Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 67.djvu/626

620 domination. Bologna came into prominence in the thirteenth century and retained its preeminence for a long time. Here we have some definite statements by Mondino that he dissected several cadavers. But his writings also furnish the proof that he was not able to emancipate himself wholly from the authority of Galen and the Arabians. For some reason there were fewer obstacles in the way of the anatomist in Italy than in any other country in Europe; Berenger of Carpi is said to have performed more than a hundred dissections. In Italy too we meet with a number of names that are immortalized by their discoveries in the human body. The chief merit of Vesalius lies in the fact that he clearly recognized for the first time many of the errors that had come into current belief by the authority of Galen.

Hippocrates, Celsus, Galen, these three names sum up the science of ancient medicine; but the greatest of these is Hippocrates. It is perhaps not putting the case too strong if we say that they embrace substantially the entire healing art until not much over a century ago. The medical works of these three authors were printed in Italy before the end of the fifteenth century in Latin translations from the Arabic. This is striking testimony to the completeness of the rupture between ancient Greece and dawning era of modern times. When these Latin translations from the Arabic were made is not known; but it is known that they were very imperfect and that they were as blindly followed as were the writings of Aristotle. Galen's prestige was more due to his ambition and industry than to his individual merit. The great mass of medical knowledge was still accessible in manuscripts. This he carefully examined, and wrote comments upon much of it with remarkable discrimination for his age. Like Aristotle he would have been the first to repudiate the utterly senseless homage paid to his writings. One can not read the works of Hippocrates without being impressed with the extraordinary acumen of the man. Much that now passes current under his name is doubtless not genuine, in the strict sense of the word; but is at least evidence to the prestige of the master's name. The thinker constantly appears along with the practitioner. And we must always keep in mind that chemistry was unknown and the microscope non-existent. He tells us, among other things, that rain water is the purest, while ice and snow water are the worst for all purposes. He had carefully noted the radical differences between the people of Asia and of Europe, so far as he knew these parts of the world. What he says concerns the physician but little, the philosopher a great deal. He directly contravenes popular belief when he tells his readers more than once that there is no such a thing as a sacred disease; that no disorder is sent by a god, and that all ailments are due to natural causes. How heterodox this was may be seen by any one who reads the first book of the Iliad, where Apollo is