The pioneer now is not a professor but a general practitioner, Antonio
Benivieni, of whom we know very little save that he was a friend of
Marsilio Ficino and of Angelo Poliziano, and that he practiced in
Florence during the last third of the fifteenth century, dying in 1502.
Through associations with the scholars of the day, he had become a
student of Greek medicine and he was not only a shrewd and accurate
observer of nature but a bold and successful practitioner. He had formed
the good habit of making brief notes of his more important cases, and
after his death these were found by his brother Jerome and published in
1507.(2) This book has a rare value as the record of the experience of
an unusually intelligent practitioner of the period. There are in all
111 observations, most of them commendably brief. The only one of any
length deals with the new "Morbus Gallicus," of which, in the short
period between its appearance and Benivieni's death, he had seen enough
to leave a very accurate description; and it is interesting to note that
even in those early days mercury was employed for its cure. The surgical
cases are of exceptional interest, and No. 38 refers to a case of angina
for which he performed a successful operation.
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