Page:The Harveian oration - delivered at the Royal College of Physicians, October 18th, 1899 (IA b24975941).pdf/9

THE HARVEIAN ORATION. 5 Dr. F. Payne, the Harvcian Librarian, who has presented to it a fine copy of the Latin translation by Linacre, our Founder and first President, of Galen's "De Temperamentis," printed at Cambridge in 1521.

For these gifts and bequests there is no lack of gratitude among us.

We meet upon the day dedicated by the Church to the memory of St. Luke, "the beloved physician," the medical companion of St. Paul,

Without entering upon the vexed question of the precise identity of "Luke, the beloved physician," it may be well to glance for a few moments at the condition of medicine in the first century. Of the state of medical knowledge at this time we are in no doubt. Of two of the best known ancient medical writers-Celsus and Galen-one lived shortly before the Christian Era, and the other about 150 years after it. From their works, there- fore, we are able to judge as to the probable attaiu- monts of a decently educated physician who lived at a period equidistant from both.

Alexandria was, at this time, the chief centre of learning, in which every department of literaturc and natural knowledge was provided for. In this famous 66 teaching university" of the Ptolemies not only had all the wisdom of the ancients been collected, but the students of mathematics, physics, astronomy, geography, zoology, and medicine were