During the period from the seventh to the fourteenth centuries the school of Salernum was for medicine what Bologna became for law and Paris for philosophy. Here, for eight hundred years, medicine was taught to thousands of students and the impress of the profession was so potent that the city called itself _Civitas Hippocratica_, and thus its seals were stamped. Here medical diplomas were first issued to waiting students who took a sacred oath to serve the poor without pay. Here with a book in his hand, a ring on his finger and a laurel wreath on his head, the candidate was kissed by each professor and was told to start upon his way. Here women were professors and vied with men in spreading the doctrines of our art. For a period of several hundred years anatomy was taught at Salernum from dissections made upon pigs. Copho, one of the Salernian professors of the early part of the twelfth century, wrote a treatise, _Anatomia Porci_, which gives minute directions regarding the manner in which the animal is to be dissected. Another anatomical work of later date, written by a member of the Salernian faculty, is entitled _Demonstratio Anatomica_; it also deals only with comparative anatomy. In the thirteenth century (A. D. 1231) Frederick II., Emperor of Germany and King of the Two Sicilies, and the author of a treatise which contained a complete anatomy of the falcon, decreed that a human body should be anatomized at Salernum at least once in five years. Physicians and surgeons of the kingdom were required to be present at the dissection. So far as is known, no record has been kept of these demonstrations. Creditable as was this anatomic decree, the great Hohenstaufen in other respects was not free from the errors of his age. A firm believer in _Medicina Astrologica_, he did not decide upon any undertaking until the stars had been consulted. It was not alone at Salernum that dissection was legalized in the thirteenth century. A document of the year 1308, of the Maggiore Consiglio of Venice, shows that a medical college located in that city was authorized to dissect a body once a year. This, and other isolated examples, indicate that the time was approaching when anatomy should be taught from human dissections. The credit of reinaugurating the teaching of this useful department of science belongs to Mondino dei Luzzi of Bologna. [Illustration: Ornamental block] CHAPTER SECOND Mondino, the Restorer of Anatomy [Illustration: Illuminated capital]