Page:The growth of medicine from the earliest times to about 1800.djvu/344

 London, and of private physician to the royal family. He was also the author of a medical treatise which was generally known by the title, "Rosa Anglica" (first printed in 1492). Neuburger speaks of this book as being an imitation of Gourdon's "Lilium Medicinae," but of a somewhat inferior grade, and he quotes two or three passages which show that medicine was in a very low stage of development in England at the beginning of the fourteenth century. Gaddesden, for example, advises his confrères to adopt the rule of always securing their honorarium before they undertake the treatment of a sick person. In another part of the book he states that he treated one of the sons of Edward II. for small-pox and secured excellent results, not merely as regards the perfect restoration of his health, but also as regards the complete prevention of any pitting of his face. He attributes this success to the fact that he enveloped the patient in a red cloth and took pains to have every object in the vicinity of the bed draped in red. John Mirfeld, who lived during the second half of the fourteenth century, completed his medical studies in Oxford, then entered the Monastery of St. Bartholomew's in London, and devoted himself thenceforward to work in connection with the hospital belonging to that institution. Among the books which he wrote there are a few that deal with matters of interest to the physician. Such, for example, are a glossary which bears the title "Synonyma Bartholomaei," a work called the "Breviarium Bartholo-*of Salerno never confided to her agents in various parts of the world the secret of more marvelous and unexpected recipes." (From Jusserand's "English Wayfaring Life in the Middle Ages.")]