Dioscorides Phakas on the Detection of Iron in Blood, Urine and Sputum

During our visit to St. Felix on the Orinoco, we?my three Venezuelan colleagues and I?were the guests of Dr. McPherson, a general practitioner at St. Felix. His family, Peruvian by origin, had lived in St. Felix for several generations, and he and his father had studied medicine at the ancient Venezuelan University of Merida. Dr. McPherson senior had been interested in the history of medicine and had built up a good general practice. His son, our host, had developed the practice and had also become the Senior Physician of the State Hospital at Upata, and thus held a well-paid appointment. As he had neither time for nor interest in the history of medicine, he presented to me a bundle of manuscripts, amongst which I found a Latin translation of the twenty-four books by Dioscorides Phakas