Part 3

Two years before his death Dr. Handerson became totally blind. This grievous affliction was borne with unvarying patience and cheerfulness. He still loved to recite from memory the classic authors, to relate and discuss episodes of world history and events of the present, to solve difficult mathematical problems, and to have his data on all subjects verified. He retained his faculties perfectly until April 23, 1918, when he died from cerebral hemorrhage.

He is survived by a daughter, two sons by the second marriage, and his devoted wife.

Among numerous letters received from prominent physicians and authors appreciative of Dr. Handerson's medico-historical labors, one from Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes expresses high praise and requests to have sent to him everything which Dr. Handerson might in future write.

It seems eminently appropriate that the essay on "Gilbertus Anglicus." the last from the pen of Dr. Handerson, should be put in book form, together with a sketch, however brief, of its author's earnest life, his sterling character, his geniality and imperturbable equanimity, and thus preserved in testimony of the high esteem in which he was held by his contemporaries.

SAMUEL WALTER KELLEY.

* * * * *

RESOLUTIONS

At a meeting of the Council of the Cleveland Medical Library Association, held on May 14, the following resolutions were adopted:

Resolved, That in the death of Dr. Henry E. Handerson the Cleveland Medical Library Association has sustained the loss of one of its most honored and devoted members. His scholarly acquirements were notable, and his eminence as a medical historian generally recognized. His deep interest in the welfare of the Library and his thorough attention to every detail of his official duties were always evident, while his lovable personal qualities endeared him to all.

The Association desires to express its high appreciation of his long and valued services, and extends to his bereaved family its heartfelt and sincere sympathy.

C.A. HAMANN, WM. EVANS BRUNER, J.B. McGEE.

* * * * *

GILBERTUS ANGLICUS (GILBERT OF ENGLAND)

A STUDY OF ENGLISH MEDICINE IN THE THIRTEENTH CENTURY.

BY H.E. HANDERSON, A.M., M.D.

CLEVELAND

* * * * *

"Nothing in the past is dead to the man who would learn how the present came to be what it is."--Stubbs--Constitutional Hist. of England.

* * * * *

Among the literary monuments of early English medicine the "Compendium Medicinae" of Gilbertus Anglicus merits a prominent position as the earliest complete treatise on general medicine by an English author which has been preserved to our day, and equally because it forms in itself a very complete mirror of the medical science of its age and its country.

Gilbert was undoubtedly one of the most famous physicians of his time. His reputation is recognized in those well-known lines of Chaucer which catalogue the "authorities" of his Doctor of Phisik:

"Wel knew he the olde Esculapius And Deyscorides and eek Rufus, Olde Ypocras, Haly and Galyen, Serapion, Razis and Avycen, Averrois, Damascien and Constantyn, Bernard and Gatesden and Gilbertyn."

He is also quoted with frequency and respect by the medical writers of many succeeding ages, and the Compendium, first printed in 1510, enjoyed the honor of a second edition as late as the seventeenth century (1608). The surname "Anglicus" in itself testifies to the European reputation of our author, for as Dr. Payne sensibly remarks, no one in England would speak of an English writer as "the Englishman."

Yet, in spite of his reputation, we know almost no details of the life of Gilbert, and are forced to content ourselves with the few facts to be gleaned from the scanty biographies of early writers and the inferences drawn from the pages of the Compendium itself. The date and place of his birth and death, and even the field of his medical activities are equally unknown. Bale, Pits and Leland, the earliest English biographers, tell us that Gilbert, after the completion of his studies in England, proceeded to the Continent to enlarge his education, and finally became physician to the great Justiciar, Hubert Walter, archbishop of Canterbury, who died in the year 1205. This would place him under the reign of King John, in the early part of the thirteenth century.

Dr. John Freind, however, the famous English physician and medical historian (1725), observing that Gilbert quotes the Arabian philosopher Averroës (who died in 1198), and believing that he also quotes a work of Roger Bacon and the surgical writings of Theodorius (Borgognoni) of Cervia (1266), was inclined to fix his period in the latter half of the thirteenth century, probably under the reign of Edward I. Most of the later historians of medicine have followed the views of Freind. Thus Eloy adopts the date 1272, Sprengel gives 1290, Haeser the same date, Hirsch says Gilbert lived towards the close of the thirteenth century, Baas adopts the figures 1290, etc.

The most recent biographers of Gilbert, however, Mr. C.L. Kingsford, and the late Dr. Joseph Frank Payne, after an apparently careful and independent investigation of his life, have reached conclusions which vary materially from each other and from those of the historians mentioned. Mr. Kingsford fixes the date of Gilbert at about 1250, while Dr. Payne reverts to the views of Bale and Pits and suggests as approximate figures for the birth and death of Gilbert the years 1170-80 to 1230. This discrepancy of twenty-five or thirty years between the views of two competent and unprejudiced investigators, as a mere question of erudition and interpretation, is perhaps scarcely worthy of prolonged discussion. But as both biographers argue from substantially the same data, the arguments reveal so many interesting and pertinent facts, and the numerous difficulties attending the interpretation of these facts, that some comparison of the different views of the biographers and some criticism of their varying conclusions may not be unwelcome.

In the first place then we must say that, as Gilbert is frequently quoted in the "Thesaurus Pauperum," a work ascribed to Petrus Hispanus, who (under the title Pope John XXI) died in 1277, this date determines definitely the latest period to which the Compendium can be referred. If, as held by some historians, the "Thesaurus" is the work of Julian, the father of Petrus, the Compendium can be referred to an earlier date only.

Now Gilbert in his Compendium (f. 259a) refers to the writings of Averroës (Ibn Roschd) regarding the color of the iris of the eye. Averroës died in the year 1198. There is no pretense that Gilbert was familiar with the Arabic tongue, and the earliest translations into Latin of the writings of Averroës are ascribed by Bacon to the famous Michael Scot, though Bacon says they were chiefly the work of a certain Jew named Andrew, who made the translations for Scot. Bacon also says that these translations were made "nostris temporibus," in our time, a loose expression, which may, perhaps, be fairly interpreted to include the period 1230-1250. But if, as Dr. Payne believes, Gilbert died about 1230, it seems improbable that he could have been familiar with the translations of Michael Scot. Accordingly Dr. Payne suggests that, after the death of his patron in 1205, Gilbert returned to the Continent, and, perhaps in Paris or at Montpellier, met with earlier Latin versions of the writings of the Arabian physician and philosopher. This is, of course, possible, but there is no historical warrant for the hypothesis, which must, for the present at least, be regarded as merely a happy conjecture of Dr. Payne. The presence of Gilbert upon the Continent, probably as a teacher of reputation, seems, however, quite probable. Littre has even unearthed the fact that during the 14th century a street in Paris near the medical schools, bore the name of the Rue Gilbert l'Anglois. A MS. in the Bibliotheque Nationale entitled "Experimenta Magistri Gilliberti, Cancellarii Montepessulani" has suggested also the idea that Gilbert may have been at one time chancellor of the University of Montpellier. Dr. P. Pansier, of Avignon, however, who has carefully examined and published this manuscript, reports that while it contains some formulae found also in the Compendium of Gilbert, it contains many others from apparently other sources, and he was unable to convince himself that the compilation was in fact the work of Gilbertus Anglicus. Dr. Pansier also furnishes us with a list of the chancellors of Montpellier, which contains the name of a certain "Gillibertus," chancellor of the university in 1250. He could find, however, no evidence that this Gillibertus was Gilbertus Anglicus, author of the Compendium Medicinae. On the whole then the visit of Gilbert to France early in the 13th century, and his access in this way to early translations of Averroës, while a convenient and plausible conjecture on the part of Dr. Payne, does not seem supported by any trustworthy historical evidence.