620 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



domination. Bologna came into prominence in the thirteenth century 

 and retained its preeminence for a long time. Here we have some 

 definite statements by Mondino that he dissected several cadavers. But 

 his writings also furnish the proof that he was not able to emancipate 

 himself wholly from the authority of Galen and the Arabians. For 

 some reason there were fewer obstacles in the way of the anatomist in 

 Italy than in any other country in Europe; Berenger of Carpi is said 

 to have performed more than a hundred dissections. In Italy too we 

 meet with a number of names that are immortalized by their discov- 

 eries in the human body. The chief merit of Vesalius lies in the fact 

 that he clearly recognized for the first time many of the errors that 

 had come into current belief by the authority of Galen. 



Hippocrates, Celsus, Galen, these three names sum up the science 

 of ancient medicine; but the greatest of these is Hippocrates. It is 

 perhaps not putting the case too strong if we say that they embrace 

 substantially the entire healing art until not much over a century ago. 

 The medical works of these three authors were printed in Italy before 

 the end of the fifteenth century in Latin translations from the Arabic. 

 This is striking testimony to the completeness of the rupture between 

 ancient Greece and dawning era of modern times. When these Latin 

 translations from the Arabic were made is not known ; but it is known 

 that they were very imperfect and that they were as blindly followed 

 as were the writings of Aristotle. Galen's prestige was more due to 

 his ambition and industry than to his individual merit. The great 

 mass of medical knowledge was still accessible in manuscripts. This 

 he carefully examined, and wrote comments upon much of it with re- 

 markable discrimination for his age. Like Aristotle he would have 

 been the first to repudiate the utterly senseless homage paid to his 

 writings. One can not read the works of Hippocrates without being 

 impressed with the extraordinary acumen of the man. Much that 

 now passes current under his name is doubtless not genuine, in the 

 strict sense of the word; but is at least evidence to the prestige of the 

 master's name. The thinker constantly appears along with the prac- 

 titioner. And we must always keep in mind that chemistry was un- 

 known and the microscope non-existent. He tells us, among other 

 things, that rain water is the purest, while ice and snow water are the 

 worst for all purposes. He had carefully noted the radical differences 

 between the people of Asia and of Europe, so far as he knew these parts 

 of the world. What he says concerns the physician but little, the 

 philosopher a great deal. He directly contravenes popular belief when 

 he tells his readers more than once that there is no such a thing as a 

 sacred disease; that no disorder is sent by a god, and that all ailments 

 are due to natural causes. How heterodox this was may be seen by 

 any one who reads the first book of the Iliad, where Apollo is repre- 



