l cases who did not indulge much in
theory was Baverius de Baveriis, of Imola, who died about 1480, and
who was the physician to Pope Nicholas V. shortly before and after the
middle of the fifteenth century. In the light of the fact that a {214}
recent Papal physician, Dr. Lapponi, has written a book on hypnotism
and spiritism, it is interesting to find that his predecessor in the
post of Papal Physician four centuries and a half ago, discussed the
differential diagnosis of hysteria, catalepsy, epilepsy and syncope.
He also discusses certain interesting cases of vertigo due to stomach
trouble, and in general anticipates very unexpectedly neurotic
conditions that are supposed to have been recognized in medicine much
later than his time. Perhaps the most startling thing to be found in
his works is his recommendation of iron for chlorosis, which he
claimed to have treated with the greatest success by means of this
remedy. Of course, there was no idea at the time that chlorosis was
due in any sense to a lack of iron in the system, and its value as a
therapeutic agent must have come entirely from empiric considerations;
but then most of our advances in drug therapeutics have come by no
better way.

Another of the distinguished Papal Physicians of the fifteenth century
was John of Vigo (1460-1520), who, as Professor Allbutt notes, was
attached to the court of the fighting Pontiff, Julius II., and as a
consequence saw much of field surgery. His text-book of surgery,
printed at Rome in the early part of the sixteenth century, went
through an enormous number of editions. No standard surgical treatise
had appeared since that of Guy de Chauliac, and Vigo's continued to be
the standard for the next full century. He was a shrewd and skilful as
well as a learned physician. His surgical acumen deserves to be noted.
He recognized that fracture of the inner table of the skull might take
place without that of the outer, and made some very practical remarks
with regard to gangrene and its causes. He attributed {215} gangrene
in certain cases to faulty bandaging in fractures, and discussed its
origin also as the result of severe cold. He treated syphilis with
mercurial inunctions, a practice still followed by the best
specialists in this line. His greatest claim to fame, however, is
founded on the fact that he was the first to write a surgical treatise
on wounds made by firearms.

At this time, during the first half of the sixteenth cent