker and weaker, until they seemed on the verge of extinction. In the med- ical history of these centuries, in all Europe not under Moslem rule, there was but one man entitled to mention as an author in medicine,—viz., John Actuarius, the son of one Zacharia. He lived at the close of the thirteenth and the beginning of the fourteenth century; was employed at Constantinople, his surname being the honorary title of the court-physicians. He is more commonly known as Zacharia. Of his life we know little, save that he wrote several volumes, for the most part abridgments or com- mentaries on the doctrine of Galen. He laid great stress on the theory of critical days, and sustained his views by astronomical hypotheses most ingeniously combined. His was the first Greek work in which were mentioned the remedies introduced by the Arabians, yet he has not a word to say of variola, measles, spina ventosa, and other affections fully described by Arabic authors. He held remarkable views concerning the nature of man, whom he supposed to be formed by the union of two contrary sub- stances,—the soul and the body; described somewhat elaborately an imaginary plexus of veins connected with DECADENCE OF THE EASTERN EMPIRE. 67 the digestive organs, through which the animal spirits were elaborated and purified; also, and quite methodically, for his age, he explained the functions of the animal economy and the etiology of disease. While the clouds that befogged the study of medicine in the Empire of the East thus grew heavier and heavier, we must not be blind to the melancholy spectacle concern- ing the provinces composing the Empire of the West. Barbarians in swarms, from the forests of Germany and Scandinavia, had swept its various portions, pillaging, destroying, and reducing to slavery its inhabitants. In southern Europe everything was changed. Each genera- tion witnessed some new and unheard-of invader, who demanded his share of booty and renown and left a track of desolation behind him. There was a brief period of order when Charlemagne reunited under one dominion these divers races and seemed to have resuscitated the Western Empire; but no sooner was he dead than its elements, being devoid of affinity, broke apart. Former vassals, no longer restrained by the firm hand of the emperor, made common warfare against his successors and against each other, and for several ages there was nothing but a succession of wars and invasions. Feudalism gave some sort of character to this military anarchy by affording repose and, in a measure, security for those who had hitherto been trampled under foot; but learning and the sciences fell into complete neglect, and it was with great difficulty that a very small number of men found within the pale of the church a limited protection that enabled them to devote themselves to the study of medicine and ecclesiastical law. Near the end of the eleventh century, however, the enthusiasm of the crusades whetted anew the turbulent appetite of the Christian barons, and led these lords of western Europe, with their belligerent spirits, to the East, as a result of which people hitherto oppressed could breathe more freely. A few States recov- 68 THE HISTORY OF MEDICINE. ered their independence; some semblance of law was established; municipal institutions were organized, and establishments consecrated to public use were founded and multiplied; finally, in the course of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, the cloud which covered the face of Roman Catholic Europe was in some measure dispersed, and men of talent and even genius began to appear upon the scene; everything about them being so obscure, they shone like stars in the firmament. In letters, for instance, there were Dante, Petrarch, Boccaccio; in mathematics, Leonard, of Pisa, the first in Europe to understand and employ figures and algebraic characters, although Cuvier has claimed this distinction for Gerbert, a Benedictine monk of the tenth century, who subsequently became Pope Sylvester II. At this time, although in scholastic estima- tion medicine, theology, and philosophy alone were fit to entertain the human mind, the natural sciences were not without occasional representatives. Roger Bacon was three centuries in advance of scientific reform, and en- deavored to introduce experimental philosophy, and so fully convinced some of his auditors that they subscribed £2000 sterling to provide for the expense of his experi- ments; this was money most happily employed, since it made possible a number of important discoveries. It is said that Bacon knew the properties of convex and concave lenses, and was the first to conceive of the microscope and telescope; his astronomical knowledge led him to demand a reform in the calendar, which Gregory XIII carried out three centuries later; he had knowledge of gunpowder and its effects, and was, in fact, the wizard of his day; but his boldness and originality drew upon him the enmity of the church, by which he was persecuted and finally condemned to imprisonment for life upon a diet of bread and water, although he was ultimately released, in 1266, by Pope Clement IV. He wrote extensively, but only fragments of his works exist, since the friars CONDITIONS IN THE EMPIRE OF THE WEST. 69 believed them tainted with witchcraft and prevented their publication. Before and during the time of Roger Bacon the philos- ophers were divided into two parties, which engaged in very unseemly and unphilosophic strife. One was termed the Realist, and believed, with Plato, that ideas are self- existent and independent of the mind,—in other words, veritable entities; the other, the Nominalist, held, with Aristotle, that general ideas are pure abstractions formed by the mind with the aid of sensations received from without, without which they could never exist,—that is, if a being could be imagined without sensibilities and the power of sensation, such being would be destitute of ideas. These two parties kept up a very active warfare, and enlisted the aid of both civil and ecclesiastical authorities, the result being persecution of each other, and that general unsatisfactory conflict into which theology and meta- physical speculation always force those who indulge in them. Now, regarding the condition of medical affairs in the Empire of the West: Down to the seventh century, in Rome, there were court-archiaters who were attached to the retinues of the nobles, and in each large city popular archi- aters formed a college charged with sanitary matters, the instruction and examination of candidates, and gratuitous services to the poor. Although there is little definite in- formation available, it is probable that after the ruin of Alexandria much the same medical organization obtained in those provinces as continued under the Greek Empire at Constantinople. Under Arab sway we know very little of what rules or regulations governed instruction in medicine and its practice; and, so soon as one of these countries fell under the rule of the Turks, all scientific institutions seem to have decayed or been discontinued,—or, as Renouard states it: "If we may judge by what still exists to-day in this unfortunate country (Turkey), consumed by the power 70 THE HISTORY OF MEDICINE. of ignorance and despotism, the most complete anarchy followed all older organizations." - In southern Europe, however, things had not gone on quite so badly, although at first barbarous invasion caused everywhere disorder and confusion, and the Christian States of the Western Empire yet presented after three or four centuries a chaotic condition of affairs. The ecclesiastical schools, which were under the care of the church, still pur- sued courses of literary and scientific instruction; in the —time of Charlemagne, for instance, the colleges of the cathedrals, and even some of the monasteries, taught medi- I cine in a very limited way under the name of physics. Thus all the liberal professions—that of medicine included —fell under the domination of the clergy, and priests, abbots, and bishops became court-physicians. The monks of Mount Cassin, of the order of St. Benoit, enjoyed for a long time a great reputation for medical skill; and among these in the tenth century was an abbot named Berthier Didier, who became Pope Victor III toward the close of the eleventh century, and one Constantine, surnamed the African. Of the ecclesiastics who from the ninth to the eleventh century were distinguished by the knowledge of -- medicine, there were Hugues, abbot of St. Denis, physician to the King of France; Didon, abbot of Sens; Sigoal, abbot of Epernay; Archbishop Milo, etc. Even several religious orders of women undertook, to a certain extent, the practice of medicine, and Hildegarde, who was abbess of the con- vent of Rupertsburg, near Bingen, is credited with having written a treatise on Materia Medica. From the ninth to the thirteenth century the Jews shared with the clergy the monopoly of the healing art. Many of these studied under Arabian physicians, and, though the canons of the church forbade them to in any way minister to the ailments of Christians, they were still called upon in time of need, and even in many instances had access to the palaces of archbishops, cardinals, and popes. INFLUENCE OF THE NORTHERN INVADERS. 71 The education of Christian priests and infidel prac- titioners embraced really very little, and consisted, for the most part, of knowledge of a few symptoms and possession of a few receipts; books were excessively rare and ex- pensive, capable teachers lacking, and a good medical edu- cation out of the question. There was no law nor public regulation which concerned the practice of medicine, and any wdio desired could enter upon it; while besides the priests and the Jews—which latter stood at the top of the scale—there was a multitude of charlatans of the lowest order, such as barbers, keepers of baths, and even a few women. The morality of this vulgar herd was on a level with its knowledge. I have said the practice of medicine was not regulated by law, yet Theodoric, King of the Visigoths, enacted a statute that no physician should bleed a woman of noble birth without the assistance of a relative or domestic; that if a physician in treating a patient or dressing a wound happened to harm a gentleman he should pay a forfeit of one hundred sous, and if the patient died from the operation he should be handed over to the relatives of the deceased, who could do with him whatever they pleased; while if he crippled or caused the death of a serf, he was to be held accountable only for the loss, and compelled to supply another. This remained in force from the sixth to the twelfth century, and was made to apply chiefly to the practice of surgery, which had been aban- doned to individuals of the lowest condition. The practice of internal medicine was, for the principal part, the privilege of the clergy, and it is not likely the secular power ever expected that one protected with the title of priest should be handed over to the relatives of the dead. It further- more appears that the practice of medicine as divorced from surgery led to such irregularities in the manners and conduct of the clergy that from the twelfth century popes and councils of the church repeatedly forbade the medical art to those in holy orders or under vows; but that this 72 THE HISTORY OF MEDICINE. prohibition was often violated is shown by the frequent reiteration of inhibitory laws. During the twelfth century the secular authority was also affected by abuses. Roger, founder of the kingdom of Sicily, one of the first Christian princes of the Middle Ages, gave special attention thereto, and in 1140 proclaimed that every one who wished to prac- tice medicine must present himself before a magistrate and obtain authorization, under pain of imprisonment and confiscation of goods. Other sovereigns followed this ex- ample, and regulating ordinances were gradually estab- lished, which ultimately led to the institution of medical faculties and university degrees. During the Middle Ages, in the Empire of the West, arose the School of Salernum, which became so celebrated that, like that of Alexandria, it deserves special mention. The modern city of Salerno is situated on the Neapolitan Gulf, about thirty miles southeast of the city of Naples, with a population of but a few thousand souls. The ancient city stood upon a height in the rear of the present town, where the ruins of its mediaeval citadel are still to be seen. It first appeared in history 194 B.C., when a Roman colony was founded, was a municipal town of importance, and appears even at this early day to have been a health re- sort, since Horace informs us he had been advised to substi- tute its cool baths for the warm ones of Baise. During the stormy centuries following the downfall of the Western Empire, Salerno successively submitted to the sway of the Goths, Lombards, Franks, Saracens, and Greeks, as the vicissitudes of war compelled. Under the Lombards it became the residence of the Duke of Beneventum, and, in 1075, when taken by Robert Guiscard of Normandy, it fell to the crown of Naples, in consequence of which in the fourteenth century, the heir apparent of this kingdom took the title of Prince of Salernum. During the Middle Ages here flourished a medical school, important not alone because of its celebrity at the FOUNDATION OF THE SCHOOL OF SALERNUM. 73 time, but for its effect upon the medical history of the future. Its origin is obscure, though it has been ascribed to Charlemagne in 802; again, its founding has been held to be the work of fugitives from Alexandria when that city was captured by the Saracens, 640 a.d. ; some attribute it to the Benedictine order of monks, others to Saracens, etc. The foundation by Alexandrian fugitives is probably con- jectural, yet it must be admitted there is some evidence of knowledge of Arabian medicine in Salernum as early as this. Be the origin what it may, it is certain that the Ben- edictine monks exercised a very important influence upon this school, and there is considerable reason to think that it was really originated by them. Their monastery of Monte Casino was located about fifty miles the other side of Na- ples, occupying the site of an ancient temple of Apollo; the rules of the order enjoined the care of the sick and treatment by prayer, and St. Benedict himself was credited with performing miraculous cures. The rules which for- bade public instruction were gradually discarded, for in the ninth century Abbot Bertharius wrote two books on the art of healing, and by the tenth century Monte Casino had acquired great reputation as a medical school, and was sought by medically-inclined monks from all quarters. A little later (1022) King Henry II, of Bavaria, Emperor of Germany, is said to have been cut for stone by St. Benedict himself, who appeared in ghostly form and operated with such skill that on awaking the royal patient found the calculus in his hand, and only the cicatrix of the wound through which it had been removed. Of course, the grateful emperor could do no less than richly endow the monastery, and bestow upon it additional privileges. Desiderius, the Benedictine abbot from 1058 to 1086, and in the eleventh century promoted to the papal chair under the title of Victor III, was distinguished for his attainments in medicine and in music, and founded a new hospital in connection with the monastery; he also com- 74 THE HISTORY OF MEDICINE. posed four books detailing the miraculous cures wrought by his patron saint. It was really within this monastery that Constantine the African, one of the most learned men and the most famous Christian physician of his time, com- piled his numerous medical treatises. About Constantine there is much of romance. He was born in Carthage in 1018 and died in 1085. He visited all the prominent schools of his day in Egypt, Bagdad, Babylon, and even India, and for thirty-nine years pursued the various branches of knowledge away from home. Re- turning to Carthage, misunderstood and feared, he was accused of practicing sorcery and compelled to fly to save his life. Disguised as a beggar he escaped to Salernum, which had been recently captured by Robert Guiscard, and on the recommendation of some royal visitor, who had known him at another court, he was made private sec- retary to Guiscard. His new duties soon became irksome, however, and he retired to a cloister to devote himself to literary labors. These, for the most part, were translations of Greek and Arabic writings, often made verbatim and without credit. Whatever may be said about this lack of honesty, and the barbaric nature of his Latin, credit must be given him for reviving the study of Hippocrates and Galen in France; and he is generally credited with being the first to introduce into Europe knowledge of Arabian medicine. From Monte Casino the Benedictines at an early dav spread to Salernum, where, by the middle of the tenth century, three monasteries were established, in all of which were kept holy relics. It now appears that, although there may have been some previous institution of learning at this point, and possibly even medical teachers, the real organization of a regular school of medicine was due to the Benedictines. In the annals of Naples of the middle of the ninth century the names of Salernian physicians are men- tioned ; and it is known that toward the close of the tenth VISITS OF THE CRUSADERS TO SALERNUM. 75 century Archbishop Verdun visited Salernum for relief from vesical calculus, and there died. The earliest medical writings of this school which have been preserved are found in the Compendium Salernitanum, discovered in manuscript form in 1837; and among the more prominent authors quoted are : Petronius, who wrote about 1035; Gariopontus, who wrote about 1040; Bar- tholomaeus, Ferrarius, and Afflacius,—the latter a disciple of Constantius Africanus. The preaching of Peter the Hermit, which marked the close of the eleventh century, was followed by an outburst of crusading enthusiasm that quickly converted Europe into a vast camp, and Salernum, being situated upon the high- road to the East, was benefited in no small degree and its reputation as a medical school materially enhanced; like- wise its teachers gained in experience as regards mili- tary surgery. In this way it became a favorite resort for crusaders when disabled, wounded, or diseased. Robert of Normandy, son of the conqueror, returning from the Holy Land, remained here for some time with a poisoned wound in the arm, received in 1097 at the siege of Jeru- salem, and it was decided it could be healed only by suck- ing out the poison, a process deemed dangerous to the operator. History declares that Robert's wife, daughter of Goeffrey, Earl of Conversana, being denied permission, took advantage of her husband's unconsciousness during sleep to withdraw the poison, when the wound speedily healed. At the time of the departure of Robert, hastened by the death of his brother William, John of Milan, the then chief of the medical school, presented him with the famous Regimen Sanitatis Salerni, said to have been composed largely for Robert's benefit. This was a Latin poem that enjoyed most unexampled popularity for many generations, and was the vade mecum of well-educated physicians for cent- uries. It is said to have passed through two hundred and forty different editions, and that more than one hundred 76 THE HISTORY OF MEDICINE. manuscript copies are to-day to be found in various Euro- pean libraries. The latest English version was published by Professor Ordronaux in 1871. A sample is here sub- mitted :— " Salerno's school in conclave high unites To counsel England's king, and thus indites : If thou to health and vigor would'st attain, Shun mighty cares ; all anger deem profane ; From heavy suppers and much wine abstain ; Nor trivial count it after pompous fare To rise from table and to take the air. Shun idle noonday slumbers, nor delay The urgent calls of nature to obey. These rules if thou wilt follow to the end, Thy life to greater length thou may'st extend." During the twelfth and thirteenth centuries the glory of the School of Salerno reached its zenith; it was the most famous school of medicine in Europe, and was fostered by various kings. The celebrated Jew, Benjamin of Tudela, traveling from Spain to India, visited Salernum in 1164, and called it the "principal university of Chris- tendom." Early in the twelfth century flourished Cophon, Archimatheus, and Nicholas, surnamed Propositus, all of whom were distinguished teachers. The latter published a work known as Antidotarium, which was for several centuries the standard pharmacopoeia, and which con- tained a table of weights that corresponded very closely to those of the modern apothecary. The younger Cophon, who has been confounded with his father (as both seem to have written extensively), wrote two trea- tises,—one on the anatomy of the hog, the other entitled Ars Medendi. The first is interesting as the only anatomical treatise of this school which has been pre- served, and is an index of the degradation of anatomical science of that time. The names of John and Matthew Platearius are of frequent occurrence in the records of this school, and have given rise to considerable confusion; the former is supposed EARLY SALERNIAN SCHOLARS. 77 to have been the husband of Trotula, a female physician, of whom I shall have more to say later. Bernard the Provincial, who seems to have escaped the notice of most historians, wrote about 1155, and his commentary offers much interesting information concerning the therapeutics of the day; he formulated a large number of recipes to enable the sick to escape the omnipotence of the apothecaries, and recommended wine for the delicate stomachs of the more exalted of the clergy, and, inasmuch as these stomachs did not bear medicine well, he directed, in accordance with the practice of Archbishop iEfanus, that emetics should be prescribed after meals, when their action is less injurious and more agreeable; he advised young- men and women tormented with love which they could not gratify to tie their hands behind their backs and drink water from a vessel in which a red-hot iron had been cooled. Indeed, his work is full of curious information and advice, and is not without therapeutic interest. A name which figures largely in the history of this school is that of Magister Salernus, about which there is great uncertainty ; it is not positively known whether this refers to a particular person or is a generic name covering various individuals. The name has been mentioned as that of one of the four reputed founders of the school; it is positive that there are certain treatises which bear this name, which give an appearance of authenticity to it as an individual title. In the latter half of the twelfth century lived John of St. Paul, one of the teachers of Gilbert the Englishman; also Musandinus, who left a curious treatise on dietetics; and Urso, who wrote on the pulse and on the urine. Here in 1190 resided and studied a certain Alcadinus, from Svracuse, whose knowledge of philosophy and medicine was such that he acquired great reputation, and was made a professor; he even composed Latin medical poems. Just at the close of this century flourished ^Egidius, who 78 THE HISTORY OF MEDICINE. studied at Salernum, and also at Montpellier, where a school of medicine had been founded in 1180; he was physician to Philip Augustus, of France, and became professor in the University of Paris. Three treatises, all in Latin hexameter, are ascribed to him. A contemporary was Johanes Rogeriis, of Palermo, a graduate of Salernum and author of several works. Early in the thirteenth century flourished Roger of Parma, one of the most distinguished of the alumni of this school and the earliest pioneer in modern surgery; his work on this topic, familiarly known as Rogeriana, enjoyed the greatest reputation in its day, and was for a long time the surgical text-book of Italy; his predilection for poultices and moist dressings in the treatment of wounds, abscesses, and ulcers became, in the hands of his successors, the dis- tinguishing feature of the surgery of Salernum in opposition to the school at Bologna, where Hugo Di Lucca and Theo- doric (his great rival) contended for the superiority of the dry treatment. Roger was also the first to use the term seton, and to give practical demonstration to this means of derivation. Roland of Parma, a pupil of Roger, and a surgeon of great distinction, became professor at Bologna, and wrote a treatise on surgery, which was, for the most part, a com- mentary on the works of his master. The treatise of Roger and that of Roland furnished the basis for a work entitled The Treatise of the Four Masters, supposed to have been written about 1270, and manuscripts of which have been long known in various European libraries. It is divided into four books, displays no little surgical ability, and from its title would appear to have been the joint composition of four teachers; indeed, it was long attributed to Archima- theus, Platearius, Petro Cellus, and Afnacius, though it is now pretty generally understood to be the product of but a single pen and its author most likely a Frenchman. The ascription of authorship to four masters was probably for WOMEN IN THE SALERNIAN SCHOOL. 79 the purpose of increasing its weight and authority, and it constituted a reliable exposition of the surgery of Salernum in its day. It is quoted quite freely by Guy de Chauliac, who was the restorer of French surgery in the fourteenth century, and occasionally bv later writers. Another of the distinguished Salernian physicians of the thirteenth century, one highly esteemed by Frederick II, was John of Procida, who also was active in producing —if not the real author of—the massacre of the Sicilian Vespers, a.d. 1282. In a dispute concerning the question of the two Sicilies he embraced the cause of Prince Man- fred, for which he was banished by Charles of Anjou, and took refuge at the court of Peter III, of Arragon, by whom he was created a baron; and he was influential in per- suading the latter to assert his claim to the throne of Sicily. By various intrigues at different courts he suc- ceeded in organizing an alliance, which betrayed its existence in this massacre, and finally resulted in the overthrow of the French in Sicily and the transfer of the island to the crown of Spain. He was author of at least two treatises devoted to medicine and philosophy. Other writers of the School of Salernum were: a learned Jew of Agrigentum known as " Farragus," Matthew Sylvaticus, Graphaeus, and Cappola. About the middle of the fifteenth century flourished Saladino, famous as an authority on materia medica. It is of no small interest that now, for the first time in history, women began to figure somewhat prominently as writers, practitioners, and even teachers of medicine. About the middle of the eleventh century appeared a work, entitled De Mulierium Passionibus, attributed to the before-mentioned Trotula, wife of John Platearius, which has descended even to these days. There is nothing in the work to indicate the name or sex of the author, who is invariably spoken of in the third person; consequently Trotula's connection therewith has often been disputed. 80 THE HISTORY OF MEDICINE. It mentions a certain " aqua mirabilis," composed largely of brandy, which spirit is said to have first been employed medicinally by Thaddeus of Florence, who died in 1295; there is also an account of a patient who wore spectacles! The diseases of women and children are also largely dealt with. The work is undoubtedly an anonymous production of the eleventh century, disfigured by additions of a later day, and ascribed to Trotula, perhaps, because of the celeb- rity that attached to her; at all events, it is the earliest work ascribed to a female physician, and thus possesses special claims to interest. Later we read of Sichelguada, wife of Robert Guiscard and a graduate of Salernum, who endeavored to poison her step-son, Bohemond, in order to secure the succession of her own child. This infamous plot was furthered by some of the Salernian physicians, and thwarted only by the prompt action of Guiscard, who swore he would slay his wife with his own sword should the malady of Bohemond prove fatal. Certain other female physicians of this period are men- tioned, notably Abella, who, in spite of the modesty that is supposed to hedge about her sex, produced in Latin hexameter a work entitled De Natura Seminis Hominis. Mercuriolus, in the fifteenth century, produced treatises on the cure of wounds, pestilent fevers, and on the nails. The most celebrated of all, however, appears to have been Calenda, who lived during the reign of that notorious prof- ligate, John II, of Naples (1414-1435), and who was par- ticularly distinguished for her personal attractions. She graduated with great honor from the school at Salernum, and soon after, in 1423, married a nobleman of the court, which perhaps accounts for the fact that she never exercised the privilege of authorship. A little later, Marguerite, of Sicily or Naples, also a Salernian graduate, acquired an extended professional reputation, and was licensed to practice by Ladislaus, King of Poland. INFLUENCE OF THE SALERNIAN SCHOOL. 81 Daremberg informs us that there were numerous fe- male physicians at Salernum, much sought after because of their talents, and, moreover, highly esteemed by the professors of the school, who freely quoted the writings of their fair pupils and contemporaries; further, that they employed ointments in paralyses; fumigations, vapors, and antimony for coughs ; and lotions of aloe and rose-water for swellings of the face; they combined scientific knowl- edge with facetious playfulness in a manner peculiar to the sex, in that they tendered unsuspecting beaux bouquets of roses doctored with powdered euphorbium, and hugely enjoyed the forced sternutations of their victims. It will thus be seen what a wide-spread and long-con- tinued influence the school of Salernum exerted. At first physics and philosophy were the principal branches taught, but later the other sciences were cultivated. The Emperor Frederick II united the different schools of the city into a university,—a term, however, that, as then applied, appears to have corresponded to what in the nineteenth century is understood by corporation. The emperor likewise pub- lished several decrees which revised the duties and privi- leges of practitioners of medicine and surgery in his kingdom, and, in 1224, ordered that no person should practice within the two Sicilies until examined by the faculty of the university and licensed at the royal hands; further, practitioners were compelled to devote at least one year to the study of anatomy. The faculty at this time consisted of ten professors, whose salary probably depended upon the number of pupils. A candidate for graduation was required to present proof of majority, of legitimacy of birth, and of proper duration of preliminary study, and then was examined publicly in the Synopsis of Galen, the Aphorisms of Hippocrates, or the Canon of Avicenna. On passing he swore to conform to all the regulations hitherto observed in medicine, to give gratu- itous treatment to the poor, and to expose all apothecaries 82 THE HISTORY OF MEDICINE. detected in adulterating drugs. A book was then placed in his hands, a ring upon his finger, and a laurel crown upon his head, when he was " dismissed with a kiss." The degree conferred was that of "Magister,"—the modern title of Doctor being at that period employed almost ex- clusively to designate a public teacher or professor. But the watchfulness of King Frederick was not confined alone to the regulation of medical study within his kingdom. The number of professional visits, and the recompense therefor, were fixed by law. Every physician was compelled to visit his patients twice daily, and even once at night as well, if summoned, and for this attend- ance was permitted a daily fee equivalent to fourteen cents for patients within the city, while for calls without the city the largest legal charge was one dollar and thirteen cents, provided he paid his own expenses The earlier teachings and practice of Salernum were a curious mixture of methodism, dogmatism, and super- stition. The latter may be better understood when it is recalled that the practice of medicine for an extended period was confined almost exclusively to ecclesiastics, who by their very education were prone to superstition and upheld the efficacy of charms and relics, and the active intervention of saints and martyrs as well as the myrmi- dons of evil; hence arose many of the conflicts and absurd notions peculiar to the period. The prevalence of the doctrine of medical methodism was due to the character of the writings most accessible to students of that day,— such as those of Coelius Aurelianus and others; and it is curious that Celsus, the most elegant of medical authors, was never popular among medical monks. The Hellenic language having almost disappeared from Italy by the sixth century, the works of the Greek authors had become a sealed book to a vast majority, even of the better educated; hence the purer sources of medical knowledge were not available. Although the school of Salernum, at a later THE " FOUR MASTERS-" 83 date, prided itself upon its devotion to the " Father of Medicine," the Hippocratic writings were not known at this period; and, when Constantine the African, by the translation of Arabian works, introduced a new element into the Salernian school, he ingrafted upon its medical teaching a form of doctrine which found a congenial atmosphere, in which it throve vigorously, while, a century later, the translations of Gerard of Cremona gave a stronger impulse to the growth of Hippocratic medicine than to Hippocratic doctrine. From the Commentary of the Four Masters we learn that Salernian practitioners recognized the diagnostic importance of nausea, vomiting, and the flow of blood from the ears in injuries to the head; that they resorted to the trepan for depressed fractures and the relief of intracranial extravasation ; that hernia cerebri was treated by pressure and caustics ; that ligatures, both above and below the opening,, were applied for the treatment of wounds of the carotid arteries and jugular veins. It was advised to decline patients suffering from wounds of the heart, lungs, diaphragm, stomach, or liver, in order to avoid the disgrace of losing them; and in penetrating wounds of the intestines and in those complicated with protrusion of the wounded gut instruction was given how to envelop them in the warm abdomen of a slaughtered animal until natural color and temperature were restored, and then to insert a cannula of alder-wood into the wounded intestine, which was to be neatly closed and stitched; finally, the protrusion was to be carefully washed with warm water and returned into the abdominal cavity, enlarging the opening for this purpose, if necessary. Also was advised the extraction of diseased teeth; and the operation of lithotomy was described with considerable care. Com- pound fractures were to be treated with splints. On the whole, this commentary of the alleged Four Masters is the most interesting and ancient Salernian work which has 84 THE HISTORY OF MEDICINE. been preserved, and is well worthy the attention of even modern surgeons. Such was the school of Salernum in its prime, during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. My readers will not have failed to note how few names have been mentioned which are prominent in medical history, and how few improvements were made in medical art by those who have been mentioned. One naturally inquires, then, what was the source of the wide-spread fame of Salerno as a school, since it was distinguished neither by notable dis- covery in science nor by celebrated teachers, and the predominant element was doubtless one of obstinate con- servatism and unswerving devotion to ancient doctrines. Founded during the dark period of the Middle Ages, at a time when ignorance, bigotry, and superstition prevailed, it preserved, amidst the gloom that had settled upon Europe, a few rays of that intellectual light which had shown so brightly in the golden ages of Roman history. These rays, made more conspicuous by the intellectual night which they barely illumined, were a beacon for men who were groping for more light. Thus the name of Salernum became synonymous with intellectual advance- ment in later ages. As the parent and model of our mod- ern university system, Salernum yet deserves, in a measure, to enjoy the esteem of a numerous scholastic offspring. At a time when priests were particularly active in passing off rudimentary knowledge for the science of healing this school began to secure all information possible from the laity for the progressive development of medicine. It began, in other words, to hold aloof and then to break away from the fetters of a fanatical church. Its decline, too, was as rapid as its career had been brilliant. One very serious blow was struck when, in 1224, Frederick II founded the University of Naples and forbade Neapolitan subjects to seek instruction at any other university. The next year a revolt in the city provoked the closure of the PRIVILEGES OF THE SALERNIAN SCHOOL. 85 schools of Bologna, which were, however, opened again two years later. Within a short time the universities of Naples, Montpellier, Padua, Paris, and Bologna all entered into a contest for pre-eminence with a rivalry which was not always generous. In 1224, it is said, the latter uni- versity had no less than ten thousand students. Happily, however, the period of the Renaissance proved to be one of emancipation from the fetters of ignorance and super- stition, making an appeal for liberty which the conservatism of Salernum could not brook. Roger Bacon, in England; Lanfranc and Guy de Chauliac, in France; Mondino, at Bologna, and Savonarola, at Padua, found no rivals at Salernum to successfully contest their fame. Thus this ancient school fell behind the age, and in a short time sank into a mediocrity which was scarcely brightened by the reflection of a departed glory. In 1342 Robert I re- newed the decree of Frederick II, which closed all the schools in his kingdom save those of Naples, but excepted Salernum solely because of its antiquity and the traditions of his predecessors. In 1413 King Ladislaus excepted the Salernian alumni and professors from all taxes, duties, and tribute. In the middle of the fourteenth century the poet Petrarch speaks of the school as a memory of the past; but its last appearance was in 1748, when a dispute at Paris relating to the rank of physicians and surgeons was referred to Salerno's university for arbitration and final decision. In 1811 a formal decree reduced this parent of all European universities to a mere gymnasium or prepara- torv school; and now one may wander through the streets of the modern town and among the ruins of its ancient pre- decessor and seek in vain to trace some reminder of those who were illustrious during some of the most terrible ages in the world's history. No echo of tradition, no stone of ancient edifice, no library preserving precious manuscripts, not even an edition of the old Salernian regimen, in the whole city; in fact, none now so poor as to do it reverence. CHAPTER IV. Age of Transition (concluded).—The School of Montpellier: Raimond Lulli, 1235-1315. John of Gaddesden, 1305- (?). Arnold of Villanova, 1234- 1313. Establishment of Various Universities. Gerard of Cremona, 11*7. William of Salicet, 1280. Lanfranc, 1315. Mondino, 1275-1327. Guy de Chauliac, 1300-1370. Age of Renovation, 1400 to Present Time.—Erudite Period, including Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries. Thomas Linacre, 1401-1524. Sylvius, 147-M555. Vesalius, 1514-1564. Columbus, 1490-1559. Eustachius, 1500-1574. Fallopius. 1523-1502. Fabricius ab Aquapendente, 15:57-1619. Fabricius Hildanus, 1560-1634. Although I have taken up so much time with an account of the school of Salernum, a few words must be devoted to the school of Montpellier, which was second in time and in importance among the great influences in the culture of western Europe. There was a time when to have studied there lent a special halo of glory, for, being near the sea, and in the vicinity of thermal baths, even so early as a.d. 1153 it was famous as a school of medicine; moreover, those who presided over it did not lapse uncon- ditionally into mediaeval philosophy, with its bewildering subtleties. It is said to have been founded a.d. 738, but first mention of it as a source of medical education occurs in 1137, when Bishop Adelbert II, of Mayence, visited the city to listen to its medical teachers. A faculty of philosophy was added in 1242, and one of law in 1298. Within the walls of the city sojourned both Christians and Jews, the latter being subject directly to the civil authorities, and particularly esteemed as translators. One of the most famous of the sons of Israel was Profatius Judicus, who became a rector of the faculty. Prior to 1370, when the university became subject to the kings of France, it was under the control of the Pope; and then, as now, the school of medicine was the chief ornament of this ancient seat of learning. © One of the most illustrious and famous pupils of (86) THE SCHOOL OF MONTPELLIER. 87 Montpellier was that religious mystic and alchemistic visionary, Raimond Lull, or Lulli, a would-be transmuter of metals and seeker for the philosopher's stone. Born in 1234, at the age of thirty he began to see visions, and was thereby roused from an atheistic tendency to soon become wonderfully pious; ultimately he entered the order of Minorites, studied Arabic, and appeared as a mis- sionary in Africa, seeking to convert the Saracens—who, however, declined the honor, and finally (in 1315) rewarded his zeal by stoning him to death. Beside works on alchemy and theology, he wrote on medical subjects, and, like all great minds of the period, passed among the common people as a sorcerer in league with the devil. Neverthe- less, he was a notable figure in his age and country. Quite celebrated became the compendium of Gilbert of England (1290), which contained the same speculative nonsense, the same polypharmacy, and the same superstition as other works of that time; what little it contained of value was taken largely from other writers. While this Gilbert, often known as Gilbertus Anglicus, was not the first English writer on practical medicine, he was the earliest whose works have been preserved. Still more famous was John Gaddesden, physician-in- ordinary to the King of England, professor ' in Merton College, Oxford, who wrote the famous treatise known as Rosa Anglica, which appeared between 1305 and 1315. This treatise was characterized by mysticism and disgusting therapeutic measures, and tainted by medical avarice, superstition, and charlatanry. Gaddesden was, perhaps, the first to formally recommend the " laying on of hands" by the king for the cure of scrofula (first performed by Edward the Confessor—1042-1056), whence comes the ancient name for this disease,— i.e., "king's evil."* *A special "Service of Healing" was used in the English Church under Henry VIII, 1484-1509. 88 THE HISTORY OF MEDICINE. Arnold de Villeneuve (1234-1313) studied seven years at Montpellier, twenty years at Paris, visited all the uni- versities in Italy, then went to Spain to levy on the Arabian authors. He wrote on medicine, theology and especially on chemistry—in which art he obtained great renown both as an author and teacher. To him is due the discovery of spirit of wine, oil of turpentine, aromatic waters, besides several preparations of less note, and the introduction of chemical compounds into therapeutics. His was a very stirring life/ for he traveled extensively; he became a teacher at Bologna, and physician to Peter III, of Arragon. Shortly before his demise he went to Paris, having fallen under the ban because of a declaration that papal bulls, far from being sacredly inspired, were human works, and that acts of charity were dearer to God than hecatombs, etc. He finally perished by shipwreck, but the spirit of fanat- icism followed him after death, for his volumes were con- demned by the Inquisition, because they commended ex- periments rather than mere speculations. In spite of his general honesty in accordance with the spirit of the times he inculcated deceit in medicine, and one of his declarations is: "If thou canst not find anything in the examination of the renal secretion, declare that an obstruction of the liver exists. Particularly use the word 'obstruction,' since it is not understood, and it is of great importance that people should not understand what thou sayest." He was one of the first to administer brandy, which he regarded as the elixir of life—whence the modern Eau de Vie. Connected with this school, also, or well known as having studied there, were many men whose names became more or less famous—among them John Arden,who settled in London about the middle of the fourteenth centurv; Vinario, a contemporary of Guy de Chauliac, and the well-known surgeon and anatomist Henri de Mondeville, who was a teacher of Guy de Chauliac. But an idea of the doctrines prevalent in the medical literature of this part CATHEDRAL MEDICAL SCHOOLS. 89 of the world, at this time, may be had from the fact that most writers chose titles for their works after the style of ballad singers: for instance, those describing the plague and venereal diseases were called Flowers and Lilies of Medicine; the Rosa Anglica of John Gaddesden was another example. Matters had arrived at such a pass, in- deed, that men of science no longer hesitated to confess superstition and mingle it openly with deceit, to oppose the interests of the most needy, and to extort from their fellow- creatures fees in proportion to their supposed ability to pay. In the time of Charlemagne each cathedral possessed a school in which were taught arithmetic, theology, singing, and sometimes medicine; the Episcopal College had medi- cal teachers who gave advice and dressed wounds at the doors of the Church of Notre Dame, Paris; but when the medical profession had been divorced from the sacerdotal by councils and popes, many of these cathedral schools closed. In order to preserve the jurisdiction which they for a long time had exercised over the learned professions, many were erected into universities, and thus the clergy gave instruction in philosophy, theology, and later in medi- cine. During the thirteenth century arose many of the great universities in Europe, notably those of Bologna, Padua, and Naples, in Italy; of Paris, Montpellier, and Toulouse, in France; of Valencia and Tortosa, in Spain ; of Oxford, in England. Pope Innocent III by papal bull guaranteed that the professors and students at Paris should be exempt from all excommunications save those which emanated directly from the Holy See; French sovereigns conferred many privileges upon the universities, and soon the members of the University of Paris formed practically a second city, with its own laws, customs, police, citizens, and magistrates. Still, however, all science belonged to the clergy, and its teachers, though removed from the cloister, were none the less Roman Catholic; so that the popes reigned over the people through the parish clergy, 90 THE HISTORY OF MEDICINE. and over the latter by the clerical teachers and professors. Nevertheless, in all candor it must be acknowledged that these studious men, thus associated together for mutual in- struction and emulation in learning, contributed, in a large measure, to elevate Christian civilization above all others, though several generations were required to secure the results calculated to make men celebrated; hence the early periods of the universities developed very few names. Many were conspicuous by their love of instruction, but not by originality of research. Men undertook expensive and wearisome voyages without encouragement or hope of reward, simply to obtain some rare manuscript or to hear some renowned professor; and they appeal to us of the nineteenth century by their devotion, if not by the results of their work. Among the somewhat scattered and more or less eminent men of this period was Gerard, of Cremona in Lombardy, a man of great purity and studiousness, who arduously pursued all that Latin authors could teach him, and, not being able to procure in Italy certain manuscripts which dated from the time of Ptolemy, determined to go to Toledo in search of an Arabian translation. At this time he was unacquainted with Arabic, but soon mastered it, and—armed with this powerful resource, which no other physician had possessed since the time of Constantine the African—he could not see so many Arabic works devoted to all branches of science as were gathered at the Spanish University without a desire to translate and transmit the same to his own country ; hence he gave the remainder of his life to this work. He rendered into Latin the treatises of Hippocrates and Galen, of Serapion, and of all the famous Arabian authors from the time of Rhazes, including the Canon of Avicenna and the work on sur- gery by Albucassis. He died at the age of seventy-three, in 1187, at Cremona, and left all his books to the monas- tery of St. Lucy, within whose walls he was buried. WILLIAM OF SALICET. LANFRANC. 91 William of Salicet, born at Plaisance in the first years of the thirteenth century, became a professor in the Uni- versity of Bologna, and later at Verona. He wrote ex- tensively on medicine, and earned a reputation as a surgeon that preserves his fame to the present day. It is claimed that his status in medical literature depends, in large meas- ure, upon the fact that he was, perhaps, the first to refuse slavish obedience to preceding authors, preferring, instead, to draw upon the results of personal study and experience. He died in 1280. Lanfranc, or Lanfranchi (according to whether one pre- fers his French or Italian name), studied under William of Salicet. Of his early life very little is known, save that he practiced surgery in Milan at the time of the great dissen- sion between the Guelphs and Ghibellines, and, for attach- ing himself to the weaker party, was exiled and forced to seek an asylum in France; he resided in Lyons for several years, and here wrote a work on minor surgery; in 1295 he went to Paris on the invitation of the faculty of medi- cine, opened a course on surgery which met with great suc- cess, and then published a second and larger treatise on the subject. It is said of him by Malgaigne that, less from his fault perhaps than that of his age, after his death (about 1315) surgery began to decline. From the time of Brunus, who practiced in Padua in 1250, the barbers had done the scarifying and bleeding. After the time of Lanfranchi there were others who applied leeches and often cauteries, and even the women meddled with surgery and in all operations competed with the barbers; the lay surgeons held them- selves rivals to the clergy. Lanfranchi inherited from his old master, William, an aversion for them all, and often had to contend with uneducated and incompetent laymen. Clerical surgeons regarded operations as beneath their dignity; and Lanfranchi, who deplored this condition of affairs, confessed he had sometimes bled with his own hands, but had never operated for ascites, hernia, cataract, or stone. 92 THE HISTORY OF MEDICINE. John Pitard has descended to fame not as a writer, but as the founder of the surgical schools of St. Come and St. Damien, which occupy so eminent a position in the sur- gical annals of France. In 1306 he was surgeon to the King of France, Philip le Bel, and the sworn surgeon of Chatelet. The College of St. Come, in 1311, was only a little brotherhood of lay-surgeons, who gradually grew in importance as the result of the obstinate struggles sus- tained,—on the one hand, against the faculty of medicine, and, on the other, against the barber-surgeons. Malgaigne has, with great patience and clearness, shown that the im- portance of this body of men has been greatly exaggerated by historians; he has traced their various turns of fortune from beginning to end; I shall have occasion to consider them again farther on. Mondino, sometimes known as Mundinus, born in 1275, became a professor in the University of Bologna, and died in 1327. He was the author of a celebrated treatise on anatomy, said to have reached twenty-five editions, and which was the first of its kind since Galen. This science had been greatly neglected; in Salernum, for instance, they were, for a long time, contented with the treatise of Copho on the anatomy of the hog, and most of the anatomical knowledge of the age was apparently derived from this source; Mondino resur- rected the study and pursued it with interest and enthu- siasm, though under the greatest difficulties. His works for more than two centuries, along with the writings of Galen and the Arabic authors, served for anatomical demonstration, although very incomplete,—as witness the statement:— "Beneath the veins of the forearm we see many muscles and many large and strong cords, of which it is not necessary to attempt the anatomy on such a corpse (i.e., a recent one), but on one dried in the sun for three years, as I have shown otherwise, in developing the GUY DE CHAULIAC. 93 number and the anatomy of those of the superior and inferior extremity." On the other hand, he took the opposite course to dis- cover and demonstrate the nerves, and advised maceration in running water. It required almost superhuman bold- ness to substitute demonstrations on the human cadaver for those upon swine, yet this was done by Mondino ; and at the time the prejudice against dissection was so general that for more than a century after Mondino—who died in 1327—no one dared, at least publicly, to emulate his ex- ample. It was in the year 1315 that he publicly dis- sected the bodies of two women in Bologna. Anatomical study was further complicated at this time by certain bulls of Pope Boniface VIII, forbidding evisceration or boiling or cooking any part of the human body ; these deliverances were really aimed, not against scientific investigation, but at the absurd custom introduced by the crusaders of cutting up and boiling the bodies of their relatives who died in infidel countries, in order to send them home for burial in holy ground; never- theless, the papal injunction certainly operated to dis- courage and prohibit anatomical dissection, since nearly two hundred years later the University of Tubingen was obliged to apply to Pope Sixtus IV for permission to authorize dissection. Guy de Chauliac, born in Gevaudan about 1300, was the most famous physician and surgeon in Christendom during the Arabic period. He studied at the cathedral college of Mende. which at that time was quite celebrated, and was taught medicine at Montpellier under the best masters of his day. It is probable, also, that he studied in Paris, and certain that later, in Bologna, he saw dis- sections made. Dissatisfaction with the writings of the ancients and the knowledge which he obtained at the schools stimulated his own powers of observation, and he became, in every respect, an original student and acquired 94 THE HISTORY OF MEDICINE. a degree of erudition far more extended than that pos- sessed by any of his contemporaries. He practiced in various places, longest at Lyons ; and finally entered the service of Pope Clement VI, at Avignon, and probably enjoyed the same honor under Innocent V and Urban V; when the latter was made pope, in 1362, de Chauliac became his chaplain, or chapel-reader. In 1363 he pub- lished a work on surgery called The Inventory, upon which his fame chiefly rests, though several other volumes emanated from his pen. None knew better than he how to unite respect for the ancients with justice toward con- temporaries, and he cited a large number of Greek, Arabian, and Latin authors, some of whom are now utterly unknown. The sciences, he declared, are " created by successive additions; the same man cannot lay the foundation and perfect the superstructure. We are as children carried on the neck of a giant; aided by the labors of our predecessors we see all that they have seen, and something beside." In tracing the character of a surgeon he recommends that he be " learned, expert, in- genious, bold where he is sure, timid when in doubt, avoiding bad cures and practices, being gracious to the sick, generous and compassionate, wise in prediction, chaste, sober, pitiful, and merciful; not covetous nor ex- tortionate, but receiving moderate fees according to the circumstances of his patients, the character of the case, and his own dignity." " Never since Hippocrates," says Malgaigne, " has medicine learned a language stamped with such nobility and in such few words." Although a follower of Galen, in anatomy he insisted on the necessity of dissection, and proposed to make use of the corpses of executed criminals for this purpose. The drawings made by Henri de Mondeville were known to him ; he divided abscesses into hot and cold, although among the latter he included oedema, tympanites, dropsy, scirrhus, and other conditions. In practice he was more timid, yet more RELIGIOUS ORDERS AND THE SICK. 95 active, than Lanfranchi, who never cut for stone, but left that operation to the traveling surgeons. De Chauliac described it as he had seen it performed; he opened the abdomen for dropsy, did not hesitate to attempt the radical cure of hernia, and operated for cataract. The plague which raged during the fourteenth century and depopu- lated the known world of one-fourth of its inhabitants, twice appeared in Avignon while Guy de Chauliac was a resident there—and he acknowledges that nothing but shame prevented him from fleeing. He remained at his post, visited the sick, and was himself attacked and left for dead. " In this frightful position he had sufficient presence of mind to follow the peculiarities of his case, analyze his own sufferings, and to give a description of them worthy of Hippocrates" (Renouard). His work soon became the surgical code of Christendom, and was commented upon and translated into all tongues, remain- ing for a long time a classic, and even at this day it pre- serves much of its interest as representing the condition of medical science at the close of the Middle Ages; more- over, its literary style was much superior to that of any of his contemporaries, all of whom wrote very barbarous Latin. He died about 1370. With the death of de Chauliac terminates our interest, not merely in the Arabian physicians and those who were intimately connected with them, but in the so-called Arabic Period. It may be added, in passing, that the followers of Mahomet, like those of Christ, erected by the side of each of their mosques a school, and often a hospital, endowed with more or less generosity by caliphs or the wealthy, who hoped to purchase redemption and eternal happiness by such liberality. A certain number of religious orders or communities were established during the Middle Ages to give succor to the deserving sick, the most widely known being those of St. Mary; St. Lazarus; St. John, of Jerusalem; and the 96 THE HISTORY OF MEDICINE Daughters of God. ' To be sure, some, through the endow- ment of the opulent, became rich beyond all reason, and departed from their primitive purposes, and thus not only excited the covetousness of monarchs, but had even the temerity to resist their authority. This compelled, every now and again, a suppression of some order or institution— partly, perhaps, for laxity of morals, and partly because of their turbulence. Of this period it may be said that char- itable zeal for the sick was never more pronounced ; princes, bishops, and popes gave examples of devotion by dressing with their own hands the ulcers of lepers—and leprosy was in those days a frightful disease, having been con- tracted by the crusaders in the Orient, and everywhere spread as they returned, being, moreover, favored by the miserable uncleanliness which was then so common. Ignorance, dread, and fear rendered this disease worse than usual, and it was confounded with other maladies less formidable. It has been estimated that in the fifteenth century Europe harbored no less than nineteen thousand lepers; and that the disease was a great terror is mani- fest by the excessive caution taken against its spread: its victims were forbidden to enter cities, and on the highway were compelled to stand aside lest they should taint passers-by with their breath; even a healthy person convicted of being touched by a leper was banished from society; any infraction of these rules was punishable by death. It will thus be seen what depth of genuine humanity it required to have anything to do with one of these outcasts. Another institution prevailed widely during these days,—namely, public baths, which were established in nearly every city and increased to such an extent that in the fifteenth century the bathers of Paris constituted a powerful brotherhood, so powerful, in fact, that Jacque Despars, physician to Charles VII, and one of the most renowned professors of the faculty, for speaking openly REVIEW" OF THE ARABIC PERIOD. 97 against the abuse of public baths, was obliged to leave the capital to avoid persecution. A study of the general history of the Arabic Period reveals that the Arabs, previously obscure and uncivilized, emerged rapidly from the demi-savage state, and took the first rank among the polished nations of the world. During the earliest portion of this period these people were religious vandals and destructive fanatics, but later embraced with enthusiasm and persistence a study of the humanities, and endeavored to repair their early ravages by collecting the debris of the literary and scientific monuments of Greece; but, though they cultivated medicine with zeal and success, they added little to the Greek treasures. Later, Arabia was overrun by hordes from the deserts of Tartary, a people yet more barbarous and unknown, who established them- selves in all parts of the globe then under Saracenic dominion, and by their brutal despotism degraded the Arabians to a condition approaching that from which they had emerged. This seems to have been ever the result of Turkish conquest. Meanwhile the Greek nation, which was for so many ages at the head of civilization, gradually lost its power, virtue, courage, glory, and independence, and continued to descend, until now it exercises no influence whatever on the course of events. During the course of the Arabic Period only one Grecian physician merits mention on account of his writings, and in these there was nothing new except what he had borrowed without credit from the Saracens. The Empire of the West,—that is, the western part of the ancient Roman Empire,—after subjugation by bar- barians from Germany and Scandinavia, fell under a cloud whose darkness overwhelmed it. Its people, however, gradually received new life by commingling their blood with that of the invaders. Later they were able to repulse 98 THE HISTORY OF MEDICINE. the Saracens who poured in upon them from Spain; then they turned their armies against each other, and wrought mutual havoc and ruin for several centuries. Again, roused by religious fanaticism, as had been the Mohammedans previously, they rushed by thousands upon the plains of Asia Minor, Syria, and Egypt, which had been for cent- uries occupied by the Arabs; and their adventures and enterprises, and the new and varied scenes through which they passed, gave rise among the " Francs" to some taste for poetry and works of imagination During the twelfth and thirteenth centuries governments became more stable, liberal institutions were created, the rust of ignorance gradually disappeared, and by the end of the Arabic Period there were really apparent brilliant streaks of mentality in the horizon of the nations of Europe. In this progressive movement the study of medicine shared. In the thirteenth century it was worthily represented in Italy, in Paris, and became established in Montpellier. Notwithstanding, up to this time physicians apparently only knew how to timidly follow in the track of the Arabians, and approached little, or not at all, in their studies, the purer lore of the Greeks. THE AGE OF RENOVATION. This Age of Renovation (extending from the com- mencement of the fifteenth century to the present time, according to Renouard's classification) is divided into the Erudite Period, comprising the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, and the Reform Period, comprising the seven- teenth and eighteenth centuries, and one should add, in fact, the nineteenth. In general literature this age is known as that of the Renaissance, and is one of whose beginning a great deal has been written, and so much better than I can put it in this brief work, that to general sources I should perhaps refer those who are in- terested in knowing how and why there came about such THE AGE OF RENOVATION. 99 a tremendous change in methods and habits of thought and in acquirement of knowledge. But it is the history of medicine that at this time we particularly desire, and our minds must be, in some slight degree, prepared for the great changes to be recounted by some, with the conditions which brought about this revolution. It was truly an awakening in every department of knowledge and along every line of study ; it was as if the minds of men had been dormant and lost their power of receptivity, and, after a long period of torpor, awakened in a new atmosphere amid new surround- ings ; as if there had burst upon them a sudden appre- ciation of ability to do things hitherto undreamed of, and to acquire knowledge such as hitherto had been possessed by none. Once free from the shackles imposed by authority of the past, these minds severed their Gothic bonds, and started forth in every direction with the ardor of youth and the interest of novelty, all engaging in the general enter- prise of erecting from the debris of antique science a new temple to the mind in which to worship. While some delved among the records of the past, others sought to bind the past and present, and others, bolder yet, cut entirely loose from it, rejected all tradition, and would fain have built this temple with entirely new materials. Now, what led to this sudden awakening 1 Was it chance, or the effect of certain causes which had long been operating'? It has been seen that hospitals and various institutions, whose foundations were dedicated to humanity, were erected in all parts of Europe; that gradually there had come about a better social organization; that there had been a diminution of conflicts between princes and their vassals, and the relations between the two were more nearly at an equilibrium. Moreover, the invention of the compass, which rendered long voyages less dangerous and more fre- quent, opened up to trade regions hitherto inaccessible or unknown, and attracted interest toward commerce as a means of pecuniary gain. The telescope had been invented, 100 THE HISTORY OF MEDICINE. and astronomy was able to seize upon some of the facts by it revealed, and thereby to make more interesting calcula- tions concerning the motions of celestial bodies, and attain a knowledge of our solar system and its laws. Gradually the microscope shed light upon the hitherto unseen ; en- graving on copper had added its power of illustration to the works of the great writers as they appeared; but above all, that which brought about this condition of affairs was the discovery of the art of printing. The first attempts in this direction were made between the years 1435 and 1440, and by the united efforts of three men, whose names deserve mention so long as their art persists,— namely, Guttenberg, Faust, and Shoeffer. Thanks to them, the same information could be multiplied in manifold form and transmitted to all parts of the civilized globe. In this way intelligence and reason become triumphant; thence- forward the dominion of brute force was broken, and knowledge, because capable of dissemination, became im- perishable. At the commencement of the Erudite Period Arabic literature still predominated in medicine. Rhazes, Haly- Abbas, and Avicenna were universally invoked and ex- plained. But a taste for Greek literature began to prevail in the universities of Italy, and was finally extended to every part of Europe, especially after the taking of Con- stantinople by Mahomet II, Emperor of the Turks, in 1453. This disaster, which at first bade fair to be a mortal blow to Greek literature and language, strange to say, served only to hasten their resurrection in the Occident. Constantinople having been given over to pillage at this time, most of its learned men escaped, carrying with them all manuscripts that could be seized; most of these found refuge in Italy, and enlightened protectors in the all- powerful prince of the house of Medici, in Florence, in the popes at Rome, and in Alphonso, of Arragon, King of Naples and Sicily. Everywhere these fugitives spread the LEONICENUS. LINACRE. 101 knowledge of the masterpieces of Greek literature and art, and in this way a taste for books, libraries, and sound erudition was diffused, while the Greek and Latin classics were hunted up and published with great patience and ardor; thus the works of the old writers were edited, translated, commented upon, and everywhere disseminated throughout Europe. Among those who devoted themselves to the thankless task of editing, and purifying from interpolations, the works of the classic writers was Nicholas Leonicenus, born near Vincenza in the year 1428, who studied medi- cine at Padua and taught it for more than sixty years at Ferrara. He possessed great vigor of mind, with purity of manners and serenity of soul, and was the first to trans- late directly from Greek into Latin the aphorisms of Hip- pocrates and portions of the writings of Galen. He com- bated in every way the infatuation of his contemporaries for the Arabians and their lore, and called attention to many of the errors of men who, like Pliny the naturalist, had fallen for lack of fully understanding the Greek au- thors they compiled. At the ripe age of ninety-six he died, regretted by all. Thomas Linacre, of Canterbury, a contemporary of Leonicenus, though younger (1461-1524), studied first at the University of Oxford, went to Italy in 1484, and in Florence attracted the attention of Lorenzo de Medici, who made him the companion of his own children, to whom he gave the best possible advantages. In due time he returned to England, where his talents speedily won him high sta- tion, and he became physician to King Henry VIII, and later to Queen Mary. Linacre was the first Englishman, it is said, who spoke purely the language of the Romans. He translated several books of Galen that are still esteemed; and caused the founding of two chairs, one at Oxford, the other at Cambridge, whose incumbents were charged with the duty of explaining the works of Hippoc- 102 THE HISTORY OF MEDICINE. rates and Galen. But he is most entitled to the gratitude of his countrymen for his influence in founding the College of London. To appreciate properly its importance and his merits, we must remember the obstacles that had to be sur- mounted; for at that time bishops alone had the right to accord, in their own dioceses, permission to practice medi- cine, and, consequently, the healing art was abandoned entirely to monks and illiterate empirics. It was well that Linacre had influence at court, else he could never have obtained the reform of such overwhelming abuses; but he triumphed in spite of powerful opposition, and secured the issue of letters patent which prohibited the practice of medicine by any one who had not received a degree in one of the two universities in the kingdom, and been examined by the President of the College of London assisted by three others. This was the achievement which gave this learned man the title of "Restorer of Medicine" in England. Leonicenus and Linacre, who were of the early Eru- dite Period, also merit mention not merely because of literary talents, but because they were the first eminent physicians to embrace the study of Greek classics, and to propagate the knowledge therein contained. Subsequently others followed the same course,—too many, in fact, to be enumerated; but it was easy to follow after such leaders. From the time when men began to realize the superiority of Greek models over prolix Arabian commentaries, they were anxious to seek the light at its source, and applied themselves with avidity to the study of the originals. At this time copies of Greek authors were few in number and in a deplorable condition, owing to neglect. To rediscover them, to purify, to eliminate what was not original, to re- arrange, and finally to multiply by the aid of the printing- press was an extended labor requiring great knowledge, rare sagacity, and commendable patience. One of the greatest publications in medical literature belonging to this epoch was a complete edition of the Hippocratic writings, DIFFICULTIES ATTENDING DISSECTION. 103 translated into Latin by Anuce Foes,—a poor, but learned, practitioner, who lived on the products of his business as pension physician in the city of Metz,—and issued from Frankfort-on-the-Main in 1495. To this master-work Foes consecrated forty years of his life. Another treatise belonging to this same time, less important, perhaps, from a medical point of view, but nevertheless showing great erudition, was a treatise on the gymnastics of the ancients, by Jerome Mercurialis, a work said to be not less precious to historians than antiquarians. It was by such intense zeal and hard labor that true erudition was restored in Europe. Following now some of the special branches of medical learning and their development, let us look first at anatomy and physiology. I have already related the salient points of the life and labors of Mondino, of whom it is said that, about the year 1315, while professor at Bologna, he dis- sected the bodies of two women, and shortly after pub- lished an epitome of anatomy illustrated with wood-cuts. Also has been mentioned the prohibition of anatomical study pronounced by Pope Boniface VIII, in 1300. It was only toward the close of the fifteenth and the early years of the sixteenth century that this prejudice began to abate; the popes, who then stood at the head of scientific movements, withdrew their interdictions, and the universi- ties of Italy gave public dissections. Achillini, Benedetti, and Jacques Berenger dissected at Bologna, Padua, and Pavia, previous to the year 1500; soon afterward their example was generally followed. Jacques Dubois, whose name was Latinized into Jaco- bus Sylvius, was born in 1478, in a village near Amiens; he studied in Paris, where he worked most industriously at anatomy, which later he was so successful in teaching. He was the first to arrange all the muscles of the human body, to determine their functions, and to give names to those of them which had not yet been so designated. He 104 THE HISTORY OF MEDICINE, discovered the valves of the large veins, and was the first to study the blood-vessels by means of colored injections. He gave the same careful attention to pharmacy, and in Paris, before a large class of students, began lectures on anatomy, physiology, hygiene, pathology, and therapeutics; these he continued until the faculty, on account of jealousy, interrupted them. He then, in 1529, went to Montpellier, but returned two years later to become a member of the faculty, and once more lectured with the greatest eclat. Later yet he became a successor to Vidius in the Royal College,—a position he retained up to his death in 1555. His medical writings were extensive and marked by great accuracy, while for anatomy he did a great deal, contrib- uting much to popularize it. He dissected a great number of animals and as many human cadavers as he could pro- cure, the number, however, being small. Unfortunately, he subordinated all his own research to the authority of Galen, being himself among those anatomists who per- mitted themselves to be so far misled. The man of genius and courage, who accepted the truth of what his eyes revealed to him, and who was the true reformer in anatomy, was Andreas Vesalius, born at Brussels, in 1514, of a family already illustrious in medi- cine. He studied at the University of Louvain, where he early revealed the inclinations of the anatomist, since in his leisure moments he was wont to amuse himself in dissecting small animals. Near Louvain was a place where criminals were executed; and Vesalius, havin«- observed the body of one from which the soft parts had all been cleaned away by ravenous birds, only the bones and ligaments remaining, detached the extremities separately, and then carried off the trunk by night, thus possessing himself of his first skeleton. Attracted by the fame of Sylvius, he afterward went to Paris to become his pupil, but, not content with the lessons of his master, continued to observe for himself. On the hill Moritfaucon, where VESALIUS. 105 executions took place, he disputed with dogs and vultures for the remains of criminals, or by stealth disinterred bodies from the cemeteries at the greatest personal risk. So great was his application that his progress became rapid, and at the age of twenty he gave instruction to fellow-students; at twenty-two he became Professor of Anatomy at Padua, being appointed by the Senate of Venice; at twenty-nine he issued his great work on anat- Fig. 7.—Andreas Vesalius. (From an old etching by Esme de Boulonois.) ' omy, which showed a completeness that left far in the rear all that had hitherto been published on this subject. The following year he was called by the Emperor Charles V to the court of Madrid, then the most brilliant in Europe, where he became the first physictan, and from this time abandoned his anatomical labors. He was the first who dared to dispute the words of Galen and point out his errors,—to ascertain that the M^m*] Fig. 8.—Title-page of "The Seven Books of the Anatomy of the Human Body," by Andreas Vesalius, of Brussels, Physician to the Invincible Emperor Charles V. (Published in two folio volumes in Basil in 1555.) COLUMBUS. EUSTACHIUS. 107 greater part of Galen's descriptions, having been made from monkeys, did not correctly represent human anatomy. This audacity raised a crowd of vehement opponents, the least reasonable and most fanatic being his old master, Sylvius; but even these onslaughts could not conceal the truth. The minds of men generally were ripe for the revolution whose signal-fire was thus lighted, and no sooner did Vesalius appeal from the decision of Galen to observation of nature than a crowd of anatomists were ready to follow his method. He died in 1564. One who, at Padua, had been first his pupil, then his co-laborer,—namely, Columbus, born at Cremona in 1490, —succeeded him. Columbus criticised, in some respects, the statements of his eminent predecessor, which he could better do, since he is said to have dissected fourteen bodies every year, as well as to have practiced venesection. He came so near to discovering the mystery of the circulation that it is strange how he could have missed it. He even appreciated the systole and diastole of the heart and the connection thereof with dilatation and contraction of the arteries. He knew, also, that the pulmonary veins con- ducted arterial blood, and that the pericardium was a shut sac. He even appreciated the lesser circulation, since he described how the blood left the right side of the heart and passed into the lungs, and came back through the veins into the left ventricle; because of this discovery, and in spite of his utter failure to appreciate the greater circu- lation, he has been by some regarded as entitled to the credit which is universally given to Harvey. From his position as teacher in Padua Columbus was called to Pisa, and from Pisa to Rome, where he died in 1559. Another of the great anatomists of this period, second only in fame to Vesalius, was Eustachius, born about the beginning of the sixteenth century. He became physician to the Duke of Urbino, and in Rome a city physician and professor of anatomy, continuing to teach in the latter city IV V £ & \ Fig. 9.— IV, Forceps for Extracting Balls. V, A Denticulated Form of Forceps. (From Opera Omnia Anutomica et Chirurgica, by Andreas Vesalius. 1568.) FALLOPIUS. FABRICIUS. 109 until overtaken by his final sickness. He was a defender of Galen rather than an opponent, and sought to shelter his reputation from the attacks of Vesalius. In his praise it must be said that, for his day, he was a great anatomist; his chief discoveries were in the domain of comparative anatomy. He brought to bear upon his work a knowl- edge of embryology which enabled him, for instance, to describe the kidneys and the teeth much more accurately than would otherwise have been possible; he noted, also the pathological changes in bodies dissected, and is brought daily to our minds as we think of the connecting channel be- tween the pharynx and the middle ear, to which his name has been given. He died in 1574. Fallopius, born in Modena, in 1523, was pro- fessor successively at Fer- rara, Pisa, and Padua. He cultivated anatomy with the greatest ardor, and, in consequence, his name is also linked with that of Vesalius, as are those of Herophilus and Erasistratus in the history of ancient anat- omy. His anatomical researches included all parts of the human body, and his name has been given to the tube through which the ovum enters the cavity of the uterus. © * Death overtook him in the year 1562. Jerome Fabricius, better known as Fabricius ab Aqua- pendente, was born in the town of the latter name, near the southern end of the Apennines, in 1537, received his CUb m tx, FalI/ ovtxis Fig. 10—Gabriel Fallopius. (From an old etching of the sixteenth century.) 110 THE HISTORY OF MEDICINE. early education in Padua, and studied anatomy under Fal- lopius, whose assistant he also was. After the death of the latter he succeeded to the professorship of anatomy, and later built, at his own expense, a large anatomical theater, in which he lectured and demonstrated to students from all parts of the world. Toward the end of his life he had accumulated a large number of specimens, and published extensively on anatomy, embryology, physiology, and surgery. Though often accredited with discovering the valves of the veins, he is not entitled to that honor, since Erasistratus, Sylvius, Vesalius, and others had pre- viously described them, Estiennes had seen them in the azygos veins, and Canano in other veins. His true claim to glory rests upon embryological researches, which he was the first to undertake in a comparative way. In De Formato Fcetu he elucidated the development of the embryo and its membranes by a long list of observations on lower animals of many species. He was probably the first to describe the uterine decidua. Fabricius died in 1619. This Fabricius must not be confused with the almost- as-renowned Fabricius Hildanus, who was born in Flilden, near Dusseldorf, in 1560. Under the German name of Wilhelm Fabry he became widely known as a surgeon, and, after traveling through France, settled in Hilden, but later moved to Cologne, where he founded an academy. His first treatise—on gangrene and sphacelus—quickly made him known, and went through eleven editions. From Cologne he went successively to Genf, Lausanne, and Polen; returned to Cologne; and finally, after several other visits, settled in Bern, where he died of gout and asthma (in 1634). His frequent changes of location were, perhaps, less the result of instability than a testimony to his repu- tation, inasmuch as he was invited from one place to another. He has been, with propriety, named the " German Pare," since he rendered such great service to German FABRICIUS HILDANUS. Ill surgery, and was not only an expert therein, but likewise a cultivated physician and polished humanitarian; in fact he was ahead of his time, by many years, in these regards, as is shown by his recom- mending amputation in cases of gangrene, and his writings concerning gunshot wounds. He enjoyed a ripe experience also in obstetrics, and even instructed his wife in the obstetric art and praised her ability most highly. His most important con- tributions to literature were in the field of surgery, and these passed through nu- merous editions, while his opinions and prac- tice are quoted even to-day. During this epoch many modifications were introduced and improvements made in the teaching of medicine. Permanent amphitheaters were established for dissection, and chairs of anatomy created, their incumbents being paid out of the public treasury. The popes appear to have taken the initiative in this Fig. 11.—Forms of Forceps for Enlarging Wounds. (From Opera Omnia Anatumica et Chirurgica, by Andreas Vesalius, 1568.) 112 THE HISTORY OF MEDICINE. respect, which accounts for the great number of sub- jects with which Eustachius was supplied, as compared with Vesalius, who obtained only two or three in a year. Up to this time the razor had been the sole in- strument of dissection, but was now replaced by the scalpel, which remains in use to-day. By the labors of the few men mentioned anatomy acquired a degree of perfection which it had never attained under the Greeks. Skillful artists put their labors upon paper, and plates and descriptions made from anatomical preparations represented the various parts of the human body with more fidelity than had been supposed possible. Nerves, ten- dons, and ligaments were no longer confused, but traced so far as possible from origin to ramifications. Ancient errors generally were corrected. It was proven that there was no bony structure in the tissue of the heart, that the par- tition between its cavities was not porous; and attentive examination of its valves led to the discovery of the lesser circulation by Columbus. Michael Servetus, whom John Calvin burned at the stake, was perhaps the first to note this phenomenon. He saw that the blood could not pene- trate directly from the right into the left cavity of the heart, but that it was necessary for the whole fluid to pass through the lungs, where it became impregnated with the vital spirit of the atmosphere, and reached afterward the left auricle ; the position of the valves in the pulmonary arteries and veins clearly confirmed his conjecture. More- over the size of the pulmonary arteries was enormous, and disproportionate to the quantity of blood necessary for the nutrition of the lungs, which seemed to prove that this was not, as had been believed, the sole purpose of those vessels. It was about this time that Fabricius ab Aqua- pendente pointed out valves in veins in various parts of the body, and that Columbus and Andreas Cesalpinus ex- plained more fully the mechanism of the lesser circulation ; in fact, the former so closely approached an appreciation FAILURE TO DISCOVER THE CIRCULATION. 113 of the purpose of the vascular system that some have thought he really knew it, but the passages in his writings thought to sustain this opinion are not at all conclusive. He seems to have confused the action of the heart during sleep with that during the waking hours; and although he realized that the blood could not flow backward through the arteries, that the vena cava was the only vessel which permitted the entrance of blood into the heart, and though he spoke of anastomosis between arteries and veins and remarked that if a band be applied around a limb the veins swell below the ligature, he contented himself with comparing the motion of the blood with the flux and reflux of Euripus, as Aristotle had done. It is even thus that he tortured his mind in trying to reconcile two irrecon- cilable theories,—i.e., the opinion of the ancients on the motion of the blood and recent discoveries in the anatomy of the vascular system. 8 CHAPTER V. Age of Renovation' (continued).—Erudite Period (continued): Benivieni, 11502. Jean Fernel, 1497-155*. Porta, 1536-1615. Severiuo, 1580-1656. Incorporation of Brotherhood of St. Come into the University of Paris, 1515. Ambroise Pare, 1510-1590. Guillemeau, 1550-1613. Influence of the Occult Sciences: Agrippa, 1486-1535. Jerome Cardan, f 1501. Paracelsus, 1493- 1541. Botal, born 1530. Joubert, 15-29-1583. In the domain of pathology the Arabs had added only a very small number of observations to those contained in the works of Galen. The most interesting of these per- tain to eruptive fevers. Most of their writers contented themselves with making an inventory of the acquisitions of the past, as did Guy de Chauliac, and this was about all they could do under existing circumstances; although they did not make discoveries, they prepared the way for their successors. Two men about this time did a great deal in the direc- tion of creating a desire for post-mortem study of cases, and in illustrating and succinctly describing symptoms. The first of these was Benivieni, a Florentine, who died in 1502—the date of his birth being uncertain. To him, more than to any other, we owe the commencement of the study of gross pathology and pathological anatomy. He was the first to consider the knowledge that might be obtained by opening bodies for the sole purpose of ascer- taining the location and cause of the diseases from which they had died. As Malgaigne remarks: " A eulogy which he merits, and which he shared with no other person, and which has not been accorded to him up to this time by the many historians of surgery who have superficially searched among these precious sources, is that he was the first who had the habit, felt the need, and set the useful example, which he transmitted to his successors, of searching in the cadaver, according to the title of his book, for the concealed causes of disease." The work referred to by Alalo-ai^ne (114) BENIVIENI AND THE BEGINNINGS OF PATHOLOGY. 115 was entitled: Concerning Some of the Secret and Strange Causes of Disease and was published in Florence in 1507. It is poor in quotations, but rich in original observations, which pertain especially to the etiology of disease, and gives a very concise symptomatology and history of each affection of which it treats, as well as a pathological explanation. Benivieni's observations on gall-stone, on the anatomical lesions of heart diseases, and on the conveyance of syphilis from the mother to the foetus were original, as well as many observations concerning the presence of worms and other parasites in the body. He did not limit himself to dissection of his own cases, but sought autopsies in the cases of others. He examined the bodies of those who had been hung, always thinking to find in them something of interest. In this regard he was followed by one already mentioned,—namely, Eustachius. After these two the men who most cultivated pathology and anatomy in the sixteenth century were Rembert Dodoens and Marcellus Donatus. The former was born in 1517, in Mecheln, traveled extensively, was physician to Maximilian II and the Emperor Rudolph, and died in 1585. The latter lived and worked in the latter half of the sixteenth century, the dates of his birth and death being somewhat uncertain. The next man whom we must mention is one who did a great deal for internal medicine, pathology, and anatomy. Jean Fernel, who has been surnamed " the modern Galen," was born in Clermont in 1497. Even as a boy he showed great aptitude, and very early made himself a reputation in philosophy, law, and mathematics. In 1530 he was received as doctor, with the unanimous applause of the entire faculty of Paris. He seems to have been stimulated by this only to more extended study; in fact, so hard did he work at his studies that his friends became seriously alarmed for his health, and remonstrated with him ; they received for reply : " Destiny 116 THE HISTORY OF MEDICINE. reserves for us repose enough." He became physician to King Henry II, of France, and in the midst of a very extensive practice undertook to collect all the medical knowledge scattered in the Greek, Arabic, and Latin works, in order to form from it a body of doctrines. His work was written with a purity and elegance of Latin that reminds one of Cicero. Throughout its pages he was philosophic, and sought to unite the apparently irreconcilable doctrines of Plato and Aristotle. He divided medical science into three great sections,— physiology, pathology, and therapeutics. In his explana- tions of disease he was too often fanciful, following the speculations mainly of Galen, and making free use of the hypotheses of humors, temperaments, vital spirits, etc.; but the following statement of his would do credit to a trained pathologist of to-day; "As for myself, I shall never believe 1 have profound knowledge of any affection if I do not know positively, just as if I could see it with my eyes, in what part of the human body is the disease, its primitive seat, what suspicion of organic lesions constitute it, whence it proceeded, if it exists idiopathically or by sympathy, or if it be kept up by some exterior cause. He who pretends to be a rational physician must sound each of these subjects, and discern them by certain signs." The problem which he thus set himself he certainly, for his own part, considered as solved, although it was not long before his solutions were set aside and the original uncertainty reappeared. In therapeutics he very early laid down the fundamental maxim that every disease must be combated by contrary remedies, justifying this by every species of argument, amounting to this: that every disease must be combated by its contrary because all that cures a disease is contrary to it. This was, in part, the doctrine of " Contraria con- trariis curantur"—the antithesis of the equally absurd sophism : " Similia similibus curantur," which three hun- dred years later was erected into an excuse for the founda- Fig. 12.—Body Showing Various Kinds of Wounds. (From Opera Omnia Anatomica et Chirurgica, by Andreas Vesalius, 1568.) 118 THE HISTORY OF MEDICINE. tion of an alleged new school. There can be no doubt that Fernel rendered very great service to his time and to subsequent generations, despite the fact that his recom- mendations and statements were too often founded upon sophistry. Just here we must digress for a moment to consider the status of bleeding. Hippocrates and Galen had advised to bleed largely from the arm on the affected side in pleurisy and pneumonia. That practice was gradually abandoned as Greek traditions were lost sight of, and finally the Arabs substituted for it something entirely different,—namely, pricking a vein in the foot in order to let blood flow drop by drop. Their method prevailed throughout Europe until the commencement of the sixteenth century, or about the time when Fernel appeared upon the scene. A Parisian physician named Brissot had revived the ancient (the Greek) practice during an epidemic of pleurisy, and had obtained thereby astonishing success, which he hastened to publish, commending the method employed. He thus created a great uproar in the medical world. The innova- tion found foes and defenders, and disputes grew warm, even to the fever point. Finally, the ancient method was generally revived, and Fernel accepted it. Felix Plater was born in 1536, in Basel, Switzerland, and died in 1614. He had several sons who made their mark in medicine. In his large work, which preceded that of Fernel, he took perhaps the first step in an unexplored route,—namely, in the classification of disease according to the totality of apparent symptoms. Defective as this classi- fication appears in our eyes, its author lived a long life as a very distinguished practitioner and professor in his native town. Giovanni Batista Porta was born in Naples in 1536, traveled extensively in Italy, France, and Spain, and founded in 1560 an Academy of the Segreti. He was accused of magic, and was compelled to refute the charges BARBER-SURGERY IN THE XVI AND XVII CENTURIES. 119 in Rome. He died in 1615, having been one of the lead- ing scientists of his time, and the founder of modern optics. In the first edition of his Magia Naturalis, published in Naples, 1587, is found the first description of the camera obscura,—of course, in a very incomplete form and without lenses. Severino was a celebrated surgeon of Naples. He was born in 1580, in Calabria, studied in Naples, became a doctor in Salernum, and then became professor of anatomy in his native town. For a long time the victim of intrigue and of persecution by the Inquisition, he was finally driven out of Naples, but was called back by the populace. He then became the most celebrated teacher of his time, writing extensively on a variety of subjects. He died in 1656 of the plague, an epidemic of which was at that time raging in central Italy. Arriving now at the surgery of this Age, we find that matters were more chaotic than in other departments of medicine, and for reasons which are easily given and appre- ciated. While, ordinarily, external diseases are more easily discerned than internal, and while in a corresponding de- gree they can be more satisfactorily treated; while, in other words, external pathology has ordinarily taken precedence of internal in professional as in lay minds, this view seems to have been inverted for a time during the Middle Ages. Previous to the period now under discussion the sciences had generally declined in Europe, and surgery had fallen even lower than medicine, for the reason that medicine was in the hands of the priests, who had at that time something of a liberal education, while the practice of surgery was abandoned to a class of ignorant barbers, bathers, and bone-setters. No mechanic or artisan could take as an apprentice any youth without a certificate affirming his legitimate birth, and that he came from a family in which there were neither barbers, bath-keepers, shepherds, nor butchers. Among the men who were thus made social 120 THE HISTORY OF MEDICINE. outcasts were those into whose hands most of the surgery of the fifteenth century fell. This was particularly the case in Germany, and other European countries were little in advance. We have seen that in France and in Italy Lanfranc and Guy de Chauliac did their best to rescue sur- gery from the hands of these men, but their efforts did not prevent it from being completely abandoned by the clergy, who devoted themselves to the practice of medicine. When we come to inquire the reason for this—in other words, why an art so useful as surgery, and one which made such requirements for knowledge, sagacity, and dex- terity, whose necessity was almost continually felt, particu- larly during these troublous times of almost constant warfare, should be so neglected by men who could best comprehend its utility and respond to its requirements—it is difficult to find a satisfactory answer. The social con- dition of the times sheds some light upon the question. The nations of southern Europe were socially divided at that time into the nobility, who were nearly always at war; the clergy, who monopolized learning and filled the so- called liberal professions; and, finally, the common people, who were common prey for both the other classes, and who yet had to support both without having any privileges of their own. While the practice of medicine was a clerical right, the canon of the church prohibited physicians from drawing blood, under pain of excommunication ; and hence surgery, shunned by the priests, to whom it naturally be- longed in connection with the practice of medicine, fell into the hands of the ignorant and vulgar, who practiced it in a purely mechanical way, without knowledge or appreciation of its possibilities. In addition to this, there was an almost total lack of detailed and precise anatomical knowledge, and but small reason to expect that the ignorant practitioners of surgery would feel the need of such knowledge. More- over, most of the operators were itinerants, going from city to city, stopping so long as they had cases to operate upon iiLUulU , .\$ %>~%t 5\\$ V j.«#** Fig. 13.—Mode of Extracting Leaden Bullets. (From Opera Omnia Anntnmira et Chirnrgira, by Andreas Vesalius, 1568.) 122 THE HISTORY OF MEDICINE. or until some reverse forced them to depart. Most of these men limited themselves to one or two sorts of operations. Some operated for cataract, others for stone, others for hernia, nearly every one having a secret method which was transmitted to his posterity as a heritage. In the history of medicine certain family names of itinerant operators have been preserved; for example, the Branca, the Norsini, in Italy, and the Colot in France. Under such conditions there could be no such thing as the profession of the surgeon. The prejudice against dis- section did not begin to abate until the thirteenth century, when a very few of the clergy dared, in a very timid manner, to perform surgical operations. Their numbers increased in the course of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, and in the sixteenth had become considerable. Most of the great anatomists of that period—such as Benivieni, de Carpi, Vesalius, Fallopius, and Fabricius ab Aquapendente —were great surgeons. In due time it came about that while the clerical phy- sicians were willing to descend to the rank of operators, the lay-surgeons aspired to the rank of doctors of medicine. This transformation took place especially in France, the only country where at that time there was a special college of surgeons—the small Brotherhood of St. Come, already alluded to, which was always contending against the faculty on one hand and against the barber-surgeons on the other, with varying results, and which, at last, sought peace with the university and was received by it. This took place in 1515, and was the renaissance of surgery, not only for Paris, but for the whole world. By this reunion the faculty acquired authority over the barbers, who were admitted to their lectures and took courses in anatomy and surgery, gradually attaining a knowledge which entitled them to be called barber-surgeons; their rights were not curtailed, but made more difficult of procurement, for, in addition to passing their initiation for the privilege of becoming barber- AMBROISE PARE. 123 surgeons, they also had to pass an examination before the physicians and the two surgeons of the king, at Chatelet, for the right to practice surgery. The surgeons, as the price of their submission to the faculty, had, beside the university privilege, a sort of supremacy over the barbers; and thus it happened that the barbers were admitted to the rank of surgeons at St. Come, and that the surgeons of St. Come were admitted as barber-surgeons by the faculty of medicine. In this double capacity they approached nearer the profession of medicine, from which they should never have been separated, while surgery became an art which received numerous improvements. We must now devote a little time to the consideration of at least two or three of the men who most contributed to extend and elevate it. Among those who most contributed to make the period of which we are now speaking a glorious one, raising him- self from the lowest walks of life to the attainment of the highest professional honors, is Ambroise Pare, whose name will never die while the art of surgery is taught. Pare was born about the yrear 1510, at Laval, of poor parents. He was an early apprentice to the provincial barber-surgeons, after which a natural ambition for improvement led him to Paris (about the year 1532), where he studied three years at the Hotel-Dieu, and obtained the confidence of his teachers to such an extent that he sometimes operated for them. He never learned Latin, the language at that time of the books and of the schools. Pare was most fond of recalling his hospital experience; he counted it among the highest honors of his life that he should have enjoyed what he there did enjoy, and gives us to suppose that he was a favorite upon whom peculiar favors were conferred. In one of his writings, a physician of Milan having expressed astonishment at so young a man's knowledge, he remarks with pride: " But the good man did not know that I had been house-surgeon for three years at the Hotel-Dieu de Paris." The functions of the barber apprentices in the 124 THE HISTORY OF MEDICINE. hospital in those days were probably to make dressings and bleedings, and sometimes post-mortem examinations ordered by the chiefs, to assist the latter in their operations, and to act in case of emergency; in other words, to do about as the internes at present do. They probably found there a precious and rare opportunity for anatomical dissection, but it does not appear that they had regular clinical instruction. Fig. 14.—Ambroise Pare. (From a steel engraving of the original painting in l'Ecole de Medeeine at Paris.) Communication between master and pupil depended abso- lutely on the pleasure of the former. In 1537 Pare was made surgeon to the Colonel-General of Infantry, Rene de Montijean, with whom he made his first campaign in Italy. (This was in the army which King Francis I assembled in Provence with which to re- pulse the invasion of Charles V.) He had never seen war nor recent gunshot wounds, and only knew of them by what he had read in the writings of John de Vigo. This PARE'S ABOLITION OF BOILING OIL. 125 was at a time when it was the custom of surgeons to pour boiling oil into every amputation or other wound in order to check haemorrhage; and Pare's experience in this, his first campaign, put him in the way of his first discovery, —a discovery which will never be forgotten. He has recounted in his Book of Arquebus Wounds and in his great Apology how after the affair of Pas-de-Suze he watched the other surgeons, dreaming of nothing else but to imitate them as far as he could ; how the boiling oil gave out; how his anxiety about it prevented him from sleeping; and how to his great wonder he found that the wounded who had submitted to the operation suffered more than the others. This set him to thinking, and led him, a young man without name or authority, without letters or philosophical studies, to observe, to reason, and to combat a doctrine which was universally admitted and which the highest surgical authorities of the day sustained. At that time all authors who had spoken of gunshot wounds con- sidered them as poisonous and complicated with burns; consequently they gave the precept to cauterize with boil- ing oil or a red-hot iron, and at the same time to administer certain alexipharmics which should serve as internal anti- dotes. John de Vigo, physician to Pope Julius II, assures us that the danger of these wounds results from the round formation of the balls, from heat, and from the poisonous qualities communicated to them by the powder. His theory and the method of treatment above given had been adopted without contradiction until the day when Pare dared to utter the first protest against them. After a campaign of three years, in which he lost his master, he returned to Paris and married. In 1543 he was in the army of Perpignan, in the service of de Rohan, grand lord of Brittany, where he gave continuous proof of his sagacity. It was after this campaign that his reputa- tion, so well established among warriors and the nobility, inspired Sylvius with the desire of seeing him. Pare has 126 THE HISTORY OF MEDICINE. recounted how, in a conversation which they had to- gether, he insisted upon the then entirely new precept, Fig. 15.—Pliers, Iron for Actual Cautery, and Seton-neeoles. (From the surgical works of Ambroise Pare, 1611.) of which he had made many applications, that in order to extract bullets it was best to place the wounded in the position in which they were at the moment of injury. PARE'S REINTRODUCTION OF THE LIGATURE. 127 Sylvius, then at the height of his fame, invited the young physician to dinner, and listened to him with great attention while he explained his views on gunshot wounds, which made such an impression upon the mind of the host that he besought him eagerly to write them out and make them public. Encouraged by this advice from so high a source, Pare prepared his text, illustrated it, and in the year 1545 brought out his little work, which marked in a manner so glorious the revival of French surgery. It was published by Gaulterot, the sworn bookseller of the University of Paris, and was entitled uT7ie Manner of Treating Wounds made by Arquebuses and other Fire-arms, and those made by Arrows, Darts, and the Like ; and also by Burns made Especially by Gunpowder. Composed by Ambroise Pare, Master Barber-Surgeon in Paris." A few months later appeared the second edition, in which he still recommended the actual cautery in haemor- rhage ; but each day he meditated upon the subject, and on one occasion discussed it with two surgeons of St. Come, submitting to them the idea that, since ligatures were applied to veins and arteries, and to recent wounds, there was nothing to prevent their being equally applied to amputations. Both agreed with him, and opportunity soon presented itself at the siege of Damvilliers, when a gentleman had his leg crushed by a shot from the fortress. Pare made an amputation, omitting for the first time the use of the cautery, and had the happiness to save his patient, who, full of joy at having escaped the red-hot iron, said he had got clear of his leg on very good terms. This was, in truth, the actual renaissance of surgery, which had been to that time a torture, but which became thereafter a blessed art. It was a barber-surgeon who produced the double marvel. This took place in 1552. In 1554, after other campaigns, Pare was made, without examination, Master of the College of St. Come, and in 1559 was included among the surgeons of King Henry 128 THE HISTORY OF MEDICINE. II (who was killed in a tourney, in Paris, in 1559), which position he retained with Francis II and Charles IX. The latter raised him to the highest position among his surgeons, and King Henry III retained him, which caused the witty and true remark that the kings of France transferred him to their successors as a legacy of the crown. Many anecdotes are related of Pare to show the remark- able esteem in which he was held by public and private citizens. For instance, in October, 1552, one of the most eminent generals of Charles V laid seige to the city of Metz, and the emperor came in person to join the army. Within the walls of this beleaguered city were gathered nearly all the nobility and princes of France. The city was defended by the Duke of Guise, and the besieged soldiers were at that time suffering alike from the attacks of the enemy, the results of the siege, and the rigors of a frightful winter. The duke had established two hos- pitals for the soldiers, and had put into requisition the barber-surgeons of the city, giving them money with which to furnish their supplies. But these surgeons were sadly incompetent against the combination of unfavorable cir- cumstances, consequently nearly all the wounded perished, and a horrible suspicion was roused among the soldiers that they had been poisoned. Under these circumstances the duke dispatched one of his captains to the king to say that the place could hold out for ten months, and asked at the same time for fresh medicine. The king sent for Pare, gave him money, directed him to take all the medicine he thought necessary, and furnished him a letter to Marshal St. Andre, who commanded in Verdun, and who bribed an Italian captain for fifteen hundred crowns to introduce into the besieged city the celebrated surgeon. The expedition was perilous, and Pare himself would have willingly remained in Paris. But he entered Metz on the 8th of December, at midnight, without an accident. Having passed already sixteen years in war, b3 8- Fig. 16.—Swan's Beak, Used for Dilating the Track of a Wound and Extracting a Foreign Body. (From the surgical works of Ambroise Pare, 1611.) 130 THE HISTORY OF MEDICINE. he was known to the chiefs and common soldiers. The day after his arrival, the duke, who knew how to strike the imagination, presented him on the ramparts to all the princes, lords, and captains, who embraced and re- ceived him with clamor. By the soldiers he was received with shouts of triumph. "We shall not die," they ex- claimed, "even though wounded; Pare is among us !" From this time the defense was conducted with renewed vigor, and it has been universally conceded that to the presence of this single man the city was indebted for its salvation. The siege itself was not raised until after a terrific conflict. On the very day of Pare's arrival he began to treat the leg of one of the prominent officers, who for four days had been in charge of a charlatan, and had suffered horrible tortures. The next day he decided to trephine another, who had been struck on the head by a fragment of stone, and who had been insen- sible for fourteen days. Both patients recovered. The little brotherhood of surgeons of St. Come were ready to seize on every circumstance which might redound to their advantage, and desired to have within their ranks the man who enjoyed such great renown. They, there- fore, admitted him to an examination, in spite of the stat- ute which required that the candidate should understand Latin, and in spite of opposition by the professors of the Description of Fig. 17.—A, the instrument named, on account of its figure, lizard's beak; in Latin, "rostrum lacerti." It is used to extract balls which have been flattened or imbedded in bone. A displays particularly the cannula. B, hinge, by means of which the lizard's beak is opened and closed as much or as little as the surgeon wishes. C, the rod which opens and closes the lizard's beak. When drawn upon it closes and when pushed it opens the instrument. D, D. dilator and mirror ; in Latin, " dilatatorium, speculum." The instrument is somewhat roughened and dentated in order to take a firm hold of whatever it grasps. It may serve two pur- poses : first, to dilate and enlarge the wound so that it may be seen to the bottom, and also to make way for some instrument, as pincers or crow's beak, and to grasp more easily and withdraw the foreign body ; secondly, it may itself serve to extract the foreign body,—e.g., a, double-headed ball; b, a small chain ; c, c, some pieces of mail. E, E, crane's beak; in Latin, "rostrum gruinum." H, H, duck's beak; in Latin, "rostrum arserinum." K, sound. L, ball-extractor without cannula. M, cannula with handle. Fig. 17.—Various Instruments for the Extraction of Balls. (From the Works on Chirurgerie, by Jacques Guillemeau, chirurgeon ordinary to the King of France, 1619.) 132 THE HISTORY OF MEDICINE. university. They not only admitted him to all their de- grees, but awarded him a reception,—a hitherto unknown honor. Pare in his time met with a success which to-day would be pronounced extraordinary. He seemed to inspire the wounded with the utmost confidence, and to possess great- ness and firmness of character in the highest degree. It is, perhaps, even more extraordinary that with so strong a character he should have so long retained favor at court. In the midst of the excitement of camps, and a very ex- tended practice, he found time to read all that had been published on his art, and to compose himself a great number of works, enriching all branches of surgery. Instead of keeping secret his inventions, as was the custom of the time, he made them as public as possible, saying, in the preface of his large work on surgery: " For my part, I have dispensed liberally to everybody the gifts that God has conferred upon me, and I am none the worse for it; just as the light of a candle will not diminish no matter how many may come to light their torches by it." Besides his smaller treatises, his large, collective works passed through a number of editions, and were everywhere reprinted and studied. Not only was he great in surgery, but he attained a high degree of expertness in midwifery. Among other things, he restored the forgotten practice of podalic version in cases where this procedure is necessary. He died in 1590. The doctrine of Pare on gunshot wounds was rapidly disseminated. From 1550, Maggi, of Bologna, advocated it without giving credit to its real author, and sustained it by decisive experiments. He observed that none of the wounded felt any heat, and that the torn portions of their clothing showed no trace of fire ; and he shot balls through packages of powder without setting them on fire. At the same time Lange spread this view in Germany, and Botal, splcvlvm ours et ^'-^tatcts jOk.. Fig. 18.—Speculums for the Mouth and Womb, etc. A, A, mouth-mirror; in Latin, "speculum oris." B. tongue-depressor. C, C, branches to be placed under the chin. G, G, instrument for retrenching elongated uvula. O, O, O, womb-mirror; in Latin, " speculum matricis." m, m, artiflcal tooth of ivory or gold, attached by small gold threads, n, n, three artificial teeth joined together and attached by gold threads to the adjacent teeth on each side. (From the Works on Chirurgerie., by Jiiopies Guillemeau, chirurgeon ordinary to the King of France, 1649.) 134 THE HISTORY OF MEDICINE. of Turin, took it up (withholding, however, the true author's name). While Ambroise Pare did not disdain to act as ac- coucheur, it was his friend and pupil, Jacob Guillemeau (1550-1613), who, in the sixteenth century, most occupied himself with the practice of obstetrics. We owe to Guil- lemeau the first improvements that the moderns made in this art; for instance, the proposition to rapidly and arti- ficially terminate parturition in cases of considerable haem- orrhage or when the woman is taken with convulsions during labor. Guillemeau supported this practice on the authority of Hippocrates, and operated on a great number of patients, proving its value and the danger of its neglect. The Caesarean operation was known to the ancient Greeks and Romans, but had been abandoned during the Middle Ages. It remained for the accoucheurs and sur- geons of the sixteenth century to re-establish it. Among others, Rousset, physician to the Duke of Savoy, who rec- ommended it very warmly, reported several cases where it had a happy issue for both mother and child. He even reported the most remarkable case of all,—that of a woman who was six times delivered by this operation, and who perished in the seventh confinement, because, as he states, the surgeon who had been accustomed to operate on her was absent. Unfortunately, this case is not authenticated. Nothing shows better how the art of observation and accurate description of phenomena had progressed at the time of the revival of letters than the number of new dis- eases of which the authors of that period make mention. Then, for the first time did one read of whooping-cough, miliaria, scurvy, plica polonica, syphilis, and raphania. It is scarcely credible that these diseases fell upon Europe at this particular time. It is more probable that they had a more ancient existence and were not recognized. Even to-day medical men are divided in their own opinions on the origin of syphilis, some believing that it INSTKs.'NE.S.s rFCPP.LS A EXIYBPER Lls