A HISTORY OF SCIENCE 



dition, recommending the use of the cautery or the 

 oil of elder, boiling hot. It is little wonder that 

 gun-shot wounds were so likely to prove fatal. Yet, 

 after all, here was the germ of the idea of anti- 

 sepsis. 



NEW BEGINNINGS IN GENERAL SCIENCE 



We have dwelt thus at length on the subject of med- 

 ical science, because it was chiefly in this field that prog- 

 ress was made in the Western world during the medi- 

 aeval period, and because these studies furnished the 

 point of departure for the revival all along, the line. 

 It will be understood, however, from what was stated 

 in the preceding chapter, that the Arabian influences in 

 particular were to some extent making themselves felt 

 along other lines. The opportunity afforded a por- 

 tion of the Western world notably Spain and Sicily 

 to gain access to the scientific ideas of antiquity 

 through Arabic translations could not fail of influence. 

 Of like character, and perhaps even more pronounced 

 in degree, was the influence wrought by the Byzantine 

 refugees, who, when Constantinople began to be 

 threatened by the Turks, migrated to the West in con- 

 siderable numbers, bringing with them a knowledge 

 of Greek literature and a large number of precious 

 works which for centuries had been quite forgotten or 

 absolutely ignored in Italy. Now Western scholars 

 began to take an interest in the Greek language, which 

 had been utterly neglected since the beginning of the 

 Middle Ages. Interesting stories are told of the ef- 

 forts made by such men as Cosmo de' Medici to gain 

 possession of classical manuscripts. The revival of 



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