12 THE GROWTH OF TRUTH 



II. 



The sixteenth century, drawing to a close, had been 

 a period of acquisition unequalled in history. Brooding 

 over the face of the waters of mediaevalism, the spirit of 

 the Renaissance brought forth a science of the world 

 and of man which practically created a new heaven and 

 a new earth, and the truths announced by Copernicus 

 and Galileo far transcended 



the searching schoolmen's view 

 And half had staggered that stout Stagyrite. 



Among other things, it had given to medicine a new 

 spirit, a new anatomy, and a new chemistry. In the 

 latter part of the fifteenth century Hippocrates and 

 Galen came to their own again. A wave of enthusiasm 

 for the fathers in medicine swept over the profession ; 

 and for at least two generations the best energies of its 

 best minds were devoted to the study of their writings. 

 How numerous and important is that remarkable group 

 of men, the medical humanists of the Renaissance, we 

 may judge by a glance at Bayle's Biographic Medicate, 

 in which the lives are arranged in chronological order. 

 From Garbo of Bologna, surnamed the expositor, to 

 Rabelais, more than 150 biographies and bibliographies 

 are given, and at least one-half of these men had either 

 translated or edited works of the Greek physicians. Of 

 our founder, one of the most distinguished of the group, 

 and of his influence in reviving the study of Galen and 

 so indirectly of his influence upon Harvey, Dr. Payne's 

 story still lingers in our memories. Leonicenus, Linacre, 

 Gonthier, Monti, Koch, Camerarius, Caius, Fuchs, 

 Zerbi, Cornarus, and men of their stamp not only 

 swept away Arabian impurities from the medicine of 



