The Evolution of Medical Science. 137 



In 1243, the Dominicans solemnly interdicted every member 

 of their order from the study of medicine. About the same 

 time, the popes ordered all medical books from the mon- 

 asteries, and forbade their study. Petrarch called the 

 doctors, " Men who deny Genesis and bark at Christ."* 

 They were called Atheists, Mohammedans, Sorcerers, Magi- 

 cians, and all other titles likely to embitter the ignorant 

 and superstitious against them. As late as 1722, the Eev. 

 Edward Massey said that diseases are sent by Providence 

 for the punishment of sin, and the attempt to prevent them 

 is a "diabolical operation." 



During all this dark period the only valuable gains made 

 were borrowed from the Mohammedans. Avicenna, an 

 Arabian, taught us how to use colchicum for gout, iron for 

 anaemia, and rhubarb in dysentery. To him we are indebted 

 for cassia, senna, manna, tamarinds, and camphor. We here 

 see why doctors were called " Mohammedans," a term that 

 then was worse than burglar or thief is to-day. 



In the loth century, a number of bold spirits defied the 

 popular prejudice so far as to dissect bodies privately. 

 Some were caught and severely punished. In the 16th 

 century, more of it still was done, in defiance of law, but 

 privately, of course. Strange to say, however, even these 

 men could not divorce themselves from subserviency to 

 Galen. Whatever they found disagreeing with his descrip- 

 tion was set down as due to human degeneracy. The body 

 not being just as Galen described it, it must have changed. 

 Galen could not be mistaken. f It is ever thus, in progress 

 from superstition to truth. The majority take the popular 

 side, whether right or wrong. Nor can they be blamed for 

 this. As a rule it is the side of the greatest safety. Dis- 

 sentients, in defending a solitary fragment of truth, are 

 more likely than not to discard the accumulated experiences 

 of the race, making that fragment do duty for the whole. 

 The men and women that are able honestly to weigh facts, 

 and be guided solely thereby, are, in every age, few and far 

 between. Hence it is, as a rule, safer to err on the side of 

 conservatism than on that of so-called radicalism. In spite 

 of this, we cannot help wishing that there had been more, 

 and more pronounced, radicals during the Middle Ages. 



The theological nightmare of those times, especially in 



Ibid, pp. 100 to 108. 



t Amencan Cyclopaedia, word "Medicine." 



