value of his writings nor from the character of the work which he performed as an instructor in that school. In the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries physicians as a class did not hold so high a position socially in Western Europe as they were probably entitled to hold, and consequently Arnold's later career, in which he showed himself to be a wise, broad-minded, and very able statesman and as an enthusiastic champion of greater liberty of thought in the domain of religion, must be looked upon as having aided very materially in raising the profession of medicine to a higher rank and in adding éclat to the School of Montpellier.
Contemporaries and Successors of Arnold of Villanova at Montpellier.—During Arnold's lifetime there does not appear to have been another physician at Montpellier who could be compared with him in professional ability or in general culture. There was one, however, who attained considerable fame as a medical author, and who certainly deserves at least a brief notice in this place—Bernard de Gourdon, also known as Gordonius.
Bernard de Gourdon[1] began teaching medicine in Montpellier in 1285 A. D. He was the author of a treatise which bore the title "Lilium Medicinae," and which enjoyed an unusual degree of popularity for a long period of time. The earliest printed edition appeared in Lyons in 1474 and was followed by several others in 1491, 1550, 1559 and 1574. One of the latest editions is that of Frankfort, 1617. The book was also translated into both French and Spanish. In his description of the seven parts into which the book is divided, the author says, by way of praising his own work: "In the lily there are many different kinds of blossoms and in each one of these there are seven grains of a golden character." The book treats of fevers, poisonings, abscesses, tumors, wounds and ulcers, of diseases of the liver, spleen, kidneys and bladder, of affections of the eyes, and of numerous other topics. The work as a whole,
- ↑ A small town in the Department of Lot, France. The earliest Norman ancestors of the Gurdon family in England are said to have derived their name from that of this town.
