474 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



at Montpeliier was Bernard Gordon, author of "Lillium Medicinse," 

 and a fellow student was John of Gaddesden, the first English Eoyal 

 Physician, who is mentioned by Chaucer in his " Doctor of Physic." 

 Guy did not like John's Book, "Rosae Anglian " because it lacked 

 originality and clung to authority unsupported by experience. At 

 Bologna he studied under Bertruccius, and he relates how " very often " 

 to quote his exact words, his master dissected dead bodies in four 

 lessons. His attitude toward anatomical study is shown by his expres- 

 sion, " The surgeon ignorant of anatomy carves the human body as a 

 blind man carves wood." He practised first in his native province, later 

 in Lyons, and finally was physician and chamberlain to three successive 

 popes at Avignon. He occupied the latter part of his life with writing 

 his " Chirurgia Magna," his " Solatium senectutis," he called it. 

 Nicaise emphasizes the freshness and originality of Guy's viewpoint, and 

 quotes him concerning the surgeons of his own and preceding genera- 

 tions as follows: 



One thing is especially a source of annoyance to me, in what these surgeons 

 have written, and it is that they follow one another like so many cranes. For 

 one always says what the other says. I do not know whether it is from fear or 

 from love that they do not deign to listen except to such things as they have been 

 accustomed to, and as have been proven by authorities. They have to my mind 

 understood very badly Aristotle's second book of metaphysics when he shows 

 that these two things, fear and love, are the greatest obstacles on the road to the 

 knowledge of the truth. Let them give up such friendships and such fears. 



For while Socrates or Plato may be a friend, truth is a greater 

 friend. 



. . . Let them follow the doctrine of Galen which is entirely made up of 

 experience and reason, and in which one investigates things and despises words. 



In writing on surgery of the brain he records the loss of brain sub- 

 stance with recovery, and notes the recovery, under expectant treatment, 

 of many patients with suspected fracture of the skull. His study of the 

 surgical anatomy of the ribs and diaphragm as applied in opening the 

 thorax, shows sound surgical sense. In wounds of the intestines he 

 gives an unfavorable prognosis unless the abdomen be quickly opened 

 and the wounds sewed up. He describes his sutures and his special 

 needle-holder, like any modern surgeon. In his chapter on amputations 

 he writes on the use of opium, morel, hyoscyamus, mandragora, ivy, 

 hemlock and lettuce to abolish pain during operations, and also refers 

 to inhalation anesthesia, from a sponge soaked in various sleep-produc- 

 ing drugs. Taxis and reduction in hernia were developed by him, and 

 he invented several trusses. Many operations for hernia, he wrote, bene- 

 fited the surgeon more than the patient. In strangulation he insisted 

 upon immediate operation. He describes six hernia operations, and 

 criticizes all of them, easily enough, since all of the operations at this 



