Our friend’s library was tolerably complete, for here we have a list of the medical “scriptures,” Greek, Roman, and Arabian, an acquaintance with which was the whole duty of a physician, and which to doubt was heresy. The last two names on the list refer to John of Gaddesden and Gilbert, both English writers, of whom I shall have a few words to say presently. “Of his diete mesurable was he, For it was of no superfluité, But of gret norisching and digestible.” Doubtless there were many things then which took the place of pancreatic emulsion and extract of malt. “His studie was but litel on the Bible.” This line is frequently quoted to show that the scepticism with which doctors are often charged is of no modern growth. The point of the line is, however, to be found in the fact that Chaucer’s doctor was certainly a priest, as were all the physicians of his time, and that the practice of medicine had drawn him away, somewhat unduly perhaps, from the clerical profession, to which he also belonged. “In sangwyn and in pers he clad was al, Lyned with taffata and with sendal.” A robe of scarlet and sky-blue, lined with silk. Equally gorgeous doctors may be seen at the present time by those who attend at Burlington Gardens on “Presentation Day.” “And yit he was but esy in dispence; He kepte that he wan in pestilence. For gold in phisik is a cordial; Therefore he lovede gold in special.” The priest-physician was fully as fond of his fees as are any of his successors. But to come to particular instances which prove the truth of Chaucer’s graphic picture. EARLIEST LONDON PRACTITIONERS. The “Gilbertyn” of Chaucer’s doctor was =Gilbertus Anglicus=, an Englishman who wrote a work on medicine about the year 1290, and it is remarkable from the fact that it gave the first description of leprosy written by western writers, leprosy being a disease which has long ceased to exist in this country. He treated apoplexy with ants’ eggs, scorpions’ oil, and the flesh of lions; but where he obtained this latter commodity it is hard to tell. For urinary calculi he advised the administration of the blood of a he-goat fed upon parsley and saxifrage. =John of Gaddesden= was a graduate of Merton College, Oxford, and wrote his famous medical treatise, “Rosa Anglica,” about 1305. He is said to have been greedy of money, and he recommends his contemporaries to make arrangements about fees before undertaking a case. He was an ecclesiastic, and was court physician to Edward II. and Edward III. He tells us that bleeding is hurtful at the time of the feasts of St. John and St. Stephen, but necessary at Christmas because of the custom of overloading the stomach with cakes at that season. Pigs’ dung was his favourite hæmostatic; and when the son of the King had small-pox, he was careful that everything about his couch should be red.