Part 5

8. "De Proportione Fistularum."

9. "De Judicio Patientis."

10. "De Re Herbaria."

11. "De Tuenda Valentudine."

12. "De Particularibus Morbis."

13. "Thesaurus Pauperum."

All of these latter may be regarded as doubtful.

The authorities named by Gilbert are Pythagoras, Hippocrates, Plato, Aristotle, Galen, Rufus, Maerobius, Boetius, Alexander of Tralles, Theodorus Priscianus, Theophilus Philaretes, Stephanon (of Athens?), the Arabians Haly Abbas, Rhazes, Isaac Judaeus, Joannitius, Janus Damascenus, Jacobus Alucindi, Avicenna and Averroës; the Salernian writers, quoted generally as Salernitani and specifically Constantino Africanus, Nicholas Praepositus, Romoaldus Ricardus and Maurus, and two otherwise unknown authors, Torror and Funcius, classed by Gilbert as "antiqui." The latter author is also said to have written a "Liber de lapidibus." Certainly this list suggests a pretty good medical library for a practitioner of the 13th century.

Dr. Payne calls attention to the fact that all these writers antedate the 13th century, and thus limit the period of Gilbert in antiquity. This is undoubtedly true with reference to authorities actually named, but does not exclude from consideration other writers quoted, but not named, whom we shall have occasion to refer to hereafter.

The Compendium opens with a very brief and modest foreword, couched in the following terms:

"Incipit liber morborum tam universalium quam particularium a magistro Gilberto anglico editus ab omnibus autoribus et practicis magistrorum extractus et exceptus, qui compendium medicine intitulatur."

It will be observed that no claim whatever for originality is presented by the author. He calls his book a compendium extracted from all authors and the practice of the professors, and edited only by himself. The same idea is more fully emphasized later (f. 55c), where he says:

"Sed consuetudo nostra est ex dictis meliorum meliora aggregare, et ubi dubitatio est, opiniones diversas interserere; ut quisque sibi eligat quam velit retinere."

The self-abnegation implied in these extracts must not, however, be interpreted too literally, for the editorial "dico" on numerous pages, and even an occasional chapter marked "Propria opinio," testify to the fact that Gilbert had opinions of his own, and was ready on occasion to furnish them to the profession. On the whole, however, the "Compendium" is properly classified by the author as a compilation, rather than an original work.

The Compendium is divided into seven books, and the general classification of diseases is from head to foot--the usual method of that day. The modern reader will probably be surprised at the comprehensiveness of the work, which, besides general diseases, includes considerable portions of physiology, physiognomy, ophthalmology, laryngology, otology, gynecology, neurology, dermatology, embryology, obstetrics, dietetics, urinary and venereal diseases, therapeutics, toxicology, operative surgery, cosmetics and even the hygiene of travel and the prevention of sea-sickness. Some of these subjects too are discussed with an acuteness and a common sense quite unexpected. Of course, scholastic speculations, superstition, charms, polypharmacy and the use of popular and disgusting remedies are not wanting. Even the mind of a philosopher like Roger Bacon was unable to rise entirely above the superstition of his age. But the charms and popular specifics of Gilbert are often introduced with a sort of apology, implying his slight belief in their efficacy. Thus in his chapter on the general treatment of wounds (f. 87a) he introduces a popular charm with the following words:

"Alio modo, solo divino carmine confisi, quidam experti posse curari omnes plagas hoc.

"Carmine.

"Tres boni fratres per viam unam ibant, et obviavit eis noster dominus jesus christus et dixit eis, tres boni fratres quo itis, etc."

And again, in his discussion of the treatment of gout and rheumatism (f. 327b), Gilbert adds, under the title

Emperica

"Quamvis ego declino ad has res parum, tamen est bonum scribere in libro nostro, ut non remaneat tractatus sine eis quas dixrunt antiqui. Dico igitur quod dixit torror: Si scinderis pedem rane viridis et ligaveris supra pendem podagrici per tres dies, curatur; ita quod dextrum pedum rane ponas supra dextrum pedem patientis, et e converso. Et dixit Funcius, qui composuit librum de lapidibus, quod magnes, si ligatus fuerit in pedem podagrici, curatur. Et alius philosophus dixit. Si accipiatur calcancus asine et ponatur ligatus supra pedem egri, curatur, ita quod dexter supra dextrum, et e converso. Et juravit quod sit verum. Et dixit torror quod si ponatur pes testudinis dexter supra dextrum pedem podagrici, et e converso, curatur."

We may believe, indeed, that Gilbert would have preferred to follow in the therapeutic footsteps of Hippocrates, had he not disliked to be regarded by his colleagues as eccentric and opinionated. For he says in his treatment of thoracic diseases (f. 193c):

"Etenim eleganter dedit Ipo. (Hippocrates) modum curationis, sed ne a medicis nostri temporis videamur dissidere, secundum eos curam assignemus."

Gilbert was a scholastic-humoralistic physician par excellence, delighting in superfine distinctions and hair-splitting definitions, and deriving even pediculi from a superfluity of the humors (f. 81d). Of course he was also a polypharmacist, and the complexity, ingenuity, and comprehensiveness of his prescriptions would put to shame even the "accomplished therapeutist" of these modern days. In dietetics too Gilbert was careful and intelligent, and upon this branch of therapeutics he justly laid great emphasis.

The first book of the Compendium, comprising no less than 75 folios, is devoted entirely to the discussion of fevers. Beginning with the definition of Joannicius (Honain ebn Ishak):

"Fever is a heat unnatural and surpassing the course of nature, proceeding from the heart into the arteries and injuring the patient by its effects."

Gilbert launches out with genuine scholastic finesse and verbosity into a discussion of the questions whether this definition is based upon the essentia or the differentia of fever; whether the heat of fever is natural or unnatural, and other similar subtle speculations, and finally arrives at a classification of fevers so elaborate and complex as to be practically almost unintelligible to the modern reader.

The more important of these fevers or febrile conditions are: