the Arabian masters. One of the most bitter
of these contests was over the question of "revulsion," and
"derivation"--that is, whether in cases of pleurisy treated by bleeding,
the venesection should be made at a point distant from the seat of the
disease, as held by the "revulsionists," or at a point nearer and on the
same side of the body, as practised by the "derivationists." That any
great point for discussion could be raised in the fifteenth or sixteenth
centuries on so simple a matter as it seems to-day shows how necessary
to the progress of medicine was the discovery of the circulation of the
blood made by Harvey two centuries later. After Harvey's discovery no
such discussion could have been possible, because this discovery made
it evident that as far as the general effect upon the circulation is
concerned, it made little difference whether the bleeding was done near
a diseased part or remote from it. But in the sixteenth century this
question was the all-absorbing one among the doctors. At one time the
faculty of Paris condemned "derivation"; but the supporters of this
method carried the war still higher, and Emperor Charles V. himself was
appealed to. He reversed the decision of the Paris faculty, and decided
in favor of "derivation." His decision was further supported by Pope
Clement VII., although the discussion dragged on until cut short by
Harvey's discovery.

But a new form of injury now claimed the attention of the surgeons,
something that could be decided by neither Greek nor Arabian authors, as
the treatment of gun-shot wounds was, for obvious reasons, not given in
their writings. About this time, also, came the great epidemics, "the
sweating sickness" and scurvy; and upon these subjects, also, the
Greeks and Arabians were silent. John of Vigo, in his book, the Practica
Copiosa, published in 1514, and repeated in many editions, became the
standard authority on all these subjects, and thus supplanted the works
of the ancient writers.

According to Vigo, gun-shot wounds differed from the wounds made by
ordinary weapons--that is, spear, arrow, sword, or axe--in that the
bullet, being round, bruised rather than cut its way through the
tissues; it burned the flesh; and, worst of all, it poisoned it. Vigo
laid especial stress upon treating this last condition, recommending the
use of the cautery or the oil of elder, boiling hot. It is little wonder
that gun-shot wounds were so likely to prove fatal. Yet, a