In the thirteenth century Roger Bacon, the great man of science, wrote
on medicine, alchemy, magic, and astrology, as well as most other
sciences. He believed that a universal remedy was attainable, and urged
Pope Clement IV to give his powerful aid to its discovery. Nothing
particular remains of his medical studies.
Gilbert Anglicanus, who was a contemporary of Bacon, and wrote a
Compendium of Medicine, a tedious collection of the most fantastic
theories of disease, was more advanced in pharmacy than in the
treatment of disease. He describes at considerable length the manner of
extinguishing mercury to make an ointment, recommending particularly
the addition of some mustard seed to facilitate the process. He gives
particulars of the preparation of the oil of tartar per deliquium, and
proposes a solution of acetate of ammonia in anticipation of Mindererus
four hundred years later. Gilbert’s formula is thus expressed:--
“Conteratur sal armoniacum minutim, et superinfundatur frequenter et
paullatim acetum, et cooperiatur et moveatur, ut evanescet sal.”
Ant’s eggs, oil of scorpions, and lion’s flesh is his prescription for
apoplexy, but he does not explain how the last ingredient was to be
obtained in England. Several of his formulas are quoted in the first
London Pharmacopœia. For the expulsion of calculi he prescribes the
blood of a young goat which has been fed on diuretic herbs such as
persil and saxifrage.
Chaucer, whose writings belong to the latter half of the fourteenth
century, has left on record a graphic picture of the “Doctour of
Phisike” of his day, and the old poet is as gently sarcastic about his
pilgrim’s “science” as a writer of five hundred years later might have
been. “He was grounded in astronomy,” we are told, and--
Well could he fortune the ascendant
Of his images for his patient
He knew the cause of every malady
Were it of cold, or hot, or moist, or dry,
And where engendered and of what humour.
He was a very perfect practisour.
His library was a wonderful one considering the rarity of books at that
time.
Well knew he the olde Esculapius
And Dioscorides, and eek Rufus
Old Ypocras, Haly, and Galien,
Serapyon, Razis, and Avicen,
Averrois, Damascien, and Constantyn,
Bernard, and Gatesden, and Gilbertyn.
The doctor was careful about his food, “his study was but little on the
Bible,” he dressed well, but was inclined to save in his expenses.
He kept that he won in the pestilence.
For gold in phisike is a cordialle
There fore he loved gold in special.
The original of Chaucer’s “Doctour of Phisike” has been sometimes
supposed to have been the well-known John of Gaddesden, physician
to Edward II, Professor of Medicine at Merton College, Oxford, a
Prebendary of the Church, and the author of “Rosa Anglicana.” This
work, although full of absurdities and crude ideas of medicine
and pharmacy, became the popular medical treatise in England, was
translated into several European languages, and reprinted many times
in this country during the two hundred years which followed its first
appearance. The author named it the Rose, he says, because, as the
rose has five sepals, his book is divided into five parts; and as the
rose excels all other flowers, so his book is superior to all other
treatises on medicine. It was probably published between 1310 and 1320.
John of Gaddesden’s work well illustrates the pharmacy of the period,
for he was great on drugs. He taught that aqua vitæ (brandy) was a
polychrest, or complete remedy; that swines’ excrement was a sovereign
cure for hæmorrhage; that a sponge steeped in a mixture of vinegar,
roses, wormwood, and rain-water, and laid on the stomach, would check
vomiting and purging; that toothache and other pains might be cured by
saying a Paternoster and an Ave for the souls of the father and mother
of St. Phillip; a boar’s bladder, taken when full of urine and dried
in an oven, is recommended as a cure for epilepsy; a wine of fennel
and parsley for blindness; and a mixture of whatever herbs came into
his mind--for example, “apium, petroselinum, endive, scolopendron,
chicory, liver-wort, scariola, lettuce, maidenhair, plantain, ivory
shavings, sandal wood, violets, and vinegar”--is ordered as a digestive
drink. Add to such senseless recipes as these a number of equally
unintelligent charms, and a fair idea of the condition of medical
science in England in the fourteenth century is obtained. It does not
compare at all favourably with the condition to which the Arabs in
Spain had elevated the art two and three hundred years before.
Bernard of Gordon, who wrote from Montpellier, but is believed to have
been a Scotchman, was the author of the “Lilium Medicinæ,” published
about 1307 or 1309. The work was known to John of Gaddesden, for he
quotes from it. Perhaps he had it in his mind when he observed that
the rose excels all other flowers. Mainly it was a compilation from
Arabic writers with the addition of many scholastic subtleties and
astrological reveries. It is noticeable in this author and in John of
Gaddesden how careful both are to distinguish between the treatment of
the rich and the poor. The latter, for example, states that dropsy can
be cured by spikenard, but he advises practitioners never to give this
costly medicine without first receiving pay for it. Gordon recommends
for a poor person’s cough that he should be ordered to hold his breath
frequently during the day for as long as possible, and if that does not
cure he is to breathe fire.
John Mirfield also wrote his “Breviarium Bartholomei” in the latter
part of the fourteenth century. Dr. Norman Moore in his “History of
the Study of Medicine” has freely quoted from this old work, and gives
several facsimile pages from some of the earliest manuscript copies of
it. Dr. Moore regards the Breviarium with special interest as it is
the first book on medicine in any way connected with his hospital, the
oldest in London. Mirfield, relating some of the cures performed by
his master, mentions that a woman came to him having lost her speech.
The master rubbed her palate with some “theodoricon emperisticon”
and with a little “diacostorium.” She soon recovered. An apothecary
brought a youth to the hospital with a carbuncle on his face, and his
throat and neck swollen beyond belief. The master said the youth must
go home to die. “Is there then no remedy?” asked the apothecary. The
physician replied, “I believe most truly that if thou wert to give
tyriacum in a large dose, there would be a chance that he might live.”
The apothecary gave two doses of ʒij. each, which caused a
profuse perspiration, and in due course the youth recovered. He advises
smelling and swallowing musk, aloes wood, storax, calamita, and amber
to prevent infection in cold weather, and in warm weather sandal wood,
roses, camphor, acetositas citri, sour milk, and vinegar, taking syrup
of vinegar in the morning and syrup of violets at midday. For gout he
prescribes an ointment the principal constituent of which is goose
grease. The preparation of this remedy is explained metrically. The
verses begin thus:--
Anser sumatur, Veteranus qui videatur,
Post deplumetur, Intralibus evacuetur.
Rheumatism was to be treated with olive oil, and the pharmacist is
directed to warm it while he repeats the Psalm “Quare fremerunt gentes”
as far as “Postula a me et dabo tibi gentes hereditatem tuam,” then the
Gloria and two prayers. This recitation was to be repeated seven times.
There were no clocks available at that time, and this therefore was the
method of prescribing the length of an operation. Dr. Moore says he
finds this direction would cover about a quarter of an hour.
Medical treatises in verse were frequent and popular in England in the
fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. There are several in the British
Museum. A curious specimen is preserved in the Royal Library at
Stockholm, and it is reproduced in readable English in “Archeologia,”
Vol. XXX, with notes by the translator, Mr. George Stephens, and by Dr.
Pettigrew. They both believe it was written in the fourteenth century.
It consists of 1485 lines. Of these it will suffice to give the first
four, and one specimen of its sections. It begins thus:--
In foure parties of amā
Be gynneth ye sekenesse yt yie han
In heed, in wombe, or i ye splene
Or i bleddyr, yese iiij I mene.
The following is entitled in the margin “Hed werk.”
Amedicyn I hawe i Myde
For hedwerk to telle as I fynde
To taken eysyl pulyole ryale
And camamyle to sethe wt all;
And wt ye jous anoyte yi nosthryll well
A make aplaister of ye toyerdel;
And do it in a good grete clowte
And wynde yi heed yer wt abowte;
As soon as it be leyde yeron
All yi hedwerk xal away gon.
Two other specimens of these early poetical recipes from other authors
may be quoted:--
ffor defhed of ye hed.
For defhed of hed & for dullerynge
I fynde wrete dyuers thynge
Take oporcyon (a portion) of boiys vryne
And mege it wt honey good & fyne
And i ye ere late it caste
Ye herynge schal amede in haste.
ffor to slepe well
Qwo so may not slepe wel
Take egrimonye afayre del
And ley it vnder his heed on nyth
And it schall hym do slepe aryth
For of his slepe schal he not wakyn
Tyll it be fro vnder his heed takyn.