132 SCIENCE AND THE HUMAN MIND 



We must now return to the influence of the Renais- 

 sance on other branches of science, and, in chief, on 

 Medical medicine, from which most of the others 



during the took their rise. It was at first supposed 



Renaissance, that the revival of Greek learning 

 would produce the same brilliant results in medicine 

 as in literature and philosophy ; and a school of 

 medical humanists arose who from 1450 to 1550 

 turned men's minds from mediaeval medicine, developed 

 through Arabian channels from commentaries on 

 Greek writers, to what were regarded as the fountain- 

 heads of the science the writings of Hippocrates and 

 Galen themselves. 



But even from the first there were revolts against 

 the domination of the newly translated authorities, 

 and, once again, an actual observation of nature formed 

 the starting-point. Paracelsus (c. 1490-1541), a man 

 of Swiss birth, broke away from the schools and the 

 chemistry of his period, and in the mines of the Tyrol 

 studied indifferently rocks, minerals, mechanical 

 contrivances and the conditions, accidents and dis- 

 eases consequent on the miner's life and occupation. 

 He then wandered over a great part of Europe studying 

 the diseases and remedies of different nations, before 

 settling down for a while as " town physician " at 

 Basle, where he roused the opposition of the vested 

 interests by the efficacy of his treatment and the 

 guaranteed purity of his drugs. With independent 

 arrogance, Paracelsus taught in the German language 

 contempt for Galen and Avicenna, whose works he 

 burnt publicly in the lecture-room, and relied on his 

 own experience, interpreted in the light of a personal 

 reading of neo-Platonic philosophy. But perhaps 



