Gilbertus Anglicus | Page 4

Cleveland College of Physicians and Surgeons (Medical
Department of Ohio Wesleyan University), 1896 to 1907, and filled
that chair with eminent ability. Thus it came about that the
ex-Confederate officer taught sanitary science in a college standing
upon ground donated by the survivors of an organization of
abolitionists.
Dr. Handerson was a member of the Cuyahoga County Medical Society,
and its President in 1895; also a member of the Cleveland Academy of
Medicine, of the Ohio State Medical Society, and of the American
Medical Association. He was one of the founders and an active worker

in the Cleveland Medical Library Association and its President from
1896 to 1902.
He was all his life devoted to the Episcopal Church, was Warden of
Grace Episcopal Church, Cleveland, for many years, and Treasurer of
the Diocese of Ohio during fourteen years.
During his later years Dr. Handerson withdrew entirely from active
practice and spent a great deal of time in his library. His papers abound
in carefully prepared manuscripts, some of them running into hundreds
of pages.
Two years before his death Dr. Handerson became totally blind. This
grievous affliction was borne with unvarying patience and cheerfulness.
He still loved to recite from memory the classic authors, to relate and
discuss episodes of world history and events of the present, to solve
difficult mathematical problems, and to have his data on all subjects
verified. He retained his faculties perfectly until April 23, 1918, when
he died from cerebral hemorrhage.
He is survived by a daughter, two sons by the second marriage, and his
devoted wife.
Among numerous letters received from prominent physicians and
authors appreciative of Dr. Handerson's medico-historical labors, one
from Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes expresses high praise and requests to
have sent to him everything which Dr. Handerson might in future write.
It seems eminently appropriate that the essay on "Gilbertus Anglicus."
the last from the pen of Dr. Handerson, should be put in book form,
together with a sketch, however brief, of its author's earnest life, his
sterling character, his geniality and imperturbable equanimity, and thus
preserved in testimony of the high esteem in which he was held by his
contemporaries.
SAMUEL WALTER KELLEY.
* * * * *

RESOLUTIONS
At a meeting of the Council of the Cleveland Medical Library
Association, held on May 14, the following resolutions were adopted:
Resolved, That in the death of Dr. Henry E. Handerson the Cleveland
Medical Library Association has sustained the loss of one of its most
honored and devoted members. His scholarly acquirements were
notable, and his eminence as a medical historian generally recognized.
His deep interest in the welfare of the Library and his thorough
attention to every detail of his official duties were always evident,
while his lovable personal qualities endeared him to all.
The Association desires to express its high appreciation of his long and
valued services, and extends to his bereaved family its heartfelt and
sincere sympathy.
C.A. HAMANN, WM. EVANS BRUNER, J.B. McGEE.
* * * * *

GILBERTUS ANGLICUS (GILBERT OF ENGLAND)
A STUDY OF ENGLISH MEDICINE IN THE THIRTEENTH
CENTURY.
BY H.E. HANDERSON, A.M., M.D.
CLEVELAND
* * * * *
"Nothing in the past is dead to the man who would learn how the
present came to be what it is."--Stubbs--_Constitutional Hist. of
England_.

* * * * *
Among the literary monuments of early English medicine the
"Compendium Medicinae" of Gilbertus Anglicus merits a prominent
position as the earliest complete treatise on general medicine by an
English author which has been preserved to our day, and equally
because it forms in itself a very complete mirror of the medical science
of its age and its country.
Gilbert was undoubtedly one of the most famous physicians of his time.
His reputation is recognized in those well-known lines of Chaucer
which catalogue the "authorities" of his Doctor of Phisik:
"Wel knew he the olde Esculapius And Deyscorides and eek Rufus,
Olde Ypocras, Haly and Galyen, Serapion, Razis and Avycen, Averrois,
Damascien and Constantyn, Bernard and Gatesden and Gilbertyn."
He is also quoted with frequency and respect by the medical writers of
many succeeding ages, and the Compendium, first printed in 1510,
enjoyed the honor of a second edition as late as the seventeenth century
(1608). The surname "Anglicus" in itself testifies to the European
reputation of our author, for as Dr. Payne sensibly remarks, no one in
England would speak of an English writer as "the Englishman."
Yet, in spite of his reputation, we know almost no details of the life of
Gilbert, and are forced to content ourselves with the few facts to be
gleaned from the scanty biographies of early writers and the inferences
drawn from the pages of the Compendium itself. The date and place of
his birth and death, and even the