Page:The Harveian oration 1896.djvu/27
they become worthy to be called true Galenists[1]. The story is everywhere the same. The Galenists were the students of nature, which indeed need not surprise us, since there was no more genuine student of nature than Galen himself. Thus modern natural science grew out of the ancient science of the Greeks, and in what way it could have arisen otherwise is only a matter of speculation.
Clinical medicine may be thought to be that department in which the study of the ancients could be of the least use, and in which observation alone, without any reference to books, would have been the surest guide. But here, again, we find that the Greek scholars led the way. Da Monte (Montanus), first distinguished by his editions of Galen, was the earliest clinical teacher of medicine in the modern sense. His lectures at Padua attracted crowds of students from all parts of Europe. Yet Da Monte's method of learning and teaching medicine, on which he wrote special books, was avowedly based on Galen. His pupil, our own John Caius, followed in his steps. Caius was a zealous
- ↑ This society issued a little book which I have not found mentioned in any history of medicine, but which is interesting as a sign of the times, entitled Novae Academiae Florentinae opuscula, adversus Avicennam et medicos neotericos qui Galeni disciplina neglecta barbaros colunt (Lyons, 1534, 8vo). It contains a dialogue called Barbaromastix, in which a young Galenist defends his principles against adherents of the older school; also a treatise adversum Avicennam, and another adversum Mesuem et vulgares medicos omnes. The society does not appear to have been a large one; not more than four members can be distinctly traced, and none of these appear to have become eminent. In the dialogue it is needless to say that the older physicians have the worst of the argument; and it is insinuated that they cared for nothing but money and notoriety, considerations to which the young Galenists were quite superior: a distinction between young and old physicians which will probably continue to be drawn so long as physicians exist. 'Ideoque per totam hanc hyemem coepere ex Dioscoride historias et vultum plantarum observare; ex Galeno vero earum vires: uterque enim liber iugiter eis praesto erat. Porro ut oculata fides dictis attestaretur, saepius rura montesque petiere: Novissime vero cum primum per nives licuit, dum alii notas domos salutant ac nobilium exosculantur dextras, alii convalescentes nedum aegros crebra visitatione fastidiunt, alii negociosos se populo ostentant, ac generosa per urbem mula vehuntur, purpurati, quasi spectaculum aliquod populo praebituri; dum alii demum modis omnibus lucro inhiant; hi Apennini iuga montesque peragrarunt; atque adeo profecerunt, ut plantas plurimas ex nobilissimis et suscitarint et ad usum verterint'(p. 10).