of surgical intervention for conditions in the three most
important cavities of the body, the skull, the thorax, and the abdomen.
These cavities have usually been the dread of surgeons. Chauliac not
only used the trephine, but laid down very exact indications for its
application. Expectant treatment was to be the rule in wounds of the
head, yet when necessary, interference was counselled as of great value.
His prognosis of brain injuries was much better than that of his
predecessors. He says that he had seen injuries of the brain followed by
some loss of brain substance, yet with complete recovery of the patient.
In one case that he notes a considerable amount of brain substance was
lost, yet the patient recovered with only a slight defect of memory,
and even this disappeared after a time. He lays down exact indications
for the opening of the thorax, that _noli me tangere_ of surgeons at all
times, even our own, and points out the relations of the ribs and the
diaphragm, so as to show just where the opening should be made in order
to remove fluid of any kind.

In abdominal conditions, however, Chauliac's anticipation of modern
views is most surprising. He recognized that wounds of the intestines
were surely fatal unless leakage could be prevented. Accordingly he
suggested the opening of the abdomen and the sewing up of such
intestinal wounds as could be located. He describes a method of suture
for these cases and seems, like many another abdominal surgeon, even to
have invented a special needleholder.

To most people it would seem absolutely out of the question that such
surgical procedures could be practised in the fourteenth century. We
have the definite record of them, however, in a text-book that was the
most read volume on the subject for several centuries. Most of the
surprise with regard to these operations will vanish when it is recalled
that in Italy during the thirteenth century, as we have already seen,
methods of anaesthesia by means of opium and mandragora were in common
use, having been invented in the twelfth century and perfected by Ugo da
Lucca, and Chauliac must not only have known but must have frequently
employed various methods of anaesthesia.

In discussing amputations he has described in general certain methods of
anaesthesia in use in his time, and especially the method by means of
inhalation. It would not seem to us in the modern time that this method
would be very successful, but there is an