Account of the life and works of Maister Peter Lowe : the founder of the Faculty of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow / by James Finlayson.

  • James Finlayson
Date:
1889
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Account of the life and works of Maister Peter Lowe : the founder of the Faculty of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow / by James Finlayson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    Lowe, by certain writers, that his work was based on authority rather than on personal experience and observation.1 Of Wounds in the head.— .... The fift kind of fracture, is called counterclift, that is, when the cleft of the bone is in the part opposite to the sore, and of all fractures this is the worst, and deceaueth most the Chirurgion, for in it there is no signe but conjecture, and by feeling of the hurt man, in oft putting his hand on the place, and if he got the stroake with violence, falling after he got it, and did vomit, notwithstanding there be no cleft where he got ye stroke. I haue knowne sundry dye in this case, chiefly at the battle of Sandlis in Fraunce a valiant Captaine of Paris, who had a stroake on the right parietary, who, notwithstanding of all handling by skilfull Chyrurgions, dyed within 20. dayes, at which time his Cranium was opened, and there was found great quantity of blood vnder the left parietarie, with a cleft in the same. [Lib. vi. Cap. 11, p. 314.]2 Bound up with all the various editions of the “ Chirurgerie ” there is a translation into English of the Prognostics of Hippocrates, or as Peter Lowe calls them the “ Presages.” He also translated the “ Protestation and oath of diuine Hippocrates.” The chief interest which attaches to this production consists in its being apparently the first translation into English of any of the Hippocratic writings.3 Even as a translator he could not forget that he was a surgeon, and so he renders the Greek word larpos, “ Phisitian Chirurgion ” or “ Mediciner Chirurgion,” etc. The translation is at times somewhat quaint but does not seem to call for quotation.4 The fact that Peter Lowe took the 1 “. . . base plutot sur 1’autorite des anciens et des modernes que sur son experience propre.” Diction-naive Encyclopldique des Sciences Medicates. Paris, 1869. Art. “ Lowe, Peter.” 2 The following among various other passages had been marked for quotation but are omitted here : they will be found of interest on looking them up. The references are, as before, to the 2nd Edition—See pp. 56-37, where the subject discussed is illustrated by quotations from Juvenal and from Solomon. At page 136, there is a case in Paris in 1583. At page 137, there is the case of the “ reuerend father Iohn Beton Archbishop of Glasgow,” seen in Paris with “ the famous and learned mediciner, D. Blackwood,” where “ the noble man recouereth his health, to his great contentment.” At page 222, the cure of “ Iohn Buchan, Maister of the Song Schoole in Glasgowe.” At page 310, we have the incubation of Hydrophobia referred to : “I knew a boy in London bitten with a madde dogge, and beeing well sixe weekes dyed afterwardes.” 3 The next seems to have been “ The Aphorisms of Hippocrates translated into English by S. II., London, 1610”: see Dr. Adams, “ The Genuine IVorks of Hippocrates.' Vol. 1, p. 52, London, 1849. * Compare pp. 39 and 55 of this Memoir for further details.