January 10, 1908] 



SCIENCE 



53 



the process of the universe. Possessing this, we 

 shall find the key in our hand which will open 

 the most secret recesses of the art of medicine. 



Certainly such an enlightened concep- 

 tion of the relations of medicine, however 

 unattainable it may be, is broad enough to 

 provide welcome lodging under the roof of 

 the healing art to any additions to the 

 knowledge of nature. Although priestly 

 and magic medicine and charlatanry exist- 

 ed then by the side of rational medicine, 

 as they have always done, the Galenic sys- 

 tem, Avhich was a development of the Hip- 

 pocratic, was in essence observational and 

 inductive, mainly physical, as distinguished 

 from vitalistic, and nearly devoid of super- 

 stition and the supernatural. Galen con- 

 ceived medicine as a science and constituted 

 anatomy and physiology its basis. He him- 

 self made valuable use in his physiological 

 studies of the method of experiment, the 

 singular and almost unaccountable lack of 

 which is largely responsible for the fan- 

 tastic, thoiTgh often singularly prophetic, 

 ideas and the sterility of the Greek natural 

 philosophers as contributors to natural 

 knowledge. Although later cultivators of 

 the domain of medicine followed far be- 

 hind these ideals of Greek medicine, there 

 survived enough of their spirit to enable 

 us to understand why the sciences of nature 

 were for so long a time fostered within this 

 domain, which furnished them a fitting and 

 no unworthy abode until they were strong 

 enough to build their own homes. 



Although the Byzantine, Arabic and 

 medieval periods afford a niimber of in- 

 teresting illustrations of my theme, I shall 

 not take time to consider them, for these 

 periods were relatively unproductive for 

 most of the sciences as well as for medicine. 

 It may be noted, however, that the ma- 

 jority of the names which appear in the 

 histories of the various natural sciences for 

 these times figure also in the history of 

 medicine. 



The great awakening of western Eu- 

 rope, 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 trans- 

 planted from the cloisters to the universi- 

 ties, which multiplied and flourished in the 

 sixteenth and seventeenth centuries as 

 never before. 



For medicine and the sciences of nature 

 the fire was kindled and for two centuries 

 burnt brightest in the universities of north- 

 ern Italy. Here the science of human 

 anatomy was reformed and marvelously 

 developed by Vesalius and an illustrious 

 line of successors in the sixteenth century, 

 and from this period onward anatomy 

 never ceased to be taught by practical dis- 

 section, that is to say, by the method of the 

 laboratory. It deserves to be emphasized 

 that for over two hundred and fifty years 

 human anatomy was the only subject 

 taught in the universities by the laboratory 

 method and that it thereby acquired a com- 

 manding position in the study of medicine. 

 Bearing in mind the exceptional educa- 

 tional value thus imparted to the study of 

 anatomy and that for a long time medicine 

 was the only technical siibject taught in 

 the universities, we can not doubt that 

 under conditions existing previous to the 

 nineteenth century the study of medicine 

 furnished the best available training for 

 the pursuit of any branch of natural sci- 

 ence. From his practical anatomical work 

 the student could acquire the habit of close 

 observation, manual dexterity and the 

 sense for form in nature, and learn that 

 real knowledge comes only from personal 

 contact with the object of study. The 

 term "comparative anatomy," even if it 

 serves no other useful purpose, at least 



