o Philip Augustus, King of France, thought that he could not say too
much for the training in medicine that was given at this first of the
medical schools. One thing is sure, the professors were eminently
serious, the work taken up was in many ways thoroughly scientific, and
some of the results of the medical investigations of that early day are
interesting even now. The descriptions of diseases that we have from the
Salernitan school are true to nature and are replete with many original
observations. Puschmann says: "The accounts given of intermittent fever,
pneumonia, phthisis, psoriasis, lupus, which they called the malum
mortuum, of ulcers on the sexual organs, among which it is easy to
recognize chancre, and of the disturbances of the mental faculties,
especially deserve mention." They seem to have been quite expert in
their knowledge of phthisis. In the treatment of it they laid great
stress upon the giving up of a strenuous life, the living a rather easy
existence in the open air, and a suitable diet. When the commencement of
consumption was suspected, the first prescription was a good course of
strengthening nourishment for the patient. On the other hand, they
declared that the cases in which diarrhea supervened during consumption
soon proved fatal. In general, with regard to people who were liable to
respiratory diseases, they insisted upon life in an atmosphere of
equable temperature. Though the custom was almost unheard of in the
Salerno of that time, and indeed at the present time there is very
little heating during the winter in southern Italy, they insisted that
patients who were liable to pulmonary affections should have their rooms
heated.

On the other hand, they suggested the cooling of the air of the
sick-room, as we have noted in the chapter on Constantine Africanus, and
Afflacius recommended the employment of an apparatus from which water
trickled continuously in drops to the ground and then evaporated. Baths
and bleeding were employed according to definite indications and diet
was always a special feature. They had a number of drugs and simples,
and the employment of some of them is interesting. Iron was prescribed
for enlargement of the spleen. The internal use of sea sponge, in which
of course there is a noteworthy proportion of iodine, was recommended
for relief from the symptoms of goitre by reducing its size. Iodine has
been used so much ever since in this affection, even down to our own
day,