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MEDICAL SCIENCES. 



great reputation at Strasburg by their practical skill, and by their books, 

 which latter were translated into Dutch and Italian. 



Up to the sixteenth century the medical science of the Middle Ages, 

 dominated or absorbed by the Arabic school, was opposed to the renovating 

 tendencies of the teaching body. Tradition, routine, and prejudice were too 

 strong for them ; and a love of the supernatural, and vague aspirations after 



Fig. 122. Portrait of Claude of France, Daughter of Louis XII., Painted by Clouet (Sixteenth 

 Century). In the Collection of M. Double, Paris. 



the unknown, retarded the general revolution, which advanced slowly but 

 inevitably. At the dawn of the sixteenth century nothing was ready for a great 

 scientific reform ; the medical art only subsisted, so to speak, amidst ruins, 

 surrounded by scattered fragments and materials which had no architect, 

 while the masons who were to be employed in erecting a new edifice had no 

 sheds to work in. Everywhere doubt and credulity were paramount. 

 Rabelais, with his sceptical laugh, was a living satire upon the degenerate 



