Page:The growth of medicine from the earliest times to about 1800.djvu/283

 "Anglorum"; for which reason he believes that the introduction of a dedication was made long after the poem had been written. It will probably appear strange to most readers that the author of the "Regimen Sanitatis" (or "Flos Medicinae," as it was sometimes called) should have written his text in the form of verse rather than in that of prose. He himself states briefly, at the end of the poem, some of the reasons why he preferred to adopt this course. Rhythm, he maintains, makes it easy to say a great deal in a few words; besides which, it facilitates by its novelty the memorizing of new facts, and also enables one quickly to recall to mind those which have been learned at some previous time. His judgment seems to have been entirely correct, for the book proved to be immensely popular, and retained its popularity throughout an extraordinarily long period of time. Furthermore, as already stated, it accomplished a great deal toward enhancing the reputation of the Salerno School of Medicine. When we consider how difficult it must have been in those days for students of medicine to memorize facts which were stored in books that were very costly and oftentimes not obtainable at any price, we cease to wonder at the great popularity of this miniature cyclopaedia in leonine verse. Here were to be found, at one-fourth or one-tenth the price of any similar book written in prose, all the essentials (anatomy, physiology, pathology, etc.) required by the candidate for medical honors; and if, perchance, he possessed a good memory, he might, without a very great mental effort, transfer the entire poem to his own private storehouse of facts.

A few extracts from this remarkable piece of medical literature are given below, in the belief that many of our readers will find them of interest.