In one place in his “Anatomy” Mondino states explicitly that he dissected two human cadavers in the month of January, 1315. This statement renders it possible to fix the exact date when the practice of making such dissections—which had been carried on for a considerable period of time about 250 B. C.—was first resumed. If one reflects upon the nature of the obstacles which in 1315 stood in the way of a revival of this practice,—for example, the deep-seated prejudice against it entertained by all classes of the community, and the very strong opposition of the ecclesiastic authorities to what they honestly believed to be a desecration of the human body,—one will readily appreciate how great was the courage displayed by Mondino when he almost openly undertook his first dissection. The subsequent career of this famous teacher of anatomy justifies the belief that his determination to take the course which he did was based upon the profound conviction that the first step toward increasing the scanty stock of knowledge possessed at that time with regard to the structure of the human body in all its parts, must necessarily be one in continuation of that which Erasistratus and his associates had taken centuries earlier, but which had not been succeeded by a sufficient number of other steps in the same direction. The series of discoveries in anatomy, physiology and pathology which resulted from Mondino’s courageous and intelligent act, form a part of the history of modern medicine, and do not therefore call for consideration in this place. We may simply add that much information of a very interesting character is furnished by Neuburger (op. cit.) with regard to the manner in which Mondino and his immediate successors carried on their instruction in anatomy from that time forward.
The Medical School at Bologna, as may well be imagined, gained great fame from the possession of such distinguished teachers as those whose careers I have briefly sketched—Hugo and Theodoric of Lucca, William of Saliceto, and Mondino; and it retained a large part of this celebrity throughout the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, despite the appearance on the scene, toward the end of this time, of several formidable claimants for high honors in the domain of medical research and education—viz., the schools at Montpellier and Paris, in France, and that of Padua, in Italy.
Lanfranchi and the Medical School of Paris.—According to Edouard Nicaise[64] medicine was not taught publicly at Paris previously to 1160 A. D. The teaching was carried on at that time by associations of physicians, and it was only during the following century (about 1250 A. D.) that something like a university was established in that city. Up to the end of the sixteenth century (1595 A. D.), during the reign of Henry IV., this institution remained under the control of the Church. Its functions—so far at least as medicine was concerned—were limited to the bestowing of degrees, for it possessed at that time no organization of instructors and no permanent quarters in which the teaching might be carried on systematically; a church (see Fig. 10) or the Dean’s residence serving as the locality in which the lectures were commonly delivered.
During the middle part of the thirteenth century and for a long time afterward, the practice of surgery, which was then of a rather primitive type, was entirely in the hands of two classes of men—the barbers and the so-called surgeons.[65] As time went on, the surgeons began to feel the necessity of securing better protection for their material interests, which were being more and more encroached upon by the barbers—a class of men who were not privileged by the authorities to include in their field of activities anything beyond hair-cutting, shaving, cupping, the extraction of teeth, the application of leeches, the incision of boils and perhaps one or two other simple operations. For this reason, therefore, and also probably because they too felt in some measure the effects of the Renaissance spirit which was then abroad in the land, they organized themselves (1254 A. D.) into an association which bore the name of “College of Saint Cosmas” (Collège de St. Côme).[66] One of the early acts of this association was to establish the rule that all applicants for membership should pass successfully an examination as to their fitness before they could be admitted. Very little is known about the doings of the organization during the early years of its existence. Later, as we shall see, it played a very important part in the history of medicine in France.
FIG. 10. THE MANNER OF GIVING PUBLIC INSTRUCTION IN MEDICINE DURING THE MIDDLE AGES.
(From Meaux Saint-Marc’s L’École de Salerne.)
The present cut is evidently a modern copy of a much earlier original.
From the account given by Nicaise it appears that no regular instruction in anatomy was given in the University of Paris until after the fourteenth century, and then only from three to five times a year, when the body of a person who had been hung was publicly dissected. “Such a dissection lasted seven days and was a veritable scientific festival.” No official cliniques were held and the only way in which the student of medicine could obtain some practical acquaintance with disease and with the methods of treatment was by attaching himself to a physician or a surgeon, or to a barber.
From the preceding brief and very incomplete account the reader will, I trust, be able to form some idea of the condition of affairs, medical and surgical, in Paris at the time when Lanfranchi arrived in that city.