WHEREIN IT APPEARS THAT SANCHO's PHYSICIAN AT BARATARIA ACTED
ACCORDING TO PRECEDENTS AND PRESCRIBED LAWS.
_Lettor, tu vedi ben com' io innalzo
La mia materia, e però con piu arte
Non ti maravigliar s' i' la rincalzo._
DANTE.
But the practice both of medicine and of surgery, whatever might be
the religion of the practitioner, was obnoxious to suspicions for
which the manners of antiquity, of the dark ages and of every
corrupted society gave but too much cause. It was a power that could
be exercised for evil as well as for good.
One of the most detestable acts recorded in ancient history is that of
the Syrian usurper Tryphon, who when he thought it expedient to make
away with young Antiochus the heir to the kingdom, delivered him into
a surgeon's hands to be cut for the stone, that he might in that
manner be put to death. It is a disgraceful fact that the most ancient
operation known to have been used in surgery, is that abominable one
which to the reproach of the civil and ecclesiastical authorities is
still practised in Italy.
Physicians were not supposed to be more scrupulous than surgeons. The
most famous and learned Doctor Christopher Wirtzung, whose General
Practice of Physic was translated from German into English at the
latter end of Queen Elizabeth's reign by his countryman Jacob Mosan,
Doctor in the same faculty, has this remarkable section in his work:
“Ancient Physicians were wont to have an old proverb, and to say that
Venom is so proud that it dwelleth commonly in gold and silver;
whereby they meant that great personages that eat and drink out of
gold and silver, are in greater danger to be poisoned than the common
people that do eat and drink out of earthen dishes.” Christopher
Wirtzung might have quoted Juvenal here;
_Nulla aconita bibuntur
Fictilibus. Tunc illa time, cum pocula sumes
Gemmata, et lato Setinum ardebit in auro._
“Wherefore,” proceeds the German Doctor, “must such high personages
that are afraid to be poisoned, diligently take heed of the meat and
drink that they eat, and that are drest of divers things. Also they
must not take too much of all sweet, salt and sour drinks; and they
must not eat too eagerly, nor too hastily; and they must at all times
have great regard of the first taste of their meat and drink. But the
most surest way is, that before the mealtide he take somewhat that may
resist venom, as figs, rue, or nuts, each by himself, or tempered
together. The citrons, rape-seed, nepe, or any of those that are
described before, the weight of a drachm taken with wine, now one and
then another, is very much commended. Sometimes also two figs with a
little salt, then again mithridate or treacle, and such like more may
be used before the mealtide.”
“It is a matter of much difficulty,” says Ambrose Paré, “to avoid
poisons, because such as at this time temper them are so thoroughly
prepared for deceit and mischief that they will deceive even the most
wary and quick-sighted; for they so qualify the ingrate taste and
smell by the admixture of sweet and well-smelling things that they
cannot easily be perceived even by the skilful. Therefore such as fear
poisoning ought to take heed of meats cooked with much art, very
sweet, salt, sour, or notably endued with any other taste. And when
they are opprest with hunger or thirst, they must not eat nor drink
too greedily, but have a diligent regard to the taste of such things
as they eat or drink. Besides, before meat let them take such things
as may weaken the strength of the poisons, such as is the fat broth of
good nourishing flesh-meats. In the morning let them arm themselves
with treacle or mithridate, and conserve of roses, or the leaves of
rue, a walnut and dry figs: besides let him presently drink a little
draught of muscadine, or some other good wine.”
How frequent the crime of poisoning had become in the dark ages
appears by the old laws of almost every European people, in some of
which indeed its frequency, “_proh dolor_,” is alleged as a reason for
enacting statutes against it. And whilst in the empire the capital
sentence might be compounded for, like other cases of homicide, by a
stated compensation to the representatives of the deceased, no such
redemption was allowed among the Wisi-Goths, but the poisoner, whether
freeman or slave, was to suffer the most ignominious death. In the
lower ranks of life men were thought to be in most danger of being
thus made away with by their wives, in the higher by their Physicians
and their cooks.
There are two curious sections upon this subject in the Laws of
Alphonso the Wise, the one entitled _Quáles deben ser los fisicos del
Rey, et qué es lo que deben facer_;—What the Physicians of a King
ought to be, and what it is they ought to do:—the other, _Quáles deben
ser los oficiales del Rey que le han de servir en su comer et en su
beber_: What the officers of a King ought to be who minister to him at
his eating and at his drinking.
“Physic,” says the royal author, “according as the wise antients have
shown, is as much as to say the knowledge of understanding things
according to nature, what they are in themselves, and what effect each
produces upon other things; and therefore they who understand this
well, can do much good, and remove many evils; especially by
preserving life and keeping men in health, averting from them the
infirmities whereby they suffer great misery, or are brought to death.
And they who do this are called Physicians, who not only must
endeavour to deliver men from their maladies, but also to preserve
their health in such manner that they may not become sick; wherefore
it is necessary that those whom the King has with him should be right
good. And as Aristotle said to Alexander, four things are required in
them,—first that they should be knowing in their art; secondly, that
they should be well approved in it; thirdly, that they should be
skilled in the cases which may occur; fourthly, that they should be
right loyal and true. For if they are not knowing in their art, they
will not know how to distinguish diseases; and if they are not well
approved in it, they will not be able to give such certain advice,
which is a thing from whence great hurt arises; and if they are not
skilful, they will not be able to act in cases of great danger when
such may happen; and if they are not loyal, they can commit greater
treasons than other men, because they can commit them covertly. And
when the King shall have Physicians in whom these four aforesaid
things are found, and who use them well, he ought to do them much
honour and much good; and if peradventure they should act otherwise
knowingly, they commit known treason, and deserve such punishment as
men who treacherously kill others that have confided in them.
“Regiment also in eating and drinking is a thing without which the
body cannot be maintained, and therefore the officers who have to
minister to the King or others, have no less place than those of whom
we have spoken above, as to the preservation of his life and his
health. For albeit the Physicians should do all their endeavours to
preserve him, they will not be able to do it if he who prepares his
food for him should not chuse to take the same care; we say the same
also of those who serve him with bread, and wine, and fruit, and all
other things of which he has to eat, or drink. And according as
Aristotle said to Alexander, in these officers seven things are
required: first, that they be of good lineage, for if they be, they
will always take heed of doing things which would be ill for them;
secondly, that they be loyal, for if they be not so, great danger
might come to the King from them; thirdly, that they be skilful, so
that they may know how to do those things well which appertain to
their offices: fourthly, that they be of good understanding, so that
they may know how to comprehend the good which the King may do them,
and that they be not puffed up, nor become insolent because of their
good fortune; fifthly, that they be not over covetous, for great
covetousness is the root of all evil; sixthly, that they be not
envious in evil envy, lest if they should be, they might haply be
moved thereby to commit some wrong; seventhly, that they be not much
given to anger, for it is a thing which makes a man beside himself,
and this is unseemly in those who hold such offices. And also besides
all those things which we have specified, it behoveth them greatly
that they be debonair and clean, so that what they have to prepare for
the King, whether to eat or drink, may be well prepared; and that they
serve it to him cleanlily, for if it be clean he will be pleased with
it, and if it be well prepared he will savour it the better, and it
will do him the more good. And when the King shall have such men as
these in these offices, he ought to love them, and to do them good and
honour; and if peradventure he should find that any one offends in not
doing his office loyally, so that hurt might come thereof to the
person of the King, he ought to punish him both in his body and in his
goods, as a man who doth one of the greatest treasons that can be.”
The fear in which the Princes of more barbarous states lived in those
ages is no where so fully declared as in the Palace-laws compiled by
that King of Majorca who was slain at the battle of Cressy, from which
laws those of his kinsman Pedro the Ceremonious of Arragon, who drove
him from his kingdom, were chiefly taken. His butler, his under
butler, his major domo, and his cooks were to swear fealty and homage,
_quia tam propter nefandissimam infidelitatem aliquorum ministrorum,
quam ipsorum negligentiam, quæ est totius boni inimica, quâ
ministrante omittuntur præcavenda, audivimus pluries tam Regibus quam
aliis Principibus maxima pericula evenisse, quod est plus quam summe
abhorrendum._ No stranger might approach the place where any food for
the King's table was prepared or kept; and all the cooks purveyors and
sub-purveyors, and the major domo, and the chamberlain were to taste
of every dish which was served up to him. The noble who ministered to
him when he washed at table was to taste the water, and the barber who
washed his head was to do the like; for great as the King was, being
mindful that he was still but a man, he acknowledged it necessary that
he should have a barber, _pro humanis necessitatibus, quibus natura
hominum quantâcunque fretum potentiâ nullum fecit expertem, etiam nos
Barbitonsorum officio indigemus._ His taylor was to work in a place
where no suspicious people could have access; and whatever linen was
used for his bed, or board, or more especially for his apparel, was to
be washed in a secret place, and by none but known persons. The Chief
Physician was to taste all the medicines that he administered. Every
morning he was to inspect the royal urinal, and if he perceived any
thing amiss prescribe accordingly. He was to attend at table, caution
the King against eating of any thing that might prove hurtful, and if
notwithstanding all precautions poison should be administered, he was
to have his remedies at hand.
By the Chinese laws if either the superintending or dispensing
officer, or the cook introduces into the Emperor's kitchen any unusual
drug, or article of food, he is to be punished with an hundred blows,
and compelled to swallow the same.