FOURTEENTH-CENTURY DOCTORS. 687 



His rancor against these patients is so great that he is ready to 

 excuse and counsel even means which we would incontinently 

 reject at this time, to compel them to pay acceptable fees. He 

 does not seem to have put these measures into practice, for he had 

 no fortune ; but the fact that a king's surgeon should venture to 

 speak as he does on so delicate a subject casts a curious light on 

 the 'society of his day and its want of order ; on the other hand, 

 his remarks can not be generalized and applied wholesale to the 

 period in which he lived. 



Coming to Mondeville's exposition of the method of holding a 

 discussion, we find his description almost a story of what might 

 take place to-day. " First/' he says, " we should inquire into the 

 nature of the disease, examining carefully and feeling, because 

 the diagnosis is made by touching with the hand and observing 

 with the eye. All the consultants engage in turn in the examina- 

 tion. Then, if the case demands it, they make a new examination 

 all together, pointing out to one another the symptoms of disease 

 and the special or remarkable features either in the patient or 

 the disease. Then one of them, the highest in rank, says to the 

 patient, ' Sir, we perceive very clearly what is the matter with 

 you, and you ought to have full confidence in us and be glad that 

 there are so many of us here, and such doctors enough for a 

 king and to believe that the youngest of us is competent to pre- 

 scribe and carry on your treatment and bring it to a good result.' 

 Then he interrogates the patient about the circumstances of his 

 attack : 'Sir, do not be displeased or take it ill, but when did your 

 illness begin ? ' following this with many other questions, the 

 answers to which are recorded as indications furnished by the 

 patient. 



"When all the questions called for by the case have been 

 asked, the consultants retire to another room, where they will be 

 alone ; for in all consultations the masters dispute with one 

 another in order the better to discuss the truth, and sometimes 

 they come to a pass in the heat of discussion which would cause 

 strangers witnessing their proceeding to suppose there were dis- 

 cord and strife among them. This is sometimes the case. 



" The oldest, the most eminent, or the most illustrious of the 

 doctors, if there is any such among them, a king's or a Pope's 

 doctor, should propose that they all speak in turn. If they are all 

 silent, as they would be in the presence of so eminent a chief, he 

 should take the floor and question them, one after another, begin- 

 ning with the youngest and least famous, and so on, passing always 

 from the inferior to the superior. If the older ones spoke first, 

 the younger and less considerable would have nothing to add, 

 and the consultation would thus be of no effect ; while, whatever 

 the younger doctors might say, the older ones would have oppor- 



