A HISTORY OT MEDICINE

it was against such that Henri de Mondeville took his stand.
Nevertheless, he himself did not fulfil the highest ethical rules
when he suggested that in order to sustain the spirits of a patient,
" false letters may be written telling of the death of his enemies,
or if he is a canon of the Church, he should be told that the
bishop is dead and that he is elected." He adds a more reputable
means of cheer, namely, to " solace him by playing on a ten-
stringed psaltery." Like the monks against whom he railed, he
expected to be well paid for his services. He tells us that
" when treating an accident, the friends should be excluded as
they may faint and cause a disturbance ; nevertheless some-
times a higher fee may be obtained from persons fainting and
breaking their heads than from the principal patient.5'1 Perhaps
it is best not to take Henri de Mondeville too seriously; he
may have been merely indulging his sense of humour. He cer-
tainly was doing so when he suggested that if a physician were
attending a patient without result, he should say, " My business
prevents me from attending you a.ny longer, so I advise you to call
in a surgeon." Obviously the rivalry between physicians and
surgeons was keen, even in the Middle Ages. Although some
amusing sayings of Henri de Mondeville have been quoted, he
must be regarded as a sound surgeon and anatomist. His progres-
sive outlook is indicated by his caustic remark that " God did not
exhaust all his creative power in making Galen." One final
quotation reveals Henri, or Henricus as he is often called in
literature, as the far-seeing and broad-minded scholar. Speaking
of the need for a close relationship between medicine and surgery,
he states that ** no surgeon can be expert who does not know
medicine, just as no one can be a good physician if he is ignorant
of surgery." His surgical works, translated into French by Nicaise,
were published in an elegant edition in 1893.2

Paris and Padua

Montpellier did not long remain the most important medical
school of Europe. Other centres of learning were corning into
the picture. Paris and Padua 3 were about to take leading places

1 E. T. Withington, Medical History fiom ike Earliest Timts> 1894, P* 8H
* E. Nicaise, La Chirurgie de Maitre Henri fa Mondeville» Paris, 1893
8 A. Castiglioni, "The Medical School at Padua/' Ann* Med* Hist*, 1935, vol. vii.
p. 214
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