148 



MEDICAL SCIENCES. 



St. Antony's fire ; the Johannists and the brothers of the Order of the Holy 

 Ghost devoted themselves to the cure of the great epidemics of pestilence 

 so frequent at this period ; the Lazarists possessed sovereign remedies against 

 leprosy, small-pox, pustular fever, &c. ; the Templars tended more parti- 

 cularly the pilgrims, travellers, and soldiers afflicted with ophthalmia, scurvy, 

 severe wounds, and dangerous sores. The Hospitallers were assisted by 

 various corporations of women, and, at a time when regular doctors were so 



Fig. 102. A Ward in the Hotel-Dieu, Paris. Fac-simile of a Wood Engraving of the Sixteenth 

 Century, in the Frontispiece of a Manuscript Register, entitled, "Pardon, Grace, and Privi- 

 leges granted by the Archbishop Patriarch of Bourges and Primate of Aquitaine, to the 

 Benefactors of the Hostel-Dieu, Paris." In the Burgundy Library, Brussels. 



scarce, they were very useful as substitutes. Hildegarde, Abbess of Ruperts- 

 berg, who was more than eighty years of age at her death (1180), organized 

 a school of nurses who rendered great service in the hospitals. Abelard, 

 in his letters to the nuns of the Paraclete Convent, urged them to learn 

 surgery for the benefit of the poor. In most of 'the great religious commu- 

 nities there were public rooms for bathing, dressing the wounds of, bleeding, 

 and cupping the indigent sick (Fig. 102). In Italy the Bishop of Salerno 

 and the Abbot of Pescara devoted themselves to the material relief of human 



