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REGIMEN SANITATIS SALERNITANUM. 



"Reader, the care that 1 have of thy health, appears in bestowino' 

 these Physicall rules upon thee : neither needest thou be ashamed to 

 take lessons out of this school, for our best Doctors scorne not to read 

 the instructions. It is a little Jicademi^ where every man may be a 

 graduate, and proceed Doctor in the ordering of his owne body. It is a 

 garden where all things grow that are necessarie for thy heallhe. This 

 medicinable Tree grevve first in Salerne, from thence it was removed, and 

 hath born both fruit and blossomes a long time in England. It came to 

 me by chance, as a jewel that is found, whereof notwithstanding I am 

 not covetous, but part the treasure amongst my countrymen. " 



Such is the highly laudatory language in which the editor of "The 

 Englishman's Doctor" of 1607 introduces the Schola Salerni to his 

 readers. The appeal of the modern French editor. Dr. Pougens of 

 Montpelier, is somewhat more modest. "Voici, ami Lecteur, un livre 

 qui vous fera sans doute plaisir, car vous y tronverez, nous 1' esperons, 

 des conseils sages, joints a 1' agrement, 1' utile dulci d' Horace." Sir 

 Alexander Croke offers no apology for his edition of Oxford, 1830, 

 other than the simple remark, that above one hundred and sixty editions, 

 all now exhausted, sufficiently attest the merit of the work. These 

 considerations will serve as my excuse for bringing to the notice of the 

 readers of the Journal, this ancient and singular treatise, little known 

 out of the medical world, but having charms for all who care for curi- 

 ous learning. It is indeed somewhat remarkable that it should be so 

 generally unknown. Jean Paul alludes to it as " the Salernic spinning- 

 school, in which one is taught to spin out the thread of life in fairer 

 ■wise and without foreign mixture," and Carlyle, in translating him, 

 frankly admits his ignorance of the allusion, — an ignorance surprising 

 in a person of his singular erudition. The fact may be accounted for 

 by the professional and somewhat technical character of the work. — 

 Always popular with medical men, it has now assumed a value for the 

 general reader from its mere antiquity, and as being one of the few lit- 

 erary relics of the age in which it was written. 



It derives its name from the Medical Faculty by whose authority, 

 and, perhaps, by whose joint labor it was prepared. The city of Sa- 

 lerno was favorably situated during the dark ages for literary culture. — 

 It was comparatively removed from the assaults of the barbarians. Af- 

 ter its capture by the Normans under Robert Guiscard in 1075, it en- 

 joyed a degree of repose, unusual in that warlike time. It had intimate 

 commercial relations with Constantinople and all the ports of the East. It 

 became the refuge of oriental scholars and their books, while its students, 

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