by blowing through a tube. His
directions for the removal of the uvula are very definite. Seat the
patient upon a stool in a bright light while an assistant holds the
head; after the tongue has been firmly depressed by means of a speculum
let the assistant hold this speculum in place. With the left hand then
insert an instrument, a stilus, by which the uvula is pulled forward,
and then remove the end of it by means of a heated knife or some other
process of cauterization. The mouth should afterwards be washed out with
fresh milk.

The application of a cauterizing solution by means of a cotton swab
wrapped round the end of a sound may be of service in patients who
refuse the actual cautery. To be successful the application must be
firmly made and must be frequently repeated.

After this it is not surprising to find that Arculanus has very
practical chapters on all the other ordinary surgical affections.
Empyema is treated very thoroughly, liver abscess, ascites, which he
warns must be emptied slowly, ileus especially when it reaches
stercoraceous vomiting, and the various difficulties of urination, he
divides them into dysuria, ischuria, and stranguria, are all discussed
in quite modern fashion. He gives seven causes for difficulty of
urination. One, some injury of the bladder; two, some lesion of the
urethra; three, some pathological condition in the power to make the
bladder contract; four, some injury of the muscle of the neck of the
bladder; five, some pathological condition of the urine; six, some
kidney trouble, and seven, some pathological condition of the general
system. He takes up each one of these and discusses the various phases,
causes, disposition, and predispositions that bring them about. One
thing these men of the Middle Ages could do, they reasoned logically,
they ordered what they had to say well, and they wrote it out
straightforwardly.

That Arculanus' work with regard to dentistry was no mere chance and not
solely theoretic can be understood very well from his predecessors, and
that it formed a link in a continuous tradition which was well preserved
we may judge from what is to be found in the writings of his great
successor, Giovanni or John de Vigo, who is considered one of the great
surgeons of the early Renaissance, and to whom we owe what is probably
the earliest treatise on "Gun-shot Wounds." John of Vigo was a Papal
physician and surgeon, generally considered one of the most
distinguished