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SURGERY IN GERMANY AND SWITZERLAND DURING THE FIFTEENTH AND SIXTEENTH CENTURIES

There were five men in Germany and German Switzerland who, during the Renaissance, attained distinction as surgeons, and who at the same time contributed, by their published writings as well as by the force of example, to the advancement of medical science. The names of these five surgeons are: Pfolspeundt, Brunschwig, von Gerssdorff, Fabricius of Hilden and Felix Wuertz. The first three mentioned were born in the early part of the fifteenth century, and all five of them derived their practical knowledge of surgery in large measure from their experience in warfare. Individual sketches of these men will be furnished farther on, but I believe that these will be better understood if a brief account of the state of medical education in general throughout Germany, at the period which I am now considering, be first supplied.

''State of Medical Education in General Throughout Germany (1400-1600).''—The University of Heidelberg was founded in 1386, but it was not until about 1550 that the first beginnings of medical teaching made their appearance in that institution. Equally feeble attempts were made, twenty years later, to organize the teaching of medicine at the University of Wuertzburg; but very little appears to have been accomplished during the immediately following years, as may be judged from the official announcement, in 1587, of what things the Professor of Surgery would teach in the three-years' course. "First year: Lectures on the subject of tumors, in accordance with the teachings