members of the medical profession of his time. Two
features of his writing on dental diseases deserve mention. He insists
that abscesses of the gums shall be treated as other abscesses by being
encouraged to come to maturity and then being opened. If they do not
close promptly, an irritant Egyptian ointment containing verdigris and
alum among other things should be applied to them. In the cure of old
fistulous tracts near the teeth he employs not only this Egyptian
ointment but also arsenic and corrosive sublimate. What he has to say
with regard to the filling of the teeth is, however, most important. He
says it with extreme brevity, but with the manner of a man thoroughly
accustomed to doing it. "By means of a drill or file the putrefied or
corroded part of the tooth should be completely removed. The cavity left
should then be filled with gold leaf." It is evident that the members of
the Papal court, the Cardinals and the Pope himself, had the advantage
of rather good dentistry at John de Vigo's hands even as early as the
beginning of the sixteenth century.

John de Vigo, however, is not medieval. He lived on into the sixteenth
century and was influenced deeply by the Renaissance. He counts among
the makers of modern medicine and surgery, as his authorship of the
treatise on gun-shot wounds makes clear. He comes in a period that will
be treated of in a later volume of this series on "Our Forefathers in
Medicine."

XIII

CUSANUS AND THE FIRST SUGGESTION OF LABORATORY METHODS IN MEDICINE

As illustrating how, as we know more about the details of medical
history, the beginnings of medical science and medical practice are
pushed back farther and farther, a discussion in the _Berliner klinische
Wochenschrift_ a dozen years ago is of interest. Professor Ernest von
Leyden, in sketching the history of the taking of the pulse as an
important aid in diagnostics, said that John Floyer was usually referred
to as the man who introduced the practice of determining the pulse rate
by means of the watch. His work was done about the beginning of the
eighteenth century. Professor von Leyden suggested, however, that
William Harvey, the English physiologist, to whom is usually attributed
the discovery of the circulation of the blood, had emphasized the value
of the pulse in medical diagnosis, and also suggested the use of the
watch in counting the pulse. Professor Carl Binz, of the University of
Bonn, commenting on these remar