ARABIAN AND MEDIEVAL SURGERY 473 



essentially modern. Coeducation was tried in the middle ages and found 

 wanting, and women taught in the medieval universities, and were emi- 

 nent as physicians, gynecologists and obstetricians. Salerno admitted 

 women to the study of medicine, and women's diseases were taught 

 entirely by women teachers. The most famous of these was Trotula, 

 said to have been the wife of one of the professors. She wrote two 

 books, the most important one being called " Trotula's Wonderful Book 

 of Experience in the Diseases of Women, Before, During and After 

 Labor, with All Other Details Likewise Eelating to Labor." Prenatal 

 care, nursing and the care of mother and child during the puerperium 

 are considered. In the chapter on the perineum a description is given 

 of a complete tear, together with directions for a radical cure in which 

 sutures with silk thread are employed. This author writes: 



The woman is then placed in bed with the feet elevated, and must remain 

 in that position even for eating and drinking and all the necessaries of life, for 

 eight or nine days. During this period, also, there should be even no bathing, 

 and care must be taken to avoid everything that might cause coughing, and all 

 indigestible material. 



All students of obstetrics might read with profit her directions for 

 care of the perineum during labor. She says : 



In order to avoid the aforesaid danger, care should be taken . . . somewhat 

 as follows: a cloth should be folded somewhat in oblong shape and placed on the 

 anus, so that, during every effort for the expulsion of the child, that should be 

 pressed firmly in order that there may not be any solution of the continuity of 

 tissue. 



Her works were printed at Strassburg in 1544, and in Leipsig as 

 late as 1778. Nicaise, Chauliac's biographer, says: 



Women continued to practise medicine in Italy for centuries, and the names 

 of some who attained great renown have been preserved to us. Their works are 

 still quoted from in the fifteenth century. . . . 



Chauliac criticized women surgeons of his day for being too timid 

 in taking chances, and refusing to operate on dangerous cases. There 

 were at least seven women professors at Salerno who wrote works that 

 have survived. One of these, Mercuriade, was a surgeon, and wrote 

 " On the Cure of Wounds." Another one, Abella, wrote " On the 

 Nature, of Seminal Fluid " and " Black Bile." Eebecca Guarna wrote 

 on " Fevers," " The Urine " and " The Embryo." 



The last great name in medieval surgery is Guy de Chauliac, that 

 brilliant man who, both chronologically and in virtue of his methods, 

 may be looked upon as the father of modern surgery, if indeed that dis- 

 tinction may be conferred upon any one individual. Born in southern 

 France late in the thirteenth century, he was educated at Montpellier, 

 and then journeyed down to Bologna in Italy, to do post-graduate work 

 in surgery, finally finishing his studies in Paris. One of his teachers 



