m MEDICAL SCIENCE. 75 



his remedies. Let me shorten one of Ambroise Park's 

 stories for you. There had been a great victory at the 

 pass of Susa, and they were riding into the city. The 

 wounded cried out as the horses trampled them under 

 their hoofs, which caused good Ambroise great pity, 

 and made him wish himself back in Paris. Going into 

 a stable he saw four dead soldiers, and three desper- 

 ately wounded, placed with their backs against the 

 wall. An old campaigner came up. — " Can these fel- 

 lows get well? " he said. " No ! " answered the sur- 

 geon. Thereupon, the old soldier walked up to them 

 and cut all their throats, sweetly, and without wratli 

 (doulcement et sans cholere). Ambroise told him he 

 was a bad man to do such a thing. " I hope to God," 

 he said, " somebody will do as much for me if I ever 

 get into such a scrape " (accoustre de telle fagoii). 

 " I was not much salted in those days " (hien doux de 

 sel^, says Ambroise, " and little acquainted with the 

 treatment of wounds." However, as he tells us, he 

 proceeded to apply boiling oil of Sambuc (elder) after 

 the approved fashion of the time, — with what torture 

 to the patient may be guessed. At last his precious 

 oU gave out, and he used instead an insignificant 

 mixture of his own contrivance. He could not sleep 

 that night for fear his patients who had not been 

 scalded with the boiling oil would be poisoned by 

 the gunpowder conveyed into their wounds by the 

 balls. To his surprise, he found them much better 

 than the others the next morning, and resolved never 



