Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 15.djvu/841

Rh HISTORY.] MEDICINE 809 Neo-Platonists, of winch a few disjointed specimens must here suffice. The human body was a &quot; microcosm &quot; which corresponded to the &quot;macrocosm,&quot; and contained in itself all parts of visible nature, sun, moon, stars, and the poles of heaven. To know the nature of man and how to deil with it, the physician should study, not anatomy, which Paracelsus utterly rejected, but all parts of external nature. Life was a perpetual germinative process controlled by the indwelling spirit or Archeus ; and diseases, according to the mystical conception of Paracelsus, were not natural, but spiritual. Nature was sufficient for the cure of most diseases ; art had only to interfere when the internal physician, the man himself, was tired or incapable. Then some remedy had to be introduced which should be antago nistic, not to the disease in a physical sense, but to the spiritual seed of the disease. These remedies were arcana, a word corresponding partly to what we now call specific remedies, but implying a mysterious connexion between the remedy and the &quot; essence &quot; of the disease. Arcana were often shown to be such by their physical properties, not only by such as heat, cold, &c., but by fortuitous resemblances to certain parts of the body; thus arose the famous doctrine of &quot; signatures,&quot; or signs indicating the virtues and uses of natural objects, which was afterwards developed into great complexity. Great importance was also attached to chemically prepared remedies as containing the essence or spiritual quality of the material from which they were derived. The actual therapeutical resources of Paracelsus included a large number of metallic preparations, in the introduction of some of which he did good service, and, among vegetable preparations, the tincture of opium, still known by the name he gave it, laudanum. In this doubtless he derived much advantage from his knowledge of chemistry, though the science was as yet not disen tangled from the secret traditions of alchemy, and was often mixed up with imposture. German historians of medicine attach great importance to the revolt of Paracelsus against the prevailing systems, and trace in his writings anticipations of many scientific truths of later times. That his personality was influential, and his intrepid originality of great value as an example in his own country, is undeniable. As a national reformer lie has been not inaptly compared to Luther. But his importance in the universal history of medicine we cannot estimate so highly. The chief immediate result we can trace is the introduction of certain mineral remedies, especially antimony, the use of which became a kind of badge of the disciples of Paracelsus. The use of these remedies was not, however, necessarily connected with a belief in his system, which seems to have spread little beyond his own country. Of the followers of Paracelsus some became mere mystical quacks and impostors. Others, of more learning and better repute, were distinguished from the regular physicians chiefly by their use of chemical remedies. In France the introduction of antimony gave rise to a bitter controversy which lasted into the 17th century, and led to the expulsion of some men of mark from the Paris faculty. In England &quot;chemical medicine&quot; is first heard of in the reign of Elizabeth, and was in like manner contemned and assailed by the College of Physicians and the Society of Apothecaries. But it should be remembered that all the chemical physicians did not call Paracelsus master. The most notorious of that school in England, a certain Anthony, never quotes Paracelsus, but relies upon Arnold de Yillanova and Piaymund Lully. From this time, however, it is always possible to trace a school of chemical practitioners, who, though condemned by the orthodox Galenists, held their ground, till in the 17th century a successor of Paracelsus arose in the cele brated Van Helmont, Consciences of the Revival of Ancient Medicine. Tlio revival of Galenic and Hippocratic medicine, though ulti mately it conferred the greatest benefits on medical science, did not immediately produce any important or salutary reform in practical medicine. The standard of excellence in the ancient writers was indeed far above the level of the IGth century; but the fatal habit of taking at second hand what should have been acquired by direct observation retarded progress more than the possession of better models assisted it, so that the fundamental faults of mediaeval science remained uncorrected. Nevertheless some progress has to be recorded, even if not due directly to the study of ancient medicine. In the first place the 15th and IGth centuries were notable for the outbreak of certain epidemic diseases, which were unknown to the old physicians. Of these the chief was the &quot;sweating sickness&quot; or &quot;English sweat,&quot; especially pre valent in, though not confined to, the country whence it is named. Among many descriptions of this disease, that by John Kayo or Cains, already referred to, was one of the best, and of greaA importance as showing that the works of Galen did not comprise all that could -be known in medicine. The spread of syphilis, a disease equally unknown to the ancients, and the failure of Galen s remedies to cure it, had a similar effect. In another direction the foundations of modern medicine were being laid during the 16th century, namely, by the introduction of clinical instruction in hospitals. In this Italy, and especially the renowned school of Padua, took the first step, where De Monte (Montanus), already mentioned as a humanist, gave clinical lectures on the patients in the hospital of St Francis, which may still be read with interest. Pupils flocked to him from all European countries ; Germans are especially mentioned ; a Polish student reported and published some of his lectures ; and the Englishman Kaye was a zealous disciple, who does not, however, seem to have done anything towards trans planting this method of instruction to his own country. Inspections of the dead, to ascertain the nature of the disease, were made, though not without difficulty, and thus the modern period of the science of morbid anatomy was ushered in. Medicine in the lth century.- The medicine of the early part of the 17th presents no features to distinguish it from that of the preceding century. The practice and theory of medicine were mainly founded upon Hippocrates and Galen, with ever-increasing additions from the chemical school. But the development of mathematical and physical science soon introduced a fundamental change in the habits of thought with respect to medical doctrine. These discoveries not only weakened or destroyed the respect for authority in matters of science, but brought about a marked tendency to mechanical explanations of life and disease. When Harvey by his discovery of the circulation furnished an explanation of many vital pro cesses which was reconcileable with the ordinary laws of mechanics, the efforts of medical theorists were naturally directed to bringing all the departments of medicine under similar laws. It is often assumed that the writings and influence of Bacon did much towards introducing a more scientific method into medicine and physiology. _ But, without discussing the general philosophical position or historical importance of Bacon, it may safely be said that his direct influence can be little traced in medical writings of the first half of the 17th century. Harvey, as is well known, spoke slightingly of the great chancellor, and it is not till the rapid development of physical science in England and Holland in the latter part of the_ century, that we find Baconian principles explicitly recognized. The dominant factors in the 17th century medicine were- XV. 102