114 



MEDICI 



MEDICINE 



of government; anil, in seeking only the advance- 

 ment of lil.- family to mure absolute power, he 

 left Florence at hU death weakened ami readv in 



be the prey of her ei ies during the trouliloim 



times which liegati with thr Kith century. 



Lorenzo left three son-. I'ietrn. (iiuliiuin, and 

 <ii<ivamii. His eldest son, I'ietro II. ;l>orn 1471), 

 possessed neither capacity nor prudence, and showed 

 him-elf treacherous alike to friend and foe. He allied 

 himself with the kin;; of Naples against l.,<xlovicii 

 Sfor/a of Milan, and the lalter in 14!hi ealleil to hi- 

 aid Charles VIII. of France and his army (see 

 ITALY ). I'ietro, terrified at the advance of the 

 powerful invader, hastened to meet the French 

 I mop- on their entrance into the Florentine domin- 

 ions, and surrendered to them I'isn and Leghorn. 

 The magistrates and people, incensed at his coward- 

 ice and treachery, drove him from Florence and 

 declared the Mediri traitors ami reliels, and deposed 

 them from participation in the government. I'ietro 

 was drowned ( I.Mi.'t i in the GwuUano, near Oaeta, 

 having joined the French army in tlieir atlem|ited 

 eoniiuest of the kingdom of Naples. All efforts of 

 the Hadttd to regain their power in Florence were 

 vain until in l.'il'J the pope, Julius II., consented to 

 send the Spanish army to invade Tuscany. I'rato, 

 near Florence, was taken and sacked, and the Flor- 

 entines, helpless and terrified, drove out their gon- 

 faloniere, 1'iero Sodcrim, and recalled the Medici, 

 headed l.y Giiiliano II. I born 1478). In 1313 the 

 elevation of Giovanni de' Medici to the papal chair 

 iimler the name of l^eo X. (q.v. ) completed the restor- 

 ation of the family to alt their former splendour 

 and reduced Florence to a papal dependency, Ciuli- 

 ano II. at the |H>pe's desire surrendered the govern- 

 ment to Lorenzo II., son of his elder brother Pietro 

 II. Giuliano, created Duke of Nemours on his 

 marriage with a relative of Francis I. of France, 

 died in 1516. The \oung Lorenzo II., horn 1492, 

 and the last legitimate male descendant of Cosimo 

 ' Pater I'atria-, on whom the pope hail also conferred 

 the duchy of I'rliino, was feeble, arrogant, and 

 licentious. He .lied in 1510 leaving only one legit- 

 imate child, a daughter, Catharine ( i|.v.), afterwards 

 wifeof Henry 1 1. of France, who played a conspicuous 

 rftle as regent during her son's minority. An ille- 

 gitimate son, Alexander, Imrn 1510, was afterwards 

 duke. 



The power now passed into the hands of the 

 Cardinal C.iulio {' Medici, a natural son of the 

 elder Giuliano, assassinated in the conspiracy of 

 the l'a//i ; and Giulio was created pope in I.VJ.'f 

 under the name of Clement VII. During the 

 invasion of Italy by the Km|H>ror Charles V. 

 in I.VJ7. and (In 1 coiisei|iient weakening of the 

 jmpal power, Florence retailed against the regents 

 imposed on her by the pope, and expelled them 

 along with ihe young I'rince Alexander. The 

 li|- and emperor, however, soon mode peace, 

 and their unite,! forces were directed against 

 Florence, which, during the famous siege lasting 

 ten month-, made her last desperate and un- 

 .iiccejwful stand for liberty. After the surrender 

 nf the town, August |,l;Hi. Alexander <le' Medici 

 was proclaiim-d hereditary I hike of Florence. 

 Mis reign wan one of unparalleled license and 

 tyranny. He wax assassinated in 1537 by his 

 cousin l.nrcri/iiin. a descendant of the collateral 

 branch which hud its origin in Ixircn/n, lumber of 

 ''iMJmii ' I'ater I'atria-.' To this younger branch 

 belonged also the next ruler of Florence, Cosimo I. 

 (Imrn 1019). He was son of the famous captain of 

 free-lance*. Giovanni dellf Itande Nerc( 'of the Block 

 Hands '). Cii-imo. sometimes called the Great, pos 

 tMMd the aHtutenpH* of character, the love of art 

 and literature, but not the frank and gcnci'.n- 

 cpirit of his greater predecessors. He wivs ciuel 

 fcnd relentless in his enmities, but a just ruler. He 



extended his territories, and in l.">70 was created 

 Grand-duke of Tuscany, and crowned by 1'oue 

 Pius V. He died in 1574, and was succeeded by 

 his son Francesco I. (born 1541). This duke IM>S- 

 sessed few of his father's abilities am) many at his 

 faults. He became a tool in the hands of hi 

 mistress, the unscrupulous liianca Cappello, whom 

 he married in 1578. The almost simultaneous 

 death of Francesco and iiionca (October 1587) 

 raised suspicions that they bad been poisoned by 

 the duke's brother and heir, the Cardinal Ferdi 

 nando. Maria, daughter of Francesco I., l>ecame 

 the second wife of Henrv IV. of France. Ferdi- 

 nando I. and his son Cosimo II. were popular. 

 anil contributed to the pros|>erity of their country. 

 Hut at the beginning of the 17th century the race 

 rapidly degenerated ; and, after several of its repre- 

 sentatives had suliered themselves to become mere 

 puppets in the hands of Austria or Spain, the 

 family became extinct in 17.'i7 at the death of its 

 last male representative, Gian (iastone, the seventh 

 grand duke. His only sister, the Electress Palatine, 

 the last of all the Medici, expired in 174.'t. 



See, besides the works cited at FLORENCE, ttoscoe's two 

 works on Lorenzo and Leo X. ; Keumont's monograph 

 (trans. 18"ti) ; and a work by K. Armstrong (18%). 



Medicine. Lucretius imagines for us the first 

 pule attempts of prehistoric man to repair tin- 

 injuries received in conflict with wild beasts ; ami. 

 according to Celsus, the most backward tribes haw- 

 never l>een without their remedies for wounds and 

 general ailments. The healing art, indeed, is coeval 

 and co-extensive with humanity; but of its two 

 great divisions surgery and medicine the former, 

 as will lie shown in its proper place, was incom- 

 parably the earlier, and, in practice, the more 

 effective. 



Egypt furnishes the earliest indications of medical 

 art. The Papyrus-Eliers was wi it ten :C>(K) H.C., and 



is entitled Until; nf tin I'/'t f,,nnt,<i/i t,f .I/.,//, mix fur 

 all tin I'ln'/inrriil 1'nrla nf linli 'rii/iin/x. In it 



formal invocations of a blessing on those licim- 



are followed by prescriptions and tin- names of the 

 maladies they cure disordered evacuation, intes- 

 tinal worms. \c.. while prominence is given loan 

 obscure wasting-fever called ' uchet' Anatomy, in 

 its strict sense, was unknown to the Egyptians; 

 and their medicine, while empirical, was highly 

 specialised. Everv physician belonged to a sacer- 

 dotal college, anil the sick hod recourse to the 

 nearest temple, whence they procured the practi- 

 tioner IK'S! suited to their case. The fees took the 

 form of gifts to the temple, from the revenue of 

 which it* medical stall was maintained. Till 

 Hippocrates appeared the ph\-icians of Kgyp! well- 

 tin' most famous; but with her subjection by 

 Alexander the Great, and the sway of the I'tolemies, 



her I Heine gradually succumbed to the Greek, 



which for centuries had one of its chief schools at 

 Alexandria. 



The Israelites were in medical practice follov 

 of the Kgyptians, and, as wilh them, the priesthood 

 attended the sick. Cleanliness was the (listinclive 

 note of their medicine, till like the Egyptian it 

 iM-came merged in the Ci.ck, and, later, in the 

 Arabian. 



The sacred Ixioks of the Indians containing their 



oldest r ids of the healing art the Vedas date 



from about 15<>0 lu'. In (hem sickness appears 

 as the wink of hostile, recovery of friendly deite 

 the remedial agents being propitiation, prayer, 

 and the sacrificial drink .SV/M/.I (ij.v.). The next or 

 liralimanic |>eriod is very prolific in medical litcni 

 (ure, ita most celebrated authors 1 icing Charaka and 

 Susnita. To what age their works l>elong is much 

 debated, some orientalists placing Susnita's Amir- 

 Veda long before ( 'Ini-i . others as late as the 8th or 



