644 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1917. 



Fuchs' original writings, not including the various editions and 

 reprints, are about 20 in number, most of them dealing with the 

 method and practice of medicine, and Avith materia medica. The 

 three most important are: (1) Libri quatuor de fabrica corporis 

 humani, Tubingse, 1551, which I have already mentioned. Next to 

 Vesalius' great work this was considered the best handbook of anat- 

 omy in the sixteenth century, and was much used and frequently con- 

 sulted, as it best represented the various anatomical doctrines of the 

 time. (2) Paradoxorum medicinae libri tres, Basilae, 1535. The 

 first book deals only with pharmacology ; the second treats questions 

 of general and special pathology and therapy, and the third contains 

 anatomical and physiological criticisms. This work and (3) Institu- 

 tionum medicinae libri quinque, form Fuchs' chief weapons against 

 Arabism in medicine. Only a writer of such learning and reputation 

 as Fuchs could risk saying that Avicenna, who, though he copied the 

 Greek writers, did not understand them, should not be considered as 

 the greatest physician. 



Two books are to be mentioned which have as their subject materia 

 medica and therapy: Annotationes de simplicibus a medicis hacte- 

 nus perperam intellectis et aestimatis, Argentorati, 1532, and De 

 componenclorum medicamentorum ratione, Basileae, 1549. Sche- 

 lenz,^ in his Geschichte der Pharmazie, says that the Annotationes 

 were still in use in Cologne in apothecary shops in 1627. The De 

 componendorum medicamentorum ratione was used as a handbook 

 in the pharmaceutical lectures of many universities as well as in 

 pharmaceutical practice. 



Fuchs' polemic writings are numerous; some are controversies of 

 a scientific character, others are caused by piratical undertakings of 

 publishers. The most important one, famous in the history of medi- 

 cine, is : Apologiae tres, adversus Guilelnmm Pateanum, Sebastianum 

 Montuam et Triverum Brachelium, Basileae, 1529. Its inspiration 

 was Peter Brissot's famous work, Apologetica discertatio de vena 

 secanda in pleuritide, Basileae, 1529. The question of venesection 

 (blood letting) divided the physicians of the sixteenth century into 

 two hostile factions.^ One, the Arabic school, asserted that venesec- 

 tion should be undertaken, in case of inflammations, as far as possible 

 from the seat of the disease, and then very slowly ; while the Hippo- 

 cratic school, based on Brissot's doctrine of revulsion, recommended 

 the venesection near the diseased part and then very copiously. Jere- 

 mias Drivere (Triverus Brachelius), Sebastian Mbntuus, and Wil- 

 helm Puteanus defended the Arabic theory, while Fuchs sided with 

 Brissot. Fuchs was without question the best informed and most 



1 Schelenz, Hermann. Geschichte dei- Pharmazie, Berlin, J. Springer, 1904. 



2 Bauer, Jo.s. Geschichte der Aderlasse. Miinchen, Beck, 1870. 



