hom in two places he has given due credit, and on the
Greek writers. There are no traces of Arabisms to be found in Roger's
writing, while they are full of Grecisms. Roger represents the first
important writer on surgery in modern times, and his works have been
printed several times because of their value as original documents.

[Footnote 21: Geschichte der Chirurgie und ihrer Ausuebung. Von Dr. E.
Gurlt, Vol. I., p. 701.]

It is wonderfully amusing to anyone who knows Gurlt's History of
Surgery, [Footnote 22] that the distinguished old professor of the
University of Berlin, looked up to as so well informed as to the
history of the branch of medical science to which he had devoted a
long life, should have wasted some three hundred pages of his first
volume on the {171} History of Surgery in Middle and West Europe
during the Middle Ages, for they are mainly taken up with the
consideration of the period when President White asserts that there
was no surgery in Europe. Gurlt even protests that he has not as much
space as he would like to devote to these old-time masters of surgery,
who did so much to lay the foundation of modern surgical practices.
Those who have paid any attention to President White's assertion with
regard to surgery at this time, should at least look over Gurlt. They
will thus realize what a dangerous thing it is to attempt large
conclusions in the history of a department of knowledge of which one
knows nothing. They will also realize how easy it is for a writer with
some prestige, to lead others astray in a matter of history, by simply
making assertions without taking the trouble to see whether they are
supported by the facts in the case or not.

[Footnote 22: Geschichte der Chirurgie und ihrer Ausuebung. Von Dr. K.
Gurlt, Geh. Med. Rath, Prof, der Chirurgie an der Koeniglichen
Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universitaet zu Berlin. Berlin, 1898.]

The modern American historian of Theology and Science says, "for over
a thousand years surgery was considered dishonorable." For the sake of
contrast with this opinion of President White's, read for a moment the
following remarks which constitute the opening sentences of Pagel's
paragraphs on Surgery from 1200 to 1500, in Puschmann's Handbuch of
the History of Medicine, already referred to. Before making the
quotation, let me recall attention to the fact that Professor Pagel is
the best informed living writer on the history of medicine. This book
was issued in 1902. I