Page:The Thruston speech on the progress of medicine 1880.djvu/10

6 before applying himself to the study of medicine in England, but rather sought further help at the hand of a foreign school; we find him therefore studying in Italy; and from Vesalius, the world-renowned teacher of anatomy, he gained those first principles of exact medical knowledge which, quickly bearing fruit, enabled him, on his return to England in 1547, to assume the head of the English School of Medicine. To a scholar, to an ardent student of Nature, as Caius undoubtedly was, the very exactness of his new studies must have been a refreshing contrast to those gross absurdities and superstitions under which he had seen the art of medicine practised in his mother country; and so Caius, acting under the conviction of the greatness of the future of medical research, when carried on with true scientific principles, contributed largely towards its subsequent attainment, by founding this our College, which is proud to bear his name, and, still more, is proud to enrol among her graduates, some of the most distinguished professors of an art which yields to none