The Evolution of Modern Medicine: A Series of Lectures Delivered at Yale University on the Silliman Foundation in April, 1913Osler, William, Sir
History
The Evolution of Modern Medicine: A Series of Lectures Delivered at Yale University on the Silliman Foundation in April, 1913
Osler, William, Sir
Medicine -- History
(**) Data added to a manuscript taken from the author's summary
on "Printed Medical Books to 1480" in Transactions of the
Bibliographical Society, London, 1916, XIII, 5-8, revised from
its "News-Sheet" (February, 1914). "Of neither Hippocrates nor
Galen is there an early edition; but in 1473 at Pavia appeared an
exposition of the Aphorisms of Hippoerates, and in 1475 at Padua
an edition of the Tegni or Notes of Galen." Ibid., p. 6.
Osler's unfinished Illustrated Monograph on this subject is now
being printed for the Society of which he was President.--Ed.
The medical profession gradually caught the new spirit. It has been well
said that Greece arose from the dead with the New Testament in the one
hand and Aristotle in the other. There was awakened a perfect passion
for the old Greek writers, and with it a study of the original
sources, which had now become available in many manuscripts. Gradually
Hippocrates and Galen came to their own again. Almost every professor
of medicine became a student of the MSS. of Aristotle and of the Greek
physicians, and before 1530 the presses had poured out a stream of
editions. A wave of enthusiasm swept over the profession, and the best
energies of its best minds were devoted to a study of the Fathers. Galen
became the idol of the schools. A strong revulsion of feeling arose
against the Arabians, and Avicenna, the Prince, who had been clothed
with an authority only a little less than divine, became anathema. Under
the leadership of the Montpellier School, the Arabians made a strong
fight, but it was a losing battle all along the line. This group
of medical humanists--men who were devoted to the study of the old
humanities, as Latin and Greek were called--has had a great and
beneficial influence upon the profession. They were for the most part
cultivated gentlemen with a triple interest--literature, medicine and
natural history. How important is the part they played may be gathered
from a glance at the "Lives" given by Bayle in his "Biographic Medicale"
(Paris, 1855) between the years 1500 and 1575. More than one half of
them had translated or edited works of Hippocrates or Galen; many of
them had made important contributions to general literature, and a large
proportion of them were naturalists: Leonicenus, Linacre, Champier,
Fernel, Fracastorius, Gonthier, Caius, J. Sylvius, Brasavola, Fuchsius,
Matthiolus, Conrad Gesner, to mention only those I know best, form a
great group. Linacre edited Greek works for Aldus, translated works
of Galen, taught Greek at Oxford, wrote Latin grammars and founded
the Royal College of Physicians.(*) Caius was a keen Greek scholar,
an ardent student of natural history, and his name is enshrined as
co-founder of one of the most important of the Cambridge colleges.
Gonthier, Fernel, Fuchs and Mattioli were great scholars and greater
physicians. Champier, one of the most remarkable of the group, was
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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