During the Middle Ages, in the Empire of the West, arose the School of Salernum, which became so celebrated that, like that of Alexandria, it deserves special mention. The modern city of Salerno is situated on the Neapolitan Gulf, about thirty miles southeast of the city of Naples, with a population of but a few thousand souls. The ancient city stood upon a height in the rear of the present town, where the ruins of its mediaeval citadel are still to be seen. It first appeared in history 194 B.C., when a Roman colony was founded, was a municipal town of importance, and appears even at this early day to have been a health resort, since Horace informs us he had been advised to substitute its cool baths for the warm ones of Baiæ. During the stormy centuries following the downfall of the Western Empire, Salerno successively submitted to the sway of the Goths, Lombards, Franks, Saracens, and Greeks, as the vicissitudes of Avar compelled. Under the Lombards it became the residence of the Duke of Benevcntum, and, in 1075, when taken by Robert Guiscard of Normandy, it fell to the crown of Naples, in consequence of which in the fourteenth century, the heir apparent of this kingdom took the title of Prince of Salernum. During the Middle Ages here flourished a medical school, important not alone because of its celebrity at the time, but{073} for its effect upon the medical history of the future. Its origin is obscure, though it has been ascribed to Charlemagne in 802; again, its founding has been held to be the work of fugitives from Alexandria when that city was captured by the Saracens, 640 A.D.; some attribute it to the Benedictine order of monks, others to Saracens, etc. The foundation by Alexandrian fugitives is probably conjectural, yet it must be admitted there is some evidence of knowledge of Arabian medicine in Salernum as early as this. Be the origin what it may, it is certain that the Benedictine monks exercised a very important influence upon this school, and there is considerable reason to think that it was really originated by them. Their monastery of Monte Casino was located about fifty miles the other side of Naples, occupying the site of an ancient temple of Apollo; the rules of the order enjoined the care of the sick and treatment by prayer, and St. Benedict himself was credited with performing miraculous cures. The rules which forbade public instruction were gradually discarded, for in the ninth century Abbot Bertharius wrote two books on the art of healing, and by the tenth century Monte Casino had acquired great reputation as a medical school, and was sought by medically-inclined monks from all quarters. A little later (1022) King Henry II, of Bavaria, Emperor of Germany, is said to have been cut for stone by St. Benedict himself, who appeared in ghostly form and operated with such skill that on awaking the royal patient found the calculus in his hand, and only the cicatrix of the wound through which it had been removed.