Extracting Stone of Madness Bashny.Net

Interesting fact: in the Middle Ages the cause of human stupidity, insanity or dementia is a stone formed in the head. However, the image of surgical operations to extract the add stones can be found only in the paintings of Dutch artists, and this story has remained popular until the XVII century.



Removing the stone. Painting by an unknown master, XVII century. Previously attributed to Frans Hals.




Peter Gyuis. Extracting Stone of Madness. Ok. 1545.

It is known that craniotomy performed in the Stone Age, and only some of them had a ritual. Archaeological findings show that the majority of trepanations carried out for therapeutic purposes. A first detailed description of the surgical procedure did the ancient Greek physician Hippocrates.

General surgery in ancient times was at the height of, and doctors Mesopotamia, Ancient Egypt, Persia, India and China is making progress in complex surgical procedures. Although, of course, reached the zenith medicine in ancient Greece.

Unfortunately, in medieval Europe underwent surgery appalling degradation, and only with the beginning of the Renaissance, European physicians began to learn and apply medical knowledge of ancient civilizations.

One can only assume that the removal of the stones of stupidity, wires, of course, charlatans, was the result of misinterpreted Greek or Arabic manuscripts describing the surgery on the skull.



Hieronymus Bosch. Removing the stone stupidity. 1475-1480. The first picture in the history of painting dedicated to this operation. Fragment.



Jan van Hemessen. Removing the stones of stupidity. 1545-1550.



Marcellus Koffermans (a copy of a painting by Bosch). Removing stones from the head. Fragment. 1550-1599.

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