There was a
propitious time to have a marriage, go on a journey, make war, and
take herbal medicine or be bled by leeches, the latter of which
was accompanied by religious ceremony. Cure was by God, with
medical practitioners only relieving suffering. But there were
medical interventions such as pressure and binding were applied to
bleeding. Arrow and sword wounds to the skin or to any protruding
intestine were washed with warm water and sewn up with needle and
silk thread. Ribs were spread apart by a wedge to remove arrow
heads. Fractured bones were splinted or encased in plaster.
Dislocations were remedied. Hernias were trussed. Bladder stones
blocking urination were pushed back into the bladder or removed
through an artificial opening in the bladder. Surgery was
performed by butchers, blacksmiths, and barbers.
Roger Bacon, an Oxford master, began the science of physics. He
read Arab writers and studied the radiation of light and heat. He
studied angles of reflection in plane, spherical, cylindrical, and
conical mirrors, in both their concave and convex aspects. He did
experiments in refraction in different media, e.g. air, water, and
glass, and knew that the human cornea refracted light and that the
human eye lens was doubly convex. He comprehended the magnifying
power of convex lenses and conceptualized the combination of
lenses which would increase the power of vision by magnification.
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