The Project Gutenberg eBook, Medieval Medicine, by James J. (James Joseph) Walsh

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Title: Medieval Medicine

Author: James J. (James Joseph) Walsh

Release Date: July 25, 2013 [eBook #43300]

Language: English

Character set encoding: UTF-8

***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MEDIEVAL MEDICINE***

E-text prepared by Chris Curnow
and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team
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from page images generously made available by
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Medical History Manuals

General Editor—John D. Comrie,
M.A., B.SC., M.D., F.R.C.P.E.

MEDIEVAL MEDICINE

IN THE SAME SERIES

A. AND C. BLACK, LTD., 4 SOHO SQ., LONDON, W. 1

Larger Image

AN AMPUTATION BELOW THE KNEE

This is the first picture of an amputation known

From Gerssdorff’s woodcut, reproduced in Gurlt’s “Geschichte der Chirurgie”

MEDIEVAL
MEDICINE

BY
JAMES J. WALSH
K.C.St.G., M.D., Ph.D., Sc.D., Litt.D.
MEDICAL DIRECTOR, SOCIOLOGICAL DEPARTMENT FORDHAM UNIVERSITY, AND
PROFESSOR PHYSIOLOGICAL PSYCHOLOGY CATHEDRAL COLLEGE, NEW YORK
FELLOW A.M.A., A.A.A.S., MEMBER OF THE FRENCH, GERMAN, AND ITALIAN
SOCIETIES FOR THE HISTORY OF MEDICINE, ETC.
AUTHOR OF “MAKERS OF MODERN MEDICINE,” AND OTHER VOLUMES ON
MEDICAL HISTORY

A. & C. BLACK, LTD.
4, 5 & 6, SOHO SQUARE, LONDON, W.C. 1
1920

Made in Great Britain.

PREFACE

“Medieval Medicine” is the story of the medical sciences in the Middle Ages. The Middle Ages are usually assumed to begin with the deposition of Romulus Augustulus, 476, and end with the fall of Constantinople, 1453. In this little volume, then, we have to outline the history of human efforts to prevent and treat the ills of mankind for nearly one thousand years. Until recently, it has been the custom to believe that there was so little of genuine interest in anything like the scientific care of ailing human beings during these centuries, that even a volume of this kind might seem large for the tale of it. Now we know how much these men of the Middle Ages, for so long called the “Dark Ages,” were interested in every phase of human progress. They created a great art and literature, and above all a magnificent architecture. We have been cultivating the knowledge of these for several generations, and it would indeed be a surprise to find that the men who made such surpassing achievements in all the other lines of human effort should have failed only in medicine.

As a matter of fact, we have found that the history of medicine and surgery, and of the medical education of the Middle Ages, are quite as interesting as all the other phases of their accomplishments. Hence the compression that has been necessary to bring a purview of all that we know with regard to medieval medicine within the compass of a brief book of this kind. The treatment has been necessarily fragmentary, and yet it is hoped that the details which are given here may prove suggestive for those who have sufficient interest in the subject to wish to follow it, and may provide an incentive for others to learn more of this magnificent chapter of the work of the medieval physicians.

CONTENTS