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274
THE MIDDLE AGES.
this time anaesthetic inhalations were made use of in great j
surgical operations. They are mentioned first in the Antidotarium
of NlCOLAUS PROPOSITUS; for this purpose a
new sponge was used, which having been saturated with
solutions of narcotic substances, for instance, opium, hyoscyamus,
etc., was dried in the sun and before use was placed
in hot water; it was then held to the nose of the patient j
when the rising vapours reduced him to a condition of
stupefaction and unconsciousness of pain.*
The-treatment of diseases of the eyes lay for the most
part in the hands of empirics who attempted by ointments
and medicaments to effect their cure. The best ophthalmic ^
surgeons belonged, as A. BENEDETTI says, to the Eastjf
from thence BENVENUTUS GRAPHEUS and others came to
Europe and by their art achieved great success. The
operation for cataract was carried out by depression of
the affected lens as in ancient times : GUIDO DE CAULIACO
says that, in order to prevent it rising again the lens should ;
be held down during the recital of three paternosters or
one miserere.%
In the middle ages it fared even worse with midwifery
than it did with ophthalmic practice. The doctors who
belonged to the priesthood, did not venture to engage in it, j
that they might be preserved from undue familiarity with ;
women, and other practitioners did not concern themselves
with it. Ignorance, idleness, and other causes prevented-\
the doctors from practising midwifery. They were called
to parturient women only when it was a question of removing
a dead foetus from the uterus or of extracting a
retained placenta. Medical interference was as a general
rule limited to these two tasks, in this province. GuiDtij
DE CAULIACO says in his work upon surgery that he is
unwilling to dwell at length upon midwifery, seeing that as
* G. DE CAULIAC.: Chirurg., tr. i, doct. i, c. 8.—A. CORRADI : Escursioni
d'un medico nel Decamerone, inAtti dell'istituto Lombardo, 1878, p. 127 etseq.
•(• A. HIRSCH : Geschichte der Augenheilkunde op. cit. S. 295.
J G. DE CAULIAC op. cit. Ir. vi, doctr. 2, c. 2.