Woman in Science — Women in Medicine and Surgery, Part 1

CHAPTER VIII WOMEN IN MEDICINE AND SURGERY

As woman was the first nurse, so was she also the first practitioner of the healing art.

Among savages the world over it is the women, in the great majority of cases, who have the care of the sick and wounded, and who, by reason of their superior knowledge of simples for the cure of diseases, occupy the position of doctors.

In certain parts of the uncivilized world there are, it is true, shamans or medicine men; but these are conjurers or exorcists, who profess to expel disease, or rather the evil spirits causing the disease, by sorcery or incantation, rather than physicians who essay to cure ailments or relieve suffering by the use of substances which experience has showed to possess remedial properties.

In a word, the shaman is a kind of a religious functionary who imposes on the ignorance of his tribe and who holds his position by the fear he excites, and not by any knowledge he possesses of the healing art.

It was the same, we may believe, in the early history of our race--women, and not men, were the first physicians; and they were also most probably the first surgeons.

According to Greek mythology, the god of the medical art was Aesculapius, a male; but his six daughters, as antiquity beautifully expressed it, were not only goddesses but were also medical mistresses--_artifices medici_--of suffering humanity.

Of these Hygiea was specially distinguished as the goddess of health, or, rather, as the conserver of good health, while Panacea was invoked as the restorer of health after it had been impaired or lost.

One of the most beautiful pictures in the Iliad is that representing the daughter of Augea, King of the Epei, caring for the wounded and suffering Greeks on the plain before Troy.

She was: "His eldest born, hight Agamede, with golden hair, A leech was she, and well she knew all herbs on ground that grew."

Nothing deterred by the din of battle around her, she provided cordial potions for the disabled warrior and prepared "The gentle bath and washed their gory wounds."

What a beautiful prototype of another ministering angel in the same land nearly thirty centuries later, amid similar scenes of suffering--of one who, though unsung by immortal bard, the world will never let die--the courageous, the self-sacrificing Florence Nightingale.

That there were in Greece from the earliest times numerous women possessed of a high degree of medical skill is evidenced by many of the ancient writers.

They were what we would call medical herbalists, and not a few of them exhibited a natural genius for determining the curative virtues of rare plants and a remarkable sagacity in preparing from them juices, infusions and soothing anodynes.

Others there were who, in addition to evincing the cunning of leechcraft in the therapeutic art, were distinguished for nimble hands in treating painful lesions and festering sores, and who, when occasion required, were experts in "quickly drawing the barb from the flesh and healing the wound of the soldier."

In the Odyssey special mention is made of the surpassing expertness of the Egyptian female leech, Polydamna, whose name signifies the subduer of many diseases.

The land of the Nile, the poet tells us, "teems with drugs," and "There ev'ry man in skill medicinal Excels, for these are sons of Paeon all."

In this favored cradle of civilization, to which Greece owed so much of its knowledge and culture, there were many women who, like Polydamna, achieved distinction in the healing art, and many, too, we have reason to think, who communicated their knowledge to their sisters in the fair land of Hellas.

But not only were there in Greece women physicians like Agamede, who were noted for their general medicinal knowledge and practice, but there were also others who made a specialty of treating ailments peculiar to their own sex.

This we learn from a passage in the _Hippolytus_ of Euripides, wherein the nurse of Phaedra addressed the suffering queen in the following words: "If under pains Thou labor, such as may not be revealed, To succor thee thy female friends are here.

But if the other sex may know thy sufferings Let the physician try his healing art."

More positive information, however, is afforded us by the ancient Roman author Hyginus, who, in writing of the Greek maiden, Agnodice, tells us how the medical profession was legalized for all the free-born women of Athens.

Instead of a literal translation of Hyginus, the version of his story is given in the quaint language of one Mrs. Celleor, a noted midwife in the reign of James II.

"Among the subtile Athenians," writes Mrs. Celleor, "a law at one time forbade women to study or practice medicine or physick on pain of death, which law continued some time, during which many women perished, both in child-bearing and by private diseases, their modesty not permitting them to admit of men either to deliver or cure them.

But God finally stirred up the spirit of Agnodice, a noble maid, to pity the miserable condition of her own sex, and hazard her life to help them; which, to enable herself to do, she apparelled her like a man and became the scholar of Hierophilos, the most learned physician of the time; and, having learnt the art, she found out a woman that had long languished under private diseases, and made proffer of her service to cure her, which the sick person refused, thinking her to be a man; but, when Agnodice discovered that she was a maid, the woman committed herself into her hands, who cured her perfectly; and after her many others, with the like skill and industry, so that in a short time she became the successful and beloved physician of the whole sex."

When it became known that Agnodice was a woman "she was like to be condemned to death for transgressing the law--which, coming to the ears of the noble women, they ran before the Areopagites, and, the house being encompassed by most women of the city, the ladies entered before the judges and told them they would no longer account them for husbands and friends, but for cruel enemies, that condemned her to death who restored to them their health, protesting they would all die with her if she were put to death.

This caused the magistrates to disannul the law and make another, which gave gentlewomen leave to study and practice all parts of physick to their own sex, giving large stipends to those that did it well and carefully.

And there were many noble women who studied that practice and taught it publicly in their schools as long as Athens flourished in learning."

[182] After the time of Agnodice many Greek women won distinction in medicine, some as practitioners in the healing art, others as writers on medical subjects.

Nor were their activities confined to the land of Hellas.

They were also found succoring the infirm and instructing the poor and ignorant in Italy, Egypt and Asia Minor.

Among these was Theano, the wife of Pythagoras, who, after her husband's death, assumed charge of his school of philosophy, and who, like her husband and teacher, was distinguished for her attainments in medicine.

The names of many others occur in the pages of Hippocrates, Galen and Pliny; and frequent references are made to the works and prescriptions of women doctors who enjoyed more than ordinary celebrity during their time.

Of these female practitioners many confined their practice to the diseases of women and children, while others excelled in surgery and pharmacy, as well as in general medical practice.

Among the medical women whom antiquity especially honored, particularly during the Greco-Roman period, were Origenia, Aspasia--not the famous wife of Pericles--and Cleopatra, who was not, however, as is often asserted, the ill-fated queen of Egypt.

Likewise deserving of special mention was Metradora, of whom there is still preserved in Florence a manuscript work on the diseases of women,[183] and Antiochis, to whom her admiring countrymen erected a statue bearing the following inscription: "Antiochis, daughter of Diodotos of Tlos; the council and the commune of the city of Tlos, in appreciation of her medical ability, erected at their own expense this statue in her honor."

Pliny, the naturalist, felicitates the Romans on having been for nearly six hundred years free from the brood of doctors.

These he does not hesitate to berate roundly.

His statement regarding the non-existence of physicians, it must be observed, is somewhat exaggerated.

It is true that during the first five centuries there were no professional doctors who lived entirely on their practice.

There were, however, many men who had by long experience gained an extensive knowledge of drugs and simples, and who were able to dress wounds and treat diseases with considerable success.

The first Greek freeman to practice medicine in Rome was one Archagatos, about two centuries B. C.

He was soon followed by one of his countrymen named Asclepiades.

These two soon built up a great reputation as successful practitioners, and were held in the highest esteem by the people of Rome.

In consequence of this and of the favorable conditions offered foreigners for the practice of the healing art, there was soon a large influx of physicians and surgeons from Greece, not only into Rome but also into other parts of Italy.

Not long after the arrival of Greek doctors in the capital of the Roman world we learn of certain women physicians in Rome who were held in high repute.

Among these were Victoria and Leoparda, both mentioned by the medical writer, Theodorus Priscianus.

To Victoria, Priscianus dedicates the third book of his _Rerum Medicarum_, and in the preface to this book he refers to her as one who has not only an accurate knowledge of medicine, but also as one who is a keen observer and experienced practitioner.

The word _medica_, which occurs in Latin authors of the classical period, testifies to the existence of the woman doctor as early as the age of Augustus.

But the most important documents bearing on women physicians, not only in the city of Rome but also in Italy, Gaul and the Iberian peninsula, are the large body of epigraphic monuments which have recently been brought to light, and which prove beyond all doubt that women were not only obstetricians, but that they were successful practitioners in the entire field of medical art.

Thus a funeral tablet found in Portugal tells of a woman who was a most excellent physician--_medica optima_--while another describes the deceased not only as a woman incomparable for her virtues, but also as a mistress of medical science, _antistes disciplinae in medicina fuit_.

The Greek word for _medica_--_iatromaia_--occasionally found in some of the inscriptions, seems to refer specially to women of Greek origin or birth.

This is particularly true of a monument erected to one Valiae, who is designated as _Kalista iatromaia_--the best doctor.

[184] Among the many women who became converts to Christianity during the early ages of the church a goodly number were physicians.

Unfortunately, our information respecting these votaries of the healing art is not as complete as we could wish.

One of the most noted of them is St. Theodosia, whose name is given in the Roman martyrology for the twenty-ninth of May.

She was the mother of the martyr, St. Procopius, and was distinguished for her knowledge of medicine and surgery, both of which she practiced in Rome with the most signal success.

She died a heroic death by the sword during the persecution of Diocletian.

Another woman who was as eminent for her knowledge of medicine as for her holiness of life was St. Nicerata, who lived in Constantinople during the reign of the emperor Arcadius.

She is said to have cured St. John Chrysostom of an affection of the stomach from which he was a sufferer.

To the Roman lady Fabiola, remarkable as the daughter of one of the most illustrious patrician families of Rome, but more remarkable for her sanctity and her boundless charity toward the poor, was due the erection of the first hospital--a noble structure which she founded in Ostia, at the mouth of the Tiber, which was then the port of entry to the capital of the Roman empire.

Here the noble matron received the poor and suffering from all parts, and did everything in her power to afford them succor in their wants and infirmities.

It is difficult for us now, when hospitals and charitable institutions of all kinds are so common, to understand what an innovation Fabiola's unheard-of institution was considered by her contemporaries.

For her method of treating the needy and the suffering was as different from that which had hitherto obtained as were the debasing lessons of heathendom from the elevating precepts of the Gospels.

No wonder that the news of this godlike work was soon wafted to the uttermost bounds of the earth; that, in the words of St. Jerome, "summer should announce in Britain what Egypt and Parthia had learned in the spring."

No wonder that the same eloquent hermit of Bethlehem should proclaim the foundress of this home of the indigent and the afflicted to be "the glory of the church, the astonishment of the Gentiles, the mother of the poor and the consolation of the saints."

No wonder that, in contemplating her countless acts of charity, he should ignore the fact that Fabiola was a daughter of the Fabii and a descendant of the renowned Quintus Maximus, who, by his sage counsel, had saved his country from her enemies, and that, recalling the words of Virgil, he should declare: "If I had a hundred tongues and a hundred mouths and iron lungs, I should not be able to enumerate all the maladies to which Fabiola gave the most prodigal care and tenderness--to the extent even of making the poor who were in health envy the good fortune of those who were sick."

[185] No wonder that Fabiola's funeral, which brought together the whole of Rome, was more like an apotheosis than the transfer of the remains of the deceased to their last resting-place, and that Jerome should declare, "the glory of Furius and Papirius and Scipio and Pompey, when they triumphed over the Gauls, the Sammites, Numantia and Pontus" was less than that which was spontaneously accorded to Fabiola, the solace of the sick and the comforter of the distressed.

For she had in her hospital at Ostia established a type of institution that was to effect more for ameliorating the condition of suffering humanity than anything that had before been dreamed of; something that was to contribute immensely to the efforts of physicians and surgeons in minimizing the sad ravages of wounds and disease; something whose beneficent effects were to be felt through the centuries and in every part of the world down to the wards of the military hospital at Scutari, guarded by the watchful eyes of Florence Nightingale, and to the leper-tenanted lazarettos, blessed by the ministrations of Father Damien and the Sisters of Charity, on the desolate shores of plague-stricken Molokai.

After the fall of the Roman empire and through the long period of the Middle Ages, when the monasteries and convents were almost the only centers of learning and culture for the greater part of Europe, the practice of medicine was to a great extent in the hands of monks and nuns.

For every religious house was then a hospital as well as a school, a place where drugs and ointments were compounded and distributed, as well as a place where manuscripts were transcribed and illuminated.

At a time when there were but few professional physicians and when these few were widely separated from one another, the only places where the poor could always be sure to find free medical treatment as well as abundant alms were those sanctuaries of knowledge and charity where the love of one's neighbor was never lost sight of in the love of science and literature.

And during this time, too, the care of the sick was regarded as a duty incumbent on everyone, but particularly on those devoted to the service of God in religion.

It was considered, above all, as a duty devolving on women, especially on the lady in the castle and on the nun in the convent.

The old romance of _Sir Isumbras_ gives us a charming picture of the nuns of long ago receiving the wounded knight and ministering unto him until he was made whole and strong, as witness the following verses: "The nonnes of him they were full fayne, For that he had the Saracenes slayne And those haythene houndes.

And of his paynnes sare ganne them rewe.

Ilke a day they made salves new And laid them till his woundes;

They gave him metis and drynkis lythe, And heled the knyghte wunder swythe."

So universally during mediaeval times was the healing art considered as pertaining to woman's calling that it became a part of the curriculum in convent schools; and no girl's education was considered complete unless she had an elementary knowledge of medicine and of that part of surgery which deals with the treatment of wounds.

For during those troublous times a woman was liable to be called upon at any time to nurse the sick wayfarer or dress the wounds of those who had been maimed in battle or in the tourney.

Illustrations of these facts are found in many of the romances and fabliaux of the Middle Ages.

Thus, when a sick or wounded man was given hospitality in a chateau or castle it was not the seigneur, but his wife and daughters, as being better versed in medicine and surgery, who acted as nurses and doctors and took entire charge of the patient until his recovery.

In the exquisite little story of _Aucassin et Nicolette_, the heroine is pictured as setting the dislocated shoulder of her lover in the following simple but touching language: "Nicolette searched his hurt, and perceived that his shoulder was out of joint.

She handled it so deftly with her white hands, and used such skillful surgery that, by the grace of God, who loveth all true lovers, the shoulder came back to its place.

Then she plucked flowers and fresh grasses and green leafage, and bound them tightly about the setting with the hem torn from her shift, and he was altogether healed."

And in the mediaeval Latin poem, _Waltharius_, written by a German monk, Ekkehard, reference is made to a sanguinary contest in which one of the combatants falls to the earth seriously wounded.

Seeing this, Alpharides, in a loud voice, summons a young girl, who timidly comes forward and dresses the unfortunate man's wound.

[186] Still more to our purpose is a passage from the famous epic poem, _Tristan and Isolde_, written by _Godfrey of Strasburg_, in which Isolde, accompanied by her mother and cousin, is represented as administering restoratives to Tristan, who had fallen exhausted after his combat with the dragon.

It shows that women, in accompanying an army to the field of battle, always went provided with bandages and medicaments for dressing wounds and fractured limbs.

Similarly Angelica, in _Orlando Furioso_, and Ermina, in _Jerusalem Delivered_, are portrayed as surgeons with deftness of hand and leeches with rare knowledge and skill.

The frequent introduction of women doctors into the poems and romances of the Middle Ages would of itself, if other evidence were wanting, suffice to show what an important role women played in medicine and surgery at a time when, in many parts of Europe, women were far better educated and far more cultured than men--"when the knights and barons of France and Germany were inclined to look upon reading and writing as unmanly and almost degrading accomplishments, fit only for priests or monks, and especially for priests or monks not too well born."

[187] In the instances just quoted, as well as those mentioned by Homer and Euripides, the writers do no more than faithfully reflect conditions which then obtained, and truthfully report what were the occupations of women when their status was so different from what it is to-day.

But, fortunately, we do not have to rely on works of the imagination for our knowledge respecting the women practitioners of the healing art, either during the Homeric period or during that which intervened between the downfall of Rome and the dawn of the Renaissance.

For the history of medicine during mediaeval times affords too many examples of women who became famous for their knowledge of medicine, as well as for their success in surgical and medical practice, to leave any doubt about the matter.

Besides this, we have still the writings of many of these women, and are thus able to judge of their competency in those branches of knowledge on which they shed so great luster.

One of the most noted of them was the Benedictine abbess, St. Hildegard, of Bingen on the Rhine, who was eminent not only as a theologian but also as a writer whose treatises on various branches of science are justly regarded as the most important productions of the kind during the Middle Ages prior to the time of Albertus Magnus.

Besides this, she not only wrote many books on _materia medica_, on pathology, physiology and therapeutics, but, as a practitioner, she gloriously sustained the best traditions of her sex in both theoretical and practical medicine.

Her work entitled _Liber Simplicis Medicinae_, which deals with what in the Saint's time was called "simples"--for the belief was then current that each plant or herb was or provided a specific for some disease--contains accounts of many plants used in _materia medica_, as well as statements of their importance in therapeutics.

Her descriptions often indicate an observer of exceptionally keen perception and one whose knowledge of science was far in advance of her epoch.

The same observations may be made respecting Hildegard 's work, _Liber Compositae Medicinae_, in which she treats of the causes, signs and treatment of diseases.

[188] Still more remarkable, in many respects, is a treatise in nine books, entitled _Physica_ or _Liber Subtilitatum Diversarum Naturarum Creaturarum_, which, among other things, treats of the various elements, of plants, trees, minerals, fish, birds, quadrupeds, and of the manner in which they may be of service to man.

Of so great importance was this book considered that several editions of it were printed as early as the sixteenth century.

No less an authority than the late Rudolph Virchow, the founder of cellular pathology, characterizes it as an early _materia medica_, curiously complete, considering the age to which it belongs.

[189] And Haeser, in his history of medicine, directs attention to the historical value of the book, declaring it to be "an independent German treatise, based chiefly on popular experience."

Dr. F.

A.

Reuss, of the University of Wuertzburg, at the conclusion of his _Prolegomena_ to the _Physica_ published in Migne's _Patrologia_, expresses himself as follows regarding the writings and medical knowledge of the illustrious abbess of Bingen: "Among all the saintly _religieuses_ who, during the Middle Ages, practiced medicine or wrote treatises on it, the first, without contradiction, is Hildegard.

According to the monk Theodoric, who was an eye witness, she had to so high a degree the gift of healing that no sick person had recourse to her without being restored to health.

There is among the books of this prophetic virgin a work which treats of physics and medicine.

Its title is _De Natura Nominis Elementorum Diversarumque Creaturarum_, and it embodies, as the same Theodoric fully explains, the secrets of nature which were revealed to the saint by the prophetic spirit.

All who wish to write the history of the medical and natural sciences should read this book, in which the holy virgin, initiated into all the secrets of nature which were then known, and having received special assistance from above, thoroughly examines and scrutinizes all that which was, until then, buried in darkness and concealed from the eyes of mortals.

It is certain that Hildegard was acquainted with many things of which the doctors of the Middle Ages were ignorant, and which the investigators of our own age, after rediscovering them, have announced as something entirely new."

[190] The life and works of St. Hildegard throw a flood of light on many subjects that have long been veiled in mystery.

It explains why the convents of the later Middle Ages were so famed as curative centers and why the sick flocked to them for relief from far and near.

It reveals the real agencies employed in effecting the extraordinary cures that were reported in so many religious houses--cures so extraordinary that they were usually regarded by the multitude as miraculous--and discloses the secret of the success of so many nuns in the alleviation of physical and mental sufferings.

It was not because they were thaumaturges, but because they were good nurses, and because of their thorough knowledge of the healing art, that they were able to diagnose and prescribe for diseases of all kinds with a success which, in the estimation of the multitude, savored of the supernatural.

There was also another reason for the fame of convents as sanctuaries of health.

They were usually situated in healthy locations where there was an abundance of pure water, fresh air and cheerful sunshine.

Then there were likewise a wholesome diet, good sanitary conditions, and, above all, regularity of life.

The same can be said of the hospitals connected with the convents.

They were not like some of the public hospitals of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries in many of the large cities of Europe--repulsive, prison-like structures, with narrow windows and devoid of light and air and the most necessary hygienic appliances--institutions that were hospitals in name, but which were in reality too frequently breeding places of disease and death.

[191] Unlike these, the hospitals presided over by nuns of the type of Hildegard were splendid roomy structures with large windows and abundance of light, pure air, with special provisions for the privacy of the patients, and with sanitary arrangements that not only precluded the dissemination of disease but which contributed materially to those marvelous cures which the good people of the time attributed to supernatural agencies rather than to the medical knowledge and skill of the devoted nuns,[192] who were the real conquerors of disease and death.

But the inmates of the cloister were not the only women who, during the Middle Ages, achieved distinction by their writings on medical subjects and by their signal success in the practice of the healing art.

In various parts of Europe, but especially in Italy and France, there were at this time among women, outside as well as inside convent walls, many daughters of Aesculapius and sisters of Hygeia who stood in such high repute among their contemporaries that they received the same honors and emoluments as were accorded to their masculine colleagues.

This was particularly the case in Salerno, which was the venerated mother of all Christian medical schools, and which, for nine centuries, was universally regarded as "the unquestioned fountain and archetype of orthodox medicine."

Situated on the Gulf of Salerno, and laved by the cerulean waters of the Tyrrhenian sea, the _Civitas Hippocratica_, as it was called on its medals, rejoiced in a salubrious climate, and was celebrated throughout the world as the "City sacred to Phoebus, the sedulous nurse of Minerva, the fountain of physic, the votary of medicine, the handmaid of Nature, the destroyer of disease and the strong adversary of death."

[193] For to this favored city flocked from all quarters the lame and the halt and those afflicted with the tortures of disease and the disabilities of advancing years.

The noble and the simple, crowned heads as well as the poorest of the poor, were found there, all of them in quest of life's most precious boon--health and strength.

Never did the far-famed sanctuary of the god of medicine in Epidaurus witness such an influx of invalids as gathered in the hospitals of Salerno and pressed through the streets of the Hippocratic city, seeking the aid of those doctors whose marvelous cures had given them a world-wide reputation.

Small wonder, then, that the _Regimen Santatis Salernitanum_--that famous code of health of the school of Salerno--has been translated into almost all the languages of modern Europe, and that since 1480 no fewer than two hundred and fifty editions of it have been published.

"Not to have been familiar with it from beginning to end, not to have been able to quote it orally as occasion might require, would, during the Middle Ages, have cast serious suspicion upon the professional culture of any physician."

[194] But the noblest claims of the Hippocratic city to the gratitude of humanity yet remain to be told.

A German traveler in the thirteenth century wrote: "Laudibus aeternum nullum negat esse Salernum Illuc pro morbis totus circumfluit orbis."

[195] This was because Salerno was universally recognized as the "day star" and "morning glory" of the best culture in the healing art, and, still more, because of the thorough instruction she gave in her schools of medicine and the preeminence she so long held in every department of medical lore.

The course of study in medicine was long and thorough, and the candidate applying for a degree had to pass a rigid examination and give proof not only of his proficiency in every branch of the healing art, but also of perfect acquaintance with the various branches of science and letters as well.

At the time of Frederick II, who organized all the different schools of Salerno into a single university, a three years' course in philosophy and literature was required before one could present himself for entrance into the school of medicine.

The courses in medicine lasted five years, at least, after which a year of practice with an old physician was required.

In addition to this, if the candidate wished to practice surgery he was obliged to devote one year to the study of human anatomy and to the dissection of human bodies.

Considering the progress of knowledge since the time of Frederick II, it must be admitted that the legal requirements enforced by the faculty of Salerno compare favorably with those of the best of our medical schools of to-day.

Still more to the credit of Salerno, long known as the Athens of the two Sicilies, was her boundless liberality toward scholarship and culture regardless of sex.

For, with a chivalrous admiration for intellect, wherever found, and with a sense of intellectual justice that has put to shame all medical schools outside of Italy, until less than fifty years ago, the school of Salerno was the first to throw open its portals to women as well as men, and give to an admiring world a number of women--those celebrated _mulieres Salernitanae_--who were eminent not only as physicians, but also as professors of the theory and practice of medicine.

For this reason, if for no other, it can be truly affirmed that "No school of medicine in any age or country, if only for this, can ever over-peer her in renown; and, even as formerly in the universities of Europe, at the bare mention of the name of the learned Cujacius, every scholar instinctively uncovered himself, so at the very name of Salernum, the fount and nurse of rational medicine, every physician should recall her memory 'with mute thanks and secret ecstasy' as among the most spotless and venerated chapters in the history of his art."

[196] The most noted professor and successful practitioner among the women of Salerno was Trotula, wife of the distinguished physician, John Platearius, and a member of the old noble family of the Ruggiero.

She flourished during the eleventh century and enjoyed a reputation as a physician that was not inferior to that of the most noted doctors of her time.

Besides occupying a chair in the school of medicine and having an extensive practice, she was the author of many works on medicine which had a great vogue among her contemporaries.

Some of them, especially those relating to diseases of her own sex,[197] were published several times after the invention of printing, and many manuscript copies of her works are still found in various libraries of Europe.

But she did not confine her practice to the diseases of women.

She was also well versed in general medicine and exhibited, besides, as her works testify, marked skill as a surgeon in many cases that would even now be considered as peculiarly difficult of treatment.

One of her books was entitled _De Compositione Medicamentorum_--the Compounding of Medicaments--and it was this work, doubtless, that gave her much of the fame she enjoyed beyond the confines of Italy.

Ruteboeuf, a noted French trouvere of the thirteenth century, gives us a quaint picture of a scene frequently witnessed in his day.

Crowds were frequently attracted by herbalists--venders of simples--who, stationed at street corners or in other public places, near tables covered with a cloth of flaring colors, were wont to descant, somewhat after the style of certain of our patent-medicine hawkers and quack-salvers, upon the extraordinary curative properties of the various drugs and panaceas which they had for sale.

"Good people," one of these traveling herb doctors would begin, "I am not one of those poor preachers, nor one of those poor herbalists who carry boxes and sachets and spread them out on a carpet.

No, I am a disciple of a great lady named Madame Trotte of Salerno, who performs such marvels of every kind.

And know ye that she is the wisest woman in the four quarters of the world."

Ordericus Vitalis, an English Benedictine monk, in his _Historia Ecclesiastica_, tells us of the impression made by Trotula on Rudolfo Malacorona, one of those famous itinerant scholars of the Middle Ages, who spent their lives in wandering from one university to another in pursuit of knowledge.

He had been a student from his youth and was a man of remarkable attainments in every department of learning.

After visiting and conferring with the learned men of the most celebrated universities of France and Italy, he finally arrived at Salerno, where, he informs us, he found no one who could cope with him in disputation except _quandam sapientem matronam_--a certain very learned woman.

[198] This was Trotula, who, by reason of the extraordinary cures she effected, was known among her contemporaries as _magistra operis_--a consummate practitioner.

When, however, we consider the thorough course of study that every one aspiring to a degree in medicine was obliged to complete, women as well as men, it is not so surprising that Trotula should be regarded both as a learned woman and as a successful physician.

Among other women doctors who did honor to Salerno and whose names have come down to us were three who are known in history as Abella, Rebeca de Guarna and Mercuriade.

All of them achieved a great reputation by their writings on medical subjects, especially Mercuriade, who distinguished herself in surgery as well as in medicine.

Still another woman deserving special mention is Francesca, wife of Matteo de Romana, of Salerno.

After passing a very severe examination before a board composed of physicians and surgeons, she was accorded the doctorate in surgery.

An official document of the time referring to this event reads as follows: "Whereas the laws permit women to practice medicine, and whereas, from the viewpoint of good morals, women are best adapted to the treatment of their own sex, we, after having received the oath of fidelity, permit the said Francesca to practice the said art of healing," etc. [199] In view of the facts above mentioned regarding the University of Salerno--the excellence of its work, its liberality and breadth of view, its attitude toward the higher education of women, and its preeminence for so many centuries as a school of medicine--is it surprising that it was, until comparatively recent times, considered "the _mater et caput_ of medical authority in ethical matters," and that, so late as 1748, the Medical Faculty of Paris should address an official letter to the faculty of Salerno requesting its judgment regarding the rights of precedence as between physicians and surgeons?

But what is surprising, and what, too, passes all understanding, is that the University of London, after being empowered by royal charter to do all things that could be done by any university, was legally advised that it could not grant degrees to women without a fresh charter, because no university had ever granted such degrees.

[200]