THE HISTORY OF INTERNAL MEDICINE 227 



posed to be secreted by the brain, and by flowing downward ("deflux- 

 ions ") into the respiratory and alimentary passages produced catarrhal 

 and other diseases. Black bile was an entirely fanciful secretion of the 

 adrenals. In crude or corrupted state the humors were supposed to be 

 " acrid " — toxic or morbific ; during the course of the disease they were 

 believed to undergo a process of ripening or digestion — " coction " as it 

 was called — to be finally expelled from the body at the crisis of the 

 disease. The aim of treatment was to remove the acrid humors, or to 

 promote their concoction and expulsion. Free bloodletting and other 

 vigorous depleting measures were in general use. 



About the sixteenth century began the great awakening of the world 

 known as the Renaissance, which marks the end of the middle ages and 

 the beginning of the modern era. This movement brought about a 

 revolution in medical thought and yielded enormous acquisitions of 

 medical knowledge. 



The awakening in medicine was first manifested, in the sixteenth 

 century, in the development of anatomical knowledge, as we have it 

 to-day, under Vesalius (1514-1564), Jacobus Sylvius (1478-1555), 

 Eustachius (1500-1574), Fallopius (1523-1562) and their successors, 

 many of whose names are immortalized in our anatomical nomen- 

 clature more enduringly and more nobly than by monuments of bronze. 

 The sixteenth century saw the labors of Ambroise Pare (1509-1590), 

 the father of modern surgery, and important contributions in obstetrics 

 and gynecology. In the seventeenth century modern microscopy was 

 developed, and modern physiology may be said to have been founded by 

 the epochal discoveries of William Harvey (1578-1657) relating to cir- 

 culation and generation. 



In the domain of internal medicine the Eenaissance of the sixteenth 

 century effected a revolution in, or release from, the rigid and dogmatic 

 doctrines previously current. Nevertheless, the new doctrines were no 

 nearer true or more effective than the old, and for three centuries longer 

 internal medicine was destined to remain at a standstill before it too 

 was really born into the family of modern sciences. 



The first change was the overthrow of the authority of Galen (and 

 the Arabians), which had previously been the main support of medical 

 thought. This was brought about partly by the exact researches of 

 Vesalius disclosing the errors in the anatomical teachings of Galen, 

 partly by the effusions of the spectacular and mystical Paracelsus (1493- 

 1541). The authority of Hippocrates continued to have weight for a 

 much longer time. 



Subsequent to Paracelsus and the break up of the ancient and Arab- 

 ian medicine there developed a succession of speculative systems or 

 schools of medical doctrine and practise, each of which had more or 

 less general acceptance for a while, only to die out and be superseded by 



