Note: Images of the original pages are available through Internet Archive. See https://archive.org/details/b29007720 Transcriber’s note: It should be noted that almost all of the French in the book is unaccented. No attempt has been made to correct this. The footnotes are located at the end of the book. Text enclosed by underscores is in italics (_italics_). MEDICINE IN THE MIDDLE AGES. Extracts from “Le Moyen Age Medical” of DR. EDMOND DUPOUY. Translated by T. C. Minor, M.D. Reprinted from the Cincinnati Lancet-Clinic, Dec. 1, 1888, to Feb. 16, 1889. Cincinnati: Cincinnati Lancet Press Print, 1889. THE PHYSICIANS OF THE MIDDLE AGES. THE GREAT EPIDEMICS OF THE MIDDLE AGES. THE DEMONOMANIA OF THE MIDDLE AGES. MEDICINE IN THE LITERATURE OF THE MIDDLE AGES. MEDICINE IN THE MIDDLE AGES. EXTRACTS FROM “LE MOYEN AGE MEDICAL” OF DR. EDMOND DUPOUY. TRANSLATED BY T. C. MINOR, M.D. THE PHYSICIANS OF THE MIDDLE AGES. In the fourth century of the Christian era Roman civilization expired; Western Europe was invaded by the barbarians; letters and science sought a last refuge at Alexandria; the Middle Age commenced. Greek medicine strove to survive the revolution in the city of the Ptolemies, and even produced a few celebrated physicians, _i.e._, Alexander Ætius, Alexander Trallian, and Paulus Ægineta, but at the end of the seventh century the school of Alexandria also fell and disappeared in the clouds of a false philosophy, bequeathing all Hippocratic traditions to the Arabs, who advanced as conquerors to the Occident. The Arabian schools of Dschondisabur, Bagdad, Damascus, and Cordova were founded and became flourishing institutions of learning, thanks to a few Nestorian Greeks and Jews who were attracted to these centers of learning; such men as Aaron, Rhazes, Haly-Abas, Avicenna, Avenzoar, Averrhoes, Albucasis, and other writers, who continued the work left by the Greeks, leaving remarkable books on medicine and surgery. Unfortunately the ordinance of Islamism prevented these scientists from following anatomical work too closely, and consequently limited the progress they might otherwise have made in medicine.[1] What occurred in Western Europe during this period of transition? The torch of science was extinguished; the sacred fire on the altar of learning only remained a flickering emblem whose pale light was carefully guarded in the chapel of monasteries. Medicine was abandoned to the priests, and all practice naturally fell into an empirical and blind routine. “The physician-clergy,” says Sprengel, “resorted in the majority of cases to prayers and holy water, to the invocations of saints and martyrs, and inunction with sacred ointments. These monks were unworthy of the name of doctor—they were, in fact, nothing else than fanatical hospital attendants.”