Page:The growth of medicine from the earliest times to about 1800.djvu/276



made the subject of public teaching at Ravenna toward the end of the eighth century of the present era And the transcribing of medical manuscripts was known to be carried on at the Monastery of St. Gall, in Switzerland, during the eighth century It is plain, therefore, that throughout those extensive regions which previously had formed a part of the Roman Empire, but which during the Middle Ages were under the dominion of Barbarian kings, there was never an entire lack of physicians, or of medical knowledge, or of facilities for teaching medicine. (Daremberg.)

In the light of these statements it is easy to believe that the original development of the Medical School at Salerno was a perfectly natural event like that of the founding of any of the medical schools of a more recent date. The remarkably healthy and singularly attractive character of the spot where the town of Salerno is located; the proximity of mineral springs; the comparatively short distance which separated it from such important centres of population as Naples and the cities of the Island of Sicily, and from the famous Benedictine Monasteries at La Cava, Beneventum and Monte Cassino; and the circumstance that a Ducal Court was established there—all these are facts which amply explain both why a medical school was founded here rather than at some other spot, and why physicians of exceptional ability were easily induced to make the place their home. At no time in the history of the school, it is important to state, do the church authorities appear to have been in control of its affairs. At most, one or two of the monks seem to have taken part in the teaching for limited periods of time; but in its main characteristics the school may truthfully be described as an institution created and managed by physicians for the advancement of medical science and the best interests of the profession as a whole.

The organization of hospitals and their utilization for purposes of clinical instruction must have been the most important events which followed next in order. It is only