Old-Time Makers of Medicine: The Story of The Students And Teachers of the Sciences Related to Medicine During the Middle AgesWalsh, James J. (James Joseph)
History
Old-Time Makers of Medicine: The Story of The Students And Teachers of the Sciences Related to Medicine During the Middle Ages
Walsh, James J. (James Joseph)
Medicine, Medieval; Physicians
On the other hand, they suggested the cooling of the air of the
sick-room, as we have noted in the chapter on Constantine Africanus, and
Afflacius recommended the employment of an apparatus from which water
trickled continuously in drops to the ground and then evaporated. Baths
and bleeding were employed according to definite indications and diet
was always a special feature. They had a number of drugs and simples,
and the employment of some of them is interesting. Iron was prescribed
for enlargement of the spleen. The internal use of sea sponge, in which
of course there is a noteworthy proportion of iodine, was recommended
for relief from the symptoms of goitre by reducing its size. Iodine has
been used so much ever since in this affection, even down to our own
day, that this employment of one of its compounds is rather striking.
Massage of the goitre was also recommended, and this mode of treatment
was commonly employed for a number of ailments.
Probably the best idea that can be obtained in brief space of the
achievements of the University of Salerno is to be found in Pagel's
appreciation of Salerno's place in the history of medicine in his
chapters on "Medicine in the Middle Ages" in Puschmann's "Handbuch der
Geschichte der Medizin" (Berlin, 1902). He said: "If we take up now the
accomplishments of the school of Salerno in the different departments
there is one thing that is very remarkable. It is the rich independent
productivity with which Salerno advanced the banners of medical science
for hundreds of years almost as the only autochthonous centre of medical
influence in the whole West. One might almost say that it was like a
_versprengten Keim_--a displaced embryonic element--which, as it
unfolded, rescued from destruction the ruined remains of Greek and Roman
medicine. This productivity of Salerno, which may well be compared in
quality and quantity with that of the best periods of our science, and
in which no department of medicine was left without some advance, is one
of the striking phenomena of the history of medicine. While positive
progress was not made, there are many noteworthy original observations
to be chronicled. It must be acknowledged that pupils and scholars set
themselves faithfully to their tasks to further as far as their strength
allowed the science and art of healing. In the medical writers of the
older period of Salerno who had not yet been disturbed by Arabian
culture or scholasticism, we cannot but admire the clear, charmingly
smooth, light-flowing diction, the delicate and honest setting forth of
cases, the simplicity of their method of treatment, which was to a great
extent dietetic and expectant, and while we admire the carefulness and
yet the copiousness of their therapy, we cannot but envy them a certain
austerity in their pharmaceutic formulas and an avoidance of
medicamental polypragmasia. The work in internal medicine was especially
developed. The contributions to it from a theoretic and a literary
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