Guy de Chauliac

Life

Guy de Chauliac was born in Chaulhac, Lozère, France, into a family of modest means. He began his study of medicine in Toulouse before going to study in Montpellier, the centre for medical knowledge in 14th-century France. He was in Paris between 1315 and 1320, and around 1325, he became a Master of Medicine and Surgery. After receiving his degree, he went to Bologna to study anatomy under Nicola Bertuccio, from whom he may have learned surgical techniques. It is unknown whether Chauliac applied his surgical studies and knowledge. Charles H. Talbot writes,

It was seemingly from books that [Chauliac] learned his surgery.... He may have used the knife when embalming the bodies of dead popes, but he was careful to avoid it on living patients.

Others, including André Thevenet, claim that Chauliac moved to Mende and then Lyons to practice medicine after learning the art of surgery from Bertuccio.

Chauliac's reputation as a physician grew quickly. He was invited to the papal court in Avignon to serve as a personal physician to Pope Clement VI (1342–1352). He went on to become a personal physician to Pope Innocent VI (1352–1362) and then to Pope Urban V (1362–1370). He died in Avignon in 1368. He completed his great treatise in 1353.

Black Death

When the Black Death arrived in Avignon in 1348, physicians fled the city. However, Chauliac stayed on and treated plague patients and documenting symptoms meticulously. He claimed to have been himself infected and survived the disease.

Through his observations, Chauliac distinguished between the two forms of the disease, the bubonic plague and the pneumonic plague. As a precautionary measure, he advised Clement to keep a fire burning continuously in his chamber and to keep visitors out.

He gave the following description to the papal court:

The great death toll began in our case in the month of January [1348], and lasted for the space of seven months. It was of two kinds: the first lasted two months; with continuous fever and spitting of blood; and death occurred within three days. The second lasted for the whole of the remainder of the time, also with continuous fever, and with ulcers and boils in the extremities, principally under the arm-pits and in the groin; and death took place within five days. And [it] was of so great a contagion (especially when there was spitting of blood) that not only through living in the same house but merely through looking, one person caught it from the other.

The plague was recognised as being contagious although the agent of contagion was unknown. As treatment, Chauliac recommended air be purified, venesection (bleeding) and a healthy diet. The outbreak of plague and widespread death was blamed on Jews, who in some areas were believed to have poisoned wells. Chauliac fought against this idea and used science to declare the theory untrue.