one's manner of living. In these he gives prominence to the value of baths, to the importance of taking a certain amount of physical exercise, and to the selection of the right kinds of food. He also describes in detail how wine may be utilized advantageously in cases of illness. As regards the choice of remedies to be employed he says that the physician should be guided by a very careful consideration of the patient's age, temperament, habits of living, etc.; and, so long as there remains any doubt about the correctness of the diagnosis, he should employ only mild and indifferent remedies. The greatest care, he adds, should be exercised in the preparation of the drugs that are to be administered, and one should be very cautious about prescribing substances which have not been sufficiently tried.
Arnold's writings are full of precepts which, like those
quoted above, show him to have been an excellent practitioner
of medicine as well as a man of sound common sense.
And yet at the same time he appears to have been more or
less tainted with the prevailing belief in astrology, in the
efficacy of amulets (as in the case of Pope Boniface referred
to on a previous page), etc. His enemies gave him the
reputation of being a sorcerer upon whom the Devil had
bestowed the power of transmuting metals,—a reputation
which undoubtedly was based upon the fact that Arnold
interested himself greatly in alchemistic processes, often
referring to them as closely resembling such organic
phenomena as generation, birth, growth, etc. But, in our
judgment of the man, we should be careful to remember that
during the thirteenth century a belief in alchemy, astrology,
the efficacy of amulets, the influence of supernatural
agencies, etc., was almost universal. Even theologians
maintained that it was a sin for a practitioner of medicine
to neglect the influence of certain constellations. Indeed,
there are even to-day, not a few very sensible people in
whose minds exists a lingering belief in the interference of
supernatural agencies in human affairs.
The importance of the influence which Arnold of Villanova exerted upon the progress of medical science, and more especially upon the fame of the Medical School of Montpellier, should not be estimated exclusively from the
