s not difficult to trace, and the
precious tradition of surgery particularly, which was carried to the
northern university, served to initiate a period of surgery lasting
nearly two centuries, during which we have some of the greatest
contributions to this branch of medical science that were ever made. The
development of the medical school at Bologna anticipated by but a short
time that of a series of schools in the north Italian universities.
Padua, Piacenza, Pisa, and Vicenza had medical schools in the later
Middle Ages, the works of some of whose professors have attracted
attention. It was from these north Italian medical schools that the
tradition of close observation in medicine and of thoroughly scientific
surgery found its way to Paris. Lanfranc was the carrier of surgery, and
many French students who went to Italy came back with Italian methods.
In the fourteenth century Guy de Chauliac made the grand tour in Italy,
and then came back to write a text-book of surgery that is one of the
monuments in this department of medical science. Before his time,
Montpellier had attracted attention, but now it came to be looked upon
as a recognized centre of great medical teaching. The absence of the
Popes from Italy and the influence of their presence at Avignon made
itself felt. While culture and education declined in Italy in the midst
of political disturbances, they advanced materially at the south of
France.

For our generation undoubtedly the most interesting chapter in the
history of medieval medicine is that which tells of the marvellous
development of surgery that took place in the thirteenth and fourteenth
centuries. Considerable space has been devoted to this, because it
represents not only an important phase of the history of medicine, and
recalls the names and careers of great makers of medicine, but also
because it illustrates exquisitely the possibility of important
discoveries in medicine being made, applied successfully for years, and
then being lost or completely forgotten, though contained in important
medical books that were always available for study. The more we know of
this great period in the history of surgery, the more is the surprise at
how much was accomplished, and how many details of our modern surgery
were anticipated. Most of us have had some inkling of the fact that
anaesthesia is not new, and that at various times in the world's history
men have invented methods of producing states of sensibi