Albert H. Buck

“ Very few Romans have shown an active interest in medical affairs, and those few speedily found it necessary to pass themselves off as Greeks. For it is a well-known fact that those physicians who, without being able to speak Greek, attempted to build up a practice in Rome, failed to gain the confidence of their patients, even of those who were not at all familiar with that language.... When one’s health is the question at issue the readiness to place confidence in a medical adviser is apt to diminish in proportion as one’s knowledge of the man increases. ”

“ But the mere fact that one must give some thought to questions of this nature and must exercise prudence does not justify the immediate rejection of a method of treatment like that of venesection. For is it not the very essence of our art, not merely to consider the factors of age and the pregnant state, but also to form an estimate of that other and more important factor, viz., the patient’s strength,—be that patient an infant, an aged person, or a woman advanced in pregnancy,—and then to decide whether it is, or is not, great enough to bear the loss of blood? ”

“ As I devoted myself with all possible zeal to the work in hand it was not long before I realized thoroughly that the best way of increasing one’s knowledge of medicine is to begin applying, in actual practice, such principles as one may already have acquired; and thus I became convinced that the physician [421] who earnestly studies, with his own eyes,—and not through the medium of books,—the natural phenomena of the different diseases, must necessarily excel in the art of discovering what, in any given case, are the true indications as to the remedial measures that should be employed. ”

“ GENERAL REMARKS ON THE DEVELOPMENT OF SURGERY IN EUROPE DURING THE FIFTEENTH AND SIXTEENTH CENTURIES
In the early period of the Renaissance surgery was apparently the first of the practical branches of medicine to spring forward into active life. Anatomy,—that is, human anatomy,—the foundation that is absolutely necessary to the solid growth of surgery, scarcely existed before the beginning of the sixteenth century; and it is therefore not surprising that the records of the past reveal to us so very few instances of men who attained any eminence as surgeons. ”

“ During thousands of years China has suffered severely from the blighting tyranny of superstition, priestcraft and selfish bureaucracy, and, now that the sunlight of truth and genuine liberty is beginning to search every nook and cranny of that great country, we who have had the advantage of this beneficent influence for so many scores of years truly rejoice over the change that is taking place in China. ”

“ If Galen had been a simple physician, one of the great body of medical practitioners in Rome, no one would be disposed to question the justice of the criticism which the distinguished Viennese historian makes of his decision to abandon that city at the moment of her distress and peril. But, as a matter of fact, Galen was not a practitioner of medicine in the full sense of that term. He treated cases of illness because in no other way would it be possible for him to acquire the necessary familiarity with disease ”

“ It is plain, therefore, that a history of the primitive period of medicine, if written to-day, may have to be modified to-morrow in some important respects. On the other hand, the facts relating to the later periods are now so well established that a fair-minded writer should experience no serious difficulty in judging correctly with regard to their value and with regard to the claims of the different men to be honored for the part which each has played in bringing the science and art of medicine to their present high state of completeness and efficiency. ”

“ EARLY EVIDENCES OF THE INFLUENCE OF THE RENAISSANCE UPON THE PROGRESS OF MEDICINE IN WESTERN EUROPE
In previous chapters we have seen how the Arabs, inspired with an extraordinary zeal for acquiring knowledge of the different sciences, devoted time and money freely, throughout a period of several centuries, to the accomplishment of this purpose. They were fired with ambition to become a great nation, and their studies of the world’s history taught them that the ancient Greeks had accumulated in their literature vast stores of the very knowledge which they were so anxious to acquire. ”

“ My professional brethren must not expect to find any new and startling facts [Paré is speaking here of his treatise on surgery] , but simply here and there some little addition to our previous stock of knowledge; for the good Guy de Chauliac has taught us that we are like the child who sits astride the giant’s neck; that is, we can see all that he sees and just a little more—or, in other words, we are able, through the aid afforded by the writings of our predecessors, to learn all that they have learned, and may at the same time acquire a little further knowledge through our own observations. ”

“ He maintained that he was both a physician and an astrologer, and claimed that he could restore the dead to life, and could predict future events from a mere inspection of fire, air and water.”
But although the persistent and wonderfully energetic activities of the alchemists failed to find the philosophers’ stone, or to transmute the baser metals into silver and gold, they placed in the hands of man the key to a knowledge of chemistry, that branch of science which was destined in later years to play such an important part in pharmacy, in agriculture and in other industries. ”

“ Could a man who had no knowledge of Harvey’s discovery, who did not possess a microscope, and who at the same time believed—as did all the ancients—that air circulated in the arteries and blood in the veins, come any nearer to the actual truth than did Asclepiades? ”

“ Although it is true that certain important anatomical and physiological facts are found recorded for the first time in the works of Galen, this must not be accepted as evidence that Galen himself is the real discoverer of these facts. The most that can be claimed for him is that he is the first writer to bring the facts in question to the knowledge of us moderns. When the ancient books that have been lost are once more brought to light, as they very well may be at any time, we shall be able, perhaps, to give credit where credit is due. ”

“ So great, as they believed, was his power over disease, so wonderful were the cures which he accomplished, and so noble and pure was his character, that they made him a god and erected temples in his honor—not mere places where a barren worship might be carried on, but veritable sanatoria—termed Asclepieia—where the extraordinary healing powers of him whom they had made a god might be perpetuated for the benefit of succeeding [51] generations. ”

“ I have founded this institution for people of my own class and for those who occupy an humbler station in life—for the king and for the servant, for the common soldier and for the Emir, for the rich man and for the poor, for the freeman and for the slave, for men and also for women. ”

“ So far as is now known, he wrote very little concerning medicine, and—strange to say—he seems to have attached considerable importance to astrology; indeed, he went so far as to blame the physicians of his day for their ignorance regarding this science, “as a result of which they neglect the best part of medicine.” In strange contrast with these views, which to-day we characterize as foolishness, is Bacon’s famous dictum: “Experiment is a firmer and more trustworthy basis of knowledge than argument”—a maxim which is the guiding principle of modern medicine. ”

“ Despite the great care which Harvey took to back up his scheme of the circulation of the blood with unimpeachable proofs of its correctness, he was obliged to pass through the same sort of experience as that to which Vesalius and scores of other pioneers in the field of scientific inquiry had been subjected. Two hostile forces stood constantly ready, during that fruitful period of the Renaissance, to attack with merciless bitterness all those who ventured to add new facts to our stock of knowledge in the domain of medicine. ”

“ He wrote that at birth the human soul is like a clean sheet of paper upon which all the objects perceived by the senses are recorded as experiences, and there they remain until by the aid of reflexion—i.e., by the aid of the understanding, which Locke calls the inner sense—they are combined into conceptions or ideas. Locke, it should be remembered, was educated as a physician, but he never took his degree, nor did he ever practice medicine. ”

“ So far as power and discernment shall be mine, I will carry out regimen for the benefit of the sick and will keep them from harm and wrong. To none will I give a deadly drug even if solicited, nor offer counsel to such an end; likewise to no woman will I give a destructive suppository; but guiltless and hallowed will I keep my life and mine art. I will cut no one whatever for the stone, but will give way to those who work at this practice. ”

“ The physician should be the handy man of Nature, and he should strive to aid and to imitate her efforts to effect a cure. His first care should be to remove, so far as is possible, the causes of the disease; and then, in the conduct of the treatment, he should keep in view at all times the special circumstances of the case, giving closer attention to the patient than to the disease itself. In short, he should aim at being useful, or at least he should be careful not to do any harm. ”

“ The ability to restore all his patients to health would of course be a greater power than that of correctly predicting the future behavior of a malady in any particular case. This ability, however, is clearly unattainable. One patient dies by reason of the severity of the disease itself, even before the physician is called in; a second one, shortly after the latter’s visit; and a third lingers on for a day or two after the doctor’s arrival, dying before the latter’s art has had time to produce a beneficial effect in hindering the advance of the malady. ”