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19 - Evolution of Modern Medicine by Sir William Osler · Evolution of Modern Medicine

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  Speaker 1: Section eighteen of the Evolution of Modern Medicine. This is
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  Speaker 1: a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain.
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  Speaker 1: For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org.
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  Speaker 1: Recording by Rita Boutros. The Evolution of Modern Medicine by
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  Speaker 1: Sir William Osler, Section eighteen, Chapter four The Renaissance and
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  Speaker 1: the rise of anatomy and Physiology. The reconquest of the
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  Speaker 1: classic world of thought was by far the most important
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  Speaker 1: achievement of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. It absorbed nearly
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  Speaker 1: the whole mental energy of the Italians. The revelation of
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  Speaker 1: what men were and what they wrought under the influence
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  Speaker 1: of other faiths and other impulses in distant ages with
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  Speaker 1: a different ideal for their aim not only widened the
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  Speaker 1: narrow horizon of the Middle Ages, but it also restored
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  Speaker 1: self confidence to the reason of humanity. Everywhere throughout the
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  Speaker 1: Middle Ages, learning was the handmaid of theology. Even Roger Bacon,
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  Speaker 1: with his strong appeal for a new method, accepted the
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  Speaker 1: dominant medieval conviction that all the sciences did but minister
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  Speaker 1: to their queen theology. A new spirit entered man's heart
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  Speaker 1: as he came to look upon learning as a guide
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  Speaker 1: to the conduct of life. A revolution was slowly effected
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  Speaker 1: in the intellectual world. It is a mistake to think
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  Speaker 1: of the Renaissance as a brief period of sudden fruitfulness
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  Speaker 1: in the North Italian cities. So far as science is concerned,
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  Speaker 1: the thirteenth century was an aurora followed by a long
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  Speaker 1: period of darkness. But the fifteenth was a true dawn
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  Speaker 1: that brightened more and more unto the perfect day, always
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  Speaker 1: a reflex of its period. Medicine joined heartily, though slowly,
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  Speaker 1: in the revolt against medievalism. How slowly I did not
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  Speaker 1: appreciate until recently. Studying the earliest printed medical works to
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  Speaker 1: catch the point of view of the men who were
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  Speaker 1: in the thick of the movement up to fourteen eighty,
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  Speaker 1: which may be taken to include the first quarter of
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  Speaker 1: a century of printing, one gets a startling record the
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  Speaker 1: medieval mind still dominates. Of the sixty seven authors of
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  Speaker 1: one hundred and eighty two editions of early medical books,
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  Speaker 1: twenty three were men of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries,
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  Speaker 1: thirty men of the fifteenth century, eight wrote in Arabic.
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  Speaker 1: Several were of the school of Salernum, and only six
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  Speaker 1: were of classical antiquity, viz. Pliny, Hippocrates, Haine, Galen, Aristotle, Celsus,
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  Speaker 1: and Diascorides. The medical profession gradually caught the new spirit.
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  Speaker 1: It has been well said that Greece arose from the dead,
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  Speaker 1: with the New Testament in the one hand and Aristotle
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  Speaker 1: in the other. There was awakened a perfect passion for
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  Speaker 1: the old Greek writers, and with it a study of
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  Speaker 1: the original sources, which had now become available in many manuscripts. Gradually,
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  Speaker 1: Hippocrates and Galen came to their own again. Almost every
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  Speaker 1: professor of medicine became a student of the manuscripts of
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  Speaker 1: Aristotle and of the Greek physicians, And before fifteen thirty
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  Speaker 1: the presses had poured out a stream of additions. A
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  Speaker 1: wave of enthusiasm swept over the profession, and the best
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  Speaker 1: energies of its best minds were devoted to his study
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  Speaker 1: of the fathers. Galen became the idol of the schools.
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  Speaker 1: A strong revulsion of feeling arose against the Arabians and Avicenna,
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  Speaker 1: the prince, who had been clothed with an authority only
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  Speaker 1: a little less than divine became anathema. Under the leadership
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  Speaker 1: of the Montpellier School. The Arabians made a strong fight,
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  Speaker 1: but it was a losing battle. All along the line,
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  Speaker 1: this group of medical humanists, men who were devoted to
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  Speaker 1: the study of the old humanities, as Latin and Greek
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  Speaker 1: were called, has had a great and beneficial influence upon
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  Speaker 1: the profession. They were, for the most part, cultivated gentlemen
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  Speaker 1: with a triple interest literature, medicine, and natural history. How
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  Speaker 1: important is the part they played may be gathered from
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  Speaker 1: a glance at the lives given by Bale in his
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  Speaker 1: biographic Medical Paris eighteen fifty five. Between the years fifteen
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  Speaker 1: hundred and fifteen seventy five. More than one half of
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  Speaker 1: them had translated or edited works of Hippocrates or Galen.
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  Speaker 1: Many of them had made important contributions to general literature,
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  Speaker 1: and a large proportion of them were naturalists Leones, Senas,
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  Speaker 1: Linacar Champier, Farnell, Fracastorius, Gauntier, Caius j. Silvius, Brassavola, Fusius, Matthiolus,
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  Speaker 1: Conrad Gessner. To mention, only those I know best form
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  Speaker 1: a great group. Linekar edited Greek works for Aldus translated
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  Speaker 1: works of Galen, taught Greek at Oxford, wrote Latin grammars,
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  Speaker 1: and founded the Royal College of Physicians. Caius was a
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  Speaker 1: keen Greek scholar, an ardent student of natural history, and
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  Speaker 1: his name is enshrined as co founder of one of
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  Speaker 1: the most important of the Cambridge colleges. Gauntier, Fernell, Fux
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  Speaker 1: and Mattioli were great scholars and greater physicians. Champier, one
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  Speaker 1: of the most remarkable of the group, was the founder
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  Speaker 1: of the Hotel Dieu at Lyons and author of books
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  Speaker 1: of a characteristic Renaissance type and of singular bibliographical interest
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  Speaker 1: in many ways. Greatest of all was Conrad Gesner, whose
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  Speaker 1: mors Inopinata at forty nine, bravely fighting the plague, is
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  Speaker 1: so touchingly and tenderly mourned by his friend Caius, physician, botanist, mineralogist, geologist, chemist,
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  Speaker 1: the first great modern bibliographer. He is the very embodiment
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  Speaker 1: of the spirit of the age. On the fly leaf
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  Speaker 1: of my copy of the Biblioteca Universalis fifteen forty five
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  Speaker 1: is written a fine tribute to his memory. I do
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  Speaker 1: not know by whom it is, but I do know
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  Speaker 1: from my reading that it is true Conrad Gesner, who
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  Speaker 1: kept open house there for all learned men who came
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  Speaker 1: into his neighborhood. Gesner was not only the best naturalist
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  Speaker 1: among the scholars of his day, but of all men
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  Speaker 1: of that century. As the pattern man of letters, he
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  Speaker 1: was faultless in private life, assiduous in study, diligent in
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  Speaker 1: maintaining correspondence and good will with learned men in all countries, hospitable,
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  Speaker 1: though his means were small, to every scholar that came
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  Speaker 1: into Zurich, prompt to serve all. He was an editor
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  Speaker 1: of other men's volumes, a writer of prefaces for friends,
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  Speaker 1: a suggestor to young writers of books on which they
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  Speaker 1: might engage themselves, and a great helper to them in
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  Speaker 1: the progress of their work. But still, while finding time
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  Speaker 1: for services to other men, he could produce as much
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  Speaker 1: out of his own study as though he had no
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  Speaker 1: part in the life beyond its walls. A large majority
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  Speaker 1: of these early naturalists and botanists were physicians. The Greek
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  Speaker 1: art of observation was revived in a study of the
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  Speaker 1: scientific writings of Aristotle, Theophrastus, and Dioscorides, and in medicine
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  Speaker 1: of Hippocrates and of Galen, all in the Greek originals.
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  Speaker 1: That progress was at first slow was due in part
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  Speaker 1: to the fact that the leaders were too busy scraping
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  Speaker 1: the Arabian tarnish from the pure gold of Greek medicine
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  Speaker 1: and correcting the anatomical mistakes of Galen to bother much
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  Speaker 1: about his physiology or pathology. Here and there, among the
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  Speaker 1: great anatomis of the period, we read of an experiment,
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  Speaker 1: But it was the art of observation, the art of Hippocrates,
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  Speaker 1: not the science of Galen, not the carefully devised experiment
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  Speaker 1: to determine function that characterized their work. There was, indeed,
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  Speaker 1: every reason why men should have been content with the
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  Speaker 1: physiology and pathology of that day. As from a theoretical standpoint,
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  Speaker 1: it was excellent. The doctrine of the four humors and
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  Speaker 1: of the natural animal and vital spirits afforded a ready
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  Speaker 1: explanation for the symptoms of all diseases, and the practice
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  Speaker 1: of the day was admirably adapted to the theories. There
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  Speaker 1: was no thought of, no desire for change, but the
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  Speaker 1: revival of learning awakened in men, at first a suspicion
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  Speaker 1: and at last a conviction. That the ancients had left
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  Speaker 1: something which could be reached by independent research, and gradually
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  Speaker 1: the paralytic like torpor passed away. The sixteenth and seventeenth
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  Speaker 1: centuries did three things in medicine. Shattered authority, laid the
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  Speaker 1: foundation of an accurate knowledge of the structure of the
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  Speaker 1: human body, and demonstrated how its functions should be studied intelligently.
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  Speaker 1: With which advances as illustrating this period may be associated
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  Speaker 1: the names of Paracelsus, Vesalius, and Harvey end of Section eighteen.