LUSITANUS, Amatus.

Rare and attractive second Lyon edition of this extremely popular work by the Jewish Portuguese doctor Amatus Lusitanus (1511-68), credited with discovering the function of the heart valves, first published in Florence in 1551. The book begins with a short work on critical days occurring during a disease, describing the day-by-day progression of illnesses according to Galen and Hippocrates, running to twenty days. The main part of the work consists of the first two of Lusitanus’s ‘centuries,’ collections of one hundred case studies of cures, which are divided into a description of the illness and cure, each with a commentary called the ‘scholia.’

Many of the cures are herbal. There is a useful index of cases, which include snake bites, head pain, uterine prolapse, fevers, mouth ulcers, pleurisy, hydropsy, nephritis, syphilis, diseases of the eye, elephantiasis, worms, mania, etc. There is a frequent emphasis on issues affecting women, especially during birth, including miscarriage, at least two cases of post-partum depression and mania, and emitting menstrual blood from the nose and mouth during labour. Lusitanus also describes the case of a girl from a noble family in Esgueira who, after reaching puberty, developed male genitalia instead of menstruating.