Old-Time Makers of Medicine, by James J. Walsh doc

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Title: Old-Time Makers of Medicine

The Story of The Students And Teachers

of the Sciences

Related to Medicine During the Middle Ages

Author: James J Walsh

Release Date: December 30, 2006 [EBook

#20216]

DEAN AND PROFESSOR OF NERVOUS DISEASES AND

OF THE HISTORY OF MEDICINE AT

FORDHAM UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF MEDICINE; PROFESSOR OF PHYSIOLOGICAL

PSYCHOLOGY AT THE CATHEDRAL COLLEGE, NEW

YORK

NEW YORKFORDHAM UNIVERSITY PRESS

1911

Copyright 1911JAMES J WALSH

THE QUINN & GODEN CO PRESS

RAHWAY, N J.

TO REVEREND DANIEL J QUINN,

S.J.

The historical material here

presented was gathered for my

classes at Fordham University

School of Medicine during your

term as president of the

University It seems only fitting

then, that when put into more

permanent form it should appear

under the patronage of your

name and tell of my cordial

appreciation of more than a

quarter of a century of valued

friendship.

"When we have thoroughlymastered contemporary science

it is time to turn to past science;nothing fortifies the judgmentmore than this comparativestudy; impartiality of mind isdeveloped thereby, theuncertainties of any systembecome manifest The authority

of facts is there confirmed, and

we discover in the wholepicture a philosophic teachingwhich is in itself a lesson; inother words, we learn to know,

to understand, and tojudge."—Littré: Œuvres d'Hippocrate, T I, p 477.

"There is not a singledevelopment, even the mostadvanced of contemporarymedicine, which is not to befound in embryo in the medicine

of the olden time."—Littré:Introduction to the Works ofHippocrates

"How true it is that in readingthis history one finds moderndiscoveries that are anything butdiscoveries, unless onesupposes that they have beenmade twice."—Dujardin:

Histoire de la Chirurgie , Paris,

1774 (quoted by Gurlt on the

post title-page of his Geschichte

der Chirurgie, Berlin, 1898).

The material for this book wasgathered partly for lectures on thehistory of medicine at FordhamUniversity School of Medicine, andpartly for articles on a number ofsubjects in the Catholic Encyclopedia.Some of it was developed for a series ofaddresses at commencements of medicalschools and before medical societies, onthe general topic how old the new is insurgery, medicine, dentistry, andpharmacy The information thuspresented aroused so much interest, theaccomplishments of the physicians and

surgeons of a period that is usuallythought quite sterile in medical scienceproved, indeed, so astonishing, that Iwas tempted to connect the details for avolume in the Fordham University Pressseries There is no pretence to anyoriginal investigation in the history ofmedicine, nor to any extendedconsultation of original documents Ihave had most of the great books that arementioned in the course of this volume in

my hands, and have given as much time

to the study of them as could be afforded

in the midst of a rather busy life, but Iowe my information mainly to thedistinguished German and Frenchscholars who have in recent years madedeep and serious studies of these Old

Makers of Medicine, and I have made

my acknowledgments to them in the text

as opportunity presented itself

There is just one feature of the bookthat may commend it to present-dayreaders, and that is that our medievalmedical colleagues, when medicineembraced most of science, faced theproblems of medicine and surgery andthe allied sciences that are nowinteresting us, in very much the sametemper of mind as we do, and very oftenanticipated our solutions of them—muchoftener, indeed, than most of us, unless

we have paid special attention tohistory, have any idea of The volumedoes not constitute, then, a contribution

to that theme that has interested the last

few generations so much,—the supposedcontinuous progress of the race and itsmarvellous advance,—but ratheremphasizes that puzzling question, how

is it that men make important discoveriesand inventions, and then, after a time,forget about them so that they have to bemade over again? This is as true inmedical science and in medical practice

as in every other department of humaneffort It does not seem possible thatmankind should ever lose sight of theprogress in medicine and surgery thathas been made in recent years, yet thehistory of the past would seem toindicate that, in spite of its unlikelihood,

it might well come about Whether this isthe lesson of the book or not, I shall

leave readers to judge, for it was notintentionally put into it.

OUR LADY'S DAY IN HARVEST, 1911.

XII Medieval Dentistry

—Giovanni of Arcoli 313XIII

Cusanus and the First

XIV of the Alchemists,

First of the Chemists

"Of making many books there

is no end."—Eccles xii, 12

(circa 1000 b.c.)

"The little by-play betweenSocrates and Euthydemussuggests an advanced condition

of medical literature: 'Of course,you who have so many booksare going in for being a doctor,'says Socrates, and then he adds,'there are so many books onmedicine, you know.' As Dyerremarks, whatever the quality ofthese books may have been, theirnumber must have been great togive point to this

chaff."—Aequanimitas, William

Osler, M.D., F.R.S., Blakistons,Philadelphia, 1906

"Augescunt aliae gentes, aliae

One nation rises to supremepower in the world, whileanother declines, and, in a briefspace of time, the sovereign

people change, transmitting, likeracers, the lamp of life to someother that is to succeed them.

"There is one Science ofMedicine which is concernedwith the inspection of healthequally in all times, present,past and future."

—PLATO.

I INTRODUCTION

Under the term Old-Time Medicinemost people probably think at once ofGreek medicine, since that developed inwhat we have called ancient history, and

is farthest away from us in date As amatter of fact, however, much more isknown about Greek medical writers thanthose of any other period except the lastcentury or two Our histories ofmedicine discuss Greek medicine atconsiderable length and practically all

of the great makers of medicine insubsequent generations have beeninfluenced by the Greeks Greekphysicians whose works have comedown to us seem nearer to us than themedical writers of any but the last fewcenturies As a consequence we knowand appreciate very well as a rule howmuch Greek medicine accomplished, but

in our admiration for the diligentobservation and breadth of view of theGreeks, we are sometimes prone to thinkthat most of the intervening generationsdown to comparatively recent timesmade very little progress and, indeed,scarcely retained what the Greeks haddone The Romans certainly justify thisassumption of non-accomplishment in

medicine, but then in everythingintellectual Rome was never much betterthan a weak copy of Greek thought Inscience the Romans did nothing at allworth while talking about All theirmedicine they borrowed from theGreeks, adding nothing of their own.What food for thought there is in the fact,that in spite of all Rome's materialgreatness and wide empire, her worlddominance and vaunted prosperity, wehave not a single great original scientificthought from a Roman.

Though so much nearer in timemedieval medicine seems much fartheraway from us than is Greek medicine.Most of us are quite sure that theimpression of distance is due to its

almost total lack of significance It iswith the idea of showing that themedieval generations, as far as waspossible in their conditions, not onlypreserved the old Greek medicine for us

in spite of the most untowardcircumstances, but also tried to dowhatever they could for its development,and actually did much more than isusually thought, that this story of "Old-Time Makers of Medicine" is written Itrepresents a period—that of the MiddleAges—that is, or was until recently,probably more misunderstood than anyother in human history The purpose ofthe book is to show at least the importantheadlands that lie along the stream ofmedical thought during the somewhat

more than a thousand years from the fall

of the Roman Empire under Augustulus(476) until the discovery of America.After that comes modern medicine, forwith the sixteenth century the names andachievements of the workers in medicineare familiar—Paracelsus, Vesalius,Columbus, Servetus, Cæsalpinus,Eustachius, Varolius, Sylvius are menwhose names are attached to greatdiscoveries with which even those whoare without any pretence to knowledge

of medical history are not unacquainted

In spite of nearly four centuries ofdistance in time these men seem veryclose to us Their lives will be reservedfor a subsequent volume, "OurForefathers in Medicine."

It is usually the custom to contemn theMiddle Ages for their lack of interest inculture, in education, in literature, in aword, in intellectual accomplishment ofany and every kind, but especially inscience There is no doubt about theoccurrence of marked decadence in theintellectual life of the first half of thisperiod This has sometimes beenattributed to what has been called theinhibitory effect of Christianity onworldly interests Religion is said tohave occupied people so much withthoughts of the other world that thebeauties and wonders, as well as much

of the significance, of the world aroundthem were missed Those who talk thus,however, forget entirely the

circumstances which brought about theserious decadence of interest in cultureand science at this time The RomanEmpire had been the guardian of lettersand education and science While theRomans were not original in themselves,

at least they had shown intense interest

in what was accomplished by the Greeksand their imitation had often risen toheights that made them worthy ofconsideration for themselves They wereliberal patrons of Greek art and of Greekliterature, and did not neglect Greekscience and Greek medicine Galen'sinfluence was due much more to theprominence secured by him as the result

of his stay in Rome than would havebeen possible had he stayed in Asia

There are many other examples ofRoman patronage of literature andscience that might be mentioned As weshall see, Rome drained Greece andAsia Minor of their best, andappropriated to herself the geniusproducts of the Spanish Peninsula Romehad a way of absorbing what was best inthe provinces for herself.

Just as soon as Rome was cut off fromintimate relations with the provinces bythe inwandering of barbarians,intellectual decadence began Theimperial city itself had never been thesource of great intellectual achievement,and the men whom we think of asimportant contributors to Rome'sliterature and philosophy were usually

not born within the confines of the city It

is surprising to take a list of the names ofthe Latin writers whom we areaccustomed to set down simply asRomans and note their birthplaces.Rome herself gave birth to but a verysmall percentage of them Virgil wasborn at Mantua, Cicero at Arpinum,Horace out on the Sabine farm, thePlinys out of the city, Terence in Africa,Persius up in Central Italy somewhere,Livy at Padua, Martial, Quintilian, theSenecas, and Lucan in Spain When thegovernment of the city ceased to be such

as assured opportunity for those fromoutside who wanted to make their way,decadence came to Roman literature.Large cities have never in history been

the fruitful mothers of men who did greatthings Genius, and even talent, hasalways been born out of the cities inwhich it did its work It is easy tounderstand, then, the decadence of theintellectual life that took place as theEmpire degenerated.

For the sake of all that it meant in theRoman Empire to look towards Rome atthis time, however, it seemed better tothe early Christians to establish thecentre of their jurisdiction there.Necessarily, then, in all that related tothe purely intellectual life, they cameunder the influences that were at work atRome at this time During the firstcenturies they suffered besides from thepersecutions directed against them by the

Emperors at various times, and theseeffectually prevented any externalmanifestations of the intellectual life onthe part of Christians It took much toovercome this serious handicap, butnoteworthy progress was made in spite

of obstacles, and by the time ofConstantine many important officials ofthe Empire, the educated thinking classes

of Rome, had become Christians Afterthe conversion of the Emperoropportunities began to be afforded, butpolitical disturbances consequent uponbarbarian influences still furtherweakened the old civilization until much

of the intellectual life of it almostdisappeared

Gradually the barbarians, finding the

Roman Empire decadent, crept in on it,and though much more of the invasionwas peaceful than we have beenaccustomed to think, the Romans simplydisappearing because family life hadbeen destroyed, children had becomeinfrequent, and divorce had becomeextremely common, it was not longbefore they replaced the Romans almostentirely These new peoples had noheritage of culture, no interest in theintellectual life, no traditions ofliterature or science, and they had to begradually lifted up out of theirbarbarism This was the task thatChristianity had to perform That itsucceeded in accomplishing it is one ofthe marvels of history.

The Church's first grave duty was thepreservation of the old records ofliterature and of science Fortunately themonasteries accomplished this task,which would have been extremelyperilous for the precious treasuresinvolved but for the favorable conditionsthus afforded Libraries up to this timewere situated mainly in cities, and weresubject to all the vicissitudes of fire andwar and other modes of destruction thatcame to cities in this disturbed period.Monasteries, however, were usuallysituated in the country, were built verysubstantially and very simply, and thelife in them formed the best possiblesafeguard against fire, which worked somuch havoc in cities As we shall see,

however, not only were the old recordspreserved, but excerpts from them werecollated and discussed and applied bymeans of direct observation This led thegenerations to realize more and more thevalue of the old Greek medicine andmade them take further precautions forits preservation.

The decadence of the early MiddleAges was due to the natural shifting ofmasses of population of this time, whilethe salvation of scientific and literarytraditions was due to the one stableelement in all these centuries—theChurch Far from Christianity inhibitingculture, it was the most important factorfor its preservation, and it provided thebest stimulus and incentive for its

renewed development just as soon as thebarbarous peoples were brought to astate of mind to appreciate it.

Bearing this in mind, it is easier tounderstand the course of medicaltraditions through the Middle Ages, andespecially in the earlier period, withregard to which our documents arecomparatively scanty, and during whichthe disturbed conditions made medicaldevelopments impossible, and anythingmore than the preservation of the oldauthors out of the question The torch ofmedical illumination lighted at the greatGreek fires passes from people topeople, never quenched, though oftenburning low because of unfavorableconditions, but sometimes with new fuel

added to its flame by the contributions ofgenius The early Christians took it upand kept it lighted, and, with the Jewishphysicians, carried it through thetroublous times of the end of the oldorder, and then passed it on for a while

to the Arabs Then, when favorableconditions had developed again,Christian schools and scholars gave itthe opportunity to burn brightly forseveral centuries at the end of theMiddle Ages This medieval age isprobably the most difficult period ofmedical history to understand properly,but it is worth while taking the trouble tofollow out the thread of medicaltradition from the Greeks to theRenaissance medical writers, who

practically begin modern medicine forus.

It is easy to understand thatChristianity's influence on medicine,instead of hampering, was mostfavorable The Founder of ChristianityHimself had gone about healing the sick,and care for the ailing became aprominent feature of Christian work.One of the Evangelists, St Luke, was aphysician It was the custom a generationago, and even later, when the HigherCriticism became popular, to impugn thetradition as to St Luke having been aphysician, but this has all been undone,and Harnack's recent book, "Luke thePhysician," makes it very clear that notonly the Third Gospel, but also the Acts,

could only have been written by a manthoroughly familiar with the Greekmedical terms of his time, and who hadsurely had the advantage of a training inthe medical sciences at Alexandria Thismakes such an important link in medicaltraditions that a special chapter has beendevoted to it in the Appendix.

Very early in Christianity care for theailing poor was taken up, and hospitals

in our modern sense of the term becamecommon in Christian communities Therehad been military hospitals before this,and places where those who couldafford to pay for service were keptduring illness Our modern city hospital,however, is a Christian institution.Besides, deformed and ailing children

were cared for and homes for foundlingswere established Before Christianity thepower even of life and death of theparents over their children wasrecognized, and deformed or ailingchildren, or those that for some reasonwere not wanted, were exposed untilthey died Christianity put an end to this,and in two classes of institutions, thehospitals and the asylums, abundantopportunity for observation of illnesswas afforded Just as soon asChristianity came to be free to establishits institutions publicly, hospitalsbecame very common The EmperorJulian, usually known as the Apostate,who hoped to re-establish the oldRoman Olympian religion, wrote to