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MEDICINE AMONG THE GERMANS. 191
boys of 14 or 15 years of age were to be found.* For the
rest, this teaching may have almost entirely been limited
to the reading of the medical writings of antiquity, and to
explaining the meaning of these, as was also the case in
many monastic schools. Later on, the students learnt how
to recognize the medicinal plants, opportunities being
afforded for this in the imperial gardens, t They seem to
have drawn into the domain of teaching even the practice
of medicine itself. The w*ords in ALCUIN'S poem on
CHARLEMAGNE^: can hardly be understood otherwise than
to imply that in the neighbourhood of the court there was
a hospital in which doctors performed different functions.
"One let the patients' blood, another mixed herbs in a
pot, that one cooked some pap, while this one prepared a
drink."
Probably the infirmaries attached to many monasteries
served as examples for such arrangements. The monks
took a keen interest in the care of the sick. " Learn to
know the properties of plants and the art of mixing
remedies," said CASSIODORUS to them§ "but place all your
hope on the Lord who preserves life eternally. If the
language of the Greeks is not unknown to you, you have
the book of herbs of DiOSKORiDES, who has described
and pictured forth the plants of the field with surprising
accuracy. Afterwards, read HIPPOKRATES and GALEN in
the Latin translation, that is to say, the Therapeutics of
the latter which he has addressed to the philosopher
* J. CH. F. BAEHR : De literarum studiis a Carolo Magno revocatis ac schola
Palatina instaurata, Heidelberg 1856, S. 26, Anm. 33.
t Capit. de villis. Cf. MEYER op. tit. iii, S. 397 et seq.
X Alcuinii carmina, ed. E. DUMMLER in Mon. Germ. Poet, lat., T. i, p. 245,
No. xxvi, v. 12-16.
Accurrunt medici mox Hippocratica secta ;
Hie venas fundit herbas, hie miscet in olla,
Ille coquit pultes, alter sed pocula praefert;
Et tamen, 0 medici, cunctis impedite gratis
Ut manibus vestris adsit benedictio Christi.
If in the first line we read tecta for secta, the allusion to a hospital is still plainer
§ CASSIODORUS: Inst, divin. lect. i, C. 31.