Читать книгу Medicine in the Middle Ages. Extracts from "Le Moyen Age Medical" by Dr. Edmond Dupouy; translated by T. C. Minor онлайн

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“When a physician is called to dress a wound or treat a disease, he must take the precaution to settle on his fee, for he cannot claim any in case the patient’s life is endangered.

“He shall be entitled to five sous for operating on hard cataract.

“If a physician wound a gentleman by bleeding, he shall be condemned to pay a fine of one hundred sous; and should the gentleman die following the operation, the physician must be delivered into the hands of the dead man’s relatives, who may deal with the doctor as they see fit.

“When a physician has a student he shall be allowed twelve sous for his services as tutor.”

Towards the tenth century, however, progress in medicine is at last noticeable. We see some monks going to make their studies at Salerno and at Mount Cassin, where the Benedictine friars had established a medical college in the previous century. Constantine had given these friars Arabian manuscripts, which had been translated into Latin, with commentaries. Also the works of the early Greek physicians and the treatises of Aristotle on “Natural Science.” It was at Salerno that Ægidius de Corbeil studied physic before becoming physician to Philip Augustus. Nevertheless, medicine remained in darkness with clerical ignorance, the superstition and despotism of the church offering an insurmountable barrier to all science. Finally a reform was instituted in 1206 by the foundation of the University of Paris, which included among its school of learning a college of medicine, wherein many students matriculated. The physicus Hugo, and Obiso, physician to Louis the Great, were the first professors in the institution. Degrees were accorded indiscriminately to the clergy or to the laity, the condition of celibacy being imposed on the latter likewise.