Eye cures.
Parts of animals are much employed in corrosives for eye complaints. Green lizards, all gall, but especially that of birds of prey, omne stercus but human especially, all salts but especially nitrates, the inner skin of a hen’s liver, the blood of a black fly, and many other similar substances are recommended.[1596] For spots in the eyes Gilbert suggests administering whole in drink the little worms with many feet which are found between the bark and trunk of trees. “But they should be taken with the Lord’s Prayer.”[1597]
Influence of the stars.
Occasionally a passage evinces Gilbert’s belief in the influence of the stars. He speaks of the participation of the heavens in the process of human generation[1598] and of the influence of the various planets on the formation of the embryo in the womb.[1599] In arguing that a poisonous compound multiplies its potency through the union of the species composing it, and that it “has a stronger action than if it were simple”[1600]—a passage in which there is a close approach to our conception of chemical change—Gilbert adduces the influence of the heavens as a factor in increasing the strength of the compound. He holds that the celestial bodies resemble terrestrial mineral substances in not feeling pain, but that unlike them they are sentient, sensible, and unchangeable. They are bodies, but uncorruptible.[1601] Arnald of Villanova[1602] at the end of the century cites Gilbert’s warning in his first book on fevers against bleeding the patient during dog days or the Egyptian days or when the moon is in conjunction with a malevolent planet. Gilbert adds that the wise doctor will always observe the moon.
The soul, number, and geometry; physiognomy.
In the midst of his discussion of dropsy Gilbert digresses to treat of the soul, “because ignorance gives birth to shame and stupidity to poverty.” Some traces of numerical and geometrical mysticism are seen in his discussion.[1603] He represents Pythagoras as saying that the soul is number moving itself, and that of its four properties or functions intellect is like the number one because it comprehends simple matters and so is compared to a point. Reason is like two or a line since it comprehends form as it exists in bodies. Opinion is like four or a surface because it comprehends form as form. Science is like eight or a cube because it comprehends form ut est in subiecto. Gilbert further explains that the three souls assigned to man by Aristotle are really the triple power of one soul.[1604] He compares the vegetative soul to a triangle, the sensible soul to a square, and the rational soul to a circle. Gilbert regards the disagreement between Aristotle and Plato concerning the movement of the soul as verbal rather than real. “Aristotle discusses matters truly, essentially, and philosophically; Plato, figuratively, casually, and mathematically.” Gilbert occasionally embodies the dicta of the physiognomists in his Compendium, for instance: “He whose eyes are large and tremulous is lazy and a braggart and fond of women”; and “He who has large ears is stolid and long lived.”[1605]
Astrological medicine in William of England’s De urina non visa.
Because perhaps of Gilbert’s commentary upon the verses of Giles concerning urines, a Master G. of England who is the author of “a book in which he tells how to know the character of the urine without inspecting it and many other things by means of astrology,” in a Vienna manuscript is called in the catalogue Gilbertus instead of Guilelmus Anglicus.[1606] As many other manuscripts[1607] of the treatise show, the work is really the Of Urine Unseen written in 1219 by William of England, a citizen of Marseilles, by profession a medical man, by merit of science an astronomer, as he himself states. Indeed, there are extant other astronomical works by him, one of which is dated 1231.[1608] The object of the brief treatise is how to tell the nature of the patient’s disease and the outcome of it from the stars and signs of the zodiac without inspection of the patient’s urine. The nine chapters deal with (1) “the quadruple way of astrological speculation,” that is, nativities, revolutions, interrogations, and elections; (2) “the comprehension of the effects of superior bodies” on the human body for each sign of the zodiac and the use of astrology in medicine; (3) the division of the human body among the planets and their natures and properties with the diseases appropriate to them; (4) the houses of the planets; (5) the distribution of the parts of the body among the planets and signs with an accompanying chart of eighty-four squares arranged in seven columns and twelve rows; (6) how to arrive at a judgment in any particular case by finding the ruling planet;[1609] (7) “of the place of the liver and its significator and the virtues of the same”; (8) of the color and substance of the urine; (9) of the outcome of the sickness and its end. William mentions in closing a case where he correctly predicted that the patient would die in exactly two months and eight days.
Other works by William of England or by other Williams.
We have already alluded elsewhere[1610] to “the very great secret of Catenus, king of the Persians, concerning the virtue of the eagle” which William of England is credited with having translated from the Arabic. And we have suggested that a William of Aragon who commented upon the Centiloquium ascribed to Ptolemy and wrote a treatise on the interpretation of dreams might possibly have been the same man.[1611] We also hear of a “William, master of medicine, of Provençal nationality,” who translated from Greek into Latin the life of the philosopher Secundus, which work he brought with him from Constantinople. Afterwards, we are told, this William became a monk of St. Denis and finally the abbot of that monastery. Secundus is described as a philosopher who observed the rule of silence and led the life of a Pythagorean, and who was associated with the emperor Hadrian.[1612] He appears to have broken his silence enough to give forth Sententiae which were treasured up by that emperor.[1613]