282 WOMAN IN SCIENCE 



cerulean waters of the Tyrrhenian sea, the Civitas Hip- 

 pocratica, as it was called on its medals, rejoiced in a sa- 

 lubrious climate, and was celebrated throughout the world 

 as the "City sacred to Phoabus, the sedulous nurse of 

 Minerva, the fountain of physic, the votary of medicine, 

 the handmaid of Nature, the destroyer of disease and the 

 strong adversary of death. ' ' x For to this favored city 

 flocked from all quarters the lame and the halt and those 

 afflicted with the tortures of disease and the disabilities of 

 advancing years. The noble and the simple, crowned heads 

 as well as the poorest of the poor, were found there, all of 

 them in quest of life's most precious boon health and 

 strength. 



Never did the far-famed sanctuary of the god of medi- 

 cine in Epidaurus witness such an influx of invalids as 

 gathered in the hospitals of Salerno and pressed through 

 the streets of the Hippocratic city, seeking the aid of those 

 doctors whose marvelous cures had given them a world- 

 wide reputation. Small wonder, then, that the Regimen 

 Santatis Salernitanum that famous code of health of the 

 school of Salerno has been translated into almost all the 

 languages of modern Europe, and that since 1480 no fewer 

 than two hundred and fifty editions of it have been pub- 

 lished. "Not to have been familiar with it from beginning 

 to end, not to have been able to quote it orally as occasion 

 might require, would, during the Middle Ages, have cast 

 serious suspicion upon the professional culture of any phy- 



i Cf . Lib. de Virtutibus et Laudibus, by JEgidius, head physician 

 to Philip Augustus of France, in which occur the following verses: 



Urbs Phoebo sacrata, Minervae sedula nutrix, 

 Fons physicsB, pugil eucrasiae, cultrix medicinae, 

 Assecla Naturae, vitae paranympha, salutis 

 Promula fida; magis Lachesis soror, Atropos hostis. 

 Morbi pernicies, gravis adversaria mortis. 



quoted in the appendix, p. xxxii, to S. de Renzi's, Storia Documen 

 tata della Scuola Medica di Salerno, Naples, 1857. 



