[123] Riley’s Introduction to Liber Albus, pp. lv., lvii.
[124] Introduction to Liber Albus, p. lviii.
[125] In the compilation of this chapter I am much indebted to the kindness of my friend Mr. D’Arcy Power, who has not only helped me with information from his own great knowledge of the history of surgery and medicine, but who also drew my attention to and lent me books and pamphlets of which I should otherwise have been ignorant.
[126] Coming of the Friars, London, 1889, p. 6.
[127] A History of Epidemics in Britain, 2 vols. 8vo, Cambridge, 1891-1894.
[128] Medical Times and Gazette, November 18, 1881, p. 601.
[129] Progress of Medicine at St. Batholomew’s Hospital, 1888, p. 5.
[130] See the British Medical Journal, 1902, vol. ii. p. 1176.
[131] In ‘How Surgery became a Profession in London.’ London, Medical Magazine, 1899.
[132] Dr. Poore has analysed the different points in Chaucer’s description, and explained the various allusions of the statement that the doctor’s line of study had little to do with the Bible. Dr. Poore writes: ‘This line is frequently quoted to show that the scepticism with which doctors are often charged is of no modern growth. The point of the line is however to be found in the fact that Chaucer’s doctor was certainly a priest, as were all the physicians of his time, and that the practice of medicine had drawn him away, somewhat unduly, perhaps, from the clerical profession, to which he also belonged.’—G.V. Poore, M.D. London from the Sanitary and Medical Point of View, 1889, p. 52.