d Pluritis," issued also at Rome, a volume
on "The Diseases of The Stomach" and a series of volumes of
Consultations on Medicine, were well known to his contemporaries and
to succeeding generations. He wrote besides a commentary on Lucretius,
another on Hippocrates, a book on Prophylaxis, a volume on Vesuvius
and a popular work in Italian, all his other works having been in
Latin, meant to be of assistance to ordinary people in avoiding
disease and especially the infectious diseases.

Two of the Papal Physicians of Gregory XV are the brothers Giovanni
and Bernardino Castellani. John is the better known and was for years
the director of the Hospital of Santo Spirito and received the much
coveted title of Roman Citizen for his work for Roman citizens there.
He succeeded Elpidiano as lecturer on anatomy and surgery at the
University of the Sapienza and left a large anatomical work in
manuscript with many copper plate engravings, which were never
published. The book of his by which he is known is a volume of
directions for venesection from the standpoint of the anatomist. It
was the custom then for nearly everyone to have himself let blood
several times a year and especially in the spring, somewhat as in our
time many people take purgatives. The practices are about equally
foolish unless there is some special indication for them. In many
families the barber-surgeon was called in almost as regularly for this
and with quite as little anxiety about it as for the cutting of the
hair. Naturally there had been many mishaps in this practice because
the barbers were expert enough but ignorant, and venesection was done
from blood vessels all over the body because one patient thought his
head ought to be relieved, another his foot, another his chest, and
the like. Castellani's book then, called _Phylacterium_, which I
suppose might be translated The Protective, was meant to indicate the
anatomical landmarks that should guide the barber-surgeon so as to
avoid the danger points. Like so many other of the works of the {461}
Papal Physicians it was directed to the correction of popular
practices that were the source of injury and suffering to the people.
Castellani's book contained directions for the application of cups,
dry and wet, which was also a popular practice confided to the
barber-surgeons at this time, and like blood-letting had been subject
to many abuses.

Urban VIII (1623-44).--One of the scholarly Papal Physicians was