John B. deC. M. Saunders 535 



Da^a, were sent for by Don Garcia de Toledo, Governor and First Majordomo 

 to the Prince. They found a small contused wound on the left side of his head 

 in the region of the lambda. The wound apparently penetrated to the bone. 

 The physicians of the household promptly dressed the injured youth. As the 

 Prince was in great pain, Luis Quijada, Master of the Horse, fearing that the 

 physicians in deference to the patient's rank would exhibit too great a for- 

 bearance, commanded them to treat him as an ordinary person. The physi- 

 cians replied that "such was the custom." The Prince was immediately put to 

 bed and as promptly bled. A gentleman-in-waiting, one Don Diego de Acuira 

 by name, was dispatched to inform Philip of the accident. The King gave 

 orders to his physician, Juan Gutierrez, to leave without delay for Alcala and 

 to bring with him a Portuguese doctor and Pedro de Torres, Surgeon to His 

 Majesty. All seemed to be going well, "laudable pus" had made its appearance, 

 but the glands in the patient's neck were swollen and painful and there was 

 some fever. Little attention was paid to these symptoms, as the fever was as- 

 cribed to the Prince's quartan and the swollen glands to the fact that His 

 Highness was suffering from a cold at the time of his fall. As is so typical of 

 erysipelas, the dreadful red scourge of the early surgeons, on the tenth day 

 the Prince developed a chill and by the next day his condition was regarded as 

 grave. The medical attendants, now nvmibering six, were shocked into action. 

 They decided to incise the scalp immediately, but were unable to determine 

 Avhether the skull was injured or not, because of hemorrhage. A messenger 

 was sent in haste to His Majesty, who rode through the night accompanied by 

 Andreas Vesalius and arrived in time to witness the dressing of the wound. 

 At this time an opportunity was afforded of minutely examining the bone, 

 but, except for a small area of redness, neither fracture nor crack could be 

 discovered. The wound was dressed with one of the usual elaborate dressings 

 so characteristic of the times. On this occasion a mixture of powdered iris and 

 the common birthwort (Aristolochia) was applied to the bone, no doubt to 

 promote exfoliation. Then came an unguent of turpentine and egg yolk to 

 the edges of the wound, the purpose of which was to assist suppuration. On 

 top of these was placed honey of roses as a cleansing agent and finally, the old 

 standby, a plaster of betony over all. 



The unhappy prince made no progress. The erysipelas continued to spread 

 and the "aposteme" now covered the whole face and extended down the neck 

 to the chest and arms. The patient was cupped, purged and dosed with potions 

 "that thou wouldst tremble to receive thyself"* and became delirious. 



At daybreak on May 4th, sixteen days after the fall, opinions among the at- 

 tendants became divided. Vesalius and the Portuguese doctor urgently pro- 

 posed trephining the skull, for they felt that the lesion was within. In this they 

 were bitterly opposed by the other physicians, although Daca admits that 



* Shakespeare: Pericles, Prince of Tyre, I, 2, 67: 



Thou speak'st like a physician, Hericanus, 



That minister 'st a potion unto me 



That thou wouldst tremhle to receive thvself. 



