Coming to the fifteenth century, the method of producing insensibility to pain by the inhalation of the volatile principles of drugs, which had been handed down by tradition from the early ages, seems to have been revived by Hugo of Lucca, a Tuscan physician. He is described as “chief of a school of surgeons that treated wounds with wine, oakum and bandaging, with happy success.” Theodoric, his son, who was a monk-physician, and practised surgery, mentions, in 1490, a preparation used by his father which he calls “oleum de lateribus.” This he describes as “a most powerful caustic, and a soporific which, by means of smelling alone, could put patients to sleep on occasion of painful operations which they were to suffer.” The mixture was placed on a sponge in hot water, and then applied to the nostrils of the patient, and was called the “spongia somnifera.” The following is the composition of the “sleeping sponge” and the method of using, as stated by Theodoric: “Take of opium, of the juice of the unripe mulberry, of hyoscyamus, of the juice of hemlock, of the juice of the leaves of mandragora, of the juice of the woody ivy, of the juice of the forest mulberry, of the seeds of lettuce, of the seeds of dock, which has large round apples, and of the water-hemlock, each an ounce: mix all these in a brazen vessel, and then place in it a new sponge; let the whole boil as long as the sun lasts on the dog-days, until the sponge consumes it all, and has boiled away in it. . . . As oft as there shall be need of it, place this sponge in hot water for an hour, and let it be applied to the nostrils of him who is to be operated on until he has fallen asleep, and so let the surgery be performed.” [Illustration: AN OPERATION ON THE LIVER From an MS. of the XIV century] According to Bodin, the sleep produced was so profound that the patient often continued in that condition for several days afterwards. The method of arousing the patient employed by Hugo, however, is thus described: “In order to awaken him, apply another sponge, dipped in vinegar, frequently to the nose, or throw the juice of fenugreek into the nostrils; shortly he awakens.” According to Canappe, in his work “Le Gyidon pour les Barbiers et les Chirurgiens,” published in 1538, the “Confectio soporis secundum dominum Hugonem” was used by surgeons at that period. [Illustration: A SURGEON AMPUTATING A LEG From a woodcut of the XVI century] Reginald Scott, in a work written in the sixteenth century, gives the following recipe for making an anæsthetic: “Take of opium, mandragora bark and henbane root, equal parts; pound them together, and mix with water. When you want to sew or cut a man, dip a rag in this, and put it to his forehead and nostrils. He will soon sleep so deeply that you may do what you will. To wake him up, dip the rag in strong vinegar. The same is excellent in brain-fever, when the patient cannot sleep; for if he cannot sleep, he will die.” [Sidenote: Anæsthesia in romance]