Page:The growth of medicine from the earliest times to about 1800.djvu/499

that period second in importance only to Paris, and in some respects it was the equal of the metropolis in celebrity. The art of printing was introduced there in 1472, and the presses of that city were soon reckoned the best in Europe. Many medical books were published at Lyons. François Rabelais (1483-1553), the celebrated author of the humorous and satirical works "Gargantua" and "Pantagruel," was a regularly educated physician, and during his residence at Lyons he edited various works of Hippocrates and Galen. Michael Servetus, who displayed such marked ability by his researches in regard to the circulation of the blood, was also a resident of Lyons from 1530 to 1543. Some idea of the way in which a large hospital was managed in those early days may be gained from the following statement of facts: In 1619 as many as five patients were permitted to occupy one bed in Hôtel-Dieu at Lyons. Although the hospital possessed accommodations for a total of five hundred and forty-nine patients (including pilgrims and poor people), there was only one medical man whose duty it was to look after the surgical cases, and he resided outside the building. At a somewhat later date there was provided a "chirurgien principal," whose duty it was to give the needed surgical care to this class of patients, and who was obliged to reside in the hospital. When this chief surgeon required assistance in the dressing of wounds, etc., he was authorized to make use of the "apothecary's boy." The stock of surgical instruments possessed by the hospital in 1543 comprised the following items: One uterine speculum; one trephine, which was composed of thirteen separate parts; one mouth-plug, for use in keeping the jaws separated; one ear speculum; and one elevatorium. All these facts, taken together, furnish strongly corroborative evidence of the statement made by von Gurlt in his Geschichte der Chirurgie, viz., that in France, during the sixteenth century, the occupation of surgeon was considered by the community but little better than that of a hair-cutter. It is therefore not surprising that the great hospital of Lyons should have been managed at that time in accordance with such a low sanitary standard and with