Antall József szerk.: Pictures from the Past of the Healing Arts / Orvostörténeti Közlemények – Supplementum 5. (Budapest, 1972)

Pictures from the Past of the Healing Arts (Guide for the Exhibition)

20 Medical theory in the 16th and 17th centuries reveals a twofold character. Those who stuck firmly to the classical past refused to accept the new theories. Their number was great but with the spread of the new results this number decreased rapidly. The other side - increasing both in number and scientific reputation - rejected the classics as a whole, kept pace with the "modern" discoveries and tried to make use of the results of the natural sciences in the field of medicine, too. Contemporary literature was a true reflection of this twofold character of medicine. Classical works which were considered the representations of imperishable values were continued to be published without any alteration or at the most with a brief commentary. We present here among others an edition of Hippocrates' "Opera omnia" published in 1558 in Basle and the edition of Galen's "Librorum sexta" published in 1597. The other "sect" is well represented by Thomas Sydenham (1624-1689), the "English Hippocrates" who is not responsible for any spectacular discovery, neither did he teach in a university, yet his practice in hospitals had such a great influence on his contemporaries and posterity that even to-day he is considered the founder of modern clinical medicine. Among the works on show special mention should be made of the herbal of Petrus Andreas Ma ĥi¤lųs (1501-1577), a physician of great knowledge and reputation, published a Kreutterbuch in Frankfort in 1586. Above the bocks there is a picture painted by an unknown Flemish master at the turn of the I7th-i8th centuries representing a "Lancet Operation" (Fig. 15.). 2. Medical practice in the i6th-ijth centuries Next to the engraving from the work of Hans von Gersdorf "Feldtbuch der Wųñđ arzñeÿ" ('Field book of wound surgery') published in 1517 representing a haemostasis, some burning irons are exhibited whose shape has hardly undergone any change from the Middle ages until the beginning of the 19th century. The immediate "benefit" of the wars was a dynamic improvement in surgery. This observation can be well demonstrated by the life-work of Ambroise Pare (1510-1590). His long life was spent mostly in wars, thus he dominated the field of surgery not only because of his talent - but also due to his long practice as a military surgeon. Hew as not a trained physician, he did not know Latin either and the classical authors meant nothing to him. Yet he won reputation and was fully acknowledged which is also proved by his appointment as surgeon-in-chief at the College Saint-Come. Experience and an incident led him to the recognition that gunshot wounds are not poisonous and therefore they do not have to be treated by burning. In this question he was opposed by no less an authority than Giovanni de Vigo

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