width of two fingers above the anus, and extract the stone. For nine days after the operation let the patient use, morning and evening, fomentations of _branca_ (_acanthus mollis_), _paritaria_ (pellitery) and _malva_ (mallows). A bit of tow (_stupa_) moistened with the yolk of egg in winter, and with both the yolk and white of egg in summer, is to be placed over the wound. Proud flesh, which often springs up near a wound in the neck of the bladder, should be removed by the knife (_rasorio_), and two or three sutures inserted. The wound is then to be treated like other wounds. It should be remarked, however, that if the stone is very large, it should be simply pushed up to the fundus of the bladder and left there, and no effort should be made to extract it." This description of the diagnosis of stone and of the operation of lithotomy is copied almost literally from Roger of Parma. Sufficient (perhaps more than enough) has been written to give the reader a fair idea of the general character of Gilbert's "Compendium Medicine." A few words may be added with reference to the proper place of the work in our medical literature. It is not difficult, of course, to select from the Compendium a charm or two, a few impossible etymologies and a few silly statements, to display these with a witty emphasis and to draw therefrom the easy conclusion that the book is a mass of crass superstition and absurd nonsense. This, however, is not criticism. It is mere caricature. To compare the work with the teachings of modern medicine is not only to expect of the writer a miraculous prescience, but to minimize the advances of medical science within the last seven hundred years. Even Freind and Sprengel, admirable historians, though more thoughtful and judicious in their criticisms, seem for the moment to have forgotten or overlooked the true character of the Compendium. Freind says: "I believe we may even say with justice that he (Gilbert) has written as well as any of his contemporaries of other nations, and has merely followed their example in borrowing very largely from the Arabians," and Sprengel writes: "Here and there, though only very rarely, the author offers some remarks of his own, which merit special attention." Now, what precisely is Gilbert's Compendium designed to be? In the words of its author it is "A book of general and special diseases, selected and extracted from the writings of all authors and the practice of the professors (_magistrorum_), edited by Gilbert of England and entitled a Compendium of Medicine." and a few pages later he adds: "It is our habit to select the best sayings of the best authorities, and where any doubt exists, to insert the different opinions, so that each reader may choose for himself what he prefers to maintain."