) Is it not strange that this ancient
was wiser than most of us are even yet."

{176}

Striking as all this is, much more that is of interest might be added
to it from Pagel's account of Lanfranc's work. Pagel says that he has
excellent chapters on the affections of the eyes, the ears and mouth,
the nose, even the teeth, and treats of hernia in a very practical,
common sense way. He warns against the radical operation, and says in
phrases that have often been repeated even in our own time, that many
surgeons decide on operations too easily, not for the sake of the
patient, but for the sake of the money there is in them. He believes
that most of the danger and inconvenience of the hernia can be removed
by means of a properly fitting truss. He treats of stone in the
kidney, but insists that the main thing for this affection is
prophylaxis. He suggests that stone in the bladder should first be
treated by internal remedies; but in severe cases advises extraction.
Lanfranc's discussion of cystotomy, Pagel characterizes "as prudent,
yet rational," for he considers that the operation should not be
feared too much nor delayed too long. In patients suffering from the
inconvenience which comes from large quantities of fluid in the
abdomen, he advises _paracentesis abdominis_. He warns, however,
against putting the patient in danger from such an operation without
due consideration and only when symptoms absolutely demand it.

Pagel says that Lanfranc must be considered as one of the greatest of
the surgeons of the Middle Ages and the real founder of the French
School of Surgery which continued to be the most prominent in the
world down to the nineteenth century. Lanfranc had equalled, if not
surpassed, his great master William Salicet. His own disciple,
Mondeville, accomplished almost as much for surgery as his master,
however. Both of them were {177} destined to be thrown into the shade
for succeeding generations by another great French surgeon of the next
half-century, Guy de Chauliac. Pagel can scarcely say enough of the
capacity as a teacher of Lanfranc. The seeds of surgical doctrine
which he sowed bore fruit richly. His important successors in French
surgery walked for the most part in his tracks and thus furnished the
best proof of the enduring character of his capacity as a teacher.

The next great name in thirteenth century surgery, for we are not yet
out of that fruitful period, is Henri de Mondeville. He was known