_Emperica_

"_Quamvis ego declino ad has res parum, tamen est bonum scribere in
libro nostro, ut non remaneat tractatus sine eis quas dixrunt antiqui.
Dico igitur quod dixit torror: Si scinderis pedem rane viridis et
ligaveris supra pendem podagrici per tres dies, curatur; ita quod
dextrum pedum rane ponas supra dextrum pedem patientis, et e converso.
Et dixit Funcius, qui composuit librum de lapidibus, quod magnes,
si ligatus fuerit in pedem podagrici, curatur. Et alius philosophus
dixit. Si accipiatur calcancus asine et ponatur ligatus supra pedem
egri, curatur, ita quod dexter supra dextrum, et e converso. Et
juravit quod sit verum. Et dixit torror quod si ponatur pes testudinis
dexter supra dextrum pedem podagrici, et e converso, curatur._"

We may believe, indeed, that Gilbert would have preferred to follow
in the therapeutic footsteps of Hippocrates, had he not disliked to be
regarded by his colleagues as eccentric and opinionated. For he says
in his treatment of thoracic diseases (f. 193c):

"_Etenim eleganter dedit Ipo. (Hippocrates) modum curationis, sed ne
a medicis nostri temporis videamur dissidere, secundum eos curam
assignemus._"

Gilbert was a scholastic-humoralistic physician _par excellence_,
delighting in superfine distinctions and hair-splitting definitions,
and deriving even pediculi from a superfluity of the humors (f. 81d).
Of course he was also a polypharmacist, and the complexity, ingenuity,
and comprehensiveness of his prescriptions would put to shame even
the "accomplished therapeutist" of these modern days. In dietetics