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
Some of the details of the story have been doubted, but her memorial
tablet, erected at the time of her death in the Church of San Pietro e
Marcellino of the Hospital of Santa Maria de Mareto, gives all the
important facts, and tells the story of the grief of her fiance, who was
himself Mondino's other assistant.[17] This was Otto Agenius, who had
made for himself a name as an assistant to the chair of anatomy in
Bologna, and of whom there were great hopes entertained because he had
already shown signs of genius as an investigator in anatomy. These hopes
were destined to grievous disappointment, however, for Otto died
suddenly, before he had reached his thirtieth year. The fact that both
these assistants of Mondino died young and suddenly, would seem to point
to the fact that probably dissection wounds in those early days proved
even more fatal than they occasionally did a century or more ago, when
the proper precautions against them were not so well understood. The
death of Mondino's two prosectors in early years would seem to hint at
some such unfortunate occurrence.
As regards the evidence of what the young man had accomplished before
his untimely death, probably the following quotation, which Medici has
taken from one of the old chroniclers, will give the best idea:
"What advantage indeed might not Bologna have had from Otto
Agenius Lustrulanus, whom Mondino had used as an assiduous
prosector, if he had not been taken away by a swift and
lamentable death before he had completed the sixth lustrum of
his life!"
How well the tradition created by Mondino continued at the university
will be best understood from what we know of Guy de Chauliac's visit to
the medical school here about the middle of the century. The great
French surgeon tells us that he came to Bologna to study anatomy under
the direction of Mondino's successor, Bertruccius. When he wrote his
preface to his great surgery he recalled this teaching of anatomy at
Bologna and said, "It is necessary and useful to every physician to
know, first of all, anatomy. For this purpose the study of books is
indeed useful, but it is not sufficient to explain those things which
can only be appreciated by the senses and which need to be seen in the
dead body itself." He advises his students to consult Mundinus' treatise
but to demonstrate its details for themselves on the dead body. He
relates that he himself had often, _multitoties_, done this, especially
under the direction of Bertruccius at Bologna. Curiously enough, as
pointed out by Professor Pilcher, Mondino had used this same word
_multitotiens_ (the variant spelling makes no difference in the meaning)
in speaking about his own work. In describing the hypogastric lesion he
mentions that he had demonstrated certain veins in it many times,
_multitotiens_.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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