I20 Science Religion and Reality 



than definite steps in scientific progress. The actual application 

 of these discoveries was far more important to the men of the time 

 than were the principles involved. If we seek for interest in the 

 eliciting of new general laws of nature we shall have a long 

 and fruitless hunt in the vast wilderness of time that we call the 

 Middle Ages. 



1 0. The Close of the Middle Ages 



We have seen that while the Middle Ages present to us 

 instances of discoveries and inventions and are not without traces 

 of real scientific advance, they are singularly devoid of any activity 

 in the discovery of new natural laws. It is such general ideas that 

 alone bring science into relation with religion or philosophy. The 

 existence of observational activity devoid of scientific elements is 

 particularly evident in the last phase of medieval science. ^ The 

 point may be further brought out by adducing special instances. 



Thus, consider the three great departments of Anatomy, 

 Astronomy, Botany. Dissection of the human body was practised 

 systematically from the thirteenth century onward and important 

 additions to the knowledge of the time were made by several 

 investigators. Despite the results that these men obtained, the 

 physiological theories of Galen prevailed without question in the 

 textbooks of the time. Again, Astronomy was the main scientific 

 interest of the Middle Ages and important new observations were re- 

 corded in the Alphonsine Tables by Levi ben Gerson (i 288-1 344), 

 and by Regiomontanus (1436-1476), and others. Yet none of 

 these left the least impress on astronomical theory. Botany, again, 

 was the chosen study of the physicians whose remedies were 

 chiefly of vegetable origin and who professed to be interested in 

 the properties and characters of herbs. Manuscripts of the 

 fourteenth and fifteenth centuries contain many accurate and 

 beautiful figures of plants. The magnificently illustrated works 

 of the so-called " German fathers of Botany " in the first half of 

 the sixteenth century, with Leonard Fuchs as their leader, contain 

 illustrations of herbs which in accuracy and beauty are unsur- 

 passed to this day. Yet these men threw not the least light on 



* For the purposes of science the Middle Ages must be prolonged beyond 

 the period usually recognised by historians. I have discussed this point in 

 articles contributed to F. J. C. Hearnshaw's Medieval Contributions to Modem 

 Ci'vilisation, and to F. S. Marvin's Science and Civilisation, and need not enlarge 

 on it here. 



