WILLIAM GILBERT. 263 



fact all of the ancient writers, treated of the lodestone as 

 a part of the materia medica ; the more modern authors 

 dwelt much also upon its occult powers, and Paracelsus 

 had rejuvenated but recently the superstitions of the old 

 Greeks and had opened the Pandora's box of delusions and 

 deceptions concerning it, which have plagued the world 

 ever since. Gilbert, while showing abundant familiarity 

 with these and other authorities on the medical uses of the 

 magnet, disposes of their labored speculations with scant 

 respect and few words. Therapeutically he thinks the 

 stone has some uses, not however dependent upon its mag- 

 netic quality. As for Paracelsus, he observes that head- 

 aches can no more be cured by a lodestone applied than 

 by a steel hat, and he singles out the apostle of laudanum 

 and mercury for especial scorn. That he owed nothing to 

 the accumulated magnetic wisdom of his professional an- 

 cestors saving perhaps the knowledge of a host of errors 

 to be avoided is clear. His greatest debt, as I shall show 

 hereafter, lay to Peregrin us, to Cardan and Fracastorio as 

 philosophers rather than as physicians, and to Sarpi 

 through Baptista Porta's transcriptions. 



Gilbert's medical reputation must have preceded him, for 

 upon his return to England, he was at once made a Fellow 

 of the Royal College of Physicians. He began practice 

 in London, and established himself in a house on u St. 

 Peter's Hill between upper Thames Street and Little 

 Knight Rider Street." As Dr. Linacre is known 1 to have 

 given a house on Knight Rider Street to the college as its 

 first abode, it may be that Gilbert took up his residence in 

 the college building. At all events, it seems that he led 

 an all but cloistered life and taught medicine at his dwell- 

 ing to a number of students. More probably, however, 

 this gathering was modeled on the Italian ridotto, or was 

 something after the fashion of Porta's suppressed society, 

 the Otiosi, having for its object not only didactic instruc- 

 tion, but free discussion and interchange of opinion. It 



1 T. Allen: A New History of London, 1883, iii., 573. 



