Two medieval doctors: Gilbertus Anglicus (c1180-c1250) and John of Gaddesden (1280-1361)

Biographies of medieval English doctors are uncommon and fragmentary. The two best-known English medieval physicians were Gilbertus Anglicus and John of Gaddesden. This paper brings together the known details of their lives, compiled from extant biographies and from internal references in their texts. The primary records of their writings exist in handwritten texts and thereafter in incunabula from the time of the invention of printing in 1476. The record of the lives of these two medieval physicians can be expanded, as here, by the general perspective of the life and times in which they lived. Gilbertus Anglicus, an oftenquoted physician-teacher at Montpellier, wrote a seven-folio Compendium medicinae in 1271. He described pioneering procedures used later in the emergent disciplines of anaesthetics, cosmetic medicine and travel medicine. Gilbertus' texts, used extensively in European medical schools, passed in handwritten copies from student to student and eventually were printed in 1510. John of Gaddesden, an Oxford graduate in Arts, Medicine and Theology, wrote Rosa Anglica, published circa 1314. Its detailed text is an exemplar of the mixture of received Hippocratic and Galenic lore compounded by medieval astronomy and religious injunction, which mixture was the essence of medieval medicine. The writings of both these medieval English physicians formed part of the core curriculum that underpinned the practice of medicine for the next 400 years

Evolutionary and biomedical consequences of internal melanins.

The adaptive function of melanin located in the integument is well known. Although pigments are also deposited in various internal organs, their function is unclear. A review of the literature revealed that 'internal melanin' protects against parasites, pollutants, low temperature, oxidative stress, hypoxemia and UV light, and is involved in the development and function of organs. Importantly, several studies have shown that the amount of melanin deposited on the external body surface is correlated with the amount located inside the body. This finding raises the possibility that internal melanin plays more important physiological roles in dark than light-colored individuals. Internal melanin and coloration may therefore not evolve independently. This further emphasizes the major role played by indirect selection in evolutionary processes