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309

HOSPITALS, INFIRMARIES , &C.

ilereil by Guy de Chauliac . This author wrote his book 3 onthe healing of wounds anno 1363, and mentions the differentmedical sects; among which he names the German knightsas the fourth sect, who, he says, cured wounds by exorcism,beverages, oil, wool, and cabbage-leaves; and trusted to thebelief that God had conferred a supernatural power onwords, plants, and stones.

The oldest mention of physicians and surgeons establishedin houses for the sick, belonging to the order of Templars ,found by Mohsen, was under the government of John deLastic, who, in 1437, undertook the office of grand-master,and defined very exactly the duty of a physician and sur-geon. 4 It however, seems to those well informed, thatregular bred and learned physicians attended such hospitalsmuch earlier than that period. It is also noticed, that solong as this was not the case, there could be no opportunityafforded of instruction to young physicians or surgeons, forpractice in their art, as our present hospitals afford at thistime. It should also appear, that however backward wasthe/Esculapian art in Europe , it was not so in the east;but with respect to Persia, it is alleged some Nestorian jrriests had an hospital adjacent to their monastery, togetherwith an institute or school for young physicians, who, undercertain prescribed rules, were allowed to visit the sick.This establishment was in a town called Gandisapora, or, asProfessor Sprengel has it, Dschandisabor, the medical schoolof which is not unfrequently mentioned after the seventhcentury. Those pupils who were desirous to attend thehospital for improvement, were first obliged to submit to atrial, and to read the Psalms of David and the New Testa-ment : many who studied medicine here, attained also to thehigher ecclesiastical dignities, which is now considered asthe more surprising, as the other Nestorian schools in theEast pay but little attention only to theology, and prohibitthe young clergy entirely from the study of medicine. 5

3 Of this title: La grande Chirurgie de M. Guy de Chauliac, Medecin tres-fanieux de l’Universite de Montpelier—Restitute par M. Laurens Joubert. ARouen , 1641, 8vo.

4 1. Nova Statutorum ordinis S. Joannis Ilierosolymitani editio. Madriti , 1577,small folio. 2. Privilegia ordinis S. Jo. Hierosol. small folio. 3. Statuta Hospi-talis. 4. Histoiie de Malthe, avec les Statuts et les Ordounances de 1’Ordre* 5.Codicc del sacro rnilitare ordine Gerosolimilano. In Malta.

3 The proofs of this surprising relation to Europeans may be seen in AssemaniBibliotheca Orientals, tom. iii. The first who collected and illustrated every thingbelonging to this subject was J. II. Schulz, whose Dissertation de GandisaporaPersarum quondam Academia , was published in Commentar. Acad. Scien . Petropotif.