t
1270, a passage that shows how familiar this surgeon must have been
with dissection. The nephew of Count Pallavicini received an arrow
wound in the jugular vein and died within an hour. During his death
agony he suffered from a peculiar form of rattle in his throat. It was
thought that this might be due to the fact that the arrow had been
poisoned. William was called in to decide this question, and found
that there was nothing responsible for his death except the wound
itself. He describes how he found the blood in the lungs and in the
heart, and considers that the conditions that were present were due to
the wound. Von Toeply has suggested that William would have given more
details had he actually examined these organs, but when the autopsy
report is negative, such descriptive details are not usual even at the
present time. If he had found reason for thinking that there was
poison in the case, a careful description of the other organs would be
necessary. The fact, however, that he was asked to decide such a
question, would seem to indicate that he was supposed to have a
knowledge of the normal appearances of human tissues when examined by
dissection.

In everything else Lanfranc went farther than his {70} master William,
and he did so also in anatomy. Some of the details of his work will be
found in our chapter on Surgery in the Middle Ages. He could not have
been able to give the detailed instructions that he has for the
treatment of every portion of the body only that he knew them by
actual contact in the cadaver as well as the patient. His outlook upon
scientific medicine and surgery would satisfy even the most exacting
of modern experimental scientists. The famous aphorism of his runs as
follows: "Every science which depends on operation is greatly
strengthened by experience." More than anything else, however, surgery
owes to Lanfranc the distinct advantage that he carried into the West
as far as Paris, the methods which had come into existence in Italy,
and were ever after to prove a precious heritage in the great French
University. As Salicet's work was carried on by Lanfranc, at least as
well was Lanfranc's work further advanced by his pupil and successor
in the chair of surgery, Henri de Mondeville. This subject of surgical
development will be treated in the chapter on Surgery in the Middle
Ages. Here it is introduced only to emphasize the opportunity there
must have been for anatomical study through dissect