Read Ebook: Medicine in the Middle Ages Extracts from Le Moyen Age Medical by Dr. Edmond Dupouy; translated by T. C. Minor by Dupouy Edmond Minor Thomas C Thomas Chalmers Translator

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Ebook has 690 lines and 78078 words, and 14 pages

Transcriber's note:

It should be noted that almost all of the French in the book is unaccented. No attempt has been made to correct this.

The footnotes are located at the end of the book.

Text enclosed by underscores is in italics .

MEDICINE IN THE MIDDLE AGES.

Extracts from "Le Moyen Age Medical"

DR. EDMOND DUPOUY.

Translated by T. C. Minor, M.D.

Reprinted from the Cincinnati Lancet-Clinic, Dec. 1, 1888, to Feb. 16, 1889.

Cincinnati: Cincinnati Lancet Press Print, 1889.

THE PHYSICIANS OF THE MIDDLE AGES.

THE GREAT EPIDEMICS OF THE MIDDLE AGES.

THE DEMONOMANIA OF THE MIDDLE AGES.

MEDICINE IN THE LITERATURE OF THE MIDDLE AGES.

MEDICINE IN THE MIDDLE AGES.

EXTRACTS FROM "LE MOYEN AGE MEDICAL" OF DR. EDMOND DUPOUY.

TRANSLATED BY T. C. MINOR, M.D.

THE PHYSICIANS OF THE MIDDLE AGES.

In the fourth century of the Christian era Roman civilization expired; Western Europe was invaded by the barbarians; letters and science sought a last refuge at Alexandria; the Middle Age commenced.

The Arabian schools of Dschondisabur, Bagdad, Damascus, and Cordova were founded and became flourishing institutions of learning, thanks to a few Nestorian Greeks and Jews who were attracted to these centers of learning; such men as Aaron, Rhazes, Haly-Abas, Avicenna, Avenzoar, Averrhoes, Albucasis, and other writers, who continued the work left by the Greeks, leaving remarkable books on medicine and surgery. Unfortunately the ordinance of Islamism prevented these scientists from following anatomical work too closely, and consequently limited the progress they might otherwise have made in medicine.

What occurred in Western Europe during this period of transition? The torch of science was extinguished; the sacred fire on the altar of learning only remained a flickering emblem whose pale light was carefully guarded in the chapel of monasteries. Medicine was abandoned to the priests, and all practice naturally fell into an empirical and blind routine. "The physician-clergy," says Sprengel, "resorted in the majority of cases to prayers and holy water, to the invocations of saints and martyrs, and inunction with sacred ointments. These monks were unworthy of the name of doctor--they were, in fact, nothing else than fanatical hospital attendants."

"When a physician is called to dress a wound or treat a disease, he must take the precaution to settle on his fee, for he cannot claim any in case the patient's life is endangered.

"He shall be entitled to five sous for operating on hard cataract.

"If a physician wound a gentleman by bleeding, he shall be condemned to pay a fine of one hundred sous; and should the gentleman die following the operation, the physician must be delivered into the hands of the dead man's relatives, who may deal with the doctor as they see fit.

"When a physician has a student he shall be allowed twelve sous for his services as tutor."

You have heard it told To dress a wound while new; 'Tis hard to heal when old. You'll find this statement true. When the doctor cometh late The wound may poisoned be; The sore may irritate And most sad results we see.

"My husband is, as I have said, A surgeon who can raise the dead. He sees disease in urine hid, Knows more than e'en Ypocras did."

"Ne sceus que faire, ne que dire, Ne pour ma playe trover mire, Ne par herbe, ne par racine Je ne peus trover medecine."

"Young doctors just come from Salern Sell blown-up bladders for lantern."

"Je faisoie le physicien Et allegoie Galien, Et montrois oeuvre ancienne Et de Rasis et d'Avicenne, Et a tous les faisoie entendre In'estoie drois physiciens Et maistre des practiciens."

In revenge, the author of the "Romance of Renard" accords but little confidence to medical art, for he adds very maliciously:

"All belief in medicine is folly, Trust it and you lose your life; For it is a fact most melancholy-- Where one is cured two perish in the strife."

"The son of Phoebus himself, AEsculapius, has instilled into thy mind, O Praxagorus, the knowledge of that divine art which makes care to be forgotten. He has given into thy hands the balm that cures all evils. Thou, too, hast learned from the sweet Epion what pains accompany long fevers, and the remedies to be applied to divided flesh; if mortals possessed medicines such as thine, the ferry of Charon would not be overloaded in crossing the Styx."

This tendency of women to care for the sick now became general. "In our ancient poets and romancers," says Roquefort, "we often notice how young girls were employed to cure certain wounds, because they were more tender-hearted and gentle-handed; as, for example, Gerard de Nevers, having been wounded, was carried into a chapel, where "a beautiful maiden took him in hand to effect a cure, and he thought so much of her that in brief space of time he commenced to mend; and was so much better that he could eat and drink; and he had such confidence in the skill of the maiden that, before a month passed, he was most perfectly cured."

"Nicolette, in great alarm, Asked about his pain; Found out of joint his arm, Put it in again; Dressed with herbs the aching bone-- Plants to her had virtues known."

"Primes saciez ke icest tretiez Est le secre de secrez numez, Ke Aristotle le Philosophe y doine, La fiz Nichomache de Macedoine A sun deciple Alisandre en bone fei, Le grant, le fiz, a Philippe le Rei, Le fist en sa graunt vielesce."

Which, translated from old French, reads: "From whence learn that this treatise is the secret of secrets, that Aristotle the philosopher, son of Nichomachus, gave to his pupil, Alexander the Great, son of King Philip, and which was composed in his old age."

In recalling the fact that Aristotle was the son of Nichomachus, Pierre de Vernon probably desired to call the attention of his readers more to the knowledge of medicine that the author derived from his father, the celebrated physician, than to the brilliant pupil of Plato.

Among the interesting passages in this poem we distinguish some that advise abstinence to persons whose maladies are engendered by excesses at table:

"One man cannot live without wine, While another without it should dine; For the latter, 'tis clear, All grape juice and beer For his own stomach's sake should decline."

The author claims drinking at meals induces gastralgia from acidity of the stomach:

"The signs of bad stomach thus trace: Poor digestion, a red bloated face, With out-popping eyes, Palpitation, and sighs. With oppression, as though one did lace."

He mentions eructations and sour belching as indicating frigidity of the stomach, and advises the drinking of very hot water before meals. Aside from this, he gives good counsel relative to all the advantages of a sober and peaceful life:

"If passion within you wax hot, Pray don't eat and drink like a sot. Give wine no license; From rich food abstinence; And luxurious peace is your lot."

The author then advises that the mouth and gums be well taken care of, that the teeth be neatly cleaned after each meal, and the entire buccal cavity be rinsed out with an infusion of bitter-sweet plants or leaves.

"Puis apres si froterez Vos dents et gencives assez, Od les escorces tut en tur D' arbre chaud, sec. amer de savur Kar iceo les dents ennientit," etc.

But this is no longer a superstition to-day, since the age of miracles is past and the divinity of kings a belief almost without a disciple. However, Gilbert and Daniel Turner, physicians of the thirteenth century, give it credence in their writings, but they are fully entitled to express their independent opinion.

Midwives were sworn, according to statutes and ordinances, which contained formulae reports to be presented to the judges, to visit girls who complained of having been raped; fourteen signs of such deflowerment were admitted in testimony. Laurent Joubert has transcribed three of such reports, of which we will reproduce only one that was addressed to the Governor of Paris on October 23d, 1672:

"We, Marie Miran, Christophlette Reine, and Jeannie Porte, licensed midwives of Paris, certify to whom it may concern, that on the 22d day of October in the present year, by order of the Provost of Paris, of date 15th of aforesaid month, we visited a house in Rue Pompierre and there examined a girl aged thirty years, named Olive Tisserand, who had made complaint against one Jaques Mudont Bourgeois, whom she insisted deflowered her by violence. We examined the plaintiff by sight and the finger, and found as follows:

Physicians were not obliged by the magistrates to determine the nature of rapes on women; all gynecological questions were remanded to midwives. In truth, among all the physicians of antiquity only Hippocrates discussed uterine complaints and AEtius studied obstetrics. It was only in the sixteenth century that midwifery took its place among the medical sciences, thanks to Rhodion, Ambroise Par?, Reif, Rousset, and Guillemeau. Shortly before this time, that is to say, in the fifteenth century, Jacques de Foril published his "Commentaires" on generation, his ideas being derived from Avicenna; his notions, however, were absurd, being wholly based on astrological considerations. He pretended that an infant is not viable in the eighth month, because in the first month the pregnant woman is protected by Jupiter, from whom comes life; and in the seventh month by the moon, which favorizes life by its humidity and light; while in the eighth month or reign of Saturn, who eats children, the influence is hostile. But on the ninth month the benevolent influence of Jupiter is again experienced, and for this reason the infant is more apt to be alive at this period of gestation.

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