in some measure the effects of the Renaissance spirit which was then abroad in the land, they organized themselves (1254 A. D.) into an association which bore the name of "College of Saint Cosmas" (Collège de St. Côme).[1] One of the early acts of this association was to establish the rule that all applicants for membership should pass successfully an examination as to their fitness before they could be admitted. Very little is known about the doings of the organization during the early years of its existence. Later, as we shall see, it played a very important part in the history of medicine in France.
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FIG. 10. THE MANNER OF GIVING PUBLIC INSTRUCTION IN MEDICINE DURING THE MIDDLE AGES.
(From Meaux Saint-Marc's L'École de Salerne.)
The present cut is evidently a modern copy of a much earlier original.
- ↑ The surgeons Cosmas and Damian were chosen patron saints of the new organization. They were born in Arabia in the third century, and are said to have been educated there. After having practiced medicine for a certain length of time in Sicily, they were tortured and killed, because of their Christian faith, by order of the Emperor Diocletian, 303 A. D. Hence the title "Saints."
