ARABIAN AND MEDIEVAL SURGERY 471 



All wounds should be treated only with wine and bandaging. 



He emphasized the importance of diet in assisting in wound re- 

 pair, warned against the wounding of nerves, and suggests bringing 

 ends of cut nerves in proximity to favor repair. It is surprising to find 

 these old surgeons writing of union by first intention, and insisting on 

 cleanliness and antiseptic dressings, such as strong wine. With regard 

 to their treatment of wounds, Professor Allbutt, of Oxford, undoubtedly 

 our greatest English authority on the history of medicine, writes as 

 follows : 



They washed the wounds with wine, scrupulously removing every foreign 

 particle; then they brought the edges together, not allowing wine nor anything 

 else to remain within — dry adhesive surfaces were their desire. Nature, they 

 said, produces the means of union in a viscous exudation, or natural balm, as it 

 was afterwards called by Pare and Wurtz. In older wounds they did their best 

 to secure union by cleansing, desiccation and refreshing of the edges. Upon the 

 outer surface they laid lint steeped in wine. Powders they regarded as too desic- 

 cating, for powder shuts in decomposing matters; wine, after washing, purifying 

 and drying the raw surface, evaporates. 



Theodoric was six centuries in advance of his time when he wrote: 



For it is not necessary, as Eoger and Eoland have written, and as many of 

 their disciples teach, and as all modern surgeons profess, that pus should be gen- 

 erated in wounds. No error can be greater than this. Such a practise is indeed 

 to hinder nature, to prolong the disease, and to prevent the conglutination and 

 consolidation of the wound. 



Theodoric, like our present-day surgeons, was proud of his small and 

 beautiful scars produced without using salves "Pulcherrias cicatrices 

 sine unguento aliquo inducebat," while poultices, oils and powders on 

 wounds, he said, incarcerated foul material, "saniem incarcerare," evi- 

 dence enough that this writer knew not only the art, but also the funda- 

 mental principles of good surgery. 



William of Salicet passed his early life at Bologna, and later was muni- 

 cipal and hospital physician to Verona. Being himself both a physician 

 and a surgeon, he believed that these two branches of medicine should not 

 be separated. In his book he quotes previous authorities less than his 

 predecessors, and he condemns the abuse of the cautery popularized by 

 Arabian writings, and advocates the use of the knife. He describes 

 operations for the relief of hydrocephalus, various eye conditions, nasal 

 polypi and tumors of the mouth. He relates the history of a tumor, 

 probably an epulis, larger than a hen's egg, which he removed from the 

 gums of the upper jaw, and says that he performed the operation in 

 four steps, the last being the resection of a portion of the jaw bone. He 

 did not hesitate to operate on cystic goiter, but he describes the large 

 veins encountered in certain types of goiter and he warns against 

 hemorrhage from them. 



Lanfranc practised at Milan until his banishment about 1290. He 



