The fourth is salt, which is briny and sharp, whence are the passions and the faculties of feeling in respect of corporeal sense and perception. The fifth is the air, or wind, whence is the breath. The sixth is the sun, which is clear and fair, whence is the fire, or corporeal warmth, and the light and colour. The seventh is the Holy Spirit, whence are the soul and life. The eighth is Christ, that is, the intellect and wisdom, and the light of the soul and life. If the part of man that preponderates be of the earth, he will prove unwise, sluggish and very heavy, and will be a little, short, thin dwarf, according as the preponderance may be, whether great or small. If it be of the air, the man will be light, unsteady, garrulous, and given to gossip. If of the stones, he will be hard of heart, understanding and judgment-a miser and a thief. If of the sun, he will be a man of genius, affectionate, active, docile, and poetical. If of the Holy Spirit, he will be godly, amiable, and compassionate, of a just and tender judgment, and fond of the arts and sciences; and this cannot otherwise than equiponderate with Christ and divine sonship.' Taliesin has likewise the credit of being the propounder of the following medical Triads;— "There are three intractable substantial organs: the liver; the kidney; and the heart. A There are three intractable membranes: the dura mater; the peritoneum; and the urinary bladder. There are three tedious complaints: disease of the knee joint; disease of the substance of a rib, and phthysis; for when purulent matter has formed in one of these, it is not known when it will get well."+ The period between the 6th and 10th centuries, being especially occupied with national troubles, does not seem to have been favourable to the study of the arts and sciences in Wales;-at any rate the literary remains of that interval are extremely scanty, and furnish us with no information as to the state of medical science, or the estimation in which the physician was held in the country. Not so, however, the era of Howel Dda, (or the Good.) In his laws, which were compiled about A.D. 930, several particulars are noticed in connexion with Llanover MS. † Llanover MS. these points, and the Royal Court. more especially the mediciner of Of him it is thus stated: "Of the mediciner of the household, his office, his privilege, and his duty, this treats, 1. The twelfth is the mediciner of the household. 2. He is to have his land free; his horse in attendance; and his linen clothing from the queen, and his woollen clothing from the king. 3. His seat in the hall within the palace is at the base of the pillar to which the screen is attached, near which the king sits. 4. His lodging is with the chief of the household. 5. His protection is, from the time the king shall command him to visit a wounded or sick person, whether the person be in the palace or out of it, until he quit him, to convey away an offender. 6. He is to administer medicine gratuitously to all within the palace, and to the chief of the household; and he is to have nothing from them except their bloody clothes, unless it be for one of the three dangerous wounds, as mentioned before; these are a stroke on the head unto the brain; a stroke in the body unto the bowels; and the breaking of one of the four limbs; for every one of these three dangerous wounds the mediciner is to have nine score pence and his food, or one pound without his food, and also the bloody clothes. 7. The mediciner is to have, when he shall apply a tent, twenty four pence. 8. For an application of red ointment, twelve pence. 9. For an application of herbs to a swelling, four legal pence. 10. For letting blood, four pence. 11. His food daily is worth one penny halfpenny. 12. His light every night is worth one legal penny. 13. The worth of a medical pan is one penny. 14. The mediciner is to take an indemnification from the kindred of the wounded person, in case he die from the remedy he may use, and if he do not take it, let him answer for the deed. 15. He is to accompany the armies. 16. He is never to leave the palace, but with the king's permission. 17. His saraad is six kine, and six score of silver, to be augmented. 18. His worth is six score and six kine, to be augmented." Elsewhere we meet with the following particulars : "Of the three conspicuous scars this is— There are three conspicuous scars: one upon the face; another upon the foot; and another upon the hand; thirty pence on the foot; three score pence on the hand; six score pence on the face. Every unexposed scar, four pence. The cranium, four pence.* For every broken bone, twenty pence; unless there be a dispute as to its diminutivness; and if there be a dispute as to the size let the mediciner take a brass basin, and let him place his elbow upon the ground, and his hand over the basin, and if its sound be heard, let four legal pence be paid; and if it be not heard, nothing is due."+ This singular test is made more clear in another place :-thus "Four curt pennies are to be paid to a person for every bone, taken from the upper part of the cranium, which shall sound on falling into a copper basin." If the mediciner was insulted while inebriated he was not entitled to saraad, as "he knew not at what time the king might want his assistance." He was "free to travel the road, and out of the road-along with the messenger of the sick," and, as stated in legal fragments entitled "Elucidation," any one might take another's horse to procure a medical man for a person in danger without being required to make amends. We have no reason to suppose that there was any material difference either in the position of the physicians, or in the attention paid to the study of medicine during the succeeding ages, until we come to the era of Rhys Gryg, when the Physicians of Myddvai flourished. Rhys Gryg|| was the son of Rhys ab Gruffydd, prince of South Wales, and lived in the former part of the 13th century. He was a distinguished warrior, and fought with varied success in the wars which were carried on in Wales almost without intermission during his life. According to old usage he had his domestic Ancient Laws and Institutes of Wales, vol. I. p. 41, &c. + Ib. p. 315. + p. 507. i.e. Rhys the Hoarse. This surname would seem to indicate that Rhys was afflicted with some disease of the Larynx, or his hoarseness may have been the result of a wound in that part. Physician, namely Rhiwallon, who was assisted by his three sons, Cadwgan, Gruffydd, and Einion, from a place called Myddvai, in the present county of Caermarthen, whose rights and privileges, as enjoined by law were worthily maintained and upheld by the prince. Under his patronage these men made a collection of valuable medicinal recipes applicable to the various disorders to which the human body was then subject. But though this collection bears their name, we are not to suppose that all the prescriptions contained therein were the result of the studies and experience of the Physicians of Myddvai. Some no doubt had been in the materia medica of Wales long before; a few indeed may perhaps be traced up to the time of Howel the Good, if not to the sixth century. Such, however, do not seem to have been reduced to writing, until the Physicians of Myddvai took the matter in hand, and produced the work, which is now for the first time printed. The original manuscript is supposed to be the one lately transferred from the library of the Welsh Charity School, in London, to the British Museum. Of this there are several copies; the one adopted as the basis of the present volume is from the Red Book, in Jesus College, Oxford, which was carefully collated by the Rev. Robert Owen, B.D., Fellow of the said College, with a transcript made by the late Mr. Saunders, from Mr. Rees of Tonn's copy; which MS. was, moreover, copied about 1766, by William Bona, of Llanpumsant, from another belonging to Iago ap Dewi of Llanllawddog. The various readings of the Tonn copy are all arranged at the foot of each page, and referred to under the letter T. A knowledge of medicine was preserved in the descendants of this family, and they continued to practice as physicians at Myddvai, without intermission, until the middle of the last century. The second portion of this volume purports to have been compiled by Howel the Physician, son of Rhys, son of Llewelyn, son of Philip the Physician, a lineal descendant of Einion, the son of Rhiwallon, from the Books of the first Physicians of Myddvai. William Bona made a transcript from the Book of John Jones, Physician of Mydd vai, the last lineal decendant of the family, A.D. 1743. The late Iolo Morganwg took a copy of this MS. in 1801, and it is his copy, now in Llanover Library, that forms the text of our volume. Besides these collections, several fragments, some indeed of considerable lengths, but of uncertain date, may be often met with in MSS. having for the most part, perhaps, been made by individual practitioners for their own private use, before the art of printing became general. Some medical prescriptions assumed a proverbial shape, and in that form clung firmly to the public mind. We subjoin a few of these; and as proverbs loose much of their point when translated, we give them first in their original form. DIARHEBION MEDDYGOL, (O Lyfr Iaco ab Dewi.) A gysgo'n ddigwynos, nid rhaid iddo wrth Rhiwallon Myddfai. Genau oer a thraed gwresog fydd byw'n hir. I farchnad y pysgod y boreu, a'r gigfa brydnhawn. Dwr oer a bara twym a wnant fol afiachus. Tair cynneddf dwr ; ni ddug afiechyd, dyled, na gweddwdod. Bwytta wyau heb halen a bair afiechyd. Nid sarhad dwyn cwynos hen wr. Llysowen mewn pastai, a llamprai yn yr halen. |