Reverence for the true, the beautiful, and the good has characterized physicians in all times and climes. But little of the true, the beautiful, or the good crept into the transactions of the Church for many centuries, and we suffer, to-day, more from its interference in time past than from all other causes combined. The same may be said of theology, which is as separate from religion as darkness from light. Only when students of science emancipated themselves from the prejudices and superstitions of the theologians did medicine make more than barely perceptible progress. In this connection I would like to quote a paragraph from an article by King, in the _Nineteenth Century_ for 1893: "The difficulties under which medical science labored may be estimated from the fact that dissection was forbidden by the clergy of the Middle Ages on the ground that it was impious to mutilate a form made in the image of God. We do not find this pious objection interfering with such mutilation when effected by means of the rack and wheel and such other clerical, rather than medical, instruments." Written history is, to a certain extent at least, plagiarism; and I make no apology for having borrowed my facts from whatever source could best furnish them, but wish cheerfully and publicly to acknowledge my indebtedness to the works mentioned below, those especially of Renouard, Baas, and Sprengel, and to various biographical dictionaries. I have not even scrupled to take bodily sentences or expressions from these authorities, but have tried to so indicate them when I could. The writer takes pleasure in acknowledging here the obligations which both he and the publishers feel to Dr. Joseph H. Hunt, of Brooklyn, N. Y., from whose extensive and valuable collection have been furnished the originals for most of the portraits in the following pages, and to Dr. F. P. Henry, Honorary Librarian of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia, through whose courtesy was obtained the privilege of reproducing the illustrations of instruments and operations from some of the rare old works in the college library. The kind co-operation of these gentlemen has given a distinct and added value to the contents of this little work. LIST OF PRINCIPAL WORKS CONSULTED. Baas, Outlines of the History of Medicine. Translated by Henderson. New York, 1889. Berdoe, Origin and Growth of the Heeding Art. London, 1893. Bouchut, Histoire de la Médecine. Paris, 1873. Dezeimeris, Lettres sur VHistoire de la Médecine. Paris, 1838. Dietionnaire Historique de la Médecine. Paris, 1828. Haeser, Geschiehte der Medicin. Jena, 1853. Hirsch, Biographisehes Lexikon des Hervorragendeu der Aerzte aller Zeiten und Vülker. Wien und Leipzig, 1884. Portal, Histoire de VAnatomie et de la Chirurgie. Paris, 1770. South, Memorials of the Craft of Surgery in England. London, 1886. Sprexgel, Geschicute der Chirurgie. Halle, 1819. CONTENTS. CHAP I.