2
CHAPTER 1
bedsores, as complications of paraplegia. It is interesting to note that he already advocates
a large intake of fluid and a special diet for these patients, consisting of four to nine
pints of milk, preferably from an ass, combined with honey, and he also recommends
a special mild white wine from Mendes in Egypt. Hippocrates also introduced various
methods of reduction of deformities of the spine by traction, and his famous extension
bench better known, through the work of Aulus Cornelius Celsus, as scamnum was
employed in various modifications by physicians throughout the centuries to reduce
fractures as well as other deformities of the spine by forceful and brisk procedures. They
V
FIG. i. Vidus Vidius manuscript, Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris.
FIG. 2. De Machinamentis (Oribasius). In: Vidus Vidius: Chirurgia, e Graeco in
Latinum connersa, Paris 1544.
