1. Trepan
2. Balista used for extraction of arrows
3. Cauterizing shears with cannula for cauterization of the uvula
4. Bistoury
5. Extension arrangement for reducing upper arm dislocations, called
"The Fool"
6. Screwpiece for extending a knee contracture
7. Extension apparatus in the form of armour-arm and armour-leg plates
("harness instruments") for contractures of the elbow and knee joints]
To know Guy de Chauliac's works well is to have ready contradictions at
hand to practically all of the objections so frequently repeated as to the
lack of scholarly work during the Middle Ages. For instance, Guy de
Chauliac insisted on the value of experience rather than authority, and of
original work rather than mere copying. He criticized in bitter satire
John of Gaddesden's book on medicine, called after the fashion of the time
by the poetical title "Rosa Anglica," of which he said: "Last of all
bloomed the scentless Rose of England, which on its being sent to me I
hoped to find bearing the odour of sweet originality. But instead of that
I encountered only the fictions of Hispanus, of Gilbert, and of
Theodoric." His mode of satirical expression is all the more interesting
and significant, because it shows that the men of the time were
critically minded enough as regards many of the passages in the writings
of their predecessors with which fault has been found in the modern time,
though we have usually been inclined to think that medieval readers
accepted them quite uncritically. Chauliac's bitterest reproach for many
of his predecessors was that "they follow one another like cranes, whether
for love or fear I cannot say."
Chauliac's description of the methods of anæsthesia practised by the
surgeons of his time, especially in cases of amputation, is particularly
interesting to us because the anæsthetic was administered by inhalation.
Chauliac says:
"Some surgeons prescribe medicaments, such as opium, the juice of the
morel, hyoscyamus, mandrake, ivy, hemlock, lettuce, which send the
patient to sleep, so that the incision may not be felt. A new sponge
is soaked by them in the juice of these and left to dry in the sun;
when they have need of it they put this sponge into warm water, and
then hold it under the nostrils of the patient until he goes to sleep.
Then they perform the operation."[10]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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