$2 
STONES FALLING FROM THE AIR 
the vulgar tongue, and that of Belon* and of Ambrose Paref'^ 
who were also amongst the first who abandoned the Latin 
language in their writings]:, has had a fatal influence of which 
the sciences will have still more reason to complain, M. Bigot 
de Morogues seems to have been \iery fortunate in his idea of 
dividing his book into sections, each of which relate to the 
epocha when such or such an opinion was prevalent. And he 
shews us how much, until the sixth epocha, the public opinion 
* Belon’s history of the Nature of Birds appeared in 1655 ; but in 
1553 he had already given the public his observations made in Greece. 
t We have a book of Ambrose Pare, on Anatomical Administration, 
which appeared in 1549. As to liis treatise on wounds, made by 
Aii^ucbuses,it was not brought out until 1651. 
I These writers were not tlie only ones who abandoned the use of 
the Latin language ; for from the middle of the XVItk century this 
custom began to be almost universal: the surgeons especially set the 
example ; and as early as 1570, tliere were already five books on surgery 
in the vulgar tongue. Three were published in Germany ; the most 
ancient by Karethaniis in 1479, the second by Hermenius Kyffin 1541 ; 
and the third by Paracelsus iii 1585. In Italy that of Kostini was 
published in 1557, and in Fi ance Dalechainp’s appeared in 1570. The 
German Mettinger was one of the first who wrote on medicine in his 
native language, and ills work entitled : Regimen der Jungen Kinder v/aa 
printed at Vienna in 1474, Later towards 155'^, there appeared in 
France the works of Thierry de H^ry on Medecine. And before the 
anatomy of Ambrose Par6, which dates in 1549, Hennenius Kyff had 
published in 1541, an Anatomical Description of all the parts of t) « 
Human Body. ( Der menschen Vahriiaft.ige beschreibung oner Anatomy.) 
The histories of anatomy also written in tlie vulgar tongue by Jolia 
Hall, and John Banister, are posterior, for they date one in the year 
1561 and the other in 1578. The facility with which a person writes 
in his native language, joined to the example such very different 
authors had given, as Luther in his eelchraied theses wliieh he publish- 
ed in 1516, Rabelais in his entertaining fictions towards 15:)1 ; and later 
the inimitable Montaigne in 1533, rendered the l.. tin Ian mige so niueh 
neglected, that, towards the latter end of the X\ Ith age, a mm her of 
writershad entirely abandoned it in their works. Olivier vie .t(* rres 
was one of the first amongst us w ho by the giace of Ins stvie perhaps, 
contributed the most to make the Frtncli tongue be adopted as tue 
language of sdeoce. 
had 
