LEONHAKD FUCHS NEUMANN. 641 



Culmbach, where the court resided for some time, returning in 1534 

 to Ansbach. In the same j^ear Fuchs published his Parodoxorum 

 medicinse libri tres and dedicated it to Uh'ich, Duke of Wurttem- 

 berg, which was evidently the reason why the duke, who was just 

 beginning to reform and to rejuvenate the University of Tubingen, 

 appointed Fuchs as professor of medicine in 1535 to replace Prof. 

 Eudolf Unger, who was more than 70 j'ears of age and no longer 

 able to adapt himself to the reforms contemplated by the duke. On 

 August 14, 1535, Fuchs entered upon his duties in Tiibingen, Avhere 

 he lived and labored until his death, 31 years later. In his dedi- 

 cation to the duke, Fuchs states that the medical school of Tubingen, 

 which had once given to the medical profession such excellent schol- 

 ars, had greatly deteriorated and had lost its prestige. To modernize 

 this school and to make it regain its once illustrious name as a seat 

 of learning was Fuchs' chief aim, and in this he had the full sup- 

 port of the duke. In an order,^ dated November 3, 1536, con- 

 cerning the reform of the university, Duke Ulrich stipulated that 

 two ordinary professors of medicine should lecture daily and read 

 with the students those books necessary for the understanding of their 

 science, especialh^ Hippocrates and Galen, in Greek. The two ordi- 

 nary professors were Leonhard Fuchs and Michael Rucker.^ The 

 appointment of the latter was unfortunate. He still belonged to the 

 old school of medicine, and Duke Christopher, Ulrich 's successor, said 

 of him that he had peculiar opinions and bad habits. Fuchs was not 

 only the leading spirit in the medical faculty but unquestionably 

 was the most important teacher in the university. Twice he was 

 elected rector, from 1536 to 1537 and from 1540 to 1541, and the stat- 

 utes of the medical faculty, issued in 1539, were written by him. 

 These statutes are important to the history of the study of medicine 

 at German universities in the sixteenth century and show that Fuchs 

 was inspired with the modern spirit of the time — a true humanist. 

 The keynote of the statutes is his opposition to Arabism in medicine. 

 " Those who study medicine from the Arabic writers," he says, " will 

 draw water from turbid rivers."^ The Greek writers, as Hippoc- 

 rates, Galen, and Dioscorides, should be studied in their own lan- 



1 Urkiindeii zur Geschichtc der Universitiit Tubingen aus den Jahren 1476-1550, 

 Tiibingen, II. Laupp'sche Buchhandlung, 1877. S. 189 : " Zum fiinfften zwen Medicj 

 ordentlich zum wenigsten vnd teglichen lescn und leeren, die Biecher zu verstand der 

 Isunst, vnd dem gebruch dienstlich, fiimemlich Hippocratis vnd Galeni, mit behilff dor 

 griechischen sprach, die dann dise in iren schrifften gefiert hatben." 



- "Michael Rucljer von Wiesenstaig inser. 1521, Mag. 1526, Med. D. 1529. Er war 

 kein Freund der neuen Lehre. Noch 1556 sagt eine Instruction II. Christophs von ihm, 

 er sei nit allein ein Papist, sondern liabe noch mehr besondere opiniones und Untugenden. 

 Stirbt 1561." — Urkunden z. Ge.schichte d. Universilat Tiibingen, S. 166. 



2 " Et quTim nemo sit, qui nesciat Arabes omnia ferme sua e Graecis transcripsisse, 

 parcissime deinceps ad doctrinam studii hujus adhibebuntur, quod consultius sit artis 

 praecepta a fontibus, qvam turbidis riutiUs haurirc." — Urkunden z. Geschichte d. Uni- 

 versitiit Tiibingen, S. 311. 



