John Arderne was born in 1307, and was apparently attached to the households of the first Duke of Lancaster and of his son in law John of Gaunt: it is probable that Chaucer had met him. He wrote about 1370, when, as an old and wealthy man, he could afford to let posterity into his professional confidence. He is “the earliest example that we know at present…of a type of surgeon who has happily never been absent from England.” His fame as a pharmacist long outlived his reputation as surgeon; four of his recipes remained in use until the time of the first pharmacopœia, 1618. The following extract is from a 15th century translation of his Treatise on Fistula, admirably edited for the E.E.T.S. (1910, pp. 1 ff.) by Mr D'Arcy Power, whose are the notes marked Ed.

He here enumerates 21 cases—barons, knights, priests, merchants and friars, and proceeds: