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University in Montpellier
After a short stay with his family, he left for the
next university, in Montpellier.
“Welcome, Mr. De Nostredame”, the caretaker greeted
him most charmingly when he came in. “I will take
you to the lecture hall right away, because you are
the last one to arrive,” and the stout woman got up
from her stool with some difficulty and showed him
the way. They walked through the main hallway and
turned a corner at the end.
“The lecture will begin momentarily and will be
given by Dr. Hache,” she informed him. The lady
brought him to the back room, where she showed him a
spot at a table beside a young man with
extraordinarily lively eyes. Professor Hache, unlike
the caretaker, did not take the trouble to welcome
his students, and began his lecture without delay.
“Thousands of years ago, the first doctors tried to
cure their patients by drilling a hole in their
heads,” he said. François, the person seated next to
Michel, pointed to his forehead condescendingly.
“Precisely, that is where that gesture originates,”
said Hache, who noticed, “but it really wasn’t such
a crazy idea, because in this way, they wanted to
allow the evil spirits, which they thought were the
cause of illness, to escape from the body. This was
also called trepan.” A student from Toulouse put up
his hand.
“Questions may be asked at the end of my lecture,”
the professor said. “Later, in ancient Greek times,
a sick person would go to a temple and make animal
sacrifices to Aesculapius, the god of healing.
Afterwards, the patient would drink healing water as
well as bathe in it, and then follow a strict diet.”
The same student again raised his hand.
“What did I just tell you?” said the teacher.
“I’m just trying to let an evil spirit escape from
my arm,” clarified the student, trying to be funny.
“Please leave!” Hache said, unexpectedly strict. The
student got up, crestfallen, and left the room.
“Stupid jokes are not tolerated here,” and the
professor continued his speech. “In four hundred BC,
the Greek physician Hippocrates lays the foundation
for our scientific medical science. He says that
illness is not caused by sorcery, but by nature, and
can only be cured by her.” His pupils were now
keeping close ranks and no one dared make another
sound.
“Around two hundred AD, Galenus, also a Greek
physician, taught us that the body contains four
types of fluids, or humors: blood, phlegm, yellow
bile and black bile and that they must be in balance
with each other. That’s it for the introductory
history. Now is the time to ask questions, but
briefly.” The students hesitated for a few moments.
“Do women have the same amount of blood, phlegm and
bile as men?” someone asked.
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