a certain number of local diseases; thus enabling the reader to obtain a very fair idea of what was the condition of medical science at Salerno during the twelfth century of the present era.
The famous didactic poem known as the "School of Salerno" (Schola Salernitana) and also as the "Code of Health of the School of Salerno" (Regimen Sanitatis Salernitanum), was composed originally about 1100 A. D. It was clearly intended in the first instance for the guidance of laymen in matters relating to diet, the conservation of health and the prevention of disease; but from time to time, as the years rolled on, there were added to it several sections which changed materially the character of the poem. From a mere code of health it became eventually a fairly complete cyclopaedia of medicine in versified form; the number of the verses having increased fully tenfold during this long period. The poem, in its latest state, is arranged in ten principal sections, as follows: Hygiene (8 chapters); materia medica (4 chapters); anatomy (4 chapters); physiology (9 chapters); etiology (3 chapters); significance of different signs (24 chapters); pathology (8 chapters); therapeutics (22 chapters); nosology (20 chapters); and the practice of medicine as actually experienced (5 chapters).
The work has been translated into nearly every modern language, and, according to an estimate which was made in 1857, there are in existence no fewer than 240 different editions. The most recent of these is the French translation made by Meaux Saint-Marc and published by him (2d edition) in Paris in 1880. There are two English versions—that by A. Croke (Oxford, 1830), and the more recent one by John Ordronaux (Philadelphia, 1871).
Some authorities make the statement that the poem was written originally for the guidance of Robert, the son of William the Conqueror; but Neuburger says that the dedication of the work to this prince is lacking in many of the original manuscript copies and that in some instances the word "Francorum" is to be found in the place of
