The Decade of Medicine or The Physician of the Rich and the Poor in which all the Signs, Causes and Remedies of Disease Are Clearly Expounded

he purpose of this book is to give the reader T an impression of medical science in seven­ teenth-century France. The French physician FRAN(fOIS DU PORT was the actual author of the book ) La Decade de Medecine ou Le Medecin des Riches et des Pauvres(. Working for thirty years as a country doctor enabled him to report the symptoms and causes of different diseases, and during the reign of LOUIS XIII (1601-1643), he recorded his experiences in Latin verse. In I 69 1, the adviser and official physician to LOUIS XIV Du FOUR acquired the rights to Du PORT'S book: he transcribed the doctor's experiences into French verse and in 1694, in Paris, )La Decade de Medecine ou Le Medecin des Riches et des Pauvres ( was published in Latin and French verse. In 1980, whilst staying in Avignon, France, M. DIEHL chanced upon a copy of this edition, which was then exactly 286 years old. Her father, H. DIEHL, was fascinated by the possibility of gaining an insight into the diagnostic and thera­ peutic practices of the 17th century in this unusual way. As soon as he returned home, he started translating the book into German: It is divided into 10 sections with 253 chapters and approxi­ mately 500 pages. The book was translated into English by Dr. DAVID LE VAY, Wadhurst, Eng­ land, in 1988.