470 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



« 

 versifies. The degradation of the surgeon comes later in the middle 



ages. The greatest surgical teacher of the early thirteenth century was 



Koger, who wrote about 1180. His work was annotated by his pupil 



Poland, and the work of both edited later by the Four Masters. Gurlt 



says of the latter: 



This volume constitutes one of the most important sources for the history of 

 surgery in the later Middle Ages, and makes it very clear that these writers drew 

 their opinions from a very rich experience. 



Their diagnosis of fractures of the skull is quite modern, subdural 

 hemorrhage is described, and the technique is given for a decompression 

 operation for depressed fractures, the old writers saying: 



In elevating the cranium, be solicitous lest you infect the dura mater. 



Suturing with silk, and drainage, are recommended for scalp 

 wounds, and the prognosis of infected wounds is considered at length. 

 The surgeon was told that he must keep his hands clean and that he 

 must especially avoid not only menstruating women, but all women, if 

 he would operate successfully. 



Bruno da Longoburgo, Theodoric, Hugo of Lucca, and William of 

 Salicet are a famous group of North Italian surgeons of this period. 

 Mondino, the author of the first book on dissection, Lanfranc, who 

 taught at Paris, and, in the words of Pagel, "gave that primacy to 

 French surgery which it maintained all the centuries down to the nine- 

 teenth/' as well as de Mondeville and Guy de Chauliac, belong to the 

 early fourteenth century. 



Hugo of Lucca and his son Theodoric used opium and mandragora 

 to produce anesthesia, and also used a mixture to be inhaled from a 

 sponge, the composition of which is not definitely known. Fifteen great 

 universities arose in Italy from the tenth to the fourteenth centuries, 

 and in all of these surgery was taught. Bruno was the first of the Ital- 

 ian surgeons to quote Arabian as well as Greek authorities. He worked 

 at the universities of Vicenza, Padua and Verona. His " Chirurgia 

 Magna" was completed at Padua in 1252. He insisted that surgery 

 was largely handwork, and must therefore be learned from practical 

 experience and observation. He sums up three important offices of 

 surgery as : " to bring together separated parts, to separate those abnor- 

 mally united and to extirpate what is superfluous." He discusses 

 wounds, healing by first and second intention, indications for suturing 

 and for drainage. He advised against the use of water in wounds, espe- 

 cially the water in camps and battlefields. Wounds of the intestine he 

 directed to be cleansed with warm wine and closed with fine silk sutures. 



Hugh of Lucca was city physician to Bologna, and his writings were 

 edited by his son Theodoric. Theodoric studied medicine, entered the 

 Dominican order at the age of 23, but continued to practise surgery in 

 Bologna, devoting his fees to charity. At 50 he was made a bishop. 

 In his text-book, finished about 1226, he says : 



