De metallorum ortu & causis

most unskilled. Of this kind are barbers, ointment-sellers, old-clothes dealers, midwives, bedside women, attendants of the sick, and all those vagabond quacks whom the Italians call "Charlatans" Charlatanos. Among these are also numbered the apothecaries pharmacopolæ, who dispense medicines of all kinds without the advice of a physician. Since, as Hippocrates shows, no punishment except for disgrace has been established in republics for medicine alone, the most noble of all arts, medicine, is today held in low esteem. In Montpellier Monspelio, in the medical academy which was then both most famous and most renowned, it has hitherto been ordained that if any of these scoundrels is found who falsely claims to be a physician, he is to be seized publicly, then hoisted high upon a lean and (if one can be found) mangy donkey. He is led through the whole city facing backwards, harassed by taunts from every side, spat upon, beaten, and defiled with every kind of filth. Finally, after the city has been purified