Histo7'v of Animal Plaorucs. 



12 



1 :; 



J 



absolutely neglected, the Koran peremptorily forbidclini>- the 

 touching- of dead bodies, much less their dissection. It was not 

 till the middle of the fifteenth century that himian medicine had 

 sufficient attention bestowed on it to redeem it from almost utter 

 neglect ; though veterinary medicine was yet in advance. Jor- 

 danus Ruffus, Laurentius Rusius, and others of this period, excel- 

 led the most noted physicians in simply and faithfully describing 

 the diseases of the lower animals; and even the Arabs had far more 

 love for the horse than their own species; for their writings havino; 

 reference to its maladies are numerous and more complete than 

 those referrino; to man. One cause of this revival was, doubtless, 

 due to the influence the Crusades had in carrvino; back from the 

 Holy Land copies of such writings as those of Aristotle, and 

 the works of Arab physicians. But, perhaps, the greatest impulse 

 the arts and sciences then received, was that derived from the 

 refugees from Greece and elsewhere, particularly after the capture 

 of Constantinople by the Turks in 1453. '^^^ manuscripts and 

 the monuments of skill and learning which they carried to Flor- 

 ence, the City of the Arts, were a grand nucleus for the expan- 

 sion of human wisdom and enterprise. In 1506 the writings of 

 Dioscorides, the physician and botanist of Greece, were pub- 

 lished ; in 1525 those of Galen, another and a greater student 

 of physic; and in 1526 the works of the immortal Hippocrates, 

 the father of medicine, were given forth to the world in numer- 

 ous copies of clear letter-press. Western medicine begins with 

 the school of Salerno, where physic was taught on the Greek 

 principles. The medical school of Montpellier was founded in 

 1 150, that of Paris in 1220, and Bologna at the commencement 

 of the 14th century, about which period anatomy was greatly 

 improved by Mondini. The titles of bachelors and doctors of 

 medicine were conferred, for the first time, in the University of 

 Paris in 1231. The reign of Henry VI. was remarkable for the 

 patronage afforded to practitioners in human medicine, and 

 every aid was afforded to the development of that science which 

 may be said to have the prolongation of life, and the mainten- 

 ance of health for its chief study. 



This backward glance at the long period we have pas-^ed 

 over, will explain the absence of details, or of exact inforn^ition, 



