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NA TV RE 



[January 23, 1908 



starting point for the Hippocratic doctrine of the four 

 humours and other generalisations, but these theories sat 

 so lightly upon Hippocrates that his name is attached to 

 that method of medical study which rejects dogma, 

 authority, and speculation, and confines itself to the 

 observation and record of clinical facts. As Gomperz in 

 his admirable work on the "Greek Thinkers " has clearly 

 pointed out, the age of enlightenment in scientific thought 

 was inaugurated by Hippocrates and his medical con- 

 temporaries. 



The influence of physical theories upon medical thought 

 in antiquity can be traced, not only in the humoral doc- 

 trines of Hippocrates and of Galen, but also in rival 

 schools, and especially in the so-called methodic school 

 founded upon the atomistic philosophy ol Democritus, 

 which is so interesting in the history of scientific theories. 

 .As this school produced such admirable physicians as 

 Asclepiades, Soranus, and AretEeus, it is to be regretted 

 that their solidistic pathology was so completely displaced 

 by the authority of Galen. 



The large body of medical knowledge and doctrine 

 which had grown up during the si.x centuries since Hippo- 

 crates was further developed and fixed by Galen at the 

 end of the second century after Christ into a system not 

 less complete in its field, nor less satisfying to the minds 

 of men for nearly fifteen centuries, nor scarcely less re- 

 markable as a product of the human mind than the 

 physical and philosophical systems of Aristotle. Within 

 their respective spheres the system of doctrine of each of 

 these great men has exerted a similar dominating influence 

 upon human thought, and has met a similar fate through 

 influences almost identical. 



The great awakening of western Europe, marked by the 

 revival of learning and the Reformation, stirred the long 

 dormant spirit of inquiry and led to revolt against 

 authority, a fresh outlook upon a wider world, the study 

 of original sources, the questioning of nature at first hand, 

 and the search for new knowledge in all her kingdoms. 

 The seat of learning was transplanted from the cloisters 

 to the universities, which multiplied and flourished in the 

 sixteenth and seventeenth centuries as never before. 



In the sixteenth century practically all the valuable 

 contributions to botany and to zoology were made by 

 physicians, so that natural history scarcely existed apart 

 from medicine. Of the medical contributors to botany, it 

 must suflice to mention the names of Brunfels, Fuchs, 

 Dodoens, Gesner, and, above all, Cesalpinus, who has 

 been called "the founder of modern scientific botany," 

 the most important name before John Ray in the history 

 of systematic botany, and a distinguished figure likewise 

 in medical history. Of names associated with the history 

 of zoologv in this century, the most important are those 

 of the physicians, Conrad Gesner, a marvel of encyclo- 

 pjedic learning, and .Aldrovandi. who ranks with the 

 founders of modern zoology and comparative anatomy ; 

 of lesser lights Edward Wotton may be singled out for 

 mention as the pioneer English zoologist. He was doctor 

 of medicine of Padua and of Oxford, president of the 

 Roval College of Physicians, and physician to Henry VHI. 



A name of the first rank in the history of science is 

 that of the physician, Georg .Agricola, who founded before 

 the middle of the sixteenth century the science of 

 mineralogy, and developed it to a state where it remained 

 for nearly two hundred years without important additions. 



The student of medical history who takes up a history 

 of physics will probably be surprised to find how many 

 of the contributors to the latter subject in the sixteenth 

 century were physicians, and that among these are such 

 old friends as Fernel and Fracastorius, whom he has 

 identified so intimately with the annals of his profession. 

 Tt is to be presumed that he already knew that the most 

 famous of all, Copernicus, was a doctor of medicine of 

 Padua, and practised the medical art gratuitously among 

 the noor in Frauenburg. 



Far more imnortant for the subsequent history of science 

 than any relations between medicine and physics at this 

 period was the union between medicine and chemistry 

 effected by Paracelsus, and strengthened by van Helmon't 

 and Sylvius in the following century, a union so intimate 

 that for nearly a century and a quarter chemistry existed 

 only as a part of medicine until freed by Robert Boyle 

 NO. 1995, VOL. 'J^'] 



from bonds which had become galling to both partners. 

 The story of this ialro-chemical period, as it is called, has 

 been told by Ernst von Meyer in his fascinating " History 

 of Chemistry " in a way not less interesting to the student 

 of medicine than to one of chemistry, and should be then- 

 read by both. 



William Gilbert, second in importance only to Galileo 

 among the creators of experimental science, the founder 

 of the science of magnetism, and a significant name in the- 

 history of electricity, was fully identified with the medical 

 profession, being the most distinguished English physician 

 as well as man of science of his day, physician to both 

 Queen Elizabeth and James I., and president of the Royal 

 College of Physicians. 



Galileo's younger contemporary, William Harvey, the 

 discoverer of the circulation of the blood, occupies in the 

 history of experimental science an independent position 

 quite unlike that of the other experimental physiologists 

 of the century. These other physicians, as Sanctorius, 

 Borelli, Lower, Mayow, consciously took possession of the 

 method of experiment as a powerful and newly discovered 

 instrument of research, and were swayed in all their 

 physiological work by the discoveries of the physicists. 

 Not so Harvey, who was influenced but little by con- 

 temporary physical science, and is linked on, not to 

 Galileo or to Gilbert, as exemplars of experimentation, 

 but in a very direct way to the experimental physiologist, 

 Galen, and to Aristotle, as well as to the Italian anatomists 

 of the preceding century. Harvey's genuinely scientific 

 mind was in greater sympathy with Aristotle than with 

 the essentially unscientific Lord Bacon, who was his 

 patient, and of whom he said, " He writes philosophy like 

 a Lord Chancellor." 



Descartes was an anatomist and physiologist as well as 

 philosopher, mathematician, and physicist, and John 

 Locke, the other great liberator of thought in this century, 

 was educated in medicine, practised it, and, like Boyle, 

 accompanied Sydenham on his rounds. Kepler studied the 

 pulse, contributed to physiological optics, and calculated 

 the orbits of the planets. Borelli was an important 

 mathematician, physicist, and astronomer, as well as one 

 of the greatest physiologists and physicians of the century. 

 Bartholinus was also professor of mathematics as well as 

 of medicine, and discovered the double refraction of Ice- 

 land spar. His even more remarkable pupil, Steno, left 

 a name memorable in geology and palaeontology, as well 

 as in anatomy and physiology, and died a bishop of the 

 Roman Catholic Church. Mariotte, a pure physicist, dis- 

 covered the blind spot in the retina. Boyle anatomised, 

 experimented on the circulation and respiration, started 

 chemistry on new paths, and perpetuated his name in 

 attachment to an important physical law. Hooke, most 

 versatile of all, claimed priority for a host of discoveries, 

 and did, in fact, explore nearly every branch of science 

 with brilliant, though often inconclusive, results. 

 Malpighi was an investigator equally great in vegetable 

 and in animal anatomy and physiology, and what a 

 glorious time it was for the microscopists, like Malpighi, 

 i.eeuwenhoek, Swammerdam and others, who could 

 immortalise their names by turning the new instrument 

 on a drop of muddy water, or blood, or other fluid, or a 

 bit of animal and vegetable tissue ! 



After the seventeenth century in Europe the natural 

 sciences, though often cultivated by those educated in 

 medicine and practising it, were independent, and followed 

 their own paths, which, however, communicated by many 

 by-ways with the road of medicine and with each other. 



Botany and zoology acquired their independent position 

 probably more through the work of Ray and Willughby 

 than by that of any other naturalist. Bot.any, however, 

 remained for more than a century still mainly in the 

 hands of physicians. An interesting chapter in its history 

 is the story of the various apothecaries' and other botanical 

 gardens est.ablished through the efforts of physicians, and 

 conducted by them primarily for the study of the vegetable 

 materia medica. From such beginnings has grown the 

 Jardin des Plantes in Paris, started by two physicians, 

 Herouard and la Brosse, in \(>i,-\, into the great museum 

 of natural history made by Buffon, Cuvier and others^ as 

 famous for the study of zoology as by the de Jussieus 

 and by Brongniart and his successors for botany. Less 



