686 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



ings and observations till the spring of 1612. At that time he 

 was master enough of the question of the sun's rotation to correct 

 Schemer's errors. (2) Jean Fabricius discovered the sun spots on 

 March 9, 1611 ; he was acquainted with the sun's rotation, and was 

 the first to publish a work on the subject. His discovery is quite 

 independent of any previous suggestion. (3) Scheiner may also 

 have observed the sun spots independently in March, 1611, but he 

 attached no importance to them till October of the same year, 

 after the publication of the Narration by Fabricius. His merit 

 consists in his having continued the observations, and in having 

 collected a large number of them, which were inserted in his 

 Rosa Ursina. 



The "long before" (longe ante) of Kepler is unexplained. 

 Translated for the Popular Science Monthly from del et Terre. 



FOURTEENTH-CENTURY DOCTORS. 



BY M. E. NICAISE. 



THvAREMBERG says, in his Histoire des Sciences medicates, 

 U that the custom of consultations among doctors was extended 

 in the thirteenth century ; but it is probable that the usage existed 

 in previous stages of civilization. There have always been grave 

 maladies and hard diagnoses and cases involving considerable 

 responsibilities, for which a meeting of doctors was desirable; and 

 there have always been patients in considerable social station 

 who liked to be taken care of by several doctors at once. Consul- 

 tations, therefore, have not all the same origin or the same pur- 

 pose, but the proceedings in them are always the same exami- 

 nation for what is the matter with the patient, and discussion 

 concerning it and concerning the treatment to be adopted. 



On this subject, we have but few documents from antiquity 

 and the middle ages, and of these the work of Mondeville * gives 

 the most information. His work relates to other subjects than 

 surgery, and might, without straining words, be styled Memoirs. 

 Under Philippe the Fair money was scarce, and the doctor and 

 the surgeon were but poorly paid even by the king. " I have 

 never/' Mondeville says, "found a man rich enough or honest 

 enough, of whatever condition, religious or other, willing to pay 

 what he had promised without being pressed or forced to do it." 



* Chururgie de Maitre Henri de Mondeville (Surgery, by Master Henri de Mondeville), 

 Surgeon of Philippe le Bel of France, composed between 1306 and 1329 ; translated into 

 French, with notes, an introduction, and a biography ; published under the auspices of the 

 Minister of Public Instruction, by E. Nicaise, assisted by Dr. Saint-Leger and F. Chavannes. 

 Paris, 1893, F. Alcan. 



