NATURE 



\Nov. 15, I < 



past ages. Here and there, "apparent rari, nantes 

 in gurgite vasto," records of real observation : the 

 aphorisms of Hippocrates, or tlie clinical pictures of 

 Sydenham. Occasionally a gooi style commends an 

 almost valueless treatise, as in the case of Celsus and 

 Fracastori. More often we are attracted by some 

 amusing gossip, so ne shrewd remark, or some interest- 

 ing historical allusion, to epidemics or to wars, to the 

 deaths of kings and conqu3rors, or to the daily accidents 

 of contemporary life. Such are Caius's account of the 

 sweating sickness, Ambrose Pard's description of his treat- 

 ment of gunshot wounds in Savoy and at Rouen, and the 

 " cases " recorded by Dutch surgeons of the seventeenth 

 century. Nay, apart from utility and from such chance 

 rewards as these, there will always be those who take 

 the genuine delight of a book-worm in old authors 

 because they are old, those who have the respectaljle 

 appetite for information which is omnivorous, and students 

 of the human mind for whom acquaintance with its dullest 

 wanderings is fruitful. 



It is therefore well that English readers should have at 

 least an outline of medicine in the past, and this want 

 has been admirably supplied by Dr. Payne. Wisely 

 abandoning all endeavours to include the biographical 

 part of his subject, tempting as the excursion must often 

 have seemed, and leaving on one side the curious history 

 of medicine as a profession, its connection with the 

 Church, the differentiation of its several branches, its 

 varied social position, and the growth and decay of the 

 great colleges and schools of medicine, he has aimed 

 only at presenting within the narrow limits allowed (about 

 thirty-seven columns quarto) a view of the changes of 

 medical theories, and of the slow progress and frequent 

 retrogression of the medical art. Beginning with an ap- 

 preciative sketch of Hippocratic medicine, the important 

 work of the Alexandrine physicians is next indicated, the 

 scientific scope and character of Galen is described, and 

 the obscure line of tradition of classical medicine is traced 

 down to the mediaeval school of Salerno. The vast, but 

 than'dess and little explored, field of Arabian medicine is 

 then rapidly surveyed, and its dominion in Western 

 Europe explained as being really little more than that of 

 a corrupt Galenism. The revival of learning at the be- 

 ginning of the sixteenth century was probably a mis- 

 fortune to medicine, for when the Italian scholars, and 

 our own Linacre and Caius translated the works of Galen 

 into good Latin, these medical "classics" shared in the 

 glory which surrounded the language of the New Testa- 

 ment and of Plato. The first steps of anatomy were in 

 contradiction of statements by Galen, the first discovery 

 of physiology was a refutation of his whole system. Yet 

 the baneful influence of his great name, like that of the 

 still greater name of Aristotle, laste 1 long after his claim 

 to imrdicit credence had been disproved. As the ancient 

 system was worn away, its place was eagerly striven for 

 by the feebler systems of Paracelsus, Van Helmont, Borelli 

 Sylvius, Sfahl, Hoffmann, John Brown, and Hahnemann 

 in a long succession of three hundred years. 



With the m >rl3id anatomy of Morgagni, Baillie, and 

 Laennec, and the physical diagnosis introduced by the 

 latter great physician, the modern era of rational medi- 

 cine began, in which sects and systems are mere survivals 

 — superstitions — of an unduly prolonged middle age. At 



this point Dr. Payne's heart and 'paper seem to fail to- 

 gether. He ends, much as Gray's bard ended his pro- 

 phetic outline of English history, in a fine confused view 

 of a period of light and splendour, illustrated by the 

 names of Rokitansky and Virchow, Czermak and Helm- 

 holtz, Bright, Graves, Addison, Stokes, and Trousseau. 

 It was no doubt wise not to attempt an account of the 

 triumphs of the new era, but we hope that the learned 

 author of this article may make it the foundation of a 

 complete history of medicine, fuller and more exact than 

 Daremberg's, lighter and brighter than those of Sprengel 

 and Haser. We also venture to suggest to the editor of 

 the "Encyclopaedia Britannica" that an article dealing 

 with the curious and interesting history of medicine as a 

 profession should be obtained from the same pen, under 

 the heading, say, of " Physic, ^History 'of the Practi- 

 tioners of." 



We have scarcely left room for finding fault, and little 

 room is needed. But to redeem our encomium from the 

 charge of blindness, we may ask why the history of the 

 school of Salerno is given after that of Arabian medicine ; 

 what evidence there is apart from his name that Bernard 

 Gordon of Montpellier (1307) was a Scot; and what 

 possible aptitude there is in a comparison between two 

 such different persons as the impudent, drunken vaga- 

 bond who called himself Paracelsus and the great German 

 reformer who lived at the same time. 



Lastly, while we fully admit the justice of connecting 

 the introduction of auscultation and of chemical and 

 microscopical examination of morbid fluids with the intro- 

 duction of a knowledge of morbid anatomy — for this con- 

 nection was, in fact, the jiovum organum of medicine 

 from 1820 onwards — yet we think that there should also 

 have been indicated, however briefly, the still newer 

 method which has characterised the history of yet 

 more recent medicine, namely, the method of number 

 and measurement, by which to the stethoscope and the 

 test tube have been added the clinical theiTnometer, 

 the compte-globule and the sphygmograph. Perhaps 

 future historians of medicine (particularly if they should 

 write "primers" or "outlines" "for examination pur- 

 poses") will divide the nineteenth century into four 

 periods: the first (1800- 1820) introductory, the second 

 (1820-1850) the period of morbid anatomy and of physical 

 diagnosis, the third (1S50-1S80) the period of morbid 

 histology and of quantitative investigation ; while the 

 last, we may hope, will be called the period of experi- 

 mental medicine, in which laboratories shall do the same 

 service for pathology and therapeutics which they have 

 already done for physiology. 



There appears, under the head of " Mechanics," another 

 of those mathematical dissertations which, each complete 

 in itself, are to be found at such frequeat intervals in the 

 volumes of the new edition of the " Britannica." The 

 author of the part of this article which treats of theoreti- 

 cal mechanics is Prof. Tait, and those who are familiar 

 with his writings will be able to form an estimate of the 

 way in which the treatment of the subject is conceived 

 and carried out. 



The science of mechanics in its widest range rests on 

 Newton's Three Laws of Motion, and on that other pas- 

 sage in the '• Principia" dealing with the activity of an 



