trephining for fracture of the skull, his technique has been
little improved upon even in modern times. In one of these
operations he successfully removed a portion of a man's brain.


Surgery was undoubtedly stimulated greatly at this period by the
constant wars. Lay physicians, as a class, had been looked down
upon during the Dark Ages; but with the beginning of the return
to rationalism, the services of surgeons on the battle-field, to
remove missiles from wounds, and to care for wounds and apply
dressings, came to be more fully appreciated. In return for his
labors the surgeon was thus afforded better opportunities for
observing wounds and diseases, which led naturally to a gradual
improvement in surgical methods.


FIFTEENTH-CENTURY MEDICINE

The thirteenth and fourteenth centuries had seen some slight
advancement in the science of medicine; at least, certain
surgeons and physicians, if not the generality, had made
advances; but it was not until the fifteenth century that the
general revival of medical learning became assured. In this
movement, naturally, the printing-press played an all-important
part. Medical books, hitherto practically inaccessible to the
great mass of physicians, now became common, and this output of
reprints of Greek and Arabic treatises revealed the fact that
many of the supposed true copies were spurious. These discoveries
very naturally aroused all manner of doubt and criticism, which
in turn helped in the development of independent thought.