Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 51.djvu/704

688, which would be valuable in some cases, to correct it, add to it, subtract, oppose, or applaud it. He should ask them concerning the character of the disease, what it is called, what the experience of experts has been with it, what authors mention it, and in what part of their works. These questions being answered, he should inquire whether the disease is curable or not, and how. For a simple example in surgery," says Mondeville, "to show better how the thing is done, suppose a tumor on a fleshy part, the shoulder or the thigh, is to be treated: the doctor should inquire of what matter or humor it is formed; whether of the blood, for example. He should then inform himself concerning the disease, its beginning and progress, and ask if an evacuation is not desirable. This being decided upon, of what kind—a bleeding? If yes, in what limb or what vein, when and where; for the practice varies according to the season and the habits of the patients, and according to the aspects of the moon and the heavenly bodies and an infinite variety of things." Such is the regular, decorous consultation, but things did not always go on thus smoothly.

Before repeating what Mondeville says concerning the incidents of consultations, I will expound the sage precepts he lays down for consultation at a distance, a subject to which he devoted a whole notable. This is an important point when we recollect that at that time, and thence on down to the sixteenth century, the doctor often gave his advice without leaving his office, without seeing the patient, by examining his fluids and asking some questions of the messenger. It is not worth while to give all that Mondeville says, but only the principal parts of his chapter, omitting the arguments which he draws from the authors that preceded him. It was one of the characteristics of the period, as I have already remarked, that authors generally rested their opinions, not principally on their own experience and studies, but on what Galen and some Arabian authors said. The respect of some for their predecessors was absolute, and they cared for nothing besides what rested on the authority of these.