[3] Others, including Thevenet, claim that Chauliac moved to Mende and then Lyons to practice medicine after learning the art of surgery from Bertuccio.

The second lasted for the whole of the remainder of the time, also with continuous fever, and with ulcers and boils in the extremities, principally under the arm-pits and in the groin; and death took place within five days.

[4]The plague was recognized as being contagious although the agent of contagion was unknown; as treatment, Chauliac recommended air be purified, venesection (bleeding), and healthy diet.

The outbreak of plague and widespread death was blamed on Jews, who were heretics, and in some areas were believed to have poisoned wells; Chauliac fought against this idea, using science to declare the theory untrue.

In seven volumes, the treatise covers anatomy, bloodletting, cauterization, drugs, anesthetics, wounds, fractures, ulcers, special diseases, and antidotes.

He claimed that surgery began with Hippocrates and Galen, and was developed in the Arab world by Haly Abbas, Albucasis, and Al-Razi.

[8] As well as owing a debt to Galen, Chirurgia magna was greatly influenced by Islamic scientists, and de Chauliac references Avicenna often in the work.

[10] It was reworked multiple times, including to remove references to Islamic scientists, to the point that the work was no longer recognizable as Chauliac's own.