teach, and as almost all modern surgeons practice—to favor the generation of pus in wounds. This doctrine is a very great error. To follow such teaching is simply to put an obstacle in the way of nature's efforts, to prolong the diseased action, and to prohibit the agglutination and final consolidation of the wound."[1]
In his enumeration of the different means that may be employed for arresting hemorrhage, Theodoric mentions cauterization, tamponading, the application of a ligature, and the complete division of the injured blood-vessel. He attached great importance to the proper feeding of the patient. In Book III., chapter 49, of his treatise on surgery, he gives minute instructions with regard to the proper manner of employing a salve made with quicksilver, and at the same time he mentions the fact that he observed a flow of saliva as one of the results of its use.
The expressions "healing by first intention" and "healing by second intention" are encountered for the first time in the writings of Brunus, a surgeon who practiced in the cities of Verona and Padua about the middle of the thirteenth century, and who was a vigorous advocate of the dry method of treating wounds. His two treatises ("Chirurgia magna" and "Chirurgia minor") were printed in Venice in 1546. Neuburger says that although a large part of the text in these volumes consists of extracts from Galen, Avicenna, Hippocrates, Abulcasis and other authorities, there are to be found at the same time not a few observations of an original character.
William of Saliceto.—William of Saliceto (Guglielmo da Saliceto) is accorded by Neuburger the honor of being Bologna's greatest surgeon—if not, indeed, the greatest surgeon of that period. He was born in the early part of the thirteenth century and spent a large portion of his professional life in Bologna, where he not only practiced
- ↑ "Non enim est necesse saniem—sicut Rogerius et Rolandus scripserunt et plerique eorum discipuli docent, et fere omnes cururgici moderni servant—in vulneribus generare. Iste enim error est major quam potest esse. Non est enim aliud, nisi impedire naturam, prolongare morbum, prohibere con-*glutinationem et consolidationem vulneris." (II., cap. 27.)
