when they have eaten, board, cloths, and relief are borne away, and
guests wash and wipe their hands again. Then grace is said, and guests
thank the lord. Then for gladness and comfort drink is brought yet
again. When all this is done at meat, men take their leave, and some
go to bed and sleep, and some go home to their own lodgings.




III

MEDIAEVAL MEDICINE


The seventh book of the "De Proprietatibus" treats of the human body
and its ailments. At first glance it might seem that such a subject
would be repulsive, either in matter or handling, to the general
reader of today, but it will, we think, be found that there are many
points of interest in it for us, some of which we proceed to indicate.
Mankind has always felt a deep interest in certain diseases, to which
we are even now subject, and so parts of the chapters on leprosy and
hydrophobia have been reproduced. The accounts given of frenzy and
madness interest us both as a picture of the change in manners, as an
example of the methods of cure proposed, and as throwing light on many
passages. Thus Chaucer, speaking of Arcite, describes his passion as
compounded of melancholy which deprives him of reason, overflowing
into the foremost cell of his brain, the cell fantastic, and causing
him to act as if mad.

"Nought oonly lyke the loveres maladye