ANTONIUS GUAINERIUS ON EPILEPSY* By WILLIAM G. LENNOX, M.D. BOSTON nfortu nately , infor- chamberlain, Andrea de Birago. The mation about Antonius Gu- work on pests and poisons was com- ainerius (Antonio Guaineri) posed about 1440, since in that year a is very scanty. We know copy was made by Nicolaus Ofhuys of that he lectured in the UniversityAmsterdam. of There is a suggestion of his UPavia near the beginning of the fifteenth interest in politics in the fact that in his century. As with many historical frag- preface to his tract on pests he appeals ments, certain small details have been to the duke of Milan to save “our perfectly preserved, whereas the facts Liguria.” usually important, such as dates of birth These medical writings give no in- and death, honors and nonprofessional formation about Guainerius as a man. activities, are absent. For example, One of his fifteenth century manuscripts Maiocchi (1) states that he lectured has the name of Theodori Guaynerii de at the University in the early after- Papia on the fly leaf and on the reverse noon in the year 1412-13, receiving for the statement that the work was com- this a total of one hundred and twenty posed by Antonius Guaynerius de florins. Thirty-six years later, in 1448, Papia, “my ancester” (genitor meus). he gave the lecture in medicine in the Therefore we may conclude that An- late afternoon, the salary having risen tonius was a family man. to three hundred florins with a prospect Neuburger (2) places the death of of receiving twenty-five more in the Guainerius about 1445, Sudhoff (3) in following year. In the same year a meet- 1440. Neither of these dates is com- ing was held at his house in Pavia for patible with the previous quotation the purpose of protesting against the from Maiocchi that Guainerius taught admission of a foreigner to the College in 1448. Since he was teaching thirty- of Arts and Medicine. Some time be- six years previously, he must not have tween the years 1413 and 1448, Gu- died young. ainerius must have taught at Chieri Thorndike (4), from whom these bio- and he apparently resided in Savoy and graphical notes have been taken, gives Liguria. At any rate, some of his medi- a list of the editions and manuscripts of cal works were addressed to Antonio the works of Guainerius. The A. C. Magliani of Chieri, who was physician Streeter Collection at the New York to the duke of Savoy. He sent his Academy of Medicine contains the edi- treatise on fevers to Magliani from tions of Pavia printed in 1481 and of Chambéry. Other treatises were ad- Venice printed in 1500. At the British dressed to Filippo Maria, who was the Museum there is the edition of Pavia of duke of Milan, and one to the ducal 1488. This is the same as that of 1481, * From the department of Neurology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, aided by a grant from the Milton Fund of Harvard University. except that the name of the editor is lieves him somewhat more credulous different. In addition to the collected and superstitious than other medieval works, many of the chapters have been writers. Neuburger regards Guainerius’ printed separately; the one on fevers at writings on the pathology of the nerv- Naples in 1474, and the antidotarium ous system and on gynecology as his in 1472. In addition to the printed most valuable contributions. works, various manuscripts are to be The chapter on epilepsy contains found in some of the great libraries. nothing not found in writings which The Vatican Library contains four. antedated it by hundreds of years. It is, The edition of 1500, unlike that of however, characterized by clarity and a 1481, has numbered leaves and consists minimum of (to us) meaningless hu- of 141 pages. Following are the titles mors. The discussion of organotherapy, of the sections: diseases of the head, or at any rate the parts of animals suita- pleurisy, stomach complaints, intestinal ble for treatment of seizures, is unusu- disorders, diseases of women, diseases of ally well organized. Faithful to Galen, the joints, calculus, on pests, fevers, on the human skull is recommended but the baths of Montferrat, antidotarium. prescriptions for the most part consist The section “De egritudinibus capi- of harmless herbs. Anthony in this chap- tis” consists of 27 folio pages. The chap- ter refers to only seven authorities, ter on epilepsy occurs in this. The trans- Galen, Rhazes, Avicenna, Hippocrates, lation which follows was taken from Serapion, Mesue and Thessalus. Amu- the 1488 edition. This translation is the lets and charms are recommended, but work of Father Adrian P. English, O. P., without much conviction. His practice Professor of History at Providence Col- of giving an odd number of pills, of lege. Mr. James F. Ballard, director of fighting poison with poison, and his the Boston Medical Library, was of practical psychotherapy illuminate med- great assistance. icine as practiced in the Dark Ages. Thorndike viewed the medical writ- ings of Guainerius against his own in- Anth ony Guai neri us terest in magic and the development of Opera Medica. Pavia, Carchavo, 1488. medicine as an experimental science. Tract 7, Epilepsy . In 8 Chapters He believes Guainerius has an attitude Chapter 1. what epi leps y is . its of independence towards earlier writers and gives his own interpretation of what CAUSES. WHERE IT OCCURS the ancients meant. He quotes widely Only as correlatives do sleep and wak- from authorities such as Arnold of Vil- ing appear to have an affinity with each lanova, Simon of Genoa, Taddeo Al- other. Wherefore many would think it cerotti of Florence, Gerard of Cremona, reasonable that after the ailments which Albertus Magnus and Avicenna. He occur in sleep or from sleep, they speaks highly of two of his teachers who should set waking, which was done. But were in the University of Pavia at the between coma, incubus, and epilepsy, in beginning of the fifteenth century. He their causes and cures, I find a much was obviously a religious man and fre- closer connection than between sleep quently interrupts his medical dis- and waking. For this reason I have de- course to address Christ and the Virgin. voted the present tract to epilepsy. He has faith in the relics of saints and Later I shall treat of waking, in its in the virtue of gems. Thorndike be- proper place. Epilepsy is a disease very much dis- that in his paroxysms he always saw cussed everywhere, for it dwells among wonderful things, which he most ar- all nations, and more familiarly than dently desired to set down in writing, they would like; wherefore it is known for he hoped they would certainly come by various names, epilepsy, hieranoson, in the future.3 Wherefore the ancients divination, Hercules’ disease, or herac- called this disease “divination.” lea pedicon, the comitial disease, the It is also called “Hercules’ disease,” lunatic disease, and the mother of chil- because it was the ailment of the great dren. It is called epilepsy from “epi,” Hercules, and he suffered from it, as above, and “lesis,” lesion, as an injury the poets tell us. And because this dis- of the upper parts, that is, the head.1 ease very often attacks children, it was Wherefore some hold that epilepsy is called pedicon by some, from the Greek named from the oppressing of the mind paidos, the Latin puer, boy. Or, as and sensation, and when these are im- seemed better to others, from the dis- peded, the body is hindered in its op- ordered movements of the feet (pedes), erations. For this reason also, some call which commonly accompany this dis- it “hieranoson.” Older authors inter- ease. It is called the “comitial disease” preted this as the “sacred disease,” for, from comitia, assembly. Comitia were since they placed the activities of the assemblies of the Roman populace in soul more in the brain than in any other the Campus Martius on the first day of member, they called the brain the January for the purpose of electing “temple of the soul.” And since tem- magistrates for the year. If this disease ples are commonly sacred, they called attacked any one there, the assembly the brain a “sacred” place, wherefore was adjourned to another day. And so they called the disease “hieranoson.”2 it was called the “comitial disease.” It It is called by some “divination,” as the is also called the “falling disease,” be- wise Serapion says, because they thought cause whomever it attacks it causes to the cause came from the devil. But, with fall. It is called the “lunatic disease,” all respect to Serapion, that was not the because it advances according to the meaning; rather, it was called “divina- various phases of the moon. And it is tion” because in epilepsy, in which called the “mother of children” because there is violent occlusion, all the ex- it attacks children more often than all ternal senses were so bound that they others. All that has been said bears on were impeded from almost all opera- that disease called epilepsy by the tions. Whence, the rational soul, not authors. So much for the name. being otherwise impeded, remained, so Now we must investigate what epi- to speak, in its purely natural state, in lepsy is. Whence Galen, in his “On which, it sometimes happens that the Internal Diseases,” chapter 4, and in the soul apprehends future things; and little work, “On Helps for Breathing,” when the paroxysm is removed, very also Avicenna, Canon 1, Fen 3, in the often patients predict future events.