Among those who read the present chapter there may be some who will express surprise at the gloomy character of the picture which I draw of the state of medical affairs in Germany at the period of time now under consideration. In answer to this implied criticism I would state that I am in no degree responsible for the unpleasant impression conveyed by the picture, as I have simply reproduced, without the slightest exaggeration, the account which such excellent authorities as August Hirsch, of Berlin, and George Korn, of Munich, give in their published writings. Furthermore, I have not hesitated to quote, wherever I could do so without obscuring the clarity of my account, the actual statements of these authors. However gloomy, therefore, the picture here presented may appear, this unattractive characteristic must be attributed to the actual condition of medical affairs in Germany during the period named. * * * * * At the end of the eighteenth century and at the beginning of the nineteenth culture entered upon an entirely new phase of development in all parts of the civilized world; more quickly in certain parts than in others because the seeds of such development had already begun there to take root. In this work of development John Locke, the English philosopher, was a conspicuous leader. His philosophy formed the starting-point of the new development of the natural sciences, first in France and afterward in Germany and other European countries. Voltaire was the first among the French philosophers to advocate the teachings of Locke in opposition to those of Descartes (_i.e._, realistic rather than as the result of _a priori_ reasoning). Condillac, another great French philosopher (1715–1780), also expressed himself as approving the views set forth by Voltaire,—that is, in favor of Locke’s philosophy. Diderot and others among the encyclopaedists sanctioned the same teachings. As Hirsch expresses it:— These ideas broke like a thunderstorm over the thinking classes of France and spread rapidly to the other countries; the French Revolution cleared the atmosphere in all the different walks of life; it cast off the fetters of feudalism or at least materially loosened their hold; it greatly increased tolerance of religious beliefs and placed limits upon superstition.