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diff --git a/34067.txt b/34067.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..65327d7 --- /dev/null +++ b/34067.txt @@ -0,0 +1,5702 @@ +Project Gutenberg's Catholic Churchmen in Science, by James J. Walsh + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Catholic Churchmen in Science + +Author: James J. Walsh + +Release Date: October 13, 2010 [EBook #34067] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CATHOLIC CHURCHMEN IN SCIENCE *** + + + + +Produced by Don Kostuch + + + + +[Transcriber's note] + + This is derived from a copy on the Internet Archive: + http://www.archive.org/details/catholicchurchme008742mbp + + Page numbers in this book are indicated by numbers enclosed in curly + braces, e.g. {99}. They have been located where page breaks occurred + in the original book. + + Obvious spelling errors have been corrected but "inventive" and + inconsistent spelling is left unchanged. + + Extended quotations and citations are indented. + + Footnotes have been renumbered to avoid ambiguity, and relocated + to the end of the enclosing paragraph. + +[End Transcriber's note] + + + +CATHOLIC CHURCHMEN IN SCIENCE + + +[FIRST SERIES] + + +SKETCHES OF THE LIVES OF CATHOLIC +ECCLESIASTICS WHO WERE AMONG +THE GREAT FOUNDERS IN SCIENCE + +By + +JAMES J. WALSH, K.ST.G., M.D., PH.D., LITT.D. + +_Dean and Professor of Medicine and of Nervous Diseases +at Fordham University School of Medicine; Professor +of Physiological Psychology in the Cathedral College, New York; +Member of A.M.A., N.Y. State Med. Soc., +A.A.A.S., Life Mem of N.Y. Historical Society._ + + + +SECOND EDITION + + + +PHILADELPHIA + +American Ecclesiastical Review + +The Dolphin Press + +MCMX. + + + +COPYRIGHT. 1906, 1910 + +American Ecclesiastical Review + +The Dolphin Press + + + +"A sorrow's crown of sorrow." + + + +THIS BOOK IS AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED TO THE +MEMORY OF MY MOTHER + +{vii} + +PREFACE. + +The following sketches of the lives of clergymen who were great +scientists have appeared at various times during the past five years +in Catholic magazines. They were written because the materials for +them had gradually accumulated during the preparation of various +courses of lectures, and it seemed advisable to put them in order in +such a way that they might be helpful to others working along similar +lines. They all range themselves naturally around the central idea +that the submission of the human reason to Christian belief, and of +the mind and heart to the authority of the Church, is quite compatible +with original thinking of the highest order, and with that absolute +freedom of investigation into physical science, which has only too +often been said to be quite impossible to churchmen. For this reason +friends have suggested that they should be published together in a +form in which they would be more easy of consultation than when +scattered in different periodicals. It was urged, too, that they would +thus also be more effective for the cause which they uphold. This +friendly suggestion has been yielded to, whether justifiably or not +the reader must decide for himself. There is so great a flood of +books, good, bad, and indifferent, ascribing their existence to the +advice of well-meaning friends, that we poor authors are evidently not +in a position to judge for ourselves of the merit of our works or of +the possible interest they may arouse. + +{viii} + +I have to thank the editors of the _American Catholic Quarterly +Review_, of the _Ave Maria_, and of _The Ecclesiastical Review_ and +_The Dolphin_, for their kind permission to republish the articles +which appeared originally in their pages. All of them, though +substantially remaining the same, have been revised, modified in a +number of particulars, and added to very considerably in most cases. + +The call for a second edition--the third thousand--of this little +book is gratifying. Its sale encouraged the preparation of a Second +Series of CATHOLIC CHURCHMEN IN SCIENCE, and now the continued demand +suggests a Third Series, which will be issued during the year. Some +minor corrections have been made in this edition, but the book is +substantially the same. + +{ix} + + +CONTENTS. + + PAGE + +PREFACE ix + +I. THE SUPPOSED OPPOSITION OF SCIENCE AND RELIGION 3 + +II. COPERNICUS AND HIS TIMES 15 + +III. BASIL VALENTINE. FOUNDER OF MODERN CHEMISTRY 45 + +IV. LINACRE: SCHOLAR, PHYSICIAN, PRIEST 79 + +V. FATHER KIRCHER, S.J. SCIENTIST, ORIENTALIST, AND COLLECTOR 111 + +VI. BISHOP STENSEN: ANATOMIST AND FATHER OF GEOLOGY 137 + +VII. ABBE HAUeY: FATHER OF CRYSTALLOGRAPHY 169 + +VIII. ABBOT MENDEL: A NEW OUTLOOK IN HEREDITY 195 + + +{x} + +{1} + +I. + +THE SUPPOSED OPPOSITION OF SCIENCE AND RELIGION. + +{2} + +{3} + +I. + +THE SUPPOSED OPPOSITION OF SCIENCE AND RELIGION. + +A common impression prevails that there is serious, if not invincible, +opposition between science and religion. This persuasion has been +minimized to a great degree in recent years, and yet sufficient of it +remains to make a great many people think that, if there is not entire +incompatibility between science and religion, there is at least such a +diversity of purposes and aims in these two great realms of human +thought that those who cultivate one field are not able to appreciate +the labors of those who occupy themselves in the other. Indeed, it is +usually accepted as a truth that to follow science with assiduity is +practically sure to lead to unorthodoxy in religion. This is supposed +to be especially true if the acquisition of scientific knowledge is +pursued along lines that involve original research and new +investigation. Somehow, it is thought that any one who has a mind free +enough from the influence of prejudice and tradition to become an +original thinker or investigator, is inevitably prone to abandon the +old orthodox lines of thought in respect to religion. + +Like a good many other convictions and persuasions that exist more or +less as {4} commonplaces in the subconscious intellects of a great +many people, this is not true. Our American humorist said that it is +not so much the ignorance of mankind that makes him ridiculous as the +knowing so many things "that ain't so." The supposed opposition +between science and religion is precisely an apposite type of one of +the things "that ain't so." It is so firmly fixed as a rule, however, +that many people have accepted it without being quite conscious of the +fact that it exists as one of the elements influencing many of their +judgments--a very important factor in their apperception. + +Now, it so happens that a number of prominent original investigators +in modern science were not only thoroughly orthodox in their religious +beliefs, but were even faithful clergymen and guiding spirits for +others in the path of Christianity. The names of those who are +included in the present volume is the best proof of this. The series +of sketches was written at various times, and yet there was a central +thought guiding the selection of the various scientific workers. Most +of them lived at about the time when, according to an unfortunate +tradition that has been very generally accepted, the Church dominated +human thinking so tyrannously as practically to preclude all notion of +original investigation in any line of thought, but especially in +matters relating to physical science. Most of the men whose lives are +sketched lived during the fifteenth, sixteenth, and first half of the +{5} seventeenth centuries. All of them were Catholic clergymen of high +standing, and none of them suffered anything like persecution for his +opinions; all remained faithful adherents of the Church through long +lives. + +It is hoped that this volume, without being in any sense +controversial, may tend to throw light on many points that have been +the subject of controversy; and by showing how absolutely free these +great clergymen-scientists were to pursue their investigations in +science, it may serve to demonstrate how utterly unfounded is the +prejudice that would declare that the ecclesiastical authorities of +these particular centuries were united in their opposition to +scientific advance. + +There is no doubt that at times men have been the subject of +persecution because of scientific opinions. In all of these cases, +without exception, however--and this is particularly true of such men +as Galileo, Giordano Bruno, and Michael Servetus--a little +investigation of the personal character of the individuals involved in +these persecutions will show the victims to have been of that +especially irritating class of individuals who so constantly awaken +opposition to whatever opinions they may hold by upholding them +overstrenuously and inopportunely. They were the kind of men who could +say nothing without, to some extent at least, arousing the resentment +of those around them who still clung to older ideas. We all know this +class of individual very well. {6} In these gentler modern times we +may even bewail the fact that there is no such expeditious method of +disposing of him as in the olden time. This is not a defence of what +was done in their regard, but is a word of explanation that shows how +human were the motives at work and how unecclesiastical the +procedures, even though church institutions, Protestant and Catholic +alike, were used by the offended parties to rid them of obnoxious +argumentators. + +In this matter it must not be forgotten that persecution has been the +very common associate of noteworthy advances in science, quite apart +from any question of the relations between science and religion. There +has scarcely been a single important advance in the history of applied +science especially, that has not brought down upon the devoted head of +the discoverer, for a time at least, the ill-will of his own +generation. Take the case of medicine, for instance. Vesalius was +persecuted, but not by the ecclesiastical authorities. The bitter +opposition to him and to his work came from his colleagues in +medicine, who thought that he was departing from the teaching of +Galen, and considered that a cardinal medical heresy not to be +forgiven. Harvey, the famous discoverer of the circulation of the +blood, lost much of his lucrative medical practice after the +publication of his discovery, because his medical contemporaries +thought the notion of the heart pumping blood through the arteries to +be so foolish that they refused to {7} admit that it could come from a +man of common sense, much less from a scientific physician. Nor need +it be thought that this spirit of opposition to novelty existed only +in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Almost in our own time +Semmelweis, who first taught the necessity for extreme cleanliness in +obstetrical work, met with so much opposition in the introduction of +the precautions he considered necessary that he was finally driven +insane. His methods reduced the mortality in the great lying-in +hospitals of Europe from nearly ten per cent for such cases down to +less than one per cent, thus saving many thousands of lives every +year. + +Despite this very natural tendency to decry the value of new +discoveries in science and the opposition they aroused, it will be +found that the lives of these clergymen scientists show us that they +met with much more sympathy in their work than was usually accorded to +original investigators in science in other paths in life. This is so +different from the ordinary impression in the matter that it seems +worth while calling it to particular attention. While we have selected +lives of certain of the great leaders in science, we would not wish it +to be understood that these are the only ones among the clergymen of +the last four centuries who deserve an honorable place high up in the +roll of successful scientific investigators. Only those are taken who +illustrate activity in sciences that are supposed to have been +especially forbidden to clergymen. It {8} has been said over and over +again, for instance, that there was distinct ecclesiastical opposition +to the study of chemistry. Indeed, many writers have not hesitated to +say that there was a bull, or at least a decree, issued by one or more +of the popes forbidding the study of chemistry. This, is not only not +true, but the very pope who is said to have issued the decree, John +XXII, was himself an ardent student of the medical sciences. We still +possess several books from him on these subjects, and his decree was +meant only to suppress pseudo-science, which, as always, was +exploiting the people for its own ends. The fact that a century later +the foundation of modern chemical pharmacology was laid by a +Benedictine monk, Basil Valentine, shows how unfounded is the idea +that the papal decree actually hampered in any way the development of +chemical investigation or the advance of chemical science. + +Owing to the Galileo controversy, astronomy is ordinarily supposed to +have been another of the sciences to which it was extremely indiscreet +at least, not to say dangerous, for a clergyman to devote himself. The +great founder of modern astronomy, however, Copernicus, was not only a +clergyman, but one indeed so faithful and ardent that it is said to +have been owing to his efforts that the diocese in which he lived did +not go over to Lutheranism during his lifetime, as did most of the +other dioceses in that part of Germany. The fact that Copernicus's +book was involved in the Galileo trial has rendered his {9} position +still further misunderstood, but the matter is fully cleared up in the +subsequent sketch of his life. As a matter of fact, it is in astronomy +particularly that clergymen have always been in the forefront of +advance; and it must not be forgotten that it was the Catholic Church +that secured the scientific data necessary for the correction of the +Julian Calendar, and that it was a pope who proclaimed the +advisability of the correction to the world. Down to our own day there +have always been very prominent clergymen astronomers. One of the best +known names in the history of the astronomy of the nineteenth century +is that of Father Piazzi, to whom we owe the discovery of the first of +the asteroids. Other well-known names, such as Father Secchi, who was +the head of the papal observatory at Rome, and Father Perry, the +English Jesuit, might well be mentioned. The papal observatory at Rome +has for centuries been doing some of the best work in astronomy +accomplished anywhere, although it has always been limited in its +means, has had inadequate resources to draw on, and has succeeded in +accomplishing what it has done only because of the generous devotion +of those attached to it. + +To go back to the Galileo controversy for a moment, there seems no +better answer to the assertion that his trial shows clearly the +opposition between religion, or at least ecclesiastical authorities, +and science, than to recall, as we have done, in writing the +accompanying sketch of the {10} life of Father Kircher, S.J., that +just after the trial Roman ecclesiastics very generally were ready to +encourage liberally a man who devoted himself to all forms of physical +science, who was an original thinker in many of them, who was a great +teacher, whose writings did more to disseminate knowledge of advances +in science than those of any man of his time, and whose idea of the +collection of scientific curiosities into a great museum at Rome +(which still bears his name) was one of the fertile germinal +suggestions in which modern science was to find seeds for future +growth. + +It is often asserted that geology was one of the sciences that was +distinctly opposed by churchmen; yet we shall see that the father of +modern geology, one of the greatest anatomists of his time, was not +only a convert to Catholicity, but became a clergyman about the time +he was writing the little book that laid the foundation of modern +geology. We shall see, too, that, far from religion and science +clashing in him, he afterwards was made a bishop, in the hope that he +should be able to go back to his native land and induce others to +become members of that Church wherein he had found peace and +happiness. + +In the modern times biology has been supposed to be the special +subject of opposition, or at least fear, on the part of ecclesiastical +authorities. It is for this reason that the life of Abbot Mendel has +been introduced. While working in {11} his monastery garden in the +little town of Bruenn in Moravia, this Augustinian monk discovered +certain precious laws of heredity that are considered by progressive +twentieth-century scientists to be the most important contributions to +the difficult problems relating to inheritance in biology that have +been made. + +These constitute the reasons for this little book on Catholic +clergymen scientists. It is published, not with any ulterior motives, +but simply to impress certain details of truth in the history of +science that have been neglected in recent years and, by presenting +sympathetic lives of great clergymen scientists, to show that not only +is there no essential opposition between science and religion, but on +the contrary that the quiet peace of the cloister and of a religious +life have often contributed not a little to that precious placidity of +mind which seems to be so necessary for the discovery of great, new +scientific truths. + + +{12} + +II. + +COPERNICUS AND HIS TIMES. + + +{13} + +All the vast and most progressive systems that human wisdom has +brought forth as substitutes for religion, have never succeeded in +interesting any but the learned, the ambitious, or at most the +prosperous and happy. But the great majority of mankind can never come +under these categories. The great majority of men are suffering, and +suffering from moral as well as physical evils. Man's first bread is +grief, and his first want is consolation. Now which of these systems +has ever consoled an afflicted heart, or repeopled a lonely one? Which +of these teachers has ever shown men how to wipe away a tear? +Christianity alone has from the beginning promised to console man in +the sorrows incidental to life by purifying the inclinations of his +heart, and she alone has kept her promise.--MONTALEMBERT, +Introduction to _Life of St. Elizabeth_. + +{14} + + + +[Illustration: NICOLAO COPERNICO] + + + +{15} + +II. + +COPERNICUS AND HIS TIMES. + +The association of the name of Copernicus with that of Galileo has +always cast an air of unorthodoxy about the great astronomer. The +condemnation of certain propositions in his work on astronomy in which +Copernicus first set forth the idea of the universe as we know it at +present, in contradistinction to the old Ptolemaic system of +astronomy, would seem to emphasize this suspicion of unorthodox +thinking. He is rightly looked upon as one of the great pioneers of +our modern physical science, and, as it is generally supposed that +scientific tendencies lead away from religion, there are doubtless +many who look upon Copernicus as naturally one of the leaders in this +rationalistic movement. It is forgotten that scarcely any of the great +original thinkers have escaped the stigma of having certain +propositions in some of their books condemned, and that this indeed is +only an index of the fallibility of the human mind and of the need +there is for some authoritative teacher. The sentences in Copernicus's +book requiring correction were but few, and were rather matters of +terminology than of actual perversion of accepted teaching. It was as +such that their modification was suggested. In spite of this, the {16} +impression remains that Copernicus must be considered as a +rationalizing scientist, the first in a long roll of original +scientific investigators whose work has made the edifice of +Christianity totter by removing many of the foundation-stones of its +traditional authority. + +It is rather surprising, in view of this common impression with regard +to Copernicus, to find him, according to recent biographers, a +faithful clergyman in honor with his ecclesiastical superiors, a +distinguished physician whose chief patients were clerical friends of +prominent position and the great noblemen of his day, who not only +retained all his faith and reverence for the Church, but seems to have +been especially religious, a devoted adherent of the Blessed Virgin +Mother of God, and the author of a series of poems in her honor that +constitute a distinct contribution to the literature of his time. + +All this should not be astonishing, however; for in the list of the +churchmen of the half century just before the great religious revolt +in Germany are to be found some of the best known names in the history +of the intellectual development of the race. This statement is so +contrary to the usual impression that obtains in regard to the +character of that period as to be a distinct source of surprise to the +ordinary reader of history who has the realization of its truth thrust +upon him for the first time. Just before the so-called Reformation, +the clergy are considered to have been so sunk in ignorance, or at +least to {17} have been so indifferent to intellectual pursuits and so +cramped in mind as regards progress, or so timorous because of +inquisition methods, that no great advances in thought, and especially +none in science, could possibly be looked for from them. To find, +then, that not only were faithful churchmen leaders in thought, +discoverers in science, organizers in education, initiators of new +progress, teachers of the New Learning, but that they were also +typical representatives and yet prudent directors of the advancing +spirit of that truly wonderful time, is apt to make us think that +surely--as the Count de Maistre said one hundred years ago, and the +Cambridge Modern History repeats at the beginning of the twentieth +century when treating of this very period--"history has been a +conspiracy against the truth." + +Not quite fifty years before Luther's movement of protest began--that +is, in 1471--there passed away in a little town in the Rhineland a man +who has been a greater spiritual force than perhaps any other single +man that has ever existed. This was Thomas a Kempis, a product of the +schools of the Brethren of the Common Life, a teaching order that +during these fifty years before the Protestant Revolution had over ten +thousand pupils in its schools in the Rhineland and the Netherlands +alone. As among these pupils there occur such names as Erasmus, +Nicholas of Cusa, Agricola, not to mention many less illustrious, some +idea of this old teaching institution, that has been very aptly +compared to our {18} modern Brothers of the Christian Schools, can be +realized. + +Kempis was a worthy initiator of a great half century. He had among +his contemporaries, or followers in the next generation, such men as +Grocyn, Dean Colet, and Linacre in England, Cardinal Ximenes in Spain, +and Copernicus in Germany. Considering the usual impression in this +matter as regards the lack of interest at Rome in serious study, it is +curiously interesting to realize how closely these great scholars and +thinkers were in touch with the famous popes of the Renaissance +period. The second half of the sixteenth century saw the elevation to +the papacy of some of the most learned and worthy men that have ever +occupied the Chair of Peter. In 1447 Nicholas V became pope, and +during his eight years of pontificate initiated a movement of sympathy +with modern art and letters that was never to be extinguished. To him +more than to any other may be attributed the foundation of the Vatican +Library. To him also is attributed the famous expression that "no art +can be too lofty for the service of the Church." He was succeeded by +Calixtus III, a patron of learning, who was followed by Pius II, the +famous AEneas Sylvius, one of the greatest scholars and most learned +men of his day, who had done more for the spread of culture and of +education in the various parts of Europe than perhaps any other alive +at the time. + +The next Pope, Paul II, accomplished much {19} during a period of +great danger by arousing the Christian opposition to the Saracens. His +encouragement and material aid to the Hungarians, who were making a +bold stand against the Oriental invaders, merit for him a place in the +role of defenders of civilization. To him is due the introduction of +the recently discovered art of printing and its installation on a +sumptuous scale worthy of the center of Christian culture. His +successor, Sixtus IV, deserves the title of the founder of modern +Rome. Bridges, aqueducts, public buildings, libraries, churches--all +owe to his fostering care their restoration and renewed foundation. He +made it the purpose of his life to attract distinguished humanistic +scholars to his capital, and Rome became the metropolis of culture and +learning as well as the mother city of Christendom. + +Under such popes it is no wonder that Rome and the cities of Italy +generally became the homes of art and culture, centers of the new +humanistic learning and the shelters of the scholars of the outer +world. The Italian universities entered on a period of intellectual +and educational development as glorious almost as the art movement +that characterized the time. As this was marked by the work of such +men as that universal genius Leonardo da Vinci, of Michael Angelo, +poet, painter, sculptor, architect; of Raphael, Titian, and Correggio, +whose contemporaries were worthy of them in every way, some idea can +be attained of the wonderful era that developed. No {20} wonder +scholars in every department of learning flocked to Italy for +inspiration and the enthusiasm bred of scholarly fellowship in such an +environment. From England came men like Linacre, Selling, Grocyn, and +Dean Colet; Erasmus came from the Netherlands, and Copernicus from +Poland. Copernicus there obtained that scientific training which was +later to prove so fruitful in his practical work as a physician and in +his scientific work as the founder of modern astronomy. + +It may be as well to say at the beginning that even Copernicus was not +the first to suggest that the earth moved, and not the sun; and that, +curiously enough, his anticipator was another churchman, Nicholas of +Cusa, the famous Bishop of Brixen. Readers of Janssen's _History of +the German People_ will remember that the distinguished historian +introduces his monumental work by a short sketch of the career of +Cusanus, as he is called, who may be well taken as the typical +pre-Reformation scholar and clergyman. Cusa wrote in a +manuscript--which is still preserved in the hospital of Cues, or +Cusa--published for the first time by Professor Clemens in 1847: "I +have long considered that this earth can not be fixed, but moves as do +the other stars--_sed movetur ut aliae stellae_." What a curious +commentary these words, written more than half a century before +Galileo was born, form on the famous expression so often quoted +because supposed to have been drawn from Galileo by the condemnation +of his doctrine at Rome: {21} _E pur se muove_--"and yet it moves!" +Cusanus was a Cardinal, the personal friend of three popes, and he +seems to have had no hesitation in expressing his opinion in the +matter. In the same manuscript the Cardinal adds: "And to my mind the +earth revolves upon its axis once in a day and a night." Cusanus was, +moreover, one of the most independent thinkers that the world has ever +seen, yet he was intrusted by the pope about the middle of the +fifteenth century with the reformation of abuses in the Church in +Germany. The pope seems to have been glad to be able to secure a man +of such straightforward ways for his reformatory designs. + +The ideas of Nicholas of Cusa with regard to knowledge and the liberty +of judgment in things not matters of faith can be very well +appreciated from some of his expressions. "To know and to think," he +says in one passage, "to see the truth with the eye of the mind is +always a joy. The older a man grows, the greater is the pleasure it +affords him; and the more he devotes himself to the search after +truth, the stronger grows his desire of possessing it. As love is the +life of the heart, so is the endeavor after knowledge and truth the +life of the mind. In the midst of the movements of time, of the daily +work of life, of its perplexities and contradictions, we should lift +our gaze fearlessly to the clear vault of heaven and seek ever to +obtain a firmer grasp of, and keener insight into, the origin of all +goodness and duty, the capacities of our own hearts and minds, {22} +the intellectual fruits of mankind throughout the centuries, and the +wondrous works of nature around us; but ever remembering that in +humility alone lies true greatness, and that knowledge and wisdom are +alone profitable in so far as our lives are governed by them." +[Footnote 1] It is no wonder, then, that the time was ripe for +Copernicus and his great work in astronomy, nor that that work should +be accomplished while he was a canon of a cathedral and for a time the +vicar-general of a diocese. + +It is now nearly five years since Father Adolph Muller, S.J., +professor of Astronomy in the Pontifical Gregorian University of Rome, +and director of a private observatory on the Janiculum in that city, +wrote his historical scientific study [Footnote 2] of the great +founder of modern astronomy. The book has been reviewed, criticized +and discussed very thoroughly since then, and has been translated into +several languages. The latest translation was into Italian, the work +of Father Pietro Mezzetti, S.J., [Footnote 3] and was published in +Rome at the end of 1902--having had the benefit {23} of the author's +revision. The historical details, then, of Copernicus's life may be +considered to have been cast into definite shape, and his career may +be appreciated with confidence as to the absolute accuracy and +essential significance of all its features. + + + + [Footnote 1: _History of the German People at the Close of the + Middle Ages_. By Johannes Janssen Translated from the German by M A + Mitchell and A M Christie. Vol I, p. 3.] + + [Footnote 2: _Nikolaus Kopernicus, Der Altmeister der neueren + Astronomie, Ein Lebens und Kultur Bild_. Von Adolf Muller, S.J.] + + [Footnote 3: Professor of Astronomy and Physics at the Pontifical + Leonine College of Anagni] + + + +Nicholas Copernicus--to give him the Latin and more usual form of his +name--was the youngest of four children of Niclas Copernigk, who +removed from Cracow in Poland to Thorn in East Prussia (though then a +city of Poland), where he married Barbara Watzelrode, a daughter of +one of the oldest and wealthiest families of the province. His +mother's brother, after having been a canon for many years in the +cathedral of Frauenburg, was elected Bishop of the Province of +Ermland. The future astronomer was born in 1473, at a time when Thorn, +after having been for over two hundred years under the rule of the +Teutonic Knights, had for some seven years been under the dominion of +the King of Poland. There were two boys and two girls in the family; +and their fervent Catholicity can be judged from the fact that all of +them, parents and children, were inscribed among the members of the +Third Order of St. Dominic. Barbara, the older sister, became a +religious in the Cistercian Convent of Kulm, of which her aunt +Catherine was abbess, and of which later on she herself became abbess. +Andrew, the oldest son, became a priest; and Nicholas, the subject of +this sketch, at least assumed, as we shall see, all the {24} +obligations of the ecclesiastical life, though it is not certain that +he received the major religious orders. + +Copernicus's collegiate education was obtained at the University of +Cracow, at that time one of the most important seats of learning in +Europe. The five-hundredth anniversary of the founding of this +University was celebrated with great pomp only a few years ago. Its +origin, however, dates back to the times of Casimir the Great, at the +end of the thirteenth or the beginning of the fourteenth century. Its +foundation was due to the same spirit of enthusiastic devotion to +letters that gave us all the other great universities of the +thirteenth century. The original institution was so much improved by +Jagello, King of Poland, at the beginning of the fifteenth century, +that it bears his name and is known as the Jagellonian University. It +was very natural for Copernicus to go back to his father's native city +for his education; but his ambitious spirit was not content with the +opportunities afforded there. He does not seem to have taken his +academic degrees, and the tradition that he received his doctorate in +medicine at the University of Cracow cannot be substantiated by any +documentary evidence. + +At Cracow, Copernicus devoted himself mainly to classical studies, +though his interest in astronomy seems to have been awakened there. In +fact, it is said that his desire to be able to read Ptolemy's +astronomy in the original Greek, and {25} to obtain a good copy of it, +led him to look to Italy for his further education. During his years +at Cracow, however, he seems to have made numerous observations in +astronomy, as most of the astronomical data in his books are found +reduced to the meridian of Cracow. The observatory of Frauenburg, at +which his work in astronomy in later life was carried on, was on the +same meridian; so that it is difficult to say, as have some of his +biographers, that, since Cracow was the capital of his native country, +motives of patriotism influenced him to continue his observations +according to this same meridian. Copernicus was anxious, no doubt, to +come in contact with some of the great astronomers at the universities +of Italy, whom he knew by reputation and whose work was attracting +attention all over Europe at that time. + +How faithfully Copernicus applied himself to his classical studies can +be best appreciated from some Latin poems written by him during his +student days. These poems are an index, too, of the personal character +of the man, and give some interesting hints of the religious side of +his character. Altogether there are seven Latin odes, each ode +composed of seven strophes. The seven odes are united by a certain +community of interest or succession of subjects. All of them refer to +the history of the Redeemer either in types or in reality. In the +first one the prophets prefigure the appearance of the Saviour; in the +second the patriarchs sigh for His coming; the {26} third depicts the +scene of the Nativity in the Cave of Bethlehem; the fourth is +concerned with the Circumcision and the imposition of the Name chosen +by the Holy Ghost; the fifth treats of the Star and the Magi and their +guidance to the Manger; the sixth concerns the presentation in the +Temple; and the seventh, the scene in which Jesus at the age of twelve +disputes with the doctors in the Temple at Jerusalem. + +Copernicus's recent biographers have called attention particularly to +the poetical beauties with which he surrounds every mention of the +Blessed Virgin and her qualities. As is evident even from our brief +resume of the subjects of the odes, the themes selected are just those +in which the special devotion of the writer to the Mother of the +Saviour could be very well brought out. There are, besides, a number +of astronomical allusions which stamp the poems as the work of +Copernicus, and which have been sufficient to defend their +authenticity against the attacks made by certain critics, who tried to +point out how different was the style from that of Copernicus's later +years in his scientific writings. The tradition of authorship is, +however, too well established on other grounds to be disturbed by +criticism of this sort. The poems were dedicated to the Pope. In +writing poetry Copernicus was only doing what Tycho Brahe and Kepler, +his great successors in astronomy, did after him; and the argument +with regard to the difference of style in the two kinds of writings +would hold also as regards these authors. + +{27} + +Copernicus's years as a boy and man--that is, up to the age of +thirty-five--corresponded with a time of great intellectual activity +in Europe. This fact is not as generally recognized as it should be, +for intellectual activity is supposed to have awakened after the +so-called Reformation. During the years from 1472 to 1506, however, +there were founded in Germany alone no less than six universities: +those of Ingolstadt, Treves, Tubingen, Mentz, Wittenberg, and +Frankfort-on-the-Oder. These were not by any means the first great +institutions of learning that arose in Germany. The universities of +Prague and Vienna were more than a century old, and, with Heidelberg, +Cologne, Erfurt, Leipsic, and Rostock, besides Greifswald and +Freiburg, founded about the middle of the fifteenth century, had +reached a high state of development, and contained larger numbers of +students, with few exceptions, than these same institutions have ever +had down to our own day. In most cases their charters were derived +from the pope; and most of the universities were actually recognized +as ecclesiastical institutions, in the sense that their officials held +ecclesiastical authority. + +At this time--the end of the fifteenth and the beginning of the +sixteenth century--it was not unusual for students, in their +enthusiasm for learning, to attempt to exhaust nearly the whole round +of university studies. Medicine seems to have been a favorite subject +with scholars who were widely interested in knowledge for its own {28} +sake. Almost at the same time that Copernicus was studying in Italy, +the distinguished English Greek scholar, Linacre, was also engaged in +what would now be called post-graduate work at various Italian +universities, and in the household of Lorenzo the Magnificent at +Florence, with whose son--so much did Lorenzo think of him--he was +allowed to study Greek. Linacre (as will be seen more at length in the +sketch of his life in this volume), besides being the greatest Greek +scholar of his time, the friend later of More and Colet and Erasmus in +London, was also the greatest physician in England. + +To those familiar with the times, it may be a source of surprise to +think of Copernicus, interested as we know him to have been in +literature and devoted so cordially to astronomy, yet taking up +medicine as a profession. He seems, however, to have been led to do so +by his distinguished teacher, Novara, who realized the talent of his +Polish pupil for mathematics and astronomy and yet felt that he should +have some profession in life. A century ago Coleridge, the English +writer, said that a literary man should have some other occupation. +Oliver Wendell Holmes improved upon this by adding: "And, as far as +possible, he should confine himself to the other occupation." Novara +seems to have realized that Copernicus might be under the necessity of +knowing how to do something else besides making astronomical +observations, in order to gain his living; and as medicine was {29} +satisfyingly scientific, the old teacher suggested his taking it up as +a profession. Copernicus made his medical studies in Ferrara and +Padua, and obtained his doctorate with honors from Ferrara. + +Copernicus seems to have taken up the practice of his profession +seriously, and to have persevered in it to the end of his life. His +biographers say that in the exercise of his professional duties he was +animated by the spirit of a person who had devoted himself to the +ecclesiastical life. While he did not publicly practise his +profession, he was ever ready to assist the poor; and he also acquired +great reputation in the surrounding country for his medical attendance +upon clerics of all ranks. This continued to be the case, +notwithstanding the fact that after the death of his uncle his mother +inherited considerable wealth, and the family circumstances changed so +much that he might well have given up any labors that were meant only +to add to his income. In a word, he seems to have had a sincere +interest in his professional work, and to have continued its exercise +because of the opportunities it afforded for the satisfaction of a +mind devoted to scientific research. + +Copernicus acquired considerable reputation by his medical services. +His friend Giese speaks of him as a very skilful physician, and even +calls him a second AEsculapius. Maurice Ferber, who became Bishop of +Ermland in 1523, suffered from a severe chronic illness that began +about 1529. He obtained permission from the canons {30} of the +cathedral to have Doctor Copernicus, whose ability and zeal he never +ceased to praise, to come from the cathedral town where he ordinarily +resided to Heilsburg, in order to have him near him. Bishop Ferber's +successor, Dantisco, also secured Copernicus's aid in a severe +illness, and declared that his restoration to health was mainly due to +the efforts of his learned physician. Giese was so confident of the +Doctor's skill that when he became Bishop of Kulm and on one of his +episcopal visitations fell ill at a considerable distance from +Copernicus's place of residence, he insisted on having the astronomer +doctor brought to take care of him. + +In 1541 Duke Albert of Prussia became very much worried over the +illness of one of his most trusted counsellors. In his distress he had +recourse to Copernicus, and his letter asking the Canon of the +Cathedral of Frauenburg to come to attend the patient is still extant. +He says that the cure of the illness is "very much at his heart"; and, +as every other means has failed, he hopes Copernicus will do what he +can for the assistance of his faithful and valued counsellor. +Copernicus yielded to the request, and the counsellor began to improve +shortly after his arrival. At the end of some weeks the Duke wrote +again to the canons of the cathedral asking that the leave of absence +granted to Copernicus should be extended in order to enable him to +complete the cure which had been so happily begun. In this second +letter the Duke talks of Copernicus as a {31} most skilful and learned +physician. At the end of the month there is a third letter from the +Duke, in which he thanks all the canons of the cathedral for their +goodness in having granted the desired permission, and he adds that he +shall ever feel under obligations "for the assistance rendered by that +very worthy and excellent physician, Nicholas Copernicus, a doctor who +is deserving of all honor." Not long afterward, when Copernicus's book +on astronomy was published, a copy of it was sent to the Duke, and he +replied that he was deeply grateful for it, and that he should always +preserve it as a souvenir of the most learned and gentlest of men. + +There are a number of notes on the art of medicine made by Copernicus +in the books of the cathedral library at Frauenburg. They serve to +show how faithful a student he was, and to a certain extent give an +idea of the independent habit of mind which he brought to the +investigation of medicine as well as to the study of astronomy. +Unfortunately, these have not as yet found an editor; but it is to be +hoped that we shall soon know more of the medical thinking of a man +over whose mind tradition, in the unworthier sense of that word, +exercised so little influence. + +In 1530 Copernicus wrote a short prelude to the longer work on +astronomy which he was to publish later. The propositions contained in +this work show how far he had advanced on the road to his ultimate +discovery. After a few words of introduction, the following seven +axioms are laid down:-- + +{32} + +1. The celestial spheres and their orbits have not a single center. + +2. The center of the earth is not the center of the universe, but only +the center of gravity and of the moon's orbit. + +3. The planes of the orbits lie around the sun, which may be +considered as the center of the universe. + +4. The distance from the earth to the sun compared with that from the +earth to the fixed stars is extremely small. + +5. The daily motion of the heavenly sphere is apparent that is, it is +an effect of the rotary motion of the earth upon it axis. + +6. The apparent motions of the moon and of the sun are so different +because of the effect produced by the motion of the earth. + +7. The movements of the earth account for the apparent retrograde +motion and other irregularities of the movements of the planets. It is +enough to assume that the earth alone moves, in order to explain all +the other movements observed in the heavens. + +It is no wonder that one of his bishop-friends, Frisio, writing to +another bishop-friend, Dantisco, said: "If Copernicus succeeds in +demonstrating the truth of his thesis--and we may well consider that +he will from this prelude--he will give us a new heaven and a new +earth." This shorter exposition of Copernicus's views was found in +manuscript in the imperial library in Vienna only about a quarter of a +century ago. {33} It is mentioned by Tycho Brahe in one of his works +on astronomy in which he reviews the various contemporary advances +made in the knowledge of the heavens. + +The publication of Copernicus's great work, "De Revolutionibus Orbium +Celestium," was delayed until he was advanced in years, because his +astronomical opinions were constantly progressing; and, with the +patience of true genius, he was not satisfied with anything less than +the perfect expression of truth as he saw it. It has sometimes been +said that it was delayed because Copernicus feared the storm of +religious persecution which he foresaw it would surely arouse. How +utterly without foundation is this pretence, which has unfortunately +crept into serious history, can be seen from the fact that Pope Paul +III accepted the dedication of the work; and of the twelve popes who +immediately followed Paul not one even thought of proceeding against +Copernicus's work. His teaching was never questioned by any of the +Roman Congregations for nearly one hundred years after his death. +Galileo's injudicious insistence in his presentation of Copernicus's +doctrine, on the novelties of opinion that controverted +long-established beliefs, was then responsible for the condemnation by +the Congregation of the Index; and, as we shall see, this was not +absolute, but only required that certain passages should be corrected. +The corrections demanded were unimportant as regards the actual +science, and {34} merely insisted that Copernicus's teaching was +hypothesis and not yet actual demonstration. + +It must not be forgotten, after all, that the reasons advanced by +Copernicus for his idea of the movements of the planets were not +supported by any absolute demonstration, but only by reasons from +analogy. Nearly a hundred years later than his time, even after the +first discoveries had been made by the newly constructed telescopes, +in Galileo's day, there was no absolute proof of the true system of +the heavens. The famous Jesuit astronomer, Father Secchi, says the +reasons adduced by Galileo were no real proofs: they were only certain +analogies, and by no means excluded the possibility of the contrary +propositions with regard to the movements of the heavens being true. +"None of the real proofs for the earth's rotation upon its axis were +known at the time of Galileo, nor were there direct conclusive +arguments for the earth's moving around the sun." Even Galileo himself +confessed that he had not any strict demonstration of his views, such +as Cardinal Bellarmine requested. He wrote to the Cardinal, "The +system seems to be true;" and he gave as a reason that it corresponded +to the phenomena. + +According to the astronomers of the time, however, the old Ptolemaic +system, in the shape in which it was explained by the Danish +astronomer Tycho Brahe, who was acknowledged as the greatest of +European astronomers, appeared to give quite a satisfactory +explanation of the {35} phenomena observed. The English philosopher, +Lord Bacon, more than a decade after Galileo's announcement, +considered that there were certain phenomena in nature contrary to the +Copernican theory, and so he rejected it altogether. This was within a +few years of the condemnation by the Congregation at Rome. As pointed +out by Father Heinzle, S.J., in his article on Galileo in the +"Catholic World" for 1887, "science was so far from determining the +question of the truth or falsity of either the Ptolemaic or the +Copernican system that shortly before 1633, the year of Galileo's +condemnation, a number of savants, such as Fromond in Louvain, Morin +in Paris, Berigard in Pisa, Bartolinus in Copenhagen, and Scheiner in +Rome, wrote against Copernicanism." + +As we have said, Copernicus's book was not condemned unconditionally +by the Roman authorities, but only until it should be corrected. This +assured protection to the principal part of the work, and the warning +issued by the Roman Congregation in the year 1820 particularizes the +details that had to be corrected. It is interesting to note that +whenever Copernicus is spoken of in this Monitum it is always in +flattering terms as a "noble astrologer"--the word astrologer having +at that time no unworthy meaning. The whole work is praised and its +scientific quality acknowledged. + +The passages requiring correction were not many. In the first book, at +the beginning of the {36} fifth chapter, Copernicus made the +declaration that "the immobility of the earth was not a decided +question, but was still open to discussion." In place of these words +it was suggested that the following should be inserted: "In order to +explain the apparent motions of the celestial bodies, it is a matter +of indifference whether we admit that the earth occupies a place in +the middle of the heavens or not." + +In the eighth chapter of the first book, Copernicus said: "Why, then, +this repugnance to concede to our globe its own movement as natural to +it as is its spherical form? Why prefer to make the whole heavens +revolve around it, with the great danger of disturbance that would +result, instead of explaining all these apparent movements of the +heavenly bodies by the real rotation of the earth, according to the +words of AEneas, 'We are carried from the port, and the land and the +cities recede'?" This passage was to be modified as follows: "Why not, +then, admit a certain mobility of the earth corresponding to its form, +since the whole universe of which we know the bounds is moved, +producing appearances which recall to the mind the well-known saying +of AEneas in Virgil, 'The land and the cities recede'?" + +Toward the end of the same chapter Copernicus, continuing the same +train of thought, says: "I do not fear to add that it is incomparably +more unreasonable to make the immense vault of the heavens revolve +than to admit the {37} revolution of our little terrestrial globe." +This passage was to be modified as follows: "In one case as well as in +the other--that is, whether we admit the rotation of the earth or that +of the heavenly spheres--we encounter the same difficulties." + +The ninth chapter of the first book begins with these words: "There +being no difficulty in admitting, then, the mobility of the earth, let +us proceed to see whether it has one or a number of movements, and +whether, therefore, our earth is a simple planet like the other +planets." The following words were to be substituted: "Supposing, +then, that the earth does move, it is necessary to examine whether +this movement is multiple or not." + +Toward the middle of the tenth chapter Copernicus declares: "I do not +hesitate to defend the proposition that the earth, accompanied by the +moon, moves around the sun;" while the wording of this proposition had +to be changed so as to substitute the term "admit" for "defend." The +title of the eleventh chapter, "Demonstration of the Triple Movement +of the Earth," was modified to read as follows: "The Hypothesis of the +Triple Movement of the Earth, and the Reasons Therefor." The title of +the twentieth chapter of the fourth book originally read: "On the Size +of the Three Stars [_Sidera_], the sun, the moon, and the earth." The +word "stars" was removed from this title, the earth not being +considered as a star. The concluding words of {38} the tenth chapter +of the first book, "So great is the magnificent work of the Omnipotent +Artificer," had to be cancelled, because they expressed an assurance +of the truth of his system not warranted by knowledge. With these few +unimportant changes, any one might read and study Copernicus's work +with perfect freedom. + +Traditions to the contrary notwithstanding, Galileo, because of the +friendship and encouragement of the churchmen in Italy, had been +placed in conditions eminently suited for study and investigation. +Several popes and a number of prominent ecclesiastics were his +constant friends and patrons. The perpetual secretary of the Paris +Academy of Sciences, M. Bertrand, himself a great mathematician and +historian, declares that the long life of Galileo was one of the most +enviable that is recorded in the history of science. "The tale of his +misfortunes has confirmed the triumph of the truth for which he +suffered. Let us tell the whole truth. This great lesson was learned +without any profound sorrow to Galileo; and his long life, considered +as a whole, was one of the most serene and enviable in the history of +science." + +Copernicus, like Galileo, had clerical friends to thank for an +environment that proved the greatest possible aid to his scientific +work. His position as Canon of the Cathedral of Frauenburg provided +him with learned leisure, while his clerical friends took just enough +interest in his investigations and the preliminary {39} announcements +of his discoveries to make his pursuit of astronomical studies to some +definite conclusion a worthy aim in life. It was this assistance that +enabled him to publish his book eventually and bring his great theory +before the world. + +Copernicus, far from having any leanings toward the so-called "reform" +movement (as has often been asserted), was evidently a staunch +supporter of his friend and patron Bishop Maurice Ferber, of Ermland, +who kept his see loyal to Rome at a time when the secularization of +the Teutonic order and the falling away of many bishops all around him +make his position as a faithful son of the Church and that of his +diocese noteworthy in the history of that time and place. It may well +be said that under less favorable conditions Copernicus's work might +never have been finished. As it was, his book met with great +opposition from the Reformers, but remained absolutely acceptable even +to the most rigorous churchmen until Galileo's unfortunate insistence +on the points of it that were opposed to generally accepted theories. + +During all his long life Copernicus remained one of the simplest of +men. Genius as he was, he could not have failed to realize how great +was the significance of the discoveries he had made in astronomy. In +spite of this he continued to exercise during a long career the simple +duties of his post as Canon of the Cathedral of Frauenberg, nor did he +fail to give such time as was asked of him for the medical treatment +of the {40} poor or of his friends, the ecclesiastics of the +neighborhood. These duties--as he seems to have considered them--must +have taken many precious hours from his studies, but they were given +unstintingly. When he came to die, his humility was even more +prominent than during life. It was at his own request that there was +graven upon his tombstone simply the prayer, "I ask not the grace +accorded to Paul, not that given to Peter: give me only the favor Thou +didst show to the thief on the cross." There is perhaps no better +example in all the world of the simplicity of true genius nor any +better example of how sublimely religious may be the soul that has far +transcended the bounds of the scientific knowledge of its own day. + +The greatness of Copernicus's life-work can best be realized from the +extent to which he surpassed even well-known contemporaries in +astronomy and from his practical anticipation of the opinions of some +of his greatest successors. Even Tycho Brahe, important though he is +in the history of astronomical science, taught many years after +Copernicus's death the doctrine that the earth is the center of the +universe. Newton had in Copernicus a precursor who divined the theory +of universal gravitation; and even Kepler's great laws, especially the +elliptical form of the orbits of the planets, are at least hinted at +in Copernicus's writings. He is certainly one of the most original +geniuses of all times; and it is interesting to find that the +completeness of his {41} scholarly career, far from being rendered +abortive by friction with ecclesiastical superiors, as we might +imagine probable from the traditions that hang around his name, was +rather made possible by the sympathy and encouragement of clerical +friends and Church authorities. Copernicus, the scholar, astronomer, +physician, and clergyman, is a type of the eve of the Reformation +period, and his life is the best possible refutation of the slanders +with regard to the unprogressiveness of the Church and churchmen of +that epoch which have unfortunately been only too common in the +histories of the time. + +{42} + +{43} + +III. + +BASIL VALENTINE, FOUNDER OF MODERN CHEMISTRY. + +{44} + +Let us, then, banish into the world of fiction that affirmation so +long repeated by foolish credulity which made monasteries an asylum +for indolence and incapacity, for misanthropy and pusillanimity, for +feeble and melancholic temperaments, and for men who were no longer +fit to serve society in the world. Monasteries were never intended to +collect the invalids of the world. It was not the sick souls, but on +the contrary the most vigorous and healthful the human race has ever +produced, who presented themselves in crowds to fill +them.--MONTALEMBERT, _Monks of the West_. + +{45} + +III. + +BASIL VALENTINE, FOUNDER OF MODERN CHEMISTRY. + +The Protestant tradition which presumes a priori that no good can +possibly have come out of the Nazareth of the times before the +Reformation, and especially the immediately preceding century, has +served to obscure to an unfortunate degree the history of several +hundred years extremely important in every department of education. +Strange as it may seem to those unfamiliar with the period, it is in +that department which is supposed to be so typically modern +the--physical sciences--that this neglect is most serious. Such a hold +has this Protestant tradition on even educated minds that it is a +source of great surprise to most people to be told that there were in +many parts of Europe original observers in the physical sciences all +during the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth centuries who were +doing ground-breaking work of the highest value, work that was +destined to mean much for the development of modern science. +Speculations and experiments with regard to the philosopher's stone +and the transmutation of metals are supposed to fill up all the +interests of the alchemists of those days. As a matter of fact, +however, men were making original observations of very {46} profound +significance, and these were considered so valuable by their +contemporaries that, though printing had not yet been invented, even +the immense labor involved in copying large folio volumes by hand did +not suffice to deter them from multiplying the writings of these men +and thus preserving them for future generations, until the +printing-press came to perpetuate them. + +At the beginning of the twentieth century, with some of the supposed +foundations of modern chemistry crumbling to pieces under the +influences of the peculiarly active light thrown upon older chemical +theories by the discovery of radium and the radio-active elements +generally, there is a reawakening of interest in some of the old-time +chemical observers whose work used to be laughed at as so unscientific +and whose theory of the transmutation of elements into one another was +considered so absurd. The idea that it would be impossible under any +circumstances to convert one element into another belongs entirely to +the nineteenth century. Even so distinguished a mind as that of +Newton, in the preceding century, could not bring itself to +acknowledge the modern supposition of the absurdity of metallic +transformation, but, on the contrary, believed very firmly in this as +a basic chemical principle and confessed that it might be expected to +occur at any time. He had seen specimens of gold ores in connexion +with metallic copper, and had concluded that this was a manifestation +of the natural transformation of one of these yellow metals into the +other. + +{47} + +With the discovery that radium transforms itself into helium, and that +indeed all the so-called radio-activities of the very heavy metals are +probably due to a natural transmutation process constantly at work, +the ideas of the older chemists cease entirely to be a subject for +amusement. The physical chemists of the present day are very ready to +admit that the old teaching of the absolute independence of something +over seventy elements is no longer tenable, except as a working +hypothesis. The doctrine of matter and form taught for so many +centuries by the scholastic philosophers which proclaimed that all +matter is composed of two principles, an underlying material +substratum and a dynamic or informing principle, has now more +acknowledged verisimilitude, or lies at least closer to the generally +accepted ideas of the most progressive scientists, than it has at any +time for the last two or three centuries. Not only the great +physicists, but also the great chemists, are speculating along lines +that suggest the existence of but one form of matter, modified +according to the energies that it possesses under a varying physical +and chemical environment. This is, after all, only a restatement in +modern terms of the teaching of St. Thomas of Aquin in the thirteenth +century. + +It is not surprising, then, that there should be a reawakening of +interest in the lives of some of the men who, dominated by the earlier +scholastic ideas and by the tradition of the possibility of finding +the philosopher's stone, which would {48} transmute the baser metals +into the precious metals, devoted themselves with quite as much zeal +as any modern chemist to the observation of chemical phenomena. One of +the most interesting of these--indeed he might well be said to be the +greatest of the alchemists--is the man whose only name that we know is +that which appears on a series of manuscripts written in the High +German dialect of the end of the fifteenth and the beginning of the +sixteenth century. That name is Basil Valentine, and the writer, +according to the best historical traditions, was a Benedictine monk. +The name Basil Valentine may only have been a pseudonym, for it has +been impossible to trace it among the records of the monasteries of +the time. That the writer was a monk there seems to be no doubt, for +his writings in manuscript and printed form began to have their vogue +at a time when there was little likelihood of their being attributed +to a monk unless an indubitable tradition connected them with some +monastery. + +This Basil Valentine (to accept the only name we have), as we can +judge very well from his writings, eminently deserves the designation +of the last of the alchemists and the first of the chemists. There is +practically a universal recognition of the fact now that he deserves +also the title of Founder of Modern Chemistry, not only because of the +value of the observations contained in his writings, but also because +of the fact that they proved so suggestive to certain {49} scientific +geniuses during the century succeeding Valentine's life. Almost more +than to have added to the precious heritage of knowledge for mankind +is it a boon for a scientific observer to have awakened the spirit of +observation in others and to be the founder of a new school of +thought. This Basil Valentine undoubtedly did. + +Besides, his work furnishes evidence that the investigating spirit was +abroad just when it is usually supposed not to have been, for the +Thuringian monk surely did not do all his investigating alone, but +must have received as well as given many a suggestion to his +contemporaries. + +In the history of education there are two commonplaces that are +appealed to oftener than any other as the sources of material with +regard to the influence of the Catholic Church on education during the +centuries preceding the Reformation. These are the supposed idleness +of the monks, and the foolish belief in the transmutation of metals +and the search for the philosopher's stone which dominated the minds +of so many of the educated men of the time. It is in Germany +especially that these two features of the pre-Reformation period are +supposed to be best illustrated. In recent years, however, there has +come quite a revolution in the feelings even of those outside of the +Church with regard to the proper appreciation of the work of the +monastic scholars of these earlier centuries. Even though some of them +did dream golden dreams over their alembics, the love of knowledge +meant {50} more to them, as to the serious students of any age, than +anything that might be made by it. As for their scientific beliefs, if +there can be a conversion of one element into another, as seems true +of radium, then the possibility of the transmutation of metals is not +so absurd as, for a century or more, it has seemed; and it is not +impossible that at some time even gold may be manufactured out of +other metallic materials. + +Of course, a still worthier change of mind has come over the attitude +of educators because of the growing sense of appreciation for the +wonderful work of the monks of the Middle Ages, and even of those +centuries that are supposed to show least of the influence of these +groups of men who, forgetting material progress, devoted themselves to +the preservation and the cultivation of the things of the spirit. The +impression that would consider the pre-Reformation monks in Germany as +unworthy of their high calling in the great mass is almost entirely +without foundation. Obscure though the lives of most of them were, +many of them rose above their environment in such a way as to make +their work landmarks in the history of progress for all time. + +Because their discoveries are buried in the old Latin folios that are +contained only in the best libraries, not often consulted by the +modern scientist, it is usually thought that the scientific +investigators of these centuries before the Reformation did no work +that would be worth while considering in our present day. It is only +some {51} one who goes into this matter as a labor of love who will +consider it worth his while to take the trouble seriously to consult +these musty old tomes. Many a scholar, however, has found his labor +well rewarded by the discovery of many an anticipation of modern +science in these volumes so much neglected and where such +treasure-trove is least expected. Professor Clifford Allbutt, the +Regius Professor of physics at the University of Cambridge, in his +address on "The Historical Relations of Medicine and Surgery Down to +the End of the Sixteenth Century," which was delivered at the St. +Louis Congress of Arts and Sciences during the Exposition in 1904, has +shown how much that is supposed to be distinctly modern in medicine, +and above all in surgery, was the subject of discussion at the French +and Italian universities of the thirteenth century. William Salicet, +for instance, who taught at the University of Bologna, published a +large series of case histories, substituted the knife for the Arabic +use of the cautery, described the danger of wounds of the neck, +investigated the causes of the failure of healing by first intention, +and sutured divided nerves. His pupil, Lanfranc, who taught later at +the University of Paris, went farther than his master by +distinguishing between venous and arterial hemorrhage, requiring +digital compression for an hour to stop hemorrhage from the _venae +pulsatiles_--the pulsating veins, as they were called--and if this +failed because of the size of the vessel, {52} suggesting the +application of a ligature. Lanfranc's chapter on injuries to the head +still remains a noteworthy book in surgery that establishes beyond a +doubt how thoughtfully practical were these teachers in the medieval +universities. It must be remembered that at this time all the teachers +in universities, even those in the medical schools as well as those +occupied with surgery, were clerics. Professor Allbutt calls attention +over and over again to this fact, because it emphasizes the +thoroughness of educational methods, in spite of the supposed +difficulties that would lie in the way of an exclusively clerical +teaching staff. + +In chemistry the advances made during the thirteenth, fourteenth, and +fifteenth centuries were even more noteworthy than those in any other +department of science. Albertus Magnus, who taught at Paris, wrote no +less than sixteen treatises on chemical subjects, and, notwithstanding +the fact that he was a theologian as well as a scientist and that his +printed works filled sixteen folio volumes, he somehow found the time +to make many observations for himself and performed numberless +experiments in order to clear up doubts. The larger histories of +chemistry accord him his proper place and hail him as a great founder +in chemistry and a pioneer in original investigation. + +Even St. Thomas of Aquin, much as he was occupied with theology and +philosophy, found some time to devote to chemical questions. After +{53} all, this is only what might have been expected of the favorite +pupil of Albertus Magnus. Three treatises on chemical subjects from +Aquinas's pen have been preserved for us, and it is to him that we are +said to owe the origin of the word amalgam, which he first used in +describing various chemical methods of metallic combination with +mercury that were discovered in the search for the genuine +transmutation of metals. + +Albertus Magnus's other great scientific pupil, Roger Bacon, the +English Franciscan friar, followed more closely in the physical +scientific ways of his great master. Altogether he wrote some eighteen +treatises on chemical subjects. For a long time it was considered that +he was the inventor of gunpowder, though this is now known to have +been introduced into Europe by the Arabs. Roger Bacon studied +gunpowder and various other explosive combinations in considerable +detail, and it is for this reason that he obtained the undeserved +reputation of being an original discoverer in this line. How well he +realized how much might be accomplished by means of the energy stored +up in explosives can perhaps be best appreciated from the fact that he +suggested that boats would go along the rivers and across the seas +without either sails or oars and that carriages would go along the +streets without horse or man power. He considered that man would +eventually invent a method of harnessing these explosive mixtures and +of utilizing their energies for his purposes without {54} danger. It +is curiously interesting to find, as we begin the twentieth century, +and gasolene is so commonly used for the driving of automobiles and +motor boats and is being introduced even on railroad cars in the West +as the most available source of energy for suburban traffic, that this +generation should only be fulfilling the idea of the old Franciscan +friar of the thirteenth century, who prophesied that in explosives +there was the secret of eventually manageable energy for +transportation purposes. + +Succeeding centuries were not as fruitful in great scientists as the +thirteenth, and yet at the beginning of the fourteenth there was a +pope, three of whose scientific treatises--one on the transmutation of +metals, which he considers an impossibility, at least as far as the +manufacture of gold and silver was concerned; a treatise on diseases +of the eyes, of which Professor Allbutt [Footnote 4] says that it was +not without its distinctive practical value, though compiled so early +in the history of eye surgery; and, finally, his treatise on the +preservation of the health, written when he was himself over eighty +years of age--are all considered by good authorities as worthy of the +best scientific spirit of the time. This pope was John XXII, of whom +it has been said over and over again by Protestant historians that he +issued a bull forbidding chemistry, though he was himself one of the +enthusiastic students of chemistry {55} in his younger years and +always retained his interest in the science. [Footnote 5] + + [Footnote 4: Address cited] + + [Footnote 5: For the refutation of this calumny with regard to John + XXII, see "Pope John XXII and the supposed Bull forbidding + Chemistry," by James J. Walsh, Ph. D., LL. D., in the _Medical + Library and Historical Journal_, October, 1905.] + +During the fourteenth century Arnold of Villanova, the inventor of +nitric acid, and the two Hollanduses kept up the tradition of original +investigation in chemistry. Altogether there are some dozen treatises +from these three men on chemical subjects. The Hollanduses +particularly did their work in a spirit of thoroughly frank, original +investigation. They were more interested in minerals than in any other +class of substances, but did not waste much time on the question of +transmutation of metals. Professor Thompson, the professor of +chemistry at Edinburgh, said in his history of chemistry many years +ago that the Hollanduses have very clear descriptions of their +processes of treating minerals in investigating their composition, +which serve to show that their knowledge was by no means entirely +theoretical or acquired only from books or by argumentation. + +Before the end of this fourteenth century, according to the best +authorities on this subject, Basil Valentine, the more particular +subject of our essay, was born. + +Valentine's career is a typical example of the personally obscure but +intellectually brilliant lives {56} which these old monks lived. It +seems probable, according to the best authorities, as we have said, +that his work began shortly before the middle of the fifteenth +century, although most of what was important in it was accomplished +during the second half. It would not be so surprising, as most people +who have been brought up to consider the period just before the +Reformation in Germany as wanting in progressive scholars might +imagine, for a supremely great original investigator to have existed +in North Germany about this time. After all, before the end of the +century, Copernicus, the Pole, working in northern Germany, had +announced his theory that the earth was not the center of the +universe, and had set forth all that this announcement meant. To a +bishop-friend who said to him, "But this means that you are giving us +a new universe," he replied that the universe was already there, but +his theory would lead men to recognize its existence. In southern +Germany, Thomas a Kempis, who died in 1471, had traced for man the +outlines of another universe, that of his own soul, from its +mystically practical side. These great Germans were only the worthy +contemporaries of many other German scholars scarcely less +distinguished than these supreme geniuses. The second half of the +fifteenth century, the beginning of the Renaissance in Germany as well +as Italy, is that wonderful time in history when somehow men's eyes +were opened to see farther and their minds broadened to gather in more +of the truth of {57} man's relation to the universe, than had ever +before been the case in all the centuries of human existence, or than +has ever been possible even in these more modern centuries, though +supposedly we are the heirs of all the ages in the foremost files of +time. + +Coming as he did before printing, when the spirit of tradition was +even more rife and dominating than it has been since, it is almost +needless to say that there are many curious legends associated with +the name of Basil Valentine. Two centuries before his time, Roger +Bacon, doing his work in England, had succeeded in attracting so much +attention even from the common people, because of his wonderful +scientific discoveries, that his name became a by-word and many +strange magical feats were attributed to him. Friar Bacon was the +great wizard even in the plays of the Elizabethan period. A number of +the same sort of myths attached themselves to the Benedictine monk of +the fifteenth century. He was proclaimed in popular story to have been +a wonderful magician. Even his manuscript, it was said, had not been +published directly, but had been hidden in a pillar in the church +attached to the monastery and had been discovered there after the +splitting open of the pillar by a bolt of lightning from heaven. It is +the extension of this tradition that has sometimes led to the +assumption that Valentine lived in an earlier century, some even going +so far as to say that he, too, like Roger Bacon, was a product of the +{58} thirteenth century. It seems reasonably possible, however, to +separate the traditional from what is actual in his existence, and +thus to obtain some idea at least of his work, if not of the details +of his life. The internal evidence from his works enable the historian +of science to place him within a half century of the discovery of +America. + +One of the stories told with regard to Basil Valentine, because it has +become a commonplace in philology, has made him more generally known +than any of his actual discoveries. In one of the most popular of the +old-fashioned text-books of chemistry in use a quarter of a century +ago, in the chapter on Antimony, there was a story that I suppose +students never forgot. It was said that Basil Valentine, a monk of the +Middle Ages, was the discoverer of this substance. After having +experimented with it in a number of ways, he threw some of it out of +his laboratory one day, where the swine of the monastery, finding it, +proceeded to gobble it up together with some other refuse. He watched +the effect upon the swine very carefully, and found that, after a +preliminary period of digestive disturbance, these swine developed an +enormous appetite and became fatter than any of the others. This +seemed a rather desirable result, and Basil Valentine, ever on the +search for the practical, thought that he might use the remedy to good +purpose even on the members of the community. + +Now, some of the monks in the monastery were of rather frail health +and delicate constitution, {59} and he thought that the putting on of +a little fat in their case might be a good thing. Accordingly he +administered, surreptitiously, some of the salts of antimony, with +which he was experimenting, in the food served to these monks. The +result, however, was not so favorable as in the case of the hogs. +Indeed, according to one, though less authentic, version of the story, +some of the poor monks, the unconscious subjects of the experiment, +even perished as the result of the ingestion of the antimonial +compounds. According to the better version they suffered only the +usual unpleasant consequences of taking antimony, which are, however, +quite enough for a fitting climax to the story. Basil Valentine called +the new substance which he had discovered antimony, that is, opposed +to monks. It might be good for hogs, but it was a form of monks' bane, +as it were. [Footnote 6] + + [Footnote 6: It is curious to trace how old are the traditions on + which some of these old stories that must now be rejected, are + founded. I have come upon the story with regard to Basil Valentine + and the antimony and the monks in an old French medical encyclopedia + of biography, published in the seventeenth century, and at that time + there was no doubt at all expressed as to its truth. How much older + than this it may be I do not know, though it is probable that it + comes from the sixteenth century, when the _kakoethes scribendi_ + attacked many people because of the facility of printing, and when + most of the good stories that have so worried the modern dry-as-dust + historian in his researches for their correction became a part of + the body of supposed historical tradition.] + +{60} + +Unfortunately for most of the good stories of history, modern +criticism has nearly always failed to find any authentic basis for +them, and they have had to go the way of the legends of Washington's +hatchet and Tell's apple. We are sorry to say that that seems to be +true also of this particular story. Antimony, the word, is very +probably derived from certain dialectic forms of the Greek word for +the metal, and the name is no more derived from _anti_ and _monachus_ +than it is from _anti_ and _monos_ (opposed to single existence), +another fictitious derivation that has been suggested, and one whose +etymological value is supposed to consist in the fact that antimony is +practically never found alone in nature. + +Notwithstanding the apparent cloud of unfounded traditions that are +associated with his name, there can be no doubt at all of the fact +that Valentinus--to give him the Latin name by which he is commonly +designated in foreign literatures--was one of the great geniuses who, +working in obscurity, make precious steps into the unknown that enable +humanity after them to see things more clearly than ever before. There +are definite historical grounds for placing Basil Valentine as the +first of the series of careful observers who differentiated chemistry +from the old alchemy and applied its precious treasures of information +to the uses of medicine. It was because of the study of Basil +Valentine's work that Paracelsus broke away from the Galenic +traditions, so supreme in medicine up to his time, {61} and began our +modern pharmaceutics. Following on the heels of Paracelsus came Van +Helmont, the father of modern medical chemistry, and these three did +more than any others to enlarge the scope of medication and to make +observation rather than authority the most important criterion of +truth in medicine. Indeed, the work of these three men dominated +medicine, or at least the department of pharmaceutics, down almost to +our own day, and their influence is still felt in drug-giving. + +While we do not know the absolute date of either the birth or the +death of Basil Valentine and are not sure even of the exact period in +which he lived and did his work, we are sure that a great original +observer about the time of the invention of printing studied mercury +and sulphur and various salts, and above all, introduced antimony to +the notice of the scientific world, and especially to the favor of +practitioners of medicine. His book, "The Triumphal Chariot of +Antimony," is full of conclusions not quite justified by his premises +nor by his observations. There is no doubt, however, that the +observational methods which he employed did give an immense amount of +knowledge and formed the basis of the method of investigation by which +the chemical side of medicine was to develop during the next two or +three centuries. Great harm was done by the abuse of antimony, but +then great harm is done by the abuse of anything, no matter how good +it may be. For a {62} time it came to be the most important drug in +medicine and was only replaced by venesection. + +The fact of the matter is that doctors were looking for effects from +their drugs, and antimony is, above all things, effective. Patients, +too, wished to see the effect of the medicines they took. They do so +even yet, and when antimony was administered there was no doubt about +its working. + +Some five years ago, when Sir Michael Foster, M.D., professor of +physiology in the University of Cambridge, England, was invited to +deliver the Lane lectures at the Cooper Medical College, in San +Francisco, he took for his subject "The History of Physiology." In the +course of his lecture on "The Rise of Chemical Physiology" he began +with the name of Basil Valentine, who first attracted men's attention +to the many chemical substances around them that might be used in the +treatment of disease, and said of him:-- + + He was one of the alchemists, but in addition to his inquiries into + the properties of metals and his search for the philosopher's stone, + he busied himself with the nature of drugs, vegetable and mineral, + and with their action as remedies for disease. He was no anatomist, + no physiologist, but rather what nowadays we should call a + pharmacologist. He did not care for the problem of the body, all he + sought to understand was how the constituents of the soil and of + plants might be treated so as to be available for healing the sick + and how they produced their effects. We apparently owe to him the + introduction of many chemical substances, for instance, of {63} + hydrochloric acid, which he prepared from oil of vitriol and salt, + and of many vegetable drugs. And he was apparently the author of + certain conceptions which, as we shall see, played an important part + in the development of chemistry and of physiology. To him, it seems, + we owe the idea of the three "elements," as they were and have been + called, replacing the old idea of the ancients of the four + elements--earth, air, fire, and water. It must be remembered, + however, that both in the ancient and in the new idea the word + "element" was not intended to mean that which it means to us now, a + fundamental unit of matter, but a general quality or property of + matter. The three elements of Valentine were (1) sulphur, or that + which is combustible, which is changed or destroyed, or which at all + events disappears during burning or combustion; (2) mercury, that + which temporarily disappears during burning or combustion, which is + dissociated in the burning from the body burnt, but which may be + recovered, that is to say, that which is volatile, and (3) salt, + that which is fixed, the residue or ash which remains after burning. + + +The most interesting of Basil Valentine's books, and the one which has +had the most enduring influence, is undoubtedly "The Triumphal Chariot +of Antimony." It has been translated and has had a wide vogue in every +language of modern Europe. Its recommendation of antimony had such an +effect upon medical practice that it continued to be the most +important drug in the pharmacopoeia down almost to the middle of the +nineteenth century. If any proof were needed that Basil Valentine or +that the author of the books that go under that name was a monk, it +would be found in the {64} introduction to this volume, which not only +states that fact very clearly, but also in doing so makes use of +language that shows the writer to have been deeply imbued with the old +monastic spirit. I quote the first paragraph of this introduction in +order to make clear what I mean. The quotation is taken from the +English translation of the work as published in London in 1678. +Curiously enough, seeing the obscurity surrounding Valentine himself, +we do not know for sure who made the translation. The translator +apologizes somewhat for the deeply religious spirit of the book, but +considers that he was not justified in eliminating any of this. Of +course, the translation is left in the quaint old-fashioned form so +eminently suited to the thoughts of the old master, and the spelling +and use of capitals is not changed: + + Basil Valentine--His Triumphant Chariot of Antimony Since I, Basil + Valentine, by Religious Vows am bound to live according to the Order + of St. Benedict, and that requires another manner of spirit of + Holiness than the common state of Mortals exercised in the profane + business of this World; I thought it my duty before all things, in + the beginning of this little book, to declare what is necessary to + be known by the pious Spagyrist [old-time name for medical chemist], + inflamed with an ardent desire of this Art, as what he ought to do, + and whereunto to direct his aim, that he may lay such foundations of + the whole matter as may be stable; lest his Building, shaken with + the Winds, happen to fall, and the whole Edifice to be involved in + shameful Ruine, {65} which otherwise, being founded on more firm and + solid principles, might have continued for a long series of time + Which Admonition I judged was, is and always will be a necessary + part of my Religious Office; especially since we must all die, and + no one of us which are now, whether high or low, shall long be seen + among the number of men For it concerns me to recommend these + Meditations of Mortality to Posterity, leaving them behind me, not + only that honor may be given to the Divine Majesty, but also that + Men may obey him sincerely in all things. + + In this my Meditation I found that there were five principal heads, + chiefly to be considered by the wise and prudent spectators of our + Wisdom and Art. The first of which is, Invocation of God. The + second, Contemplation of Nature The third, True Preparation. The + fourth, the Way of Using. The fifth, Utility and Fruit. For he who + regards not these, shall never obtain place among true Chymists, or + fill up the number of perfect Spagyrists. Therefore, touching these + five heads, we shall here following treat and so far declare them, + as that the general Work may be brought to light and perfected by an + intent and studious Operator. + +This book, though the title might seem to indicate it, is not devoted +entirely to the study of antimony, but contains many important +additions to the chemistry of the time. For instance, Basil Valentine +explains in this work how what he calls the spirit of salt might be +obtained. He succeeded in manufacturing this material by treating +common salt with oil of vitriol and heat. From the description of the +uses to which he put the end product of his chemical manipulation, it +is evident that under the name of spirit of salt {66} he is describing +what we now know as hydrochloric acid. This is the first definite +mention of it in the history of science, and the method suggested for +its preparation is not very different from that employed even at the +present time. He also suggests in this volume how alcohol may be +obtained in high strengths. He distilled the spirit obtained from wine +over carbonate of potassium, and thus succeeded in depriving it of a +great proportion of its water. + +We have said that he was deeply interested in the philosopher's stone. +Naturally this turned his attention to the study of metals, and so it +is not surprising to find that he succeeded in formulating a method by +which metallic copper could be obtained. The substance used for the +purpose was copper pyrites, which was changed to an impure sulphate of +copper by the action of oil of vitriol and moist air. The sulphate of +copper occurred in solution, and the copper could be precipitated from +it by plunging an iron bar into it. Basil Valentine recognized the +presence of this peculiar yellow metal and studied some of its +qualities. He does not seem to have been quite sure, however, whether +the phenomenon that he witnessed was not really a transmutation of the +iron into copper, as a consequence of the other chemicals present. + +There are some observations on chemical physiology, and especially +with regard to respiration, in the book on antimony which show their +author to have anticipated the true explanation of the {67} theory of +respiration. He states that animals breathe, because the air is needed +to support their life, and that all the animals exhibit the phenomenon +of respiration. He even insists that the fishes, though living in +water, breathe air, and he adduces in support of this idea the fact +that whenever a river is entirely frozen the fishes die. The reason +for this being, according to this old-time physiologist, not that the +fishes are frozen to death, but that they are not able to obtain air +in the ice as they did in the water, and consequently perish. + +There are many testimonies to the practical character of all his +knowledge and his desire to apply it for the benefit of humanity. The +old monk could not repress the expression of his impatience with +physicians who gave to patients for diseases of which they knew +little, remedies of which they knew less. For him it was an +unpardonable sin for a physician not to have faithfully studied the +various mixtures that he prescribed for his patients, and not to know +not only their appearance and taste and effect, but also the limits of +their application. Considering that at the present time it is a +frequent source of complaint that physicians often prescribe remedies +with whose physical appearances they are not familiar, this complaint +of the old-time chemist alchemist will be all the more interesting for +the modern physician. It is evident that when Basil Valentine allows +his ire to get the better of him it is because of his indignation over +the {68} quacks who were abusing medicine and patients in his time, as +they have ever since. There is a curious bit of aspersion on mere +book-learning in the passage that has a distinctly modern ring, and +one feels the truth of Russell Lowell's expression that to read a +great genius, no matter how antique, is like reading a commentary in +the morning paper, so up-to-date does genius ever remain:-- + + And whensoever I shall have occasion to contend in the School with + such a Doctor, who knows not how himself to prepare his own + medicines, but commits that business to another, I am sure I shall + obtain the Palm from him; for indeed that good man knows not what + medicines he prescribes to the sick; whether the color of them be + white, black, grey, or blew, he cannot tell; nor doth this wretched + man know whether the medicine he gives be dry or hot, cold or humid; + but he only knows that he found it so written in his Books, and + thence pretends knowledge (or as it were, Possession) by + Prescription of a very long time; yet he desires to further + Information Here again let it be lawful to exclaim, Good God, to + what a state is the matter brought! what goodness of minde is in + these men! what care do they take of the sick! Wo, wo to them! in + the day of Judgment they will find the fruit of their ignorance and + rashness, then they will see Him whom they pierced, when they + neglected their Neighbor, sought after money and nothing else; + whereas were they cordial in their profession, they would spend + Nights and Days in Labour that they might become more learned in + their Art, whence more certain health would accrew to the sick with + their Estimation and greater glory to themselves. But since Labour + is tedious to them, they commit the {69} matter to chance, and being + secure of their Honour, and content with their Fame, they (like + Brawlers) defend themselves with a certain garrulity, without any + respect had to Confidence or Truth. + +Perhaps one of the reasons why Valentine's book has been of such +enduring interest is that it is written in an eminently human vein and +out of a lively imagination. It is full of figures relating to many +other things besides chemistry, which serve to show how deeply this +investigating observer was attentive to all the problems of life +around him. For instance, when he wants to describe the affinity that +exists between many substances in chemistry, and which makes it +impossible for them not to be attracted to one another, he takes a +figure from the attractions that he sees exist among men and women. +There are some paragraphs with regard to the influence of the passion +of love that one might think rather a quotation from an old-time +sermon than from a great ground-breaking book in the science of +chemistry. + + Love leaves nothing entire or sound in man; it impedes his sleep; he + cannot rest either day or night; it takes off his appetite that he + hath no disposition either to meat or drink by reason of the + continual torments of his heart and mind. It deprives him of all + Providence, hence he neglects his affairs, vocation and business. He + minds neither study, labor nor prayer; casts away all thoughts of + anything but the body beloved; this is his study, this his most vain + occupation. If to lovers the success be not answerable to their + wish, or so soon {70} and prosperously as they desire, how many + melancholies henceforth arise, with griefs and sadnesses, with which + they pine away and wax so lean as they have scarcely any flesh + cleaving to the bones Yea, at last they lose the life itself, as may + be proved by many examples! for such men, (which is an horrible + thing to think of) slight and neglect all perils and detriments, + both of the body and life, and of the soul and eternal salvation + +It is evident that human nature is not different in our sophisticated +twentieth century from that which this observant old monk saw around +him in the fifteenth. He continues:-- + + How many testimonies of this violence which is in love, are daily + found? for it not only inflames the younger sort, but it so far + exaggerates some persons far gone in years as through the burning + heat thereof, they are almost mad Natural diseases are for the most + part governed by the complexion of man and therefore invade some + more fiercely, others more gently; but Love, without distinction of + poor or rich, young or old, seizeth all, and having seized so blinds + them as forgetting all rules of reason, they neither see nor hear + any snare. + +But then the old monk thinks that he has said enough about this +subject and apologizes for his digression in another paragraph that +should remove any lingering doubt there may be with regard to the +genuineness of his monastic character. The personal element in his +confession is so naive and so simply straightforward that instead of +seeming to be the result of conceit, and so repelling the reader, it +rather attracts his {71} kindly feeling for its author. The paragraph +would remind one in certain ways of that personal element that was to +become more popular in literature after Montaigne had made such +extensive use of it. + + But of these enough; for it becomes not a religious man to insist + too long upon these cogitations, or to give place to such a flame in + his heart. Hitherto (without boasting I speak it) I have throughout + the whole course of my life kept myself safe and free from it, and I + pray and invoke God to vouchsafe me his Grace that I may keep holy + and inviolate the faith which I have sworn, and live contented with + my spiritual spouse, the Holy, Catholick Church. For no other reason + have I alleaged these than that I might express the love with which + all tinctures ought to be moved towards metals, if ever they be + admitted by them into true friendship, and by love, which permeates + the inmost parts, be converted into a better state + +The application of the figure at the end of his long digression is +characteristic of the period in which he wrote and to a considerable +extent also of the German literary methods of the time. + +In this volume on the use of antimony there are in most of the +editions certain biographical notes which have sometimes been accepted +as authentic, but oftener rejected. According to these, Basil +Valentine was born in a town in Alsace, on the southern bank of the +Rhine. As a consequence of this, there are several towns that have +laid claim to being his birthplace. M. Jean Reynaud, the distinguished +French {72} philosophical writer of the first half of the nineteenth +century, once said that Basil Valentine, like Ossian and Homer, had +many towns claim him years after his death. He also suggested that, +like those old poets, it was possible that the writings sometimes +attributed to Basil Valentine were really the work not of one man, but +of several individuals. There are, however, many objections to this +theory, the most forceful of which is the internal evidence of the +books themselves and their style and method of treatment. Other +biographic details contained in "The Triumphal Chariot of Antimony" +are undoubtedly more correct. According to them, Basil Valentine +travelled in England and Holland on missions for his Order, and went +through France and Spain on a pilgrimage to St. James of Compostella. + +Besides this work, there is a number of other books of Basil +Valentine's, printed during the first half of the sixteenth century, +that are well-known and copies of which may be found in most of the +important libraries. The United States Surgeon General's Library at +Washington contains several of the works on medical subjects, and the +New York Academy of Medicine Library has some valuable editions of his +works. Some of his other well-known books, each of which is a +good-sized octavo volume, bear the following descriptive titles (I +give them in English, though, as they are usually to be found, they +are in Latin, sixteenth-century {73} translations of the original +German): "The World in Miniature: or, The Mystery of the World and of +Human Medical Science," published at Marburg, 1609;--"The Chemical +Apocalypse: or, The Manifestation of Artificial Chemical Compounds," +published at Erfurt in 1624;--"A Chemico-Philosophic Treatise +Concerning Things Natural and Preternatural, Especially Relating to +the Metals and the Minerals," published at Frankfurt in +1676;--"Haliography: or, The Science of Salts: A Treatise on the +Preparation, Use and Chemical Properties of All the Mineral, Animal +and Vegetable Salts," published at Bologna in 1644;--"The Twelve Keys +of Philosophy," Leipsic, 1630. + +The great interest manifested in Basil Valentine's work at the +Renaissance period can be best realized from the number of manuscript +copies and their wide distribution. His books were not all printed at +one place, but, on the contrary, in different portions of Europe. The +original edition of "The Triumphal Chariot of Antimony" was published +at Leipsic in the early part of the sixteenth century. The first +editions of the other books, however, appeared at places so distant +from Leipsic as Amsterdam and Bologna, while various cities of +Germany, as Erfurt and Frankfurt, claim the original editions of still +other works. Many of the manuscript copies still exist in various +libraries in Europe; and while there is no doubt that some unimportant +additions to the supposed works of Basil Valentine have come {74} from +the attribution to him of scientific treatises of other German +writers, the style and the method of the principal works mentioned are +entirely too similar not to have been the fruit of a single mind and +that possessed of a distinct investigating genius setting it far above +any of its contemporaries in scientific speculation and observation. + +The most interesting feature of all of Basil Valentine's writings that +are extant is the distinctive tendency to make his observations of +special practical utility. His studies in antimony were made mainly +with the idea of showing how that substance might be used in medicine. +He did not neglect to point out other possible uses, however, and knew +the secret of the employment of antimony in order to give sharpness +and definition to the impression produced by metal types. It would +seem as though he was the first scientist who discussed this subject, +and there is even some question whether printers and type founders did +not derive their ideas in this matter from Basil Valentine, rather +than he from them. Interested as he was in the transmutation of +metals, he never failed to try to find and suggest some medicinal use +for all of the substances that he investigated. His was no greedy +search for gold and no accumulation of investigations with the idea of +benefiting only himself. Mankind was always in his mind, and perhaps +there is no better demonstration of his fulfilment of the character of +the monk than this constant {75} solicitude to benefit others by every +bit of investigation that he carried out. For him with medieval +nobleness of spirit the first part of every work must be the +invocation of God, and the last, though no less important than the +first, must be the utility and fruit for mankind that can be derived +from it. + +{76} + +{77} + +IV. + +LINACRE: SCHOLAR, PHYSICIAN, PRIEST. + + +{78} + +Linacre, as Dr. Payne remarks, "was possessed from his youth till his +death by the enthusiasm of learning. He was an idealist devoted to +objects which the world thought of little use." Painstaking, accurate, +critical, hypercritical perhaps, he remains to-day the chief literary +representative of British Medicine. Neither in Britain nor in Greater +Britain have we maintained the place in the world of letters created +for us by Linacre's noble start. Quoted by Osler in _AEquanimitas_. + + + +[Illustration: THOMAS LINACRE] + + +{79} + +IV. + +LINACRE: SCHOLAR, PHYSICIAN, PRIEST. + +Not long ago, in one of his piquant little essays, Mr. Augustine +Birrell discussed the question as to what really happened at the time +of the so-called Reformation in England. There is much more doubt with +regard to this matter, even in the minds of non-Catholics, than is +usually suspected. Mr. Birrell seems to have considered it one of the +most important problems, and at the same time not by any means the +least intricate one, in modern English history. The so-called High +Church people emphatically insist that there is no break in the +continuity of the Church of England, and that the modern Anglicanism +is a direct descendant of the old British Church. They reject with +scorn the idea that it was the Lutheran movement on the Continent +which brought about the changes in the Anglican Church at that time. +Protestantism did not come into England for a considerable period +after the change in the constitution of the Anglican Church, and when +it did come its tendencies were quite as subversal of the authority of +the Anglican as of the Roman Church, Protestantism is the mother of +Nonconformism in England. It can be seen, then, that the question as +to what did really take place in the time {80} of Henry VIII and of +Edward VI is still open. It has seemed to me that no little light on +this vexed historical question will be thrown by a careful study of +the life of Dr. Linacre, who, besides being the best known physician +of his time in England, was the greatest scholar of the English +Renaissance period, yet had all his life been on very intimate terms +with the ecclesiastical authorities, and eventually gave up his +honors, his fortune, and his profession to become a simple priest of +the old English Church. + +Considering the usually accepted notions as to the sad state of +affairs supposed to exist in the Church at the beginning of the +sixteenth century, this is a very remarkable occurrence, and deserves +careful study to determine its complete significance, for it tells +better than anything else the opinion of a distinguished contemporary. +Few men have ever been more highly thought of by their own generation. +None has been more sincerely respected by intimate friends, who were +themselves the leaders of the thought of their generation, than Thomas +Linacre, scholar, physician and priest; and his action must stand as +the highest possible tribute to the Church in England at that time. + +How unimpaired his practical judgment of men and affairs was at the +time he made his change from royal physician to simple priest can best +be gathered from the sagacity displayed in the foundation of the Royal +College of Physicians, an institution he was endowing with the {81} +wealth he had accumulated in some twenty years of most lucrative +medical practice. The Royal College of Physicians represents the first +attempt to secure the regulation of the practice of medicine in +England, and, thanks to its founder's wonderful foresight and +practical wisdom, it remains down to our own day, under its original +constitution, one of the most effective and highly honored of British +scientific foundations. No distinction is more sought at the present +time by young British medical men, or by American or even Continental +graduates in medicine, than the privilege of adding to their names the +letters "F.R.C.P.(Eng.)," Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of +England. The College worked the reformation of medical practice in +England, and its methods have proved the suggestive formulae for many +another such institution and for laws that all over the world protect, +to some extent at least, the public from quacks and charlatans. + +Linacre's change of profession at the end of his life has been a +fruitful source of conjecture and misconception on the part of his +biographers. Few of them seem to be able to appreciate the fact, +common enough in the history of the Church, that a man may, even when +well on in years, give up everything to which his life has been so far +directed, and from a sense of duty devote himself entirely to the +attainment of "the one thing necessary." Linacre appears only to have +done what many another in the history of {82} the thirteenth, +fourteenth, and fifteenth centuries did without any comment; but his +English biographers insist on seeing ulterior motives in it, or else +fail entirely to understand it. The same action is not so rare even in +our own day that it should be the source of misconception by later +writers. + +Dr. S. Weir Mitchell has, in the early part of _Dr. North and His +Friends_, a very curious passage with regard to Linacre. One of the +characters, St. Clair, says: "I saw, the other day, at Owen's, a life +of one Linacre, a doctor, who had the luck to live about 1460 to 1524, +when men knew little and thought they knew all. In his old age he took +for novelty to reading St. Matthew. The fifth, sixth, and seventh +chapters were enough. He threw the book aside and cried out, 'Either +this is not the Gospel, or we are not Christians.' What else could he +say?" St. Clair uses the story to enforce an idea of his own, which he +states as a question, as follows: "And have none of you the courage to +wrestle with the thought I gave you, that Christ could not have +expected the mass of men to live the life He pointed out as desirable +for the first disciples of His faith?" + +Dr. Mitchell's anecdote is not accepted by Linacre's biographers +generally, though it is copied by Dr. Payne, the writer of the article +on Linacre in the (English) _Dictionary of National Biography_, who, +however, discredits it somewhat. The story is founded on Sir John +Cheke's {83} account of the conversion of Linacre. It is very +doubtful, however, whether Linacre's deprecations of the actions of +Christians had reference to anything more than the practice of false +swearing so forcibly denounced in the Scriptures, which had apparently +become frequent in his time. This is Selden's version of the story as +quoted by Dr. Johnson, who was Linacre's well-known biographer. Sir +John Cheke in his account seems to hint that this chance reading of +the Scriptures represented the first occasion Linacre had ever taken +of an opportunity to read the New Testament. Perhaps we are expected +to believe that, following the worn-out Protestant tradition of the +old Church's discouraging of the reading of the Bible, and of the +extreme scarcity of copies of the Book, this was the first time he had +ever had a good opportunity to read it. This, of course, is nonsense. + +Linacre's early education had been obtained at the school of the +monastery of Christ Church at Canterbury, and the monastery schools +all used the New Testament as a text-book, and as the offices of the +day at which the students were required to attend contain these very +passages from Matthew which Linacre is supposed to have read for the +first time later in life, this idea is preposterous. Besides, Linacre, +as one of the great scholars of his time, intimate friend of Sir +Thomas More, of Dean Colet, and Erasmus, can scarcely be thought to +find his first copy of the Bible only when advanced in years. This is +{84} evidently a post-Reformation addition, part of the Protestant +tradition with regard to the supposed suppression of the Scriptures in +pre-Reformation days, which every one acknowledges now to be without +foundation. + +Linacre, as many another before and since, seems only to have realized +the true significance of the striking passages in Matthew after life's +experiences and disappointments had made him take more seriously the +clauses of the Sermon on the Mount. There is much in fifth, sixth, and +seventh Matthew that might disturb the complacent equanimity of a man +whose main objects in life, though pursued with all honorable +unselfishness, had been the personal satisfaction of wide scholarship +and success in his chosen profession. + +With regard to Sir John Cheke's story, Dr. John Noble Johnson, who +wrote the life of Thomas Linacre, [Footnote 7] which is accepted as +the authoritative biography by all subsequent writers, says: "The +whole statement carries with it an air of invention, if not on the +part of Cheke himself, at least on that of the individual from whom he +derives it, and it is refuted by {85} Linacre's known habits of +moderation and the many ecclesiastical friendships which, with a +single exception, were preserved without interruption until his death. +It was a most frequent mode of silencing opposition to the received +and established tenets of the Church, when arguments were wanting, to +brand the impugner with the opprobrious titles of heretic and infidel, +the common resource of the enemies to innovation in every age and +country." + + [Footnote 7: "The Life of Thomas Linacre," Doctor in Medicine, + Physician to King Henry VIII, the Tutor and Friend of Sir Thomas + More and the Founder of the College of Physicians in London By John + Noble Johnson, M D., late Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians, + London. Edited by Robert Graves, of the Inner Temple, Barrister at + Law London: Edward Lumley, Chancery Lane 1835.] + +The interesting result of the reflections inspired in Linacre by the +reading of Matthew was, as has been said, the resignation of his high +office of Royal Physician and the surrender of his wealth for the +foundation of chairs in Medicine and Greek at Oxford and Cambridge. +With the true liberal spirit of a man who wished to accomplish as much +good as possible, his foundations were not limited to his own +University of Oxford. After these educational foundations, however, +his wealth was applied to the endowment of the Royal College of +Physicians and its library, and to the provision of such accessories +as might be expected to make the College a permanently useful +institution, though left at the same time perfectly capable of that +evolution which would suit it to subsequent times and the development +of the science and practice of medicine. + +It is evident that the life of such a man can scarcely fail to be of +personal as well as historic interest. + +{86} + +Thomas Linacre was born about 1460--the year is uncertain--at +Canterbury. Nothing is known of his parents or their condition, though +this very silence in their regard would seem to indicate that they +were poor and obscure. His education was obtained at the school of the +monastery of Christ Church, Canterbury, then presided over by the +famous William Selling, the first of the great students of the new +learning in England. Selling's interest seems to have helped Linacre +to get to Oxford, where he entered at All Souls' College in 1480. In +1484 he was elected a Fellow of the College, and seems to have +distinguished himself in Greek, to which he applied himself with +special assiduity under Cornelio Vitelli. Though Greek is sometimes +spoken of as having been introduced into Western Europe only at the +beginning of the sixteenth century, Linacre undoubtedly laid the +foundation of that remarkable knowledge of the language which he +displayed at a later period of his life, during his student days at +Oxford in the last quarter of the fifteenth century. + +Linacre went to Italy under the most auspicious circumstances. His old +tutor and friend at Canterbury, Selling, who had become one of the +leading ecclesiastics of England, was sent to Rome as an Ambassador by +Henry VII. He took Linacre with him. A number of English scholars had +recently been in Italy and had attracted attention by their geniality, +by their thorough-going devotion to scholarly studies, {87} and by +their success in their work. Selling himself had made a number of firm +friends among the Italian students of the New Learning on a former +visit, and they now welcomed him with enthusiasm and were ready to +receive his protege with goodwill and provide him with the best +opportunities for study. As a member of the train of the English +ambassador, Linacre had an entree to political circles that proved of +great service to him, and put him on a distinct footing above that of +the ordinary English student in Italy. + +Partly because of these and partly because of his own interesting and +attractive personal character, Linacre had a number of special +opportunities promptly placed at his disposal. Church dignitaries in +Rome welcomed him and he was at once received into scholarly circles +wherever he went in Italy. Almost as soon as he arrived in Florence, +where he expected seriously to take up the study of Latin and Greek, +he became the intimate friend of the family of Lorenzo de' Medici, who +was so charmed with his personality and his readily recognizable +talent that he chose him for the companion of his son's studies and +received him into his own household. + +Politian was at this time the tutor of the young de' Medici in Latin, +and Demetrius Chalcondylas the tutor in Greek. Under these two eminent +scholars Linacre obtained a knowledge of Latin and Greek such as it +would have been impossible to have obtained under any other {88} +circumstances, and which with his talents at once stamped him as one +of the foremost humanistic scholars in Europe. While in Florence he +came in contact with Lorenzo the Magnificent's younger son, who +afterwards became Leo X. The friendship thus formed lasted all during +Linacre's lifetime, and later on he dedicated at least one of his +books to Alexander de' Medici after the latter's elevation to the +papal throne. + +It is no wonder that Linacre always looked back on Italy as the Alma +Mater--the fond mother in the fullest sense of the term--to whom he +owed his precious opportunities for education and the broadest +possible culture. In after-life the expression of his feelings was +often tinged with romantic tenderness. It is said that when he was +crossing the Alps, on his homeward journey, leaving Italy after +finishing his years of apprenticeship of study, standing on the +highest point of the mountains from which he could still see the +Italian plains, he built with his own hands a rough altar of stone and +dedicated it to the land of his studies--the land in which he had +spent six happy years--under the fond title of _Sancta Mater +Studiorum_. + +At first, after his return from Italy, Linacre lectured on Greek at +Oxford. Something of the influence acquired over English students and +the good he accomplished may be appreciated from the fact that with +Grocyn he had such students as More and the famous Dean Colet. Erasmus +also was attracted from the Netherlands and {89} studied Greek under +Linacre, to whom he refers in the most kindly and appreciative terms +many times in his after life. Linacre wrote books besides lecturing, +and his work on certain fine points in the grammar of classical +Latinity proved a revelation to English students of the old classical +languages, for nothing so advanced as this had ever before been +attempted outside Italy. In one of the last years of the fifteenth +century Linacre was appointed tutor to Prince Arthur, the elder +brother of Henry VIII, to whom it will be remembered that Catherine of +Aragon had been betrothed before her marriage with Henry. Arthur's +untimely death, however, soon put an end to Linacres' tutorship. + +As pointed out by Einstein, the reputation of Grocyn and Linacre was +not confined to England, but soon spread all over the Continent. After +the death of the great Italian humanists of the fifteenth century, who +had no worthy successors in the Italian peninsula, these two men +became the principal European representatives of the New Learning. +There were other distinguished men, however, such as Vives, the +Spaniard; Lascaris, the Greek; Buda, or Budaeus, the Frenchman, and +Erasmus, whom we have already mentioned--all of whom joined at various +times in praising Linacre. + +Some of Linacre's books were published by the elder Aldus at Venice; +and Aldus is even said to have sent his regrets on publishing his +edition of Linacre's translation of "The Sphere {90} of Proclus," that +the distinguished English humanist had not forwarded him others of his +works to print. Aldus appreciatively added the hope that the eloquence +and classic severity of style in Linacre's works and in those of the +English humanists generally "might shame the Italian philosophers and +scholars out of their uncultured methods of writing." + +Augusta Theodosia Drane (Mother Raphael), in her book on "Christian +Schools and Scholars," gives a very pleasant picture of how Dean +Colet, Eramus, and More used at this time to spend their afternoons +down at Stepney (then a very charming suburb of London), of whose +parish church Colet was the vicar. They stopped at Colet's house and +were entertained by his mother, to whom we find pleasant references in +the letters that passed between these scholars. Linacre was also often +of the party, and the conversations between these greatest students +and literary geniuses of their age would indeed be interesting +reading, if we could only have had preserved for us, in some way, the +table-talk of those afternoons. Erasmus particularly was noted for his +wit and for his ability to turn aside any serious discussions that +might arise among his friends, so as to prevent anything like +unpleasant argument in their friendly intercourse. A favorite way +seems to have been to insist on telling one of the old jokes from a +classic author whose origin would naturally be presumed to be much +later than the date the New Learning had found for it. + +{91} + +Dean Colet's mother appears to have been much more than merely the +conventional hostess. Erasmus sketches her in her ninetieth year with +her countenance still so fair and cheerful that you would think she +had never shed a tear. Her son tells in some of his letters to Erasmus +and More of how much his mother liked his visitors and how agreeable +she found their talk and witty conversation. They seem to have +appreciated her in turn, for in Mother Raphael's chapter on English +Scholars of the Renaissance there is something of a description of her +garden, in which were to be found strawberries, lately brought from +Holland, some of the finer varieties of which Mrs. Colet possessed +through Erasmus's acquaintance in that country. Mrs. Colet also had +some of the damask roses that had lately been introduced into England +by Linacre, who was naturally anxious that the mother of his friend +should have the opportunity to raise some of the beautiful flowers he +was so much interested in domesticating in England. + +It is a very charming picture, this, of the early humanists in +England, and very different from what might easily be imagined by +those unfamiliar with the details of the life of the period. Linacre +was later to give up his worldly emoluments and honors and become a +clergyman, in order to do good and at the same time satisfy his own +craving for self-abnegation. More was to rise to the highest positions +in England, and then for conscience' sake was to suffer death {92} +rather than yield to the wishes of his king in a matter in which he +saw principle involved. Dean Colet himself was to be the ornament of +the English clergy and the model of the scholar clergyman of the eve +of the Reformation, to whom many generations were to look back as a +worthy object of reverence. Erasmus was to become involved first with +and then against Luther, and to be offered a cardinal's hat before his +death. His work, like Newman's, was done entirely in the intellectual +field. Meantime, in the morning of life, all of them were enjoying the +pleasures of friendly intercourse and the charms of domestic felicity +under circumstances that showed that their study of humanism and their +admiration for the classics impaired none of their sympathetic +humanity or their appreciation of the innocent delights of the +present. + +For us, however, Linacre's most interesting biographic details are +those which relate to medicine, for, besides his humanistic studies +while in Italy, Linacre graduated in medicine, obtaining the degree of +doctor at Padua. The memory of the brilliant disputation which he +sustained in the presence of the medical faculty in order to obtain +his degree is still one of the precious traditions in the medical +school of Padua. He does not seem to have considered his medical +education finished, however, by the mere fact of having obtained his +doctor's degree, and there is a tradition of his having studied later +at Vicenza under Nicholas Leonicenus, the most celebrated {93} +physician and scholar in Italy at the end of the fifteenth century, +who many years afterwards referred with pardonable pride to the fact +that he had been Linacre's teacher in medicine. + +It may seem strange to many that Linacre, with all his knowledge of +the classics, should have devoted himself for so many years to the +study of medicine in addition to his humanistic studies. It must not +be forgotten, however, that the revival of the classics of Latin and +Greek brought with it a renewed knowledge of the great Latin and Greek +fathers of medicine, Hippocrates and Galen. This had a wonderful +effect in inspiring the medical students of the time with renewed +enthusiasm for the work in which they were engaged. A knowledge of the +classics led to the restoration of the study of anatomy, botany, and +of clinical medicine, which had been neglected in the midst of +application to the Arabian writers in medicine during the preceding +centuries. The restoration of the classics made of medicine a +progressive science in which every student felt the possibility of +making great discoveries that would endure not only for his own +reputation but for the benefit of humanity. + +These thoughts seem to have attracted many promising young men to the +study of medicine. The result was a period of writing and active +observation in medicine that undoubtedly makes this one of the most +important of literary medical eras. Some idea of the activity of the +writers of the time can be gathered from the important {94} medical +books--most of them large folios which were printed during the last +half of the sixteenth century in Italy. There is a series of these +books to be seen in one of the cases of the library of the +Surgeon-General at Washington, which, though by no means complete, +must be a source of never-ending surprise to those who are apt to +think of this period as a _saison morte_ in medical literature. + +There must have been an extremely great interest in medicine to +justify all this printing. Some of the books are among the real +incunabula of the art of printing. For instance, in 1474 there was +published at Bologna De Manfredi's "Liber de Homine;" at Venice, in +1476, Petrus de Albano's work on medicine; and in the next twenty +years from the same home of printing there came large tomes by +Angelata, a translation of Celsus, and Aurelius Cornelius and +Articellus's "Thesaurus Medicorum Veterum," besides several +translations of Avicenna and Platina's work "De Honesta Voluptate et +Valetudine." At Ferrara, Arculanus's great work was published, while +at Modena there appeared the "Hortus Sanitatis," or Garden of Health, +whose author was J. Cuba. There were also translations from other +Arabian authors on medicine in addition to Avicenna, notably a +translation of Rhazes Abu Bekr Muhammed Ben Zankariah Abrazi, a +distinguished writer among the Arabian physicians of the Middle Ages. + +Linacre's translations of Galen remain still the {95} standard, and +they have been reprinted many times. As Erasmus once wrote to a +friend, in sending some of these books of Galen, "I present you with +the works of Galen, now by the help of Linacre speaking better Latin +than they ever before spoke Greek." Linacre also translated Aristotle +into Latin, and Erasmus paid them the high compliment of saying that +Linacre's Latin was as lucid, as straightforward, and as thoroughly +intelligible as was Aristotle's Greek. Of the translations of +Aristotle unfortunately none is extant. Of Galen we have the "De +Sanitate Tuenda," the "Methodus Medendi," the "De Symptomatum +Differentiis et Causis," and the "De Pulsuum Usu." The latter +particularly is a noteworthy monograph on an important subject, in +which Galen's observations were of great value. Under the title, "The +Significance of the Pulse," it has been translated into English, and +has influenced many generations of English medical men. + +While we have very few remains of Linacre's work as a physician, there +seems to be no doubt that he was considered by all those best capable +of judging, to stand at the head of his profession in England. To his +care, as one of his biographers remarked, was committed the health of +the foremost in Church and State. Besides being the Royal Physician, +he was the regular medical attendant of Cardinal Wolsey, of Archbishop +Warham, the Primate of England, of Richard Fox, Bishop of Winchester, +the Keeper {96} of the Privy Seal, and of Sir Reginald Bray, Knight of +the Garter and Lord High Treasurer, and of all of the famous scholars +of England. + +Erasmus, whilst absent in France, writes to give him an account of his +feelings, and begs him to prescribe for him, as he knows no one else +to whom he can turn with equal confidence. After a voyage across the +channel, during which he had been four days at sea--making a passage +by the way that now takes less than two hours--Erasmus describes his +condition, his headache, with the glands behind his ears swollen, his +temples throbbing, a constant buzzing in his ears; and laments that no +Linacre was at hand to restore him to health by skilful advice. In a +subsequent letter he writes from Paris to ask for a copy of a +prescription given him while in London by Linacre, but which a stupid +servant had left at the apothecary shop, so that Erasmus could not +have it filled in Paris. + +An instance of his skill in prognosis, the most difficult part of the +practice of medicine according to Hippocrates and all subsequent +authorities, is cited by all his biographers, with regard to his +friend William Lily, the grammarian. Lily was suffering from a +malignant tumor involving the hip, which surgeons in consultation had +decided should be removed. Linacre plainly foretold that its removal +would surely prove fatal, and the event verified his unfavorable +prognosis. Generally it seems to have been considered that his opinion +was of great value in all {97} serious matters, and it was eagerly +sought for. Some of the nobility and clergy of the time came even from +the Continent over to England by no means an easy journey, even for a +healthy man in those days, as can be appreciated from Erasmus's +experience just cited--in order to obtain Linacre's opinion. + +One of Erasmus's letters to Billibaldus Pirckheimer contains a +particular account of the method of treatment by which he was relieved +of his severe pain under Linacre's direction in a very tormenting +attack of renal colic. The details, especially the use of poultice +applications as hot as could be borne, show that Linacre thoroughly +understood the use of heat in the relaxation of spasm, while his +careful preparation of the remedies to be employed in the presence of +the patient himself would seem to show that he had a very high +appreciation of how much the mental state of the patient and the +attitude of expectancy thus awakened may have in giving relief even in +cases of severe pain. + +The only medical writings of Linacre's that we possess are +translations. We have said already that the reversion at the end of +the fifteenth century to the classical authorities in medicine +undoubtedly did much to introduce the observant phase of medical +science, which had its highest expression in Vesalius at the beginning +of the sixteenth century and continued to flourish so fruitfully +during the next two centuries at most of the Italian universities. His +translations then {98} were of themselves more suggestive +contributions to medicine than would perhaps have been any even of his +original observations, since the mind of his generation was not ready +as yet to be influenced by discoveries made by contemporaries. + +The best proof of Linacre's great practical interest in medicine is +his realization of the need for the Royal College of Physicians and +his arrangements for it. + +The Roll of the College, which comprises biographical sketches of all +the eminent physicians whose names are recorded in the annals from the +foundation of the College in 1518, and is published under the +authority of the College itself, contains the best tribute to +Linacre's work that can possibly be paid. It says: "The most +magnificent of Linacre's labors was the design of the Royal College of +Physicians of London--a standing monument of the enlightened views +and generosity of its projectors. In the execution of it Linacre stood +alone, for the munificence of the Crown was limited to a grant of +letters patent; whilst the expenses and provision of the College was +left to be defrayed out of his own means, or of those who were +associated with him in its foundation." "In the year 1518," says Dr. +Johnson, [Footnote 8] "when Linacre's scheme was carried into effect, +the practice of medicine was scarcely elevated above that of the +mechanical arts, nor was the majority of its practitioners {99} among +the laity better instructed than the mechanics by whom these arts were +exercised. With the diffusion of learning to the republics and states +of Italy, establishments solely for the advancement of science had +been formed with success; but no society devoted to the interests of +learning yet existed in England, unfettered by a union with the +hierarchy, or exempted from the rigors and seclusions which were +imposed upon its members as the necessary obligation of a monastic and +religious life. In reflecting on the advantages which had been derived +from these institutions, Linacre did not forget the impossibility of +adapting rules and regulations which accorded with the state of +society in the Middle Ages to the improved state of learning in his +own, and his plans were avowedly modelled on some similar community of +which many cities of Italy afforded rather striking examples." + + [Footnote 8: _Life of Linacre_, London, 1835.] + +Some idea of the state into which the practice of medicine had fallen +in England before Linacre's foundation of the Royal College of +Physicians may be gathered from the words of the charter of the +College. "Before this period a great multitude of ignorant persons, of +whom the greater part had no insight into physic, nor into any other +kind of learning--some could not even read the letters on the book, so +far forth that common artificers as smiths, weavers and women--boldly +and accustomably took upon them great cures to the high displeasure of +God, great infamy to the faculty, and the grievous hurt, {100} damage, +and destruction of many of the King's liege people." + +After the foundation of the College there was a definite way of +deciding formally who were, or were not, legally licensed to practise. +As a consequence, when serious malpractice came to public notice, +those without a license were occasionally treated in the most summary +manner. Stowe, in his chronicles, gives a very vivid and picturesque +description of the treatment of one of these quacks who had been +especially flagrant in his imposition upon the people. A counterfeit +doctor was set on horseback, his face to the horse's tail, the tail +being forced into his hand as a bridle, a collar of jordans about his +neck, a whetstone on his breast, and so led through the city of London +with ringing of basins, and banished. "Such deceivers," continued the +old chronicler, "no doubt are many, who being never trained up in +reading or practice of physics and Chirurgery do boast to do great +cures, especially upon women, as to make them straight that before +were crooked, corbed, or crumped in any part of their bodies and other +such things. But the contrary is true. For some have received gold +when they have better deserved the whetstone." [Footnote 9] Human +nature has not changed very much in the {101} four centuries since +Linacre's foundation, and while the model that he set in the matter of +providing a proper licensing body for physicians has done something to +lessen the evils complained of, the abuses still remain; and the old +chronicler will find in our time not a few who, in his opinion, might +deserve the whetstone. We can scarcely realize how much Linacre +accomplished by means of the Royal College of Physicians, or how great +was the organizing spirit of the man to enable him to recognize the +best way out of the chaos of medical practice in his time. + + [Footnote 9: "To get the whetstone" is an old English expression, + meaning to take the prize for lying. It is derived from the old + custom of driving rogues, whose wits were too sharp, out of town + with a whetstone around their necks.] + +"The wisdom of Linacre's plan," wrote Dr. Friend, "speaks for itself. +His scheme, without doubt, was not only to create a good understanding +and unanimity among his own profession (which of itself was an +excellent thought), but to make them more useful to the public. And he +imagined that by separating them from the vulgar empirics and setting +them upon such a reputable foot of distinction, there would always +arise a spirit of emulation among men liberally educated, which would +animate them in pursuing their inquiries into the nature of diseases +and the methods of cure for the benefit of mankind; and perhaps no +founder ever had the good fortune to have his designs succeed more to +his wish." + +His plans with regard to the teaching of medicine at the two great +English Universities did not succeed so well, but that was the fault +not of Linacre nor of the directions left in his will, but {102} of +the times, which were awry for educational matters. Notwithstanding +Linacre's bequest of funds for two professorships at Oxford and one at +Cambridge, it is typical of the times that the chairs were not founded +for many years. During Henry VIII's time, the great effort of +government was not to encourage new foundations but to break up old +ones, in order to obtain money for the royal treasury, so that +educational institutions of all kinds suffered eclipse. The first +formal action with regard to the Linacre bequest was taken in the +third year of Edward VI. Two lectureships were established in Merton +College, Oxford, and one in St. John's College, Cambridge. Linacre's +idea had been that these foundations should be University +lectureships, but Anthony Wood says that the University had lost in +prestige so much during Henry VIII's time that it was considered +preferable to attach the lectureships to Merton College, which had +considerable reputation because of its medical school. During +Elizabeth's time these Linacre lectureships sank to be sinecures and +for nearly a hundred years served but for the support of a fellowship. +The Oxford foundation was revived in 1856 by the University +Commissioners, and the present splendid foundation of the lectures in +physiology bears Linacre's name in honor of his original grant. + +At the age of about fifty Linacre was ordained priest. His idea in +becoming a clergyman, as confessed in letters to his friends, was +partly in {103} order to obtain leisure for his favorite studies, but +also out of the desire to give himself up to something other than the +mere worldly pursuits in which he had been occupied during all his +previous life. His biographer, Dr. Johnson, says: "In examining the +motives of this choice of Linacre's, it would seem that he was guided +less by the expectation of dignity and preferment than by the desire +of retirement and of rendering himself acquainted with those writings +which might afford him consolation in old age and relief from the +infirmities which a life of assiduous study and application had tended +to produce." + +The precise time of Linacre's ordination is not known, nor is it +certain whether he was ordained by Archbishop Warham of Canterbury, or +by Cardinal Wolsey, the Archbishop of York. He received his first +clerical appointment from Warham, by whom he was collated to the +rectory of Mersham in Kent. He held this place scarcely a month, but +his resignation was followed by his installation as prebend in the +Cathedral of Wells, and by an admission to the Church of Hawkhurst in +Kent, which he held until the year of his death. Seven years later he +was made prebend in the Collegiate Chapel of St. Stephen, Westminster, +and in the following year he became prebendary of South Newbold in the +Church of York. This was in the year 1518. In the following year he +received the dignified and lucrative appointment of presenter to the +Cathedral of York, for which he was indebted to Cardinal Wolsey, to +whom {104} about this time he dedicated his translation of Galen "On +the Use of the Pulse." He seems also to have held several other +benefices during the later years of his life, although some of them +were resigned within so short a time as to make it difficult to +understand why he should have accepted them, since the expenses of +institution must have exceeded the profits which were derived from +them during the period of possession. Linacre owed his clerical +opportunities during the last years of his life particularly to +Archbishop Warham, who, as ambassador, primate, and chancellor, +occupied a large and honorable place in the history of the times. +Erasmus says of him in one of his letters: "Such were his vigilance +and attention in all matters relating to religion and to the offices +of the Church that no concern which was foreign to them seemed ever to +distract him. He had sufficient time for a scrupulous performance of +the accustomed exercises of prayer, for the almost daily celebration +of the Mass, for twice or thrice hearing divine service, for +determining suits, for receiving embassies, for consultation with the +king when matters of moment required his presence, for the visitation +of churches when regulation was needed, for the welcome of frequently +two hundred guests, and lastly for a literary leisure." + +As the close friend of such men, it is evident that Linacre must have +accomplished much good as a clergyman; and it seems not unlikely that +his frequent changes of rectorship were rather {105} due to the fact +that the Primate wished to make use of his influence in various parts +of his diocese for the benefit of religion than for any personal +motives on Linacre's part, who, in order to enter the service of the +Church, had given up so much more than he could expect as a clergyman. + +Linacre as a clergyman continued to deserve the goodwill and esteem of +all his former friends, and seems to have made many new ones. At the +time of his death he was one of the most honored individuals in +England. All of his biographers are agreed in stating that he was the +representative Englishman of his time, looked up to by all his +contemporaries, respected and admired by those who had not the +opportunity of his intimate acquaintance, and heartily loved by +friends, who were themselves some of the best men of the time. + +The concluding paragraph of the appreciation of Linacre's character in +_Lives of British Physicians_ [Footnote 10] is as follows: "To sum up +his character it was said of him that no Englishman of his day had had +such famous masters, namely, Demetrius and Politian of Florence; such +noble patrons, Lorenzo de' Medici, Henry VII and Henry VIII; such +high-born scholars, the Prince Arthur and Princess Mary of England; or +such learned friends, for amongst the latter were to be enumerated +Erasmus, Melanchthon, Latimer, {106} Tonstal, and Sir Thomas More." +His biographer might have added the names of others of the +pre-Reformation period, men of culture and character whose merits only +the historical researches of recent years have brought out--Prior +Selling, Dean Colet (though his friendship was unfortunately +interrupted), Archbishop Warham, Cardinal Wolsey, Grocyn, and further +scholars and churchmen. + + [Footnote 10: London. John Murray, 1830.] + +Dr. J. F. Payne, in summing up the opinion of Linacre held by his +contemporaries, in the "Dictionary of National Biography" (British), +pays a high tribute to the man. "Linacre's personal character was +highly esteemed by his contemporaries. He was evidently capable of +absolute devotion to a great cause, animated by genuine public spirit +and a boundless zeal for learning." Erasmus sketches him humorously in +the "Encomium Moriae" (The Praise of Foolishness)--with a play on the +word _Moriae_ in reference to his great friend, Thomas More, of whom +Erasmus thought so much--showing him a tireless student. The +distinguished foreign scholar, however, considered Linacre as an +enthusiast in recondite studies, but no mere pedant. Dr. Payne closes +his appreciation with these words: "Linacre had, it would seem, no +enemies." + +Caius, the distinguished English physician and scholar, himself one of +the best known members of the Royal College of Physicians and the +founder of Caius College, Cambridge, sketches {107} Linacre's +character (he had as a young man known him personally) in very +sympathetic vein. As Dr. Caius was one of the greatest Englishmen of +his time in the middle of the sixteenth century, his opinion must +carry great weight. It is to him that we owe the famous epitaph that +for long in old St. Paul's, London, was to be read on Linacre's +tombstone:-- + + "_Fraudes dolosque mire perosus, fidus amicis, omnibus ordinibus + juxta carus_. A stern hater of deceit and underhand ways, faithful + to his friends, equally dear to all classes," + +Surely this is a worthy tribute to the great physician, clergyman, +scholar, and philanthropist of the eve of the Reformation in England. + + +{108} + +V. + +FATHER KIRCHER, S.J.: + +SCIENTIST, ORIENTALIST, AND COLLECTOR. + +{109} + +Oportet autem neque recentiores viros in his fraudare quae vel +repererunt vel recte secuti sunt; et tamen ea quae apud antiquiores +aliquos posita sunt auctoribus suis reddere.--CELSUS _de Medicina_. + + +{110} + +[Illustration: ATHANASIUS KIRCHER] + + +{111} + + +V. + + +FATHER KIRCHER, S.J.: SCIENTIST, ORIENTALIST, AND COLLECTOR. + + +Except in the minds of the unconquerably intolerant, the Galileo +controversy has in recent years settled down to occupy something of +its proper place in the history of the supposed conflict between +religion and science. In touching the subject in the life of +Copernicus we suggested that it has come to be generally recognized, +as M. Bertrand, the perpetual Secretary of the Paris Academy of +Sciences, himself a distinguished mathematician and historian, +declares, that "the great lesson for those who would wish to oppose +reason with violence was clearly to be read in Galileo's story, and +the scandal of his condemnation was learned without any profound +sorrow to Galileo himself; and his long life, considered as a whole, +was the most serene and enviable in the history of science." Somehow, +notwithstanding the directness of this declaration, there is still +left in the minds of many an impression rather difficult to eradicate +that there was definite, persistent opposition to everything +associated with scientific progress among the churchmen of the time of +Galileo. + +Perhaps no better answer to this unfortunate, because absolutely +untrue, impression could be in {112} formulated than is to be found in +a sketch of the career of Father Athanasius Kircher, the distinguished +Jesuit who for so many years occupied himself with nearly every branch +of science in Rome, under the fostering care of the Church. He had +been Professor of Physics, Mathematics, and Oriental Languages at +Wuerzburg, but was driven from there by the disturbances incident to +the Thirty Years' War, in 1631. He continued his scientific +investigation at Avignon. From here, within two years after Galileo's +trial in 1635, he was, through the influence of Cardinal Barberini, +summoned to Rome, where he devoted himself to mathematics at first, +and then to every branch of science, as well as the Oriental +languages, not only with the approval, but also with the most liberal +pecuniary aid from the ecclesiastical authorities of the papal court +and city. + +Some idea of the breadth of Father Kircher's scientific sympathy and +his genius for scientific observation and discovery, which amounted +almost to intuition, may be gathered from the fact that to him we owe +the first definite statement of the germ theory of disease; and he +seems to have been the first to recognize the presence of what are now +called microbes. At the same time his works on magnetism contained not +only all the knowledge of his own time, but also some wonderful +suggestions as to the possibilities of the development of this +science. His studies with regard to light are almost as epochal as +those with regard to magnetism. Besides these, he {113} was the first +to find any clue to the Egyptian hieroglyphics, and yet found time to +write a geographical work on Latium, the country surrounding Rome, and +to make collections for his museum which rendered it in its time the +best scientific collection in the world. It may very well indeed be +said that visitors to Rome with scientific tendencies found as much +that was suggestive in Father Kircher's museum--the "Kircherianum," as +it came to be called--as artists and sculptors and architects found in +the Vatican collections of the papal city. + +All of this work was accomplished within the half century after +Galileo's trial, for Father Kircher died in 1680, at the age of +seventy-eight, having lived, as so many of the great scientists have +done, a long life in the midst of the most persistent activity. +Kircher, more than perhaps any other, can be said to be the founder of +modern natural science. Before any one else, in a practical way, he +realized the necessity for the collection of an immense amount of +data, if science was to be founded on the broad, firm foundation of +observed truth. The principle which had been announced by Bacon in the +"Novum Organon"--"to take all that comes rather than to choose, and to +heap up rather than to register"--was never carried out as fully as by +Father Kircher. As Edmund Gosse said in the June number of _Harper's_, +1904, "Bacon had started a great idea, but he had not carried it out. +He is not the founder, he is the prophet {114} of modern physical +science. To be in direct touch with nature, to adventure in the +unexplored fields of knowledge, and to do this by carrying out an +endless course of slow and sure experiments, this was the counsel of +the 'Novum Organon.'" Bacon died in 1626, and scarcely more than a +decade had passed before Kircher was carrying out the work thus +outlined by the English philosopher in a way that was surprisingly +successful, even looked at from the standpoint of our modern science. +Needless to say, however, it was not because of Bacon's suggestion +that he did so, for it is more than doubtful whether he knew of +Bacon's writings until long after the lines of his life-work had been +traced by his own inquiring spirit. The fulness of time had come. The +inductive philosophy was in the air. Bacon's formulae, which the +English philosopher never practically applied, and Father Kircher's +assiduous collection of data, were but expressions of the spirit of +the times. How faithfully the work of the first modern inductive +scientist was accomplished we shall see. + +It may be easily imagined that a certain interest in Father Kircher, +apart from his scientific attainments and the desire to show how much +and how successful was the attention given to natural science by +churchmen about the time of the Galileo controversy, might influence +this judgment of the distinguished Jesuit's scientific accomplishments. +With regard to his discoveries in medicine especially, and above all +his {115} announcement of the microbic origin of contagious disease, +it may be thought that this was a mere chance expression and not at +all the result of serious scientific conclusions. Tyndall, however, +the distinguished English physicist, would not be the one to give +credit for scientific discoveries, and to a clergyman in a distant +century, unless there was definite evidence of the discovery. It is +not generally known that to the great English physicist we owe the +almost absolute demonstration of the impossibility of spontaneous +generation, together with a series of studies showing the existence +everywhere in the atmosphere of minute forms of life to which +fermentative changes and also the infectious diseases--though at that +time this was only a probability--are to be attributed. When Tyndall +was reviewing, in the midst of the controversy over spontaneous +generation, the question of the microbic origin of disease, he said: +"Side by side with many other theories has run the germ theory of +epidemic disease. The notion was expressed by Kircher and favored by +Linnaeus, that epidemic diseases may be due to germs which enter the +body and produce disturbance by the development within the body of +parasitic forms of life." + +How much attention Father Kircher's book on the pest or plague, in +which his theory of the micro-organismal origin of disease is put +forward, attracted from the medical profession can be understood from +the fact that it was submitted to three of the most distinguished +physicians in {116} Rome before being printed, and that their +testimony to its value as a contribution to medicine prefaced the +first edition. They are not sparing in their praise of it. Dr. Joseph +Benedict Sinibaldus, who was the Professor of the Practice of Medicine +in the Roman University at the time, says that "Father Kircher's book +not only contains an excellent resume of all that is known about the +pest or plague, but also as many valuable hints and suggestions on the +origin and spread of the disease, which had never before been made." +He considers it a very wonderful thing that a non-medical man should +have been able to place himself so thoroughly in touch with the +present state of medicine in respect to this disease and then point +out the conditions of future progress. + +Dr. Paul Zachias, who was a distinguished Roman physician of the time, +said that he had long known Father Kircher as an eminent writer on +other subjects, but that after reading his book on the pest he must +consider him also distinguished in medical writing. He says: "While he +has set his hand at other's harvests, he has done it with so much +wisdom and prudence as to win the admiration of the harvesters already +in the field." He adds that there can be no doubt that it would be a +source of profit for medical men to read this little book and that it +will undoubtedly prove beneficial to future generations. Testimony of +another kind to the value of Father Kircher's book is to be found in +the fact {117} that within a half-year after its publication in Latin +it appeared in several other languages. It is too much the custom of +these modern times to consider that scientific progress in the +centuries before our own and its immediate predecessor was likely to +attract little attention for many years, and was especially slow to +make its way into foreign countries. Anything, however, of real +importance in science took but a very short time to travel from one +country to another in Europe in the seventeenth century, and the fact +that scientific men generally used Latin as a common language made the +spread of discoveries and speculations much easier even than at the +present time. Our increased means of communication have really only +served to allow sensational announcements of a progress in +science--which is usually no progress at all--to be spread quite as +effectually in modern times as were real advances in the older days. + +There is no good account of Father Kircher's life available in +English, and it has seemed only proper that the more important at +least of the details of the life of the man who thus anticipated the +beginnings of modern bacteriology and of the relations of +micro-organisms to disease, should not be left in obscurity. His life +history is all the more interesting and important because it +illustrates the interest of the churchmen of the time, and especially +of the Roman ecclesiastical authorities, in all forms of science; for +Father Kircher is undoubtedly one of the greatest scholars of {118} +history and one of the scientific geniuses in whose works can be +found, as the result of some wonderful principles of intuition +incomprehensible to the slower intellectual operations of ordinary +men, anticipations of many of the discoveries of the after-time. There +is scarcely a modern science he did not touch upon, and nothing that +he touched did he fail to illuminate. His magnificent collections in +the museum of the Roman College demonstrate very well his extremely +wide interests in all scientific matters. + +The history of Father Kircher's career furnishes perhaps the best +possible refutation of the oft-repeated slander that Jesuit education +was narrow and was so founded upon and rooted in authority that +original research and investigation, in scientific matters +particularly, were impossible, and that it utterly failed to encourage +new discoveries of any kind. As a matter of fact, Kircher was not only +not hampered in his work by his superiors or by the ecclesiastical +authorities, but the respect in which he was held at Rome enabled him +to use the influence of the Church and of great churchmen all over the +world, with the best possible effect, for the assembling at the Roman +College of objects of the most various kinds, illustrating especially +the modern sciences of archeology, ethnology, and paleontology, +besides Egyptian and Assyrian history. + +Athanasius Kircher was born 2 May, 1602, at Geisa, near Fulda, in +South Germany. He was educated at the Jesuit College of Fulda, and at +{119} the early age of sixteen, having completed his college course, +entered the Jesuit novitiate at Mainz. After his novitiate he +continued his philosophical and classical studies at Paderborn and +completed his years of scholastic teaching in various cities of South +Germany--Munster, Cologne, and Coblenz--finally finishing his +education by theological studies at Cologne and Mainz. + +Toward the end of the third decade of the seventeenth century he +became Professor of Philosophy and Mathematics at Wuerzburg. Here his +interest in Oriental languages began, and he established a special +course in this subject at the University of Wuerzburg. During the +Thirty Years' War, however, the invasion of Germany very seriously +disturbed university work, and finally in 1631 Father Kircher was sent +by his superiors to Avignon in South France, where he continued his +teaching some four years, attracting no little attention by his wide +interest in many sciences and by various scientific works that showed +him to be a man of very broad genius. + +In 1635, through the influence of Cardinal Barberini, he was summoned +to Rome, where he became Professor of Mathematics and Oriental +Languages in the famous Roman College of the Jesuits, which was +considered at that time one of the greatest educational institutions +in the world. His interest in science, however, was not lessened by +teaching duties that would apparently have demanded all his time; and, +as we shall see, he continued to issue books on the most diverse {120} +scientific subjects, most of them illustrated by absolutely new +experimental observations and all of them attracting widespread +attention. + +Father Kircher began his career as a writer on science at the early +age of twenty-seven, when he issued his first work on magnetism. The +title of this volume, "Ars Magnesia tum Theorematice tum Problematice +Proposita," shows that the subject was not treated entirely from a +speculative standpoint. Indeed, in the preface he states that he hopes +that the principal value of the book will be found in the fact that +the knowledge of magnetism is presented by a new method, with special +demonstrations, and that the conclusions are confirmed by various +practical uses and long-continued experience with magnets of various +kinds. + +Although it may be a source of great surprise, Father Kircher's genius +was essentially experimental. He has been spoken of not infrequently +as a man who collected the scientific information of his time in such +a way as to display, as says the _Encyclopedia Britannica_, "a wide +and varied learning, but that he was a man singularly devoid of +judgment and critical discernment." He was in some respects the direct +opposite of the opinion thus expressed, since his learning was always +of a practical character, and there are very few subjects in this +writing which he has not himself illustrated by means of new and +ingenious experiments. + +Perhaps the best possible proof of this is to be {121} found in the +fact that his second scientific work was on the construction of +sun-dials, and that one of the discoveries he himself considered most +valuable was the invention of a calculating machine, as well as of a +complicated arrangement for illustrating the positions of the stars in +the heavens. He constructed, moreover, a large burning-glass in order +to demonstrate the possibility of the story told of Archimedes, that +he had succeeded in burning the enemy's ships in the harbor at +Syracuse by means of a large lens. + +But Father Kircher's surest claim to being a practical genius is to be +found in his invention of the magic lantern. It was another Jesuit, +Aquilonius, in his work on optics, issued in 1613, who had first +sought to explain how the two pictures presented to the two eyes are +fused into one, and it was in a practical demonstration of this by +means of lenses that Kircher hit upon the invention of the projecting +stereoscope. + +After his call to Rome our subject continued his work on magnetism, +and in 1641 issued a further treatise on the subject called "Magnes" +or "De Arte Magnetica." While he continued to teach Oriental languages +and issued in 1644 a book with the title "Lingua AEgyptiaca +Restituta," he also continued to apply himself especially to the +development of physical science. Accordingly in 1645 there appeared +his volume "Ars Magna Lucis et Umbrae." This was a treatise on light, +illustrated, as was his treatise on magnetism, by many original +experiments and demonstrations. + +{122} + +During the five years until 1650 the department of acoustics came +under his consideration, so that in that year we have from his pen a +treatise called "Musurgia Universalis," with the subtitle, "The Art of +Harmony and Discord; a treatise on the whole doctrine of sound with +the philosophy of music treated from the standpoint of practical as +well as theoretic science." During the next five years astronomy was +his special hobby, and the result was in 1656 a treatise on astronomy +called "Iter Celeste." This contained a description of the earth and +the heavens and discussed the nature of the fixed and moving stars, +with various considerations as to the composition and structure of +these bodies. A second volume on this subject appeared in 1660. + +The variety of Father Kircher's interests in science was not yet +exhausted, however. Five years after the completion of his two volumes +on astronomy there came one on "Mundus Subterraneus." This treated of +the modern subjects of geology, metallurgy, and mineralogy, as well as +the chemistry of minerals. It also contained a treatise on animals +that live under the ground, and on insects. This was considered one of +the author's greatest books, and the whole of it was translated into +French, whilst abstracts from it, especially the chapters on poisons, +appeared in most of the other languages of Europe. Part of it was +translated even into English, though seventeenth-century Englishmen +were loath to draw their inspiration from Jesuit writers. + +{123} + +Jesuits were, however, at this time generally acknowledged on the +Continent to be leaders in every department of thought, sympathetic +coadjutors in every step in scientific progress. Strange as it may +appear to those who will not understand the Jesuit spirit of love for +learning, two of the most distinguished scientists whose names are +immortal in the history of physical sciences in different departments +during this century, Kepler and Harvey, were on intimate terms of +friendship with the Jesuits of Germany. Harvey, on the occasion of a +visit to the Continent, stopped for a prolonged visit with the Jesuits +at Cologne, so that some of his English friends joked him about the +possibility of his making converts of the Jesuits. These witticisms, +however, did not seem to distract Harvey very much, for he returned on +a subsequent occasion to spend some further days with his Jesuit +scientific friends along the Rhine. + +In the meantime Father Kircher was issuing notable books on his always +favorite subject of the Oriental languages. In 1650 there appeared +"Obeliscus Pamphilius," containing an explanation of the hieroglyphics +to be found on the obelisk which by the order of Innocent X, a member +of the Pamfili family, was placed in the Piazza Navona by Bernini. +This is no mere pamphlet, as might be thought, but a book of 560 +pages. In 1652 there appeared "OEdipus AEgyptiacus," that is, the +revealer of the sphinx-like riddle of the Egyptian ancient languages. +In 1653 a second volume of this appeared, and in 1655 a third {124} +volume. It was considered so important that it was translated into +Russian and other Slav languages, besides several other European +languages. His book, "Lingua AEgyptiaca Restituta," which appeared in +1644, when Kircher was forty-two years of age, is considered to be of +value yet in the study of Oriental languages, and was dedicated to the +patron, Emperor Ferdinand III, whose liberality made its publication +possible. + +It is often a subject for conjecture just how science was studied and +taught in centuries before the nineteenth, and just what text-books +were employed. A little familiarity with Father Kircher's +publications, however, will show that there was plenty of very +suitable material for text-books to be found in his works. Under his +own direction, what at the present time would be called a text-book of +physics, but which at that time was called "Physiologia +Experimentalis," was issued, containing all the experimental and +demonstrative parts of his various books on chemistry, physics, music, +magnetism, and mechanics, as well as acoustics and optics. This formed +the groundwork of most text-books of science for a full century +afterwards. Indeed, until the beginning of the distinctly modern +science of chemistry with the discoveries of Priestley and Lavoisier, +there was to be little added of serious import in science. + +Perhaps the most commendable feature of Father Kircher's books is the +fact that he himself seems never to have considered that he had {125} +exhausted a subject. The first work he published was on magnetism. +Some twelve years later he returned to the subject, and wrote a more +extensive work, containing many improvements over the first volume. +The same thing is true of his studies in sound. In 1650, when not +quite fifty years of age, he issued his "Musurgia Universalis," a +sub-title of which stated that it contains the whole doctrine of sound +and the practical and theoretical philosophy of music. A little over +twenty years later, however, he published the "Phonurgia Nova," the +sub-title of which showed that it was mainly concerned with the +experimental demonstration of various truths in acoustics and with the +development of the doctrine he had originally stated in the +"Musurgia." + +It is no wonder that his contemporaries spoke of him as the _Doctor +centum artium_--the teacher of a hundred arts--for there was +practically no branch of scientific knowledge in his time in which he +was not expert. Scientific visitors to Rome always considered it one +of the privileges of their stay in the papal city to have the +opportunity to meet Father Kircher, and it was thought a very great +honor to be shown through his museum by himself. + +Of course, it is difficult for present-day scientists to imagine a man +exhausting the whole round of science in this way. Many who have read +but little more than the titles of Father Kircher's many books are +accordingly prone to speak of him as a mine of information, but +without any {126} proper critical judgment. He has succeeded, +according to them, in heaping together an immense amount of +information, but it is of the most disparate value. There is no doubt +that he took account of many things in science that are manifestly +absurd. Astrology, for instance, had not, in his time, gone out of +fashion entirely, and he refers many events in men's lives to the +influence of the stars. He even made rules for astrological +predictions, and his astronomical machine for exhibiting the motions +of the stars was also meant to be helpful in the construction of +astrological tables. It must not be forgotten, however, that in his +time the best astronomers, like Tycho Brahe and even Kepler, had not +entirely given up the idea of the influence of the stars over man's +destiny. + +As regards other sciences, there are details of information that may +appear quite as superstitious as the belief in astrology. Kircher, for +instance, accepted the idea of the possibility of the transmutation of +metals. It is to be said, though, that all mankind were convinced of +this possibility, and indeed not entirely without reason. All during +the nineteenth century scientists believed very firmly in the absolute +independence of chemical elements and their utter +non-interchangeability. As the result of recent discoveries, however, +in which one element has apparently been observed giving rise to +another, much of this doctrine has come to be considered as +improbable, and now the idea of possible transmutation of {127} metals +and other chemical elements into one another appears not so absurd as +it was half a century ago. + +Any one who will take up a text-book of science of a century ago will +find in it many glaring absurdities. It will seem almost impossible +that a scientific thinker, in his right senses, could have accepted +some of the propositions that are calmly set down as absolute truths. +Every generation has made itself ridiculous by knowing many things +"that are not so," and even ours is no exception. Father Kircher was +not outside this rule, though he was ahead of his generation in the +critical faculty that enabled him to eliminate many falsities and to +illuminate half-truths in the science of his day. + +Undoubtedly the most interesting of Father Kircher's scientific books +is his work On the Pest, with some considerations on its origin, mode +of distribution, and treatment, which about the middle of the +seventeenth century gathered together all the medical theories of the +times as to the causation of contagious disease, discussed them with +critical judgment and reached conclusions which anticipate much of +what is most modern in our present-day medicine. It is this work of +Father Kircher's that is now most often referred to, and very +deservedly so, because it is one of the classics which represents a +landmark in knowledge for all time. It merits a place beside such +books as Harvey on the Circulation of Blood, or even Vesalius on Human +{128} Anatomy. As we have seen, it is now quoted from by our best +recent authorities who attempt seriously to trace the history of the +microbic theory of disease, and its conclusions are the result of +logical processes and not the mere chance lighting upon truth of a +mind that had the theories of the time before it. In it Father +Kircher's genius is best exhibited. It has the faults of his too ready +credibility; and his desire to discuss all possible phases of the +question, even those which are now manifestly absurd, has led him into +what prove to be useless digressions. But on the whole it represents +very well the first great example of the application of the principle +of inductive science to modern medicine. All the known facts and +observations are collected and discussed, and then the conclusions are +suggested. + +It is very interesting to trace the development of Father Kircher's +ideas with regard to the origin, causation, and communication of +disease, because in many points he so clearly anticipates medical +knowledge that has only come to be definitely accepted in very recent +times. It has often been pointed out that Sir Robert Boyle declared +that the processes of fermentation and those which brought about +infectious disease, were probably of similar nature, and that the +scientist who solved the problem of the cause of fermentation would +throw great light on the origin of these diseases. This prophetic +remark was absolutely verified when Pasteur, a chemist who had solved +the problem of fermentation, also solved {129} the weightier questions +connected with human diseases. Before even Boyle, however, Father +Kircher had expressed his opinion that disease processes were similar +to those of putrefaction. He considered that putrefaction was due to +the presence of certain _corpuscula_, as he called them, and these he +said were also probably active in the causation of infectious disease. + +He was not sure whether or not these _corpuscula_ were living, in the +sense that they could multiply of themselves. He considered, however, +that this was very probable. As to their distribution, he is +especially happy in his anticipations of modern medical progress. +While he considered it very possible that they were carried through +the air, he gives it as his deliberate opinion that living things were +the most frequent agents for the distribution of the corpuscles of +disease. He is sure that they are carried by flies, for instance, and +that they may be inoculated by the stings of such insects as fleas or +mosquitoes. He even gives some examples that he knew of in which this +was demonstrated. Still more striking is his insistence on the fact +that such a contagious disease as pest may be carried by cats and dogs +and other domestic animals. The cat seemed to him to be associated +with special danger in this matter, and he gives an example of a +nunnery which had carefully protected itself against possible +infection, but had allowed a cat to come in, with the result that some +cases of the disease developed. + +{130} + +An interesting bit of discussion is to be found in the chapter in +which Father Kircher takes up the consideration of the problem whether +infectious disease can ever be produced by the imagination. He is +speaking particularly of the pest, but there is more than a suspicion +that under the name pest came at times of epidemics many of our modern +contagious diseases. Father Kircher says that there is no doubt that +worry plays an important role in predisposing persons to take the +disease. He does not consider, however, that it can originate of +itself, or be engendered in the person without contact with some +previous case of pest. With regard to the question of predisposition +he is very modern. He points out that many persons do not take the +disease, because evidently of some protective quality which they +possess. He is sure, too, that the best possible protection comes from +keeping in good, general health. + +A curious suggestion is that with regard to the grave-diggers and +undertakers. It has often been noted in Italy, so Father Kircher +asserts, that these individuals as a rule did not succumb to the +disease, notwithstanding their extreme exposure, when the majority of +the population were suffering from it. Toward the end of the epidemic, +however, at the time when the townspeople were beginning to rejoice +over its practical disappearance, it was not unusual to have these +caretakers of the dead brought down with the disease--often, too, in +fatal form. Father {131} Kircher considers that only strong and +healthy individuals would take up such an occupation. That the +satisfaction of accomplishing a large amount of work and making money +kept them in good health. Later on, however, as the result of overwork +during the time of the epidemic and also of discouragement because +they saw the end of prosperous times for them, they became predisposed +to the disease and then fell victims. + +With regard to the prevention of the pest in individual cases, Father +Kircher has some very sensible remarks. He says that physicians as a +rule depend on certain medicinal protectives or on amulets which they +carry. The amulets he considers to be merely superstitious. The +sweet-smelling substances that are sometimes employed are probably +without any preventive action. Certain physicians employed a +prophylactic remedy made up of very many substances. This is what in +modern days we would be apt to call a "gunshot prescription." It +contained so many ingredients that it was hoped that some one of them +would hit the right spot and prove effective. Father Kircher has +another name for it. We do not know whether it is original with him, +but in any case it is worth while remembering. He calls it a "calendar +prescription," because when written it resembled a list of the days of +the month. + +His opinion of this "calendar prescription" is not very high. It seems +to him that if one ingredient did good, most of the others would be +{132} almost as sure to do harm. The main factor in prophylaxis to his +mind was to keep in normal health, and this seemed not quite +compatible with frequent recourse to a prescription containing so many +drugs that were almost sure to have no good effect and might have an +ill effect. It is all the more interesting to find these common-sense +views because ordinarily Father Kircher is set down as one who +accepted most of the traditions of his time without inquiring very +deeply into their origin or truth, simply reporting them out of the +fulness of his rather pedantic information. In most cases it will be +found, however, that, like Herodotus, reporting the curious things +that had been told him in his travels, he is very careful to state +what are his own opinions and what he owes to others and gives place +to, though without attaching much credence to them. + +It must not be forgotten that his great contemporaries, Von Helmont +and Paracelsus, were not free from many of the curious scientific +superstitions of their time, though they had, like him, in many +respects the true scientific spirit. Von Helmont, for instance, was a +firm believer in the doctrine of spontaneous generation, and even went +so far as to consider that it had its application to animals of rather +high order. For instance, one of his works contains a rather famous +prescription to bring about the spontaneous generation of mice. What +was needed was a jar of meal kept in a dark corner covered by some +soiled linen. After three weeks these elements {133} would be found to +have bred mice. Too much must not be expected, then, of Kircher in the +matter of crediting supposedly scientific traditions. + +It may seem surprising that Father Kircher's book did not produce a +greater impression upon the medical research work and teaching of the +day and lead to an earlier development of microbiology. Unfortunately, +however, the instruments of precision necessary for such a study were +not then at hand, and the gradual loss of prestige of the book is +therefore readily to be understood. The explanation of this delay in +the development of science is very well put by Crookshank, who is the +professor of comparative pathology and bacteriology at King's College, +London, and one of the acknowledged authorities on these subjects in +the medical world. Professor Crookshank says, at the beginning of the +first chapter of his text-book on bacteriology, in which he traces the +origin of the science, that the first attempt to demonstrate the +existence of the _contagium vivum_ dates back almost to the discovery +of the microscope:--[Footnote 11] + + [Footnote 11: _A Text-Book of Bacteriology_. Including the + Etiology and Prevention of Infectious Diseases By Edgar M. + Crookshank. Fourth Edition London, 1896] + + Athanasius Kircher nearly two and a half centuries ago expressed his + belief that there were definite micro-organisms to which diseases + were attributable. The microscope had revealed that all decomposing + {134} substances swarmed with countless micro-organisms which were + invisible to the naked eye, and Kircher sought for similar organisms + in disease, which he considered might be due to their agency. The + microscopes which he describes obviously could not admit of the + possibility of studying or even detecting the micro-organisms which + are now known to be associated with certain diseases; and it is not + surprising that his teaching did not at the time gain much + attention. They were destined, however, to receive a great impetus + from the discoveries which emanated not long after from the father + of microscopy, Leeuwenhoek. + +This reference to Kircher's work, however, shows that more cordial +appreciation of his scientific genius has come in our day, and it +seems not unlikely that in the progress of more accurate and detailed +knowledge of scientific origins his reputation will grow as it +deserves. With that doubtless will come a better understanding of the +true attitude of the scholars of the time--so many of whom were +churchmen--to so-called physical science in contradistinction to +philosophy, in which of course they had always been profoundly +interested. The work done by Kircher could never have been +accomplished but for the sympathetic interest of those who are falsely +supposed to have been bitterly opposed to all progress in the natural +sciences, but whose opposition was really limited to theoretic phases +of scientific inquiry that threatened, as has scientific theory so +often since, to prove directly contradictory to revealed truth. + + +{135} + +VI. + +BISHOP STENSEN: ANATOMIST AND FATHER OF GEOLOGY. + +{136} + +God makes sages and saints that they may be fountain-heads of wisdom +and virtue for all who yearn and aspire: and whoever has superior +knowledge or ability is thereby committed to more effectual and +unselfish service of his fellow-men. If the love of fame be but an +infirmity of noble souls, the craving of professional reputation is +but conceit and vanity. To be of help, and to be of help not merely to +animals, but to immortal, pure, loving spirits this is the noblest +earthly fate.--BISHOP SPALDING: _The Physician's Calling and +Education_. + + + +[Illustration: NICOLAUS STENONIS] + + +{137} + +VI. + +BISHOP STENSEN, ANATOMIST AND FATHER OF GEOLOGY. + +In the sketch of the life of Father Athanasius Kircher, the +distinguished Jesuit scientist, mathematician, and Orientalist, I +called attention to the fact that, at the very time when Galileo was +tried and condemned at Rome, because of his abuse of Scripture for the +demonstration of scientific thesis, a condemnation which has been +often since proclaimed to be due to the Church's intolerant opposition +to science, the ecclesiastical authorities at Rome invited Father +Kircher, who was at that time teaching mathematics in Germany, to come +to Rome, and during the next half-century encouraged him in every way +in the cultivation of all the physical sciences of the times. It was +to popes and cardinals, as well as to influential members of his own +order of the Jesuits, that Father Kircher owed his opportunities for +the foundation of a complete and magnificent museum, illustrating many +phases of natural science--the first of its kind in the world, and +which yet continues to be one of the noteworthy collections. + +During the decade in which the condemnation of Galileo and the +invitation of Father Kircher to Rome took place, there was born, at +{138} Copenhagen, a man whose career of distinction in science was to +prove even more effectively than that of Kircher, if possible, that +there was no opposition in ecclesiastical circles in Italy, during +this century, to the development of natural science even in +departments in respect to which the Church has, over and over again, +been said to be specially intolerant. This scientist was Nicholas +Stensen, the discoverer of the duct of the parotid gland, which +conducts saliva into the mouth, and the founder, in the truest sense +of the word, of the modern science of geology. Stensen's discovery of +the duct which has since borne his name was due to no mere accident; +for he was one of the really great anatomists of all time, and one +distinguished particularly for his powers of original observation and +investigation. To have the two distinctions, then, of a leader in +anatomy and a founder in geology, stamps him as one of the supreme +scientific geniuses of all time, a man not only of a fruitfully +inquiring disposition of mind, but also one who possessed a very +definite realization of how important for the cause of scientific +truth is the necessity of testing all ideas with regard to things +physical, by actual observations of nature and by drawing conclusions +not wider than the observed facts. + +Notwithstanding this characteristically scientific temper of mind, +which, according to most modern ideas, at least, would seem to be sure +to lead him away from religious truth, Stensen at the {139} very +height of his career as a scientist, while studying anatomy and +geology in Italy, became a convert from Lutheranism, in which he had +been born, to Catholicity, and thereafter made it one of the prime +objects of his life to bring as many others as possible of the +separated brethren into the fold of the Church. When he accepted the +professorship of anatomy at the University of Copenhagen, it was with +the definite idea that he might be able to use the influence of his +position to make people realize how much of religious truth there was +in the old Church from which they had been separated in the preceding +century. After a time, however, his zeal led him to resign his +position, and ask to be made a priest, in order that he might be able +more effectively to fulfil what he now considered the main purpose of +his life, the winning of souls to the Church. As, since his +conversion, he had given every evidence of the most sincere piety and +humble simplicity, his desires were granted. His book on geology, +however, was partly written during the very time when he was preparing +for sacred orders, and was warmly welcomed by all his Catholic +friends. After spending some time as a missionary, and attracting a +great deal of attention by his devout life and by the many friends and +converts he succeeded in making, the recently converted Duke of +Hanover asked that the zealous Danish convert should be made bishop of +his capital city. This request was immediately granted, and Stensen +spent several years {140} in the hardest missionary labor in his new +field. As a matter of fact, his labors proved too much for his rather +delicate constitution, and he died at the comparatively early age of +forty-eight. The visitor to the University of Copenhagen marvels to +find among the portraits of her professors of anatomy one in the robes +of a Roman Catholic bishop. This is Stensen. In 1881, when the +International Geographical Congress met at Bologna, it adjourned at +the end of the session to Florence to unveil a bust of Stensen, over +his tomb there. Here evidently is a man whose life is well worth +studying, because of all that it means for the history of his time. + +Nicholas Stensen--or, as he is often called, Steno, because this is +the Latin form of his name, and Latin was practically exclusively +used, during his age, in scientific circles all over Europe--was born +20 January, 1638, in Copenhagen. His father died while he was +comparatively young, and his mother married again, both her husbands +being goldsmiths in high repute for their skill, and both of them in +rather well-to-do circumstances. His early education was obtained at +Copenhagen, and the results displayed in his attainments show how well +it must have been conducted. Later in life he spoke and wrote Latin +very fluently and had, besides, a very thorough knowledge of Greek and +of Hebrew. Of the modern languages, German, French, Italian, and Low +Dutch he knew very well, mainly from residence in the various +countries in which they {141} are spoken. A more unusual attainment at +that time, and one showing the ardor of his thirst for knowledge, was +an acquaintance with English. In early life he was especially fond of +mathematics and, indeed, it was almost by accident that this did not +become his chosen field of educational development. + +At eighteen he became a student of the University of Copenhagen, and +after some preliminary studies in philosophy and philology devoted +himself mainly to medicine. At this time the Danish University was +especially distinguished for its work in anatomy. The famous family of +Bartholini, who had for several generations been teaching there, had +proved a copious source of inspiration for the students in their +department, and as a consequence original investigation of a high +order, with enthusiasm for the development of anatomical science, had +become the rule. The external situation was not favorable to learning, +for Denmark was engaged in harassing and costly wars during a +considerable portion of the seventeenth century; yet the work +accomplished here was, undoubtedly, some of the best in Europe. Young +Stensen had the advantage of having Thomas Bartholini as his +preceptor, and soon, because of his enthusiasm for science, as friend +and father. + +Stensen had been at the University scarcely two years when the city of +Copenhagen was besieged by the Swedes. Professor Lutz, of the +University of St. Louis, who has recently written {142} an article on +Stensen, which appeared in the _Medical Library and Historical +Journal_ for July, 1904, says of this period: + + A regiment of students numbering two hundred and sixty-six, called + "the black coats" on account of their dark clothes, was formed for + the defence of the city; upon its roster we find the name of young + Steno. During the day they were at work mending the ramparts, and + the nights were spent in repelling the attacks of the enemy. In the + course of this long siege, the city was compelled to cope with a + more formidable enemy than the Swedes--famine with all its + horrors--before relief came in the shape of provisions and + reinforcements furnished by the Dutch fleet. Throughout these + turbulent days the student soldiers rendered valuable services to + their country, and though it be true that "inter arma silent + musae"--"the war gods do not favor the muses"--it appears + nevertheless that Steno attended the lectures and dissections which + were conducted by the teachers in the intervals when the student + were not on duty. + +After some three years spent at the University of Copenhagen, Stensen, +as was the custom of the times, went to pursue his post-graduate +studies in a foreign university. Bartholini furnished him with a +letter of recommendation to Professor Blasius, who was teaching +anatomy at Amsterdam in Holland. Amsterdam had become famous during +the seventeenth century for the very practical character of its +anatomical teaching. As the result of the cordial commendation of +Bartholini, Stensen became an inmate of the house of Professor +Blasius, and was given {143} special opportunities to pursue his +anatomical studies for himself. He had been but a very short time at +Amsterdam, when he made the discovery to which his name has ever since +been attached, that of the duct of the parotid gland. Stensen's +discovery was made while he was dissecting the head of a sheep. He +found shortly afterwards, however, that the canal could be +demonstrated to exist in the dog, though it was not so large a +structure. Blasius seems to have been rather annoyed at the fact that +a student, just beginning work with him, should make so important a +discovery, and wished to claim the honor of it for himself. There is +no doubt, however, now, notwithstanding the discussion over the +priority of the discovery which took place at the time, that Stensen +was the first to make this important observation. + +Not long before, Wharton, an English observer, had demonstrated the +existence of a canal leading from the submaxillary gland into the +mouth. This might have been expected to lead to the discovery of other +glandular ducts, but so far had not. As a matter of fact, the function +of the parotid gland was not well understood at this time. During the +discussion as to priority of discovery, Steno pointed out one fact +which he very properly considers as the most conclusive proof that +Blasius did not discover the duct of the gland. He says: "Blasius +shows plainly in his treatise 'De Medicina Generali' that he has never +sought for the duct, for he does not assign {144} to it either the +proper point of beginning or ending, and assigns to the parotid gland +itself so unworthy a function as that of furnishing warmth to the ear, +so that if I were not perfectly sure of having once shown him the duct +myself, I should be tempted to say that he had never seen it." + +Bartholini settled the controversy, and at the same time removed any +discouragement that might have arisen in his young pupil's mind, by +writing to him:-- + + Your assiduity in investigating the secrets of the human body, as + well as your fortunate discoveries, are highly praised by the + learned of your country. The fatherland congratulates itself upon + such a citizen, I upon such a pupil, through whose efforts anatomy + makes daily progress, and our lympathic vessels are traced out more + and more. You divide honors with Wharton, since you have added to + his internal duct an external one, and have thereby discovered the + sources of the saliva concerning which many have hitherto dreamed + much, but which no one has (permit the expression) pointed out with + the finger. Continue, my Steno, to follow the path to immortal glory + which true anatomy holds out to you. + +Under the stimulus of such encouragement, it is no wonder that Stensen +continued his original work with eminent success. He published an +extensive article on the glands of the eye and the vessels of the +nose. + +Bartholini wrote to him again: "Your fame is growing from day to day, +for your pen and your sharp eye know no rest." Later he wrote {145} +again: "You may count upon the favor of the king as well as upon the +applause of the learned." After three years at the University of +Amsterdam, Steno returned to Copenhagen, where he published his +"Anatomical Observations Concerning the Muscles and Glands." It was in +this book that he announced his persuasion that the heart was a +muscle. As he said himself, "the heart has been considered the seat of +natural warmth, the throne of the soul; but if you examine it more +closely, it turns out to be nothing but a muscle. The men of the past +would not have been so grossly mistaken with regard to it, had they +not preferred their imaginary theories to the results of the simple +observation of nature." It is easy to understand that this observation +created a very great sensation. It had much to do with overthrowing +certain theoretic systems of medicine, and nearly a century later the +distinguished physiologist, Haller, did not hesitate to proclaim the +volume in which it occurs, as a "golden book." + +Stensen's studies in anatomy stamp him as an original genius of a high +order, and this is all the more remarkable because his career occurs +just in those years when there were distinguished discoverers in +anatomy in every country in Europe. When Stensen began his work in +anatomy, Harvey was still alive. The elder Bartholini, the first who +ever established an anatomical museum, was another of his +contemporaries. Among the names of distinguished anatomists {146} with +whom Stensen was brought intimately in contact during the course of +his studies in Holland, France and Italy are those of Swammerdam, Van +Horne, and Malpighi. There is no doubt that his intercourse with such +men sharpened his own intellectual activity, and increased his +enthusiasm for original investigation in contradistinction to the mere +accumulation of information. + +His contemporaries, indeed, exhausted most of the adjectives of the +Latin language in trying to express their appreciation of his acuity +of observation. He was spoken of as _oculatissimus_--that is, as +being all eyes, _subtilissimus, acutissimus, sagacissimus_ in his +knowledge of the human body, and as the most perspicacious anatomist +of the time. Leibnitz and Haller were in accord in considering him one +of the greatest of anatomists. In later years this admiration for +Stensen's genius has not been less enthusiastically expressed. Haeser, +in his "History of Medicine," the third edition of which appeared at +Jena in 1879, says: "Among the greatest anatomists of the seventeenth +century belongs Nicholas Steno, the most distinguished pupil of Thomas +Bartholini. Steno was rightly considered in his own time as one of the +greatest of anatomical discoverers. There is scarcely any part of the +human body the knowledge of which was not rendered more complete by +his investigations." + +The most valuable discovery made by Stensen was undoubtedly that the +heart is a muscle. It {147} must not be forgotten that in his time, +Harvey's discovery of the circulation of the blood was not yet +generally accepted; indeed, there were many who considered the theory +(as they called it) of the English investigator as one of the passing +fads of medicine. Two significant discoveries, made after Harvey, +served, however, to establish the theory of the circulation of the +blood on a firm basis and to make it a definite medical doctrine. The +most important of these was Malpighi's discovery that the +capillaries--that is, the minute vessels at the end of the arterial +tree on the surface of the body and in various organs--served as the +direct connexion between the veins and the arteries. This demonstrated +just how the blood passed from the arterial to the venous system. +Scarcely less important, however, for the confirmation of Harvey's +teaching was Stensen's demonstration of the muscular character of the +tissue of the heart. + +Some of his observations upon muscles are extremely interesting, and, +though he made many mistakes in explaining their function, he added +not a little to the anatomical and physiological knowledge of the time +in their regard. He seems to have been one of the first to recognize +the fact that in the higher animals the heart may continue to beat for +a considerable time after the animal is apparently dead; and, indeed, +that by irritation of the removed heart, voluntary contractions may be +brought about which will continue spontaneously for some moments. + +{148} + +With regard to the objections made by some, that such studies as these +upon muscles could scarcely be expected to produce any direct result +for the treatment of disease, or in the ordinary practice of medicine, +Stensen said in reply that it is only on the basis of the anatomical, +physiological, and pathological observation that progress in medicine +is to be looked for. In spite, then, of the discouragement of the +many, who look always for immediate practical results, Stensen +continued his investigation, and even proposed to make an extended +study of the mechanism of the muscular action. + +In the meantime, however, there had gradually been coming into his +life another element which was to prove more absorbing than even his +zeal for scientific discovery. It is this which constitutes the +essential index of the man's character and has been sadly +misunderstood by many of his biographers. + +Sir Michael Foster, of Cambridge, England, in his "Lectures on the +History of Physiology," originally delivered as the Lane Lectures at +Cooper Medical College, San Francisco, said:-- + + While thus engaged, still working at physiology, Stensen turned his + versatile mind to other problems, as well as to those of comparative + anatomy, and especially to those of the infant, indeed hardly as yet + born, science of geology. His work "De solido intra solidum" is + thought by geologists to be a brilliant effort toward the beginning + of their science + + In 1672 he returned for a while to his native city of {149} + Copenhagen, but within two years he was back again at Florence; and + then there came to him, while as yet a young man of some thirty-six + summers, a sudden and profound change in his life. + + In his early days he had heard much, too much perhaps, of the + doctrines of Luther. Probably he had been repelled by the austere + devotion which ruled the paternal roof. And, as his answer to + Bossuet shows, his university life and studies, his intercourse with + the active intellects of many lands, and his passion for inquiry + into natural knowledge, had freed him from passive obedience to + dogma. He doubtless, as did many others of his time, looked upon + himself as one of the enlightened, as one raised above the barren + theological questions which were moving the minds of lesser men + +Yet it was out of this sceptical state of mind, that life in Italy and +intimate contact with ecclesiastics and religious, so often said to be +likely not to have any such effect, brought this acute scientific mind +into the Catholic Church. Nor did he become merely a formal adherent, +but an ardent believer, and then an enthusiastic proselytizer. One +American writer of a history of medicine, in his utter failure to +comprehend or sympathize with the change that came over Stensen, +speaks of him as having become at the end of his life a mere +"peripatetic converter of heretics." This phase of Stensen's life has, +however, as ample significance as any that preceded it. + +Steno's expectations of the professorship of anatomy at Copenhagen +were disappointed, but the appointment went to Jacobson, whose work +indeed is scarcely less distinguished than that of {150} his +unsuccessful rival. The next few years Stensen passed in Paris, where +he was assiduous in making dissections, and where he attracted much +attention; and then, somewhat later, in Italy; in 1665 and 1666 he was +in Rome. Thence he went to Florence, in order to perfect himself in +Italian. The next few years he spent in this city, having received the +appointment of body physician to the Grand Duke, as well as an +appointment of visiting physician, as we would call it now, to the +Hospital of Santa Maria Nuova. + +It was while at Florence that the whole current of Stensen's life was +changed by his conversion to Catholicity. His position as physician to +the Hospital of Santa Maria Nuova brought him frequently into the +apothecary shop attached to the hospital. As a result he came to know +very well the religious in charge of the department, Sister Maria +Flavia, the daughter of a well-known Tuscan family. At this time she +had been for some thirty-five years a nun. Before long she learned +that the distinguished young physician, at this time scarcely thirty +years of age, who was such a pleasant gentleman in all his ways, was a +Lutheran. She began, as she told afterwards, first by prayer, and then +by friendly suggestions, to attempt to win him to the Catholic Church. +Stensen, who seems already to have been well-disposed toward the +Church, and who had always been known for a wonderful purity of heart +and simplicity of character, listened very willingly to the naive +words of the {151} old religious, who might very well have been his +mother. + +Many years later, by the command of her confessor, the good Sister +related the detailed story of his conversion. She began very simply by +telling him one day that if he did not accept the true Catholic faith, +he would surely go to hell. He listened to this without any +impatience, and she said it a number of other times, half jokingly +perhaps, but much more than half in earnest. As he listened so kindly, +she said to him one day that he must pray every day to God to let him +know the truth. This he promised to do and, as she found out from his +servant (what is it these nuns do not find out?) he did pray every +evening. One day, while he was in the apothecary shop, the Angelus +bell rang, and she asked him to say the Angelus. He was perfectly +willing to say the first part of the Hail Mary, but he did not want to +say the second part, as he did not believe in the invocation of the +Blessed Virgin and the saints. Then she asked him to visit the Church +of the Blessed Virgin, the Santissima Nunziata, which he did. After +this she suggested to him that he should abstain from meat on Fridays +and Saturdays, which he promised to do, and which the good nun found +out once more from his servant, he actually did do. And then the +religious thought it was time to suggest that he should consult a +clergyman, and his conversion was not long delayed. + +Young Stensen seems to have been the object {152} of solicitude on the +part of a number of the good, elderly women with whom he was brought +in contact. He discussed with Signora Arnolfini the great difficulty +he had in believing the mystery of the Eucharist. Another good woman, +the Signora Lavinia Felice, seeing how interested he was in things +Catholic, succeeded in bringing him to the notice of a prominent +Jesuit in Florence. As his friend, Sister Maria Flavia, had +recommended the same Father to him, he followed the advice all the +more readily, and it was not long before his last doubts were solved. + +It was after his conversion that Stensen received his invitation to +become the professor of anatomy at the University of Copenhagen. Much +as he had become attached to Florence, the thought of returning to his +native city was sweet; and then besides he hoped that he might be able +to influence his countrymen in their views toward the Catholic Church. +It was not long, however, before the bigotry of his compatriots made +life so unpleasant for him in Copenhagen that he resigned his position +and returned to Italy. Various official posts in Florence were open +for him, but now he had resolved to devote himself to the service of +the Church, and so he became a priest. His contemporary, the Cardinal +Archbishop of Florence, said with regard to him: "Already as a member +of a Protestant sect he had lived a life of innocence and had +practised all the moral virtues. After his conversion he had marked +out for himself so severe a method of life and had {153} remained so +true to it that in a very short time he reached a high degree of +perfection." The Archbishop does not hesitate to say that he had +become a man of constant union with God and entirely dead to himself. +There was very little hesitation, then, in accepting him as a +candidate for the priesthood, and as his knowledge of theology was +very thorough, most of the delay in raising him to that dignity came +from his own humility and his desire to prepare himself properly for +the privilege. He made the exercises of St. Ignatius as part of his +preparation, and after his ordination it was a source of remark with +how much devotion he said his first and all succeeding Masses. It was +not long before the piety of Stensen's life attracted great attention. +At this time he was in frequent communication with such men as Spinoza +and Leibnitz, the distinguished philosophers. It is curious to think +of the ardent mystic, the pantheistic philosopher, and the speculative +scientist, so different in character, having many interests in common. + +It was during these years in Italy that Stensen did what must be +considered, undoubtedly, his most important work, even more important, +if possible, than his anatomical discoveries. This was his foundation +of the science of geology. As has been well said in a prominent +text-book of geology, his book on this subject sets him in that group +of men who as prophets of science often run far ahead of their times +to point out the path which later centuries will follow in the road of +{154} knowledge. It is rather surprising to find that the seventeenth +century must enjoy the privilege of being considered the cradle of +geological knowledge. There is no doubt, however, that the great +principles of the science were laid down in Stensen's little book, +which he intended only to be an introduction to a more extensive work, +but the latter was unfortunately never completed, nor, indeed, so far +as we are able to decide now, ever seriously begun. + +One of the basic principles of the science of geology Stensen taught +as follows: "If a given body of definite form, produced according to +the laws of nature, be carefully examined, it will show in itself the +place and manner of its origin." This principle he showed would apply +so comprehensively that the existence of many things, hitherto +apparently inexplicable, became rather easy of solution. It must not +be forgotten that before this time two explanations for the existence +of peculiar bodies, or of ordinary bodies, in peculiar places, had +been offered. According to one school of thought, the fossils found +deep in the earth, or sometimes in the midst of rocks, had been +created there. It was as if the creative force had run beyond the +ordinary bounds of nature and had produced certain things, ordinarily +associated with life, even in the midst of dead matter. The other +explanation suggested was that the flood had in its work of +destruction upon earth caused many anomalous displacements of living +things, and had buried some of the {155} animals under such +circumstances that later they were found even beneath rocks, or deep +down in the earth, far beyond where the animals could be supposed to +have penetrated by any ordinary means during life. + +Stensen had observed very faithfully the various strata that are to be +found wherever special appearances of the earth's surface were +exposed, or wherever deep excavations were made. His explanation of +how these various strata are formed will serve to show, perhaps better +than anything else, how far advanced he was in his realization of +ideas that are supposed to belong only to modern geology. He said: +"The powdery layers of the earth's surface must necessarily at some +time have been held in suspension in water, from which they were +precipitated by their own weight. The movement of the fluid scattered +the precipitate here and there and gave to it a level surface." + +"Bodies of considerable circumference," Stensen continues, "which are +found in the various layers of the earth, followed the laws of gravity +as regards their position and their relations to one another. The +powdery material of the earth's strata took on so completely the form +of the bodies which it surrounded that even the smallest apertures +became filled up and the powdery layer fitted accurately to the +surface of the object and even took something of its polish." + +With regard to the composition of the various strata of the earth, the +father of geology {156} considered that if in a layer of rock all the +portions are of the same kind there is no reason to deny that such a +layer came into existence at the time of creation, when the whole +surface of the earth was covered with fluid. If, however, in any one +stratum portions of another stratum are found, or if the remains of +plants or animals occur, there is no doubt that such a stratum had not +its origin at the time of creation, but came into existence later. + +If there is to be found in a stratum traces of sea salt, or the +remains of sea animals, or portions of vessels, or such like objects, +which are only to be encountered at the bottom of the sea, then it +must be considered that this portion of the earth's surface once was +below the sea level, though it may happen that this occurred only by +the accident of a flood of some kind. The great distance from the sea, +or other body of water, at the present time, may be due to the sinking +of the water level in the neighborhood, or by the rising up of a +mountain from some internal terrestrial cause in the interval of time. +He continues:-- + + If one finds in any layer remains of branches of trees, or herbs, + then it is only right to conclude that these objects were brought + together because of flood or of some such condition in the place + where they are now found. If in a layer coal and ashes and burnt + clay or other scorched bodies are found, then it seems sure that + some place in the neighborhood of a watercourse a fire took place, + and this is all the more sure when the whole layer consists of ashes + and {157} coal. Whenever in the same place the material of which all + the layers is composed is the same, there seems to be no doubt that + the fluid to which the stratum owes its origin did not at different + times obtain different material for its building purposes. + +In respect to the mountains and their formation, Stensen said very +definitely:-- + + All the mountains which we see now have not existed from the + beginning of things. Mountains do not, however, grow as do plants. + The stones of which mountains are composed have only a certain + analogy with the bones of animals, but have no similarity in + structure or in origin, nor have they the same function and purpose. + Mountain ranges, or chains of mountains as some prefer to call them, + do not always run in certain directions, though this has sometimes + been claimed. Such claims correspond neither to reason nor to + observation. Mountains may be very much disturbed in the course of + years. Mountain peaks rise and fall somewhat. Chasms open and shut + here and there in them, and though there are those who pretend that + it is only the credulous who will accept the stories of such + happenings, there is no doubt that they have been established on + trustworthy evidence. + +In the course of his observations in Italy, Stensen had seen many +mussel shells, which had been gathered from various layers of the +earth's surface. With regard to the shells themselves, he said that +there could be no doubt that they had come as the excretion of the +mantle of the mussel, and that the differences that could be noted in +them were in accordance with the varying forms of these animals. He +pointed out, however, that some of the mussel shells found in {158} +strata of rock were really mussel shells in every respect as regards +the material of which they were composed as well as their interior +structure and their external form, so that there could be no possible +question of their origin. On the other hand, a certain number of the +so-called mussel shells were not composed of the ordinary materials of +which such shells are usually made up; but had indeed only the +external form of genuine shells. Stensen considered, however, that +even these must be regarded as originating in real mussel shells, the +original substance having been later on replaced by other material. He +explained this replacement process in very much the same way that we +now suggest the explanation of various processes of petrification. +There is no doubt that in this he went far beyond his contemporaries, +and pointed out very clearly what was to be the teaching of +generations long after his own. + +The same principles he applied to mussel shells, Stensen considered +must have their application also to all other portions of animal +bodies, teeth, bones, whole skeletons, and even more perishable animal +materials that might be found buried in the earth's strata. His +treatment of the question of the remains of plants was quite as +satisfactory as that of the animals. He distinguished between the +impressions of plants, the petrification of plants, the carbonization +of plants, and then dwelt somewhat on the tendency of certain minerals +to form dendrites, that is, branching {159} processes which look not +unlike plants. He pointed out how easy it is to be deceived by these +appearances, and stated very clearly the distinction between real +plants and such simulated ones. + +It will be scarcely necessary for us to apologize for having given so +much space to Stensen's work on geology. Many distinguished +scientists, however, have insisted that no greater advance at the +birth of a science was ever made than that which Stensen accomplished +in his geological work. Hoffman says that after carefully studying the +work, he has come to the conclusion that of the successors of Stensen, +no student of the mountains down to Werner's day had succeeded in +comprehending so many fruitful points of view in geology. None of his +great successors in geology has succeeded in introducing so many new +ideas into the science as the first great observer. For several +centuries most of his successors in geology remained far behind him in +creative genius, and so there is little progress worth while noting in +the knowledge of the method of earth formation, until almost the +beginning of the nineteenth century, though his little book was +written in 1668 and 1669. + +Leibnitz regretted very much that Stensen did not complete his work on +geology as he originally intended. Had he succeeded in gathering +together all of his original observations, illustrated by the material +he had collected, his work would have had much greater effect. As it +was, the golden truth which he had expressed in such {160} few words, +without being able always to state just how he had come to his +conclusions, was only of avail to science in a limited way. Men had to +repeat his observations long years afterwards in order to realize the +truth of what he had laid down. Leibnitz considered that it took more +than a century for geological science to reach the point at which it +had been left by Steno's work, and which he had reached at a single +bound. There is scarcely a single modern geologist interested at all +in the history of the science who has not paid a worthy tribute to +Steno's great basic discoveries in the science. It was not a matter +for surprise, then, that the International Congress of Geologists +which met at Bologna in 1881 assembled at his tomb in Florence in +order to do him honor, after the regular sessions of the Congress had +closed. They erected to his memory a tablet with the following +scription: + + "Nicolae Stenonis imaginem vides hospes quam aere collato docti + amplius mille ex universo terrarum orbe insculpendam curarunt in + memoriam ejus diei IV cal. Octobr. an. MDCCCLXXXI quo geologi post + conventum Bononiae habitum praeside Joanne Capellinio equite hue + peregrinati sunt atque adstantibus legatis flor Municipii et R. + Instituti Altiorum doctrinarum cineres viri inter geologos et + anatomicos praestantissimi in hujus templi hypogaeo laurea corona + honoris gratique animi ergo honestaverunt." [Footnote 12] + + [Footnote 12: You behold here, traveller, the bust of Nicholas + Steno as it was set up by more than a thousand scientists from all + over the world, as a memorial to him, on the fourth of the Kalends + of October, 1881. The geologists of the world, after their meeting + in Bologna, under the presidency of Count John Capellini, made a + pilgrimage to his tomb, and in the presence of the chosen + representatives of the municipality, and of the learned professors + of the University, honored the mortal ashes of this man, + illustrious among geologists and anatomists.] + + +{161} + +Stensen's work brought him in contact with some of the distinguished +men of the seventeenth century, all of whom learned to appreciate his +breadth of intelligence and acuity of judgment. We have already +mentioned his epistolary relation with Spinoza, and have said +something about the controversy with Leibnitz, into which, in spite of +his disinclination to controversy generally, he was drawn by the +circumstances of the time and the solicitation of friends. Another +great thinker of the century with whom he was brought into intimate +relationship was Des Cartes, the distinguished philosopher. In fact, +Des Cartes's system of thought influenced Stensen not a little, and he +felt, when describing the function of muscles in the human body, and +especially when he demonstrated that the heart was a muscle, that the +mechanical notions he was thus introducing into anatomy were likely to +prove confirmatory of Des Cartes's philosophic speculations. Almost +more than any other, Stensen was the father of many ideas that have +since become common, with regard to the physics of the human body and +its qualities as a machine. + +With his breadth of view, from familiarity {162} with the progress of +science generally in his time, Steno's discussions of the reason for +the lack of exact knowledge and for the prevalence of error, in spite +of enthusiastic investigation, are worth while appreciating. He +considered that the reason why so many portions of natural science are +still in doubt is that in the investigation of natural objects no +careful distinction is made between what is known to a certainty and +what is known only with a certain amount of assurance. He discusses +the question of deductive and inductive science, and considers that +even those who depend on experience will not infrequently be found in +error, because their conclusions are wider than their premises, and +because it only too often happens that they admit principles as true +for which they have no sure evidence. Stensen considered it important, +therefore, not to hurry on in the explanation of things, but, so far +as possible, to cling to old-time principles that had been universally +accepted, since nearly always these would be found to contain fruitful +germs of truth. + +He was universally acknowledged as one of the greatest original +thinkers of his time, and his conversion to the Church did much to +dissipate religious prejudices among those of German nationality. His +influence over distinguished visitors who came to Florence, and who +were very glad to have the opportunity of making his acquaintance, was +such that not a few Northern visitors became, like himself, converts +to the Church. + +{163} + +It was in the midst of this that the request of the Duke of Hanover +came that he should consent to become the bishop of his capital city. +It was only after Stensen had been put under holy obedience that he +would consent to accept the proffered dignity. His first thought was +to distribute all his goods among the poor, and betake himself even +without shoes on his feet, on a pedestrian journey to Rome. First, +however, he made a pilgrimage to Loretto, where he arrived so overcome +by the fatigue of the journey that the clergyman who took care of him +while there, insisted on his accepting a pair of shoes from him, +though he could not prevail upon him to travel in any other way than +on foot. + +His first action, after his consecration as bishop, was to write a +letter, sending his episcopal benediction to Sister Maria Flavia, to +whom he felt he owed the great privilege of his life. His lasting +sense of satisfaction and consolation in his change of religion may be +appreciated from what is, perhaps, the most interesting personal +document that we have from Stensen's own hand, in which, on the +eighteenth anniversary of his conversion, he writes to a friend to +describe his feelings. "To-morrow," he says, "I shall finish, God +willing, the eighteenth year of my happy life as a member of the +Church. I wish to acknowledge once more my thankfulness for the part +which you took under God in my conversion. As I hope to have the grace +to be grateful to Him forever, so I sigh for the opportunity to +express {164} my thankfulnes to you and your family. I can feel that +my own ingratitude toward God, my slowness in His service, make me +unworthy of His graces; but I hope that you who have helped me to +enter his service will not cease to pray, so that I may obtain pardon +for the past and grace for the future, in order in some measure to +repay all the favors that have been conferred on me." + +The distinguishing characteristic of his life as a bishop was his +insistence on poverty as the principal element of his existence. He +refused to enter his diocese in state in the carriage which the Duke +offered to provide for him, but proceeded there on foot. No question +of supposed dignity could make him employ a number of servants, and +his only retainers were converts made by himself, who helped in the +household and whom he treated quite as equals. He became engaged in +one controversy on religious matters, but said that he did not +consider that converts had ever been made by controversies. He +compared it, indeed, to the gladiatorial contests in which the +contestants had their heads completely enveloped in armor, so as to +prevent any possible penetration of the weapons of an opponent. He +insisted especially that in religious controversies the contending +parties do not realize the significance given to words by each other, +and that therefore no good can result. + +After a time, Stensen did not find his work in Hamburg very +satisfactory, because it was typically a missionary country, and the +Jesuit {165} missionaries who had been introduced were accomplishing +all that could be hoped for. Accordingly, when the Duke of +Mecklenburg-Schwerin became a convert to the Catholic Church, and +asked that Stensen should be sent as a bishop into his dukedom, the +request was complied with. Here, in the hardest kind of labor as a +missionary, and in the midst of poverty that was truly apostolic, +Stensen worked out the remaining years of his life. At his death he +was looked upon as almost a saint. Notwithstanding his close +relationship with two reigning princes, he did not leave enough +personal effects to defray the expenses of his funeral. Besides his +bishop's ring, and the very simple episcopal cross he wore, he had +nothing of any value except some relics of St. Francis Xavier, St. +Ignatius Loyola, and St. Philip Neri, which he had prized above all +other treasures. + +His missionary labors had not been marked by any very striking success +in the number of converts made. In this his life would seem to have +been a bitter personal disappointment. He never looked upon it as +such, however, but continued to be eminently cheerful and friendly +until the end. As a matter of fact, the influence of his career was to +be felt much more two centuries after his death than during his +lifetime. At the present moment, his life is well known in northern +Germany, thanks to the biographic sketch written by Father Plenkers +for the _Stimmen aus Maria Laach_, which has been very widely {166} +circulated since its appearance in 1884. Something of the reaction +among scientific minds in Germany toward a healthier orthodoxy of +feeling, with regard to great religious questions, is undoubtedly due +to the spread of the knowledge of the career of the great anatomist +and geologist who gave up his scientific work for the sake of the +spread of the higher truth. + +After his death the Medici family asked for and obtained the privilege +of having his body buried in San Lorenzo at Florence, with the members +of the princely Medici house. More and more do visitors realize that +the tablet over his remains chronicles the death of a man who was +undoubtedly one of the world's great scientists, and one of the most +original thinkers of his time, and that time a period greatly fertile +in the history of science. + +{167} + +VII. + +ABBE HAUeY, FATHER OF CRYSTALLOGRAPHY. + + +{168} + +They continue this day as they were created, perfect in number and +measure and weight, and from the ineffaceable characters impressed on +them we may learn that those aspirations after accuracy in +measurement, truth in statement, and justice in action, which we +reckon among our noblest attributes as men, are ours because they are +essential constituents of the image of Him who in the beginning +created not only heaven and earth, but the materials of which heaven +and earth consist.--CLERK MAXWELL _On the Molecule_, "Nature," Vol. +VIII. 1873. + + + +[Illustration: RENE JUST HAUeY] + + +{169} + +VII. + +ABBE HAUeY, [Footnote 13] FATHER OF CRYSTALLOGRAPHY + + [Footnote 13: Pronounced a-ue (Century Dictionary), Nearly + Represented By _ah-we_.] + +Modern learning is gradually losing something of the self-complacency +that characterized it in so constantly harboring the thought that the +most important discoveries in physical science came in the nineteenth +century. A more general attention to critical history has led to the +realization that many of the primal discoveries whose importance made +the development of modern science possible, came in earlier centuries, +though their full significance was not then fully appreciated. The +foundations of most of our modern sciences were, indeed, laid in the +eighteenth century, but some of them came much earlier. It is genius +alone that is able to break away from established traditions of +knowledge, and, stepping across the boundary into the unknown, blaze a +path along which it will be easy for subsequent workers to follow. +Only in recent years has the due meed of appreciation for these great +pioneers become part of the precious traditions of scientific +knowledge. + +We have seen that clergymen were great original investigators in +science in the older times and we shall find, though it may be a +source of {170} astonishment to most people that even our modern +science has had some supreme original workers, during the last two +centuries, in the ranks of the Catholic clergy. + +The eighteenth century was not behind the seventeenth in original +contributions made to science by clergymen. About the middle of the +century, a Premonstratensian monk, Procopius Dirwisch by name, of the +little town of Prenditz in Bohemia, demonstrated the identity of +electrical phenomena with lightning, thus anticipating the work of our +own Franklin. Dirwisch dared to set up a lightning-conductor, by which +during thunderstorms he obtained sparks from clouds, and also learned +to appreciate the danger involved in this experiment. When, in 1751, +he printed his article on this subject, he pointed out this danger. +His warning, however, was not always heeded, and at least one +subsequent experimenter was struck dead by a charge of electricity. + +Just at the junction of the last two centuries, Father Piazzi enriched +the realm of science by one of the most important of modern +discoveries in astronomy. On the night of 31 December, 1800--1 +January, 1801, he discovered the little planet Ceres. This was the +first of the asteroids, so many more of which were to be revealed to +astronomical study during the next half-century. Father Piazzi's +discovery was made, not by accident, but as the result of detailed +astronomical work of the most painstaking character. He {171} had set +out to make a map of the heavens, and to determine and locate the +absolute position of all the visible stars. He had succeeded in +cataloguing over 7,000 stars when his attention was called to one, +hitherto supposed to be fixed, which he found had moved, during the +interval between two observations, from its original position. He made +still other observations, and thus determined the fact that it was a +planetoid and not a fixed star with which he had to deal. Needless to +say, his discovery proved a strong incentive to patient astronomical +study of the same kind; and it is to these, rather than to great +single discoveries, that we owe whatever progress in astronomy was +made during the nineteenth century. + +Contemporary with both of these last-mentioned men, and worthy to +share in the scientific honors that were theirs, was the Abbe Hauey, +who toward the end of the second half of the eighteenth century +founded the science of crystallography; made a series of observations +the value of which can never be disputed, originated theories some of +which have served down to our own time as the basis of crystal +knowledge, and attracted the attention of many students to the new +science because of his charming personal character and his winning +teaching methods. His life is a typical example of the value of work +done in patient obscurity, founded on observation, and not on +brilliant theories; and what he accomplished stamps him as one of the +great {172} scientific geniuses of all time--one of the men who +widened the bounds of knowledge in directions hitherto considered +inaccessible to the ordinary methods of human investigation. + +It is a commonplace of the lecturer on popular science at the present +day, that the impulse to the development of our modern scientific +discoveries which became so marked toward the end of the eighteenth +century, was due in a noteworthy degree to the work of the French +Encyclopedists. Their bringing together of all the details of +knowledge in a form in which it could be readily consulted, and in +which previous progress and the special lines of advance could be +realized, might be expected to prove a fruitful source of suggestive +investigation. As a matter of fact, however, a detailed knowledge of +the past in science often seems to be rather a hindrance than a help +to original genius, always prone to take its own way if not too much +disturbed by the conventional knowledge already gained. Most of the +great discoverers in science were comparatively young men when they +began their careers as original investigators; and it was apparently +their freedom from the incubus of too copious information that left +their minds untrammelled to follow their own bent in seeking for +causes where others had failed to find any hints of possible +developments. + +This was certainly the case with regard to many of those distinguished +founders who lived in centuries prior to the nineteenth. Most of {173} +them were men under thirty years of age, and not one of them had been +noted, before he began his own researches, for the extent of his +knowledge in the particular department of science in which his work +was to prove so fruitful. Their lives illustrate the essential +difference there is between theory and observation in science. The +theorizer reaches conclusions that are popular as a rule in his own +generation, and receives the honor due to a progressive scientist; the +observer usually has his announcements of what he has actually seen +scouted by those who are engaged in the same studies, and it is only +succeeding generations who appreciate how much he really accomplished. + +This was especially exemplified in the case of the Abbe Hauey, whose +work in crystallography was to mean so much. What he learned was not +from books, but from contact with the actual objects of his department +of science; and it is because the example of a life like this can +scarcely fail to serve a good purpose for the twentieth-century +student, in impressing the lesson of the value of observation as +opposed to theory, that its details are retold. + +Rene Just Hauey was born 28 February, 1743, in the little village of +Saint-Just, in the Department of Oise, somewhat north of the center of +France. Like many another great genius, he was the son of very poor +parents. His father was a struggling linen-weaver, who was able to +support himself only with difficulty. At first {174} there seemed to +be no other prospect for his eldest son than to succeed to his +father's business. Certainly there seemed to be no possibility that he +should be able to gain his livelihood by any other means than by the +work of his hands. + +Fortunately, however, there was in Hauey's native town a +Premonstratensian monastery, and it was not long before some of the +monks began to notice that the son of the weaver was of an especially +pious disposition and attended church ceremonies very faithfully. The +chance was given to him to attend the monastery school, and he +succeeded admirably in his studies. As a consequence, the prior had +his attention directed to the boy, and found in him the signs of a +superior intelligence. He summoned the lad's parents and discussed +with them the possibility of obtaining for their son an education. +There were many difficulties in the way, but the principal one was +their absolute financial inability to help him. If the son was to +obtain an education, it must be somehow through his own efforts, and +without any expense to his parents. + +The prior thereupon obtained for young Hauey a position as a member of +a church choir in Paris; and, later, some of those to whom he had +recommended the boy secured for him a place in the college of Navarre. +Here, during the course of a few years, he made such an impression +upon the members of the faculty that they asked him to become one of +the teaching corps of the institution. It was a very modest position +that he {175} held, and his salary scarcely more than paid for his +board and clothes and a few books. Hauey was well satisfied, however, +because his position provided him with opportunities for pursuing the +studies for which he cared most. At this time he was interested mainly +in literature, and succeeded in learning several languages, which were +to be of considerable use to him later on in his scientific career. + +After some years spent in the college of Navarre he was ordained +priest, and not long afterward became a member of the faculty of the +college of Cardinal Lemoine. Here his position was somewhat better, +and he was brought in contact with many of the prominent scholars of +Paris. He seems, however, to have been quite contented in his rather +narrow circle of interests, and was not specially anxious to advance +himself. It is rather curious to realize that a man who was later to +spend all his time in the pursuit of the physical sciences, knew +practically nothing at all about them, and certainly had no special +interest in any particular branch of science, until he reached the age +of almost thirty years. + +Even then his first introduction to serious science did not come +because of any special interest that had been aroused in his own mind, +but entirely because of his friendship for a distinguished old +fellow-professor, whose walks he used to share, and who was deeply +interested in botany. This was the Abbe Lhomond, a very {176} +well-known scholar, to whom we owe a number of classic text-books +arranged especially for young folk. + +The Abbe's recreation consisted in botanizing expeditions; and Hauey, +who had chosen the kindly old priest as his spiritual director, was +his most frequent companion. Occasionally, when M. Lhomond was ailing, +and unable to take his usual walks, Hauey spent the time with him. He +rather regretted the fact that he did not know enough about botany to +be able to make collections of certain plants to bring to the +professor at such times, in order that the latter might not entirely +miss his favorite recreation. Accordingly, one summer when he was on +his vacation at his country home, he asked one of the +Premonstratensian monks, who was very much interested in botany, to +teach him the principles of the science, so as to enable him to +recognize various plants. Of course his request was granted. He +expected to have a pleasant surprise for Abbe Lhomond on his return, +and to draw even closer in his friendly relations with him, because of +their mutual interest in what the old Abbe called his _scientia +amabilis_ (lovely science). His little plan worked to perfection, and +there was won for the study of physical science a new recruit, who was +to do as much as probably any one of his generation to extend +scientific knowledge in one department, though that department was +rather distant from botany. + +Hauey's interest in botany, however, was to {177} prove only temporary. +It brought him in contact with other departments of natural history, +and it was not long before he found that his favorite study was that +of minerals, and especially of the various forms of crystals. So +absorbed did he become in this subject that nothing pleased him better +than the opportunity to spend long days in the investigation of the +comparative size and shape of the crystals in the museum at Paris. A +friend has said of him that, whether they were the most precious +stones and gems or the most worthless specimens of ordinary minerals, +it was always only their crystalline shape that interested Hauey. +Diamonds he studied, but only in order to determine their angles; and +apparently they had no more attraction for him than any other +well-defined crystal--much less, indeed, than some of the more complex +crystalline varieties, which attracted his interest because of the +difficulty of the problems they presented. + +Like many another advance in science, Hauey's first great original step +in crystallography was the result of what would be called a lucky +accident. These accidents, however, be it noted, happen only to +geniuses who are capable of taking advantage of them. How many a man +had seen an apple fall from a tree before this little circumstance +gave Newton the hint from which grew, eventually, the laws of gravity! +Many a man, doubtless, had seen little boys tapping on logs of wood, +to hear how well sound was {178} carried through a solid body, without +getting from this any hint, such as Laennec derived from it, for the +invention of the stethoscope. So, too, many a person before Hauey's +time had seen a crystal fall and break, leaving a smooth surface, +without deriving any hint for the explanation of the origin of +crystals. + +According to the familiar story, Hauey was one day looking over a +collection of very fine crystals in the house of Citizen Du Croisset, +Treasurer of France. He was examining an especially fine specimen of +calcspar, when it fell from his hands and was broken. Of course the +visitor was much disturbed by this accident. His friend, however, in +order to show him that he was not at all put out at the breaking of +the crystal, insisted on Hauey's taking it with him for purposes of +study, as they had both been very much interested in the perfectly +smooth plane of the fracture. As Hauey himself says, this broken +portion had a peculiarly brilliant lustre, "polished, as it were by +nature," as beautifully as the outer portions of the crystal; thus +demonstrating that in building up of so large a crystal there must +have been certain steps of progress, at any of which, were the +formation arrested, smooth surfaces would be found. + +On taking the crystal home, Hauey proceeded further to break up the +smaller fragment; and he soon found that he could remove slice after +slice of it, until there was no trace of the original prism, but in +place of it a rhomboid, {179} perfectly similar to Iceland spar, and +lying in the middle of what was the original prism. This fact seemed +to him very important. From it he began the development of a theory of +crystallization, using this observation as the key. Before this time +it had been hard for students of mineralogy to understand how it was +that substances of the same composition might yet have what seemed to +be different crystalline forms. Calcspar, for instance, might be found +crystallized in forms, apparently, quite at variance with one another. + +By his studies, however, Hauey was able to determine that whenever +substances of the same composition crystallized, even though the +external form of the crystals seemed to be different, all of them were +found to have the same internal nucleus. Whenever the mineral under +observation was chemically different from another, then the nucleus +also had a distinctive character; and so there came the law that all +substances of the same kind crystallized in the same way, +notwithstanding apparent differences. Indeed, one of the first results +of this law was the recognition of the fact that when the crystalline +forms of two minerals were essentially different, then, no matter how +similar they might be, there was sure to be some chemical difference. +This enabled Hauey to make certain prophecies with regard to the +composition of minerals. + +A number of different kinds of crystals had been classed together +under the name of {180} heavyspar. Some of these could not, by the +splitting process, be made to produce _nuclei_ of similar forms, and +the angles of the crystals were quite different. Hauey insisted that, +in spite of close resemblances, there was an essential distinction in +the chemical composition of these two different crystalline +formations; and before long careful investigation showed that, while +many of the specimens called heavyspar contain barium, some of them +contain a new substance--strontium--which had been very little +studied heretofore. This principle did not prove to be absolute in its +application; but the amount of truth in it attracted attention to the +subject of crystallography because of the help which that science +would afford in the easy recognition of the general chemical +composition of mineral substances. The most important part of Hauey's +work was the annunciation of the law of symmetry. He emphasized the +fact that the forms of crystals are not irregular or capricious, but +are very constant and definite, and founded on absolutely fixed and +ascertainable laws. He even showed that, while from certain +crystalline nuclei sundry secondary forms may be derived, there are +other forms that cannot by any possibility occur. Any change of +crystalline form noticed in his experiments led to a corresponding +change along all similar parts of the crystal. The angles, the edges, +the faces, were modified in the same way, at the same time. All these +elements of mensuration within the crystal Hauey thought could be +indicated by rational coefficients. + +{181} + +Crystallography, however, did not absorb all Hauey's attention. He +further demonstrated his intellectual power by following out other +important lines of investigation that had been suggested by his study +of crystals. It is to him more than to any other, for instance, that +is due the first steps in our knowledge of pyro-(or thermo-) +electricity. Mr. George Chrystal, professor of mathematics at the +University of St. Andrews, in the article on electricity written for +the ninth edition of the Encyclopedia, says it was reserved for the +Abbe Hauey in his Treatise on Mineralogy to throw a clear light on this +curious branch of the science of electricity. + +To those who are familiar with the history of the development of this +science it will be no surprise to find a clergyman playing a prominent +role in its development. During the days of the beginning of +electricity many ecclesiastics seem to have been particularly +interested in the curious ways of electrical phenomena, and as a +consequence they are the original discoverers of some of the most +important early advances. Not long before this, Professor Gordon, a +Scotch Benedictine monk who was teaching at the University of Erfurt, +constructed the first practical electrical machine. Kleist, who is one +of the three men to whom is attributed the discovery of the principle +of storing and concentrating electricity, and who invented the Leyden +Jar, which was named after the town where it was first manufactured, +was also a member of a Religious Order. As {182} we have already +stated, Dirwisch, the Premonstratensian monk, set up a +lightning-conductor by which he obtained sparks from the clouds even +before our own Franklin. + +Abbe Hauey was only following a very common precedent, then, when he +succeeded by his original research in setting the science of +pyro-electricity firmly on its feet. It is true, others before him had +noted that substances like tourmaline possessed electrical properties. +There is even some good reason for thinking that the _lyncurium_ of +the ancients which, according to certain of the Greek philosophers, +especially Theophrastus, who seems to have made a close study of the +subject, attracted light bodies, was really our modern tourmaline. In +modern times the Dutch found this mineral in Ceylon and, because it +attracted ashes and other light substances to itself, called it +_aschentriker_--that is, attractor of ashes. Others had still further +experimented with this curious substance and its interesting +electrical phenomena. It remained for Abbe Hauey, however, to +demonstrate the scientific properties of tourmaline and the relations +which its electrical phenomena bore toward the crystalline structure +of the mineral. He showed that the electricity of tourmaline decreases +rapidly from the summits or poles toward the middle of the crystal. As +a matter of fact, at the middle of the crystal its electrical power +becomes imperceptible. + +He showed also that each particle of a crystal {183} that exhibits +pyro-electricity is itself a source of the same sort of electricity +and exhibits polarity. His experimental observations served to prove +also that the pyro-electric state has an important connexion with the +want of symmetry in the crystals of the substances that exhibit this +curious property. In tourmaline, for instance, he found the vitreous +charge always at the summit of the crystal which had six faces, and +the resinous electricity at the summit of the crystal with three +faces. + +His experiments soon showed him, too, that there were a number of +other substances, besides tourmaline, which possessed this same +electrical property when subjected to heat in the crystalline stage. +Among these were the Siberian and Brazilian topaz, borate of magnesia, +mesotype, sphene, and calamine. In all of these other pyro-electrical +crystals, Hauey detected a corresponding deviation from the rules of +symmetry in their secondary crystals to that which occurs in +tourmaline. In a word, after he had concluded his experiments and +observations there was very little left for others to add to this +branch of science, although such distinguished men as Sir David +Brewster in England were among his successors in the study of the +peculiar phenomena of pyro-electricity. + +It may naturally enough be thought that, born in the country, of poor +parents, and compelled to work for his living, Hauey would at least +have the advantage of rugged health to help him in his {184} career. +He had been a delicate child, however; and his physical condition +never improved to such an extent as to inure him to hardships of any +kind. One of his biographers has gone so far as to say that his life +was one long malady. The only distraction from his almost constant +suffering was his studies. Yet this man lived to be nearly eighty +years of age, and accomplished an amount of work that might well be +envied even by the hardiest. + +In the midst of his magnificent success as a scientist, Hauey was +faithful to all his obligations as a priest. His name was known +throughout Europe, and many of the scientific societies had considered +that they were honoring themselves by conferring titles, or degrees, +upon him; but he continued to be the humble, simple student that he +had always been. + +At the beginning of the Revolution, Abbe Hauey was among the priests +who refused the oath which the Republican government insisted on their +taking, and which so many of them considered derogatory to their duty +as churchmen. Those who refused were thrown into prison, Hauey among +them. He did not seem to mind his incarceration much, but he was not a +little perturbed by the fact that the officers who made the arrest +insisted on taking his precious papers, and that his crystals were all +tossed aside and many of them broken. For some time he was kept in +confinement with a number of other members of the faculty of the +University, mainly {185} clergymen, in the Seminary of St. Firmin, +which had been turned into a temporary jail. + +Hauey did not allow his studies to be entirely interrupted by his +imprisonment. He succeeded in obtaining permission to have his +cabinets of crystals brought to his cell, and he continued his +investigation of them. It was not long before powerful friends, and +especially his scientific colleague, Gregory St. Hilaire, interested +themselves in his case, and succeeded in obtaining his liberation. +When the order for his release came, however, Hauey was engaged on a +very interesting problem in crystallography, and he refused to +interrupt his work and leave the prison. It was only after +considerable persuasion that he consented to go the next morning. It +may be added that only two weeks later many from this same prison were +sent to the guillotine. + +It is rather remarkable that the Revolutionary government, after his +release, did not disturb him in any way. He was so much occupied with +his scientific pursuits that he seems to have been considered +absolutely incapable of antagonizing the government; and, as he had no +enemies, he was not denounced to the Convention. This was fortunate, +because it enabled him to pursue his studies in peace. There was many +another member of the faculty of the University who had not the same +good fortune. Lavoisier was thrown into prison, and, in spite of all +the influence that could be brought to bear, the great discoverer of +oxygen met his death by the guillotine. At least {186} two others of +the professors in the physical department, Borda and De Lambre, were +dismissed from their posts. Hauey, though himself a priest who had +refused to take the oath, and though he continued to exercise his +religious functions, did not hesitate to formulate petitions for his +imprisoned scientific friends; yet, because of his well-known +gentleness of character, this did not result in arousing the enmity of +any members of the government, or attracting such odious attention as +might have made his religious and scientific work extremely difficult +or even prevented it entirely. + +Notwithstanding the stormy times of the French Revolution and the +stirring events going on all round him in Paris, Hauey continued to +study his crystals in order to complete his observations; and then he +embodied his investigations and his theories in his famous "Treatise +on Crystallography." This attracted attention not only on account of +the evident novelty of the subject, but more especially because of the +very thorough method with which Hauey had accomplished his work. His +style, says the historian of crystallography, was "perspicuous and +elegant. The volume itself was noteworthy for its clear arrangement +and full illustration by figures." In spite of its deficiencies, then +deficiencies which must exist in any ground-breaking work--this +monograph has had an enduring influence. Some of the most serious +flaws in his theory were soon brought to light because of the very +stimulus afforded by his investigations. + +{187} + +As to the real value of his treatise, perhaps no better estimate can +be formed than that given by Cuvier in his collection of historical +eulogies (Vol. III, p. 155): "In possession of a large collection, to +which there flowed from all sides the most varied minerals, arranged +with the assistance of young, enthusiastic, and progressive students, +it was not long before there was given back to Hauey the time which he +had apparently wasted over other things. In a few years he raised up a +wondrous monument, which brought as much glory to France as it did +somewhat later to himself. After centuries of neglect, his country at +one bound found itself in the first rank in this department of natural +science. In Hauey's book are united in the highest degree two qualities +which are seldom associated. One of these is that it was founded on an +original discovery which had sprung entirely from the genius of its +author; and the other is that this discovery is pursued and developed +with almost unheard-of persistence down even to the least important +mineral variety. Everything in the work is great, both as regards +conception and detail. It is as complete as the theory it announces." + +It was not surprising, then, that, after the death of Professor +Dolomieu, Hauey should be raised to the chair of mineralogy and made +director of that department in the Paris Museum of Natural History. +Here he was to have new triumphs. We have already said that his book +was noted for the elegance of its style and its perspicuity. {188} As +the result of this absolute clearness of ideas, and completeness and +simplicity of expression, Hauey attracted to him a large number of +pupils. Moreover, all those interested in the science, when they came +in contact with him, were so charmed by his grace and simplicity of +manner that they were very glad to attend his lectures and to be +considered as his personal friends. Among his listeners were often +such men as La Place, Berthollet, Fourcroy, Lagrange and Lavoisier. + +It was not long before honors of all kinds, degrees from universities +and memberships in scientific societies all over Europe, began to be +heaped upon Hauey. They did not, however, cause any change in the +manners or mode of life of the simple professor of old times. Every +day he continued to take his little walks through the city, and was +very glad to have opportunity to be of assistance to others. He showed +strangers the way to points of interest for which they inquired, +whenever it was necessary, obtained entrance cards for them to the +collection; and not a few of those who were thus enabled to take +advantage of his kindness failed to realize who the distinguished man +was to whom they owed their opportunities. His old-fashioned clothing +still continued to be quite good enough for him, and his modest +demeanor and simple speech did not betray in any way the distinguished +scientist he had become. + +Some idea of the consideration in which the {189} Abbe Hauey was held +by his contemporaries may be gathered from the fact that several of +the reigning monarchs of Europe, as well as the heirs apparent to many +thrones, came at some time or other to visit him, to see his +collection, and to hear the kindly old man talk on his hobby. There +was only one other scientist in the nineteenth century--and that was +Pasteur, toward the end of it--who attracted as much attention from +royalty. Among Hauey's visitors were the King of Prussia, the Emperor +of Austria, the Archduke John, as well as the Emperor of Russia and +his two brothers, Nicholas and Michael, the first of whom succeeded +his elder brother, Alexander, to the throne, and half a century later +was ruling Russia during the Crimean War. The Prince Royal of Denmark +spent a portion of each year for several years with Hauey, being one of +his intimates, who was admitted to his room while he was confined to +his bed, and who was permitted to share his personal investigations +and scientific studies. + +His most striking characteristic was his suavity toward all. The +humblest of his students was as sure to receive a kindly reception +from him, and to have his difficulties solved with as much patience as +the most distinguished professor in this department. It was said that +he had students of all classes. The attendants at the normal school +were invited to visit him at his house, and he permitted them to learn +all his secrets. When they came to him for a whole {190} day, he +insisted on taking part in their games, and allowed them to go home +only after they had taken supper with him. All of them looked upon him +as a personal friend, and some of them were more confidential with him +than with their nearest relatives. Many a young man in Paris during +the troublous times of the Revolutionary period found in the good Abbe +Hauey not only a kind friend, but a wise director and another father. + +It is said that one day, when taking his usual walk, he came upon two +former soldiers who were just preparing to fight a duel and were on +their way to the dueling ground. He succeeded in getting them to tell +him the cause of their quarrel, and after a time tempted them to come +with him into what I fear we should call at the present day a saloon. +Here, over a glass of wine, he finally persuaded them to make peace +and seal it effectually. It is hard to reconcile this absolute +simplicity of character and kindness of heart with what is sometimes +assumed to be the typical, distant, abstracted, self-centered ways of +the great scientist. + +Few men have had so many proofs of the lofty appreciation of great +contemporaries. Many incidents serve to show how much Napoleon thought +of the distinguished scholar who had created a new department of +science and attracted the attention of the world to his splendid work +at Paris. Not long after he became emperor, Napoleon named him +Honorary Canon of the {191} Cathedral of Notre Dame; and when he +founded the Legion of Honor, he made the Abbe one of the original +members. Shortly after these dignities had been conferred upon him, it +happened that the Abbe fell ill; and Napoleon, having sent his own +physician to him, went personally to call on him in his humble +quarters, saying to the physician: "Remember that you must cure Abbe +Hauey, and restore him to us as one of the glories of our reign." After +Napoleon's return from Elba, he told the Abbe that the latter's +"Treatise on Crystallography" was one of the books that he had +specially selected to take with him to Elba, to while away the leisure +that he thought he would have for many years. Abbe Hauey's independence +of spirit, and his unselfish devotion to his native country, may be +best appreciated from the tradition that after the return from Elba, +when there was a popular vote for the confirmation of Napoleon's +second usurpation, the old scientist voted, No. + +In spite of his constant labor at his investigations, his uniformly +regular life enabled him to maintain his health, and he lived to the +ripe age of over seventy-nine. Toward the end of his career, he did +not obtain the recognition that his labors deserved. After the +Restoration, he was not in favor with the new authorities in France, +and he accordingly lost his position as professor at the University. +The absolute simplicity of life that he had always maintained now +stood him in good stead; and, notwithstanding the {192} smallness of +his income, he did not have to make any change in his ordinary +routine. Unfortunately, an accidental fall in his room at the +beginning of his eightieth year confined him to his bed; and then his +health began to fail very seriously. He died on the 3 June, 1822. + +He had shown during his illness the same gentleness and humility, and +even enthusiasm for study whenever it was possible, that had always +characterized him. While he was confined to his bed he divided his +time between prayer, attention to the new edition of his works which +was about to appear, and his interest for the future of those students +who had helped him in his investigations. Cuvier says of him that "he +was as faithful to his religious duties as he was in the pursuit of +his studies. The profoundest speculations with regard to weighty +matters of science had not kept him from the least important duty +which ecclesiastical regulations might require of him." There is, +perhaps, no life in all the history of science which shows so clearly +how absolutely untrue is the declaration so often made, that there is +essential opposition between the intellectual disposition of the +inquiring scientist and those other mental qualities which are +necessary to enable the Christian to bow humbly before the mysteries +of religion, acknowledge all that is beyond understanding in what has +been revealed, and observe faithfully all the duties that flow from +such belief. + +{193} + +VIII. + +ABBOT MENDEL: A NEW OUTLOOK IN HEREDITY. + + + +There is grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers having +been originally breathed by the Creator into a few forms or into one; +and that, while this planet has gone circling on according to the +fixed law of gravity from so simple a beginning, endless forms, most +beautiful and most wonderful, have been and are being evolved.-- +Closing sentence of DARWIN'S _Origin of Species_. + + +{194} + +[Illustration: GREGOR MENDEL] + + +{195} + + +VIII. + +ABBOT MENDEL, [Footnote 14]: A NEW, OUTLOOK IN HEREDITY. + + [Footnote 14: The portrait of Abbot Mendel which precedes this + sketch was kindly furnished by the Vicar of the Augustinian + Monastery of Bruenn. It represents him holding a fuchsia, his + favorite flower, and was taken in 1867, just as he was completing + the researches which were a generation later to make his name so + famous. The portrait has for this reason a very special interest as + a human document. We may add that the sketch of Abbot Mendel which + appears here was read by the Very Rev. Klemens Janetschek, the + Vicar of the Monastery, who suggested one slight change in it, so + that it may be said to have had the revision of one who knew him and + his environment very well.] + + +Scientific progress does not run in cycles of centuries, and as a rule +it bears no relationship to the conventional arrangement of years. As +has been well said--for science a new century begins every second. +There are interesting coincidences, however, of epoch-making +discoveries in science corresponding with the beginning of definite +eras in time that are at least impressive from a mnemonic standpoint, +if from no other. + +The very eve of the nineteenth century saw the first definite +formulation of the theory of evolution. Lamarck, the distinguished +French biologist, stated a theory of development in nature which, +although it attracted very little attention {196} for many years after +its publication, has come in our day to be recognized as the most +suggestive advance in biology in modern times. + +As we begin the twentieth century, the most interesting question in +biology is undoubtedly that of heredity. Just at the dawn of the +century three distinguished scientists, working in different +countries, rediscovered a law with regard to heredity which promises +to be even more important for the science of biology in the twentieth +century than was Lamarck's work for the nineteenth century. This law, +which, it is thought, will do more to simplify the problems of +heredity than all the observations and theories of nineteenth-century +workers, and which has already done much more to point out the methods +by which observation, and the lines along which experimentation shall +be best directed so as to replace elaborate but untrustworthy +scientific theorizing by definite knowledge, was discovered by a +member of a small religious community in the little-known town of +Bruenn, in Austria, some thirty-five years before the beginning of the +present century. + +Considering how generally, in English-speaking countries at least, it +is supposed that the training of a clergyman and particularly that of +a religious unfits him for any such initiative in science, Father +Mendel's discovery comes with all the more emphatic surprise. There is +no doubt, however, in the minds of many of the most prominent +present-day workers in biology that his {197} discoveries are of a +ground-breaking character that will furnish substantial foundation for +a new development of scientific knowledge with regard to heredity. + +Lest it should be thought that perhaps there is a tendency to make +Father Mendel's discovery appear more important here than it really +is, because of his station in life, it seems desirable to quote some +recent authoritative expressions of opinion with regard to the value +of his observations and the importance of the law he enunciated, as +well as the principle which he considered to be the explanation of +that law. + +In the February number of _Harper's Monthly_ for 1903, Professor +Thomas Hunt Morgan, Professor of Biology at Bryn Mawr, and one of the +best known of our American biologists, whose recent work on +"Regeneration" has attracted favorable notice all over the world, +calls attention to the revolutionary character of Mendel's discovery. +He considers that recent demonstrations of the mathematical truth of +Mendel's Law absolutely confirm Mendel's original observations, and +the movement thus initiated, in Professor Morgan's eyes, gives the +final _coup de grace_ to the theory of natural selection. "If," he +says, "we reject Darwin's theory of natural selection as an +explanation of evolution, we have at least a new and promising outlook +in another direction and are in a position to answer the oft-heard but +unscientific query of those who must cling to some dogma: if you +reject Darwin, what better have you to offer?" + +{198} + +Professor Edmund B. Wilson, the Director of the Zoological Laboratory +of Columbia University, called attention in _Science_ (19 December, +1902) to the fact that studies in cytology, that is to say, +observations on the formation, development, and maturation of cells, +confirm Mendel's principles of inheritance and thus furnish another +proof of the truth of these principles. + +Two students working in Professor Wilson's laboratory have obtained +definite evidence in favor of the cytological explanation of Mendel's +principles, and have thus made an important step in the solution of +one of the important fundamental mysteries of cell development in the +very early life of organisms. + +In a paper read before the American Academy of Arts and Sciences last +year, Professor W. E. Castle, of Harvard University, said with regard +to Mendel's Law of Heredity:-- + + What will doubtless rank as one of the greatest discoveries in the + study of biology, and in the study of heredity, perhaps the + greatest, was made by Gregor Mendel, an Austrian monk, in the garden + of his cloister, some forty years ago. The discovery was announced + in the proceedings of a fairly well-known scientific society, but + seems to have attracted little attention, and to have been soon + forgotten. The Darwinian theory then occupied the centre of the + scientific stage, and Mendel's brilliant discovery was all but + unnoticed for a third of a century. Meanwhile, the discussion + aroused by Weissman's germ plasm theory, in particular the idea of + the non-inheritance of acquired characters, put the scientific + public into a more receptive frame of mind. Mendel's law was + rediscovered {199} independently by three different botanists, + engaged in the study of plant hybrids--de Vries, Correns, and + Tschermak, in the year 1900. It remained, however, for a zoologist, + Bateson, two years later, to point out the full importance and the + wide applicability of the law. Since then the Mendelian discoveries + have attracted the attention of biologists generally. + [Footnote 15] + + [Footnote 15: This paper was originally published in part in the + _Proceedings of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences_, Vol. + xxxviii, No. 18, January, 1903. It may be found complete in + _Science_ for 25 September, 1903.] + + +Professor Bateson, whose book on Mendel's "Principles of Heredity" is +the best popular exposition in English of Mendel's work, says that an +exact determination of the laws of heredity will probably produce more +change in man's outlook upon the world and in his power over nature +than any other advance in natural knowledge that can be clearly +foreseen. No one has better opportunities of pursuing such work than +horticulturists and stockbreeders. They are daily witnesses of the +phenomena of heredity. Their success also depends largely on a +knowledge of its laws, and obviously every increase in that knowledge +is of direct and special importance to them. + +After thus insisting on the theoretic and practical importance of the +subject, Professor Bateson says:-- + + As regards the Mendelian principles which it is the chief aim of + this introduction to present clearly before the reader, it may be + said that by the {200} application of those principles we are + enabled to reach and deal in a comprehensive manner with phenomena + of a fundamental nature, lying at the very root of all conceptions + not merely of the physiology of reproduction and heredity, but even + of the essential nature of living organisms; and I think that I use + no extravagant words when, in introducing Mendel's work to the + notice of the Royal Horticultural Society's Journal, I ventured to + declare that his experiments are worthy to rank with those which + laid the foundation of the atomic laws of chemistry. + +Professor L. H. Bailey, who is the Director of the Horticultural +Department at Cornell University and the editor of the authoritative +_Encyclopedia of Horticulture_, was one of the first of recent +scientists to call attention to Mendel's work. It was, we believe, +because of a reference to Mendel's papers by Bailey that Professor de +Vries was put on the track of Mendel's discoveries and found that the +Austrian monk had completely anticipated the work at which he was then +engaged. In a recent issue of _The Independent_, of New York, +Professor Bailey said:-- + + The teaching of Mendel strikes at the root of two or three difficult + and vital problems. It presents a new conception of the proximate + mechanism of heredity. The hypothesis of heredity that it suggests + will focus our attention along new lines, and will, I believe, + arouse as much discussion as Weissmann's hypothesis, and it is + probable that it will have a wider influence. Whether it expresses + the actual means of heredity or not, it is yet much too early to + say. But the hypothesis (which Father Mendel evolved in order to + explain the reasons for his law as he saw them) is even a {201} + greater contribution to science than the so-called Mendel's Law as + to the numerical results of hybridization. In the general discussion + of evolution Mendel's work will be of the greatest value because it + introduces a new point of view, challenges old ideas and opinions, + gives us a new theory for discussion, emphasizes the great + importance of actual experiments for the solution of many questions + of evolution, and then forces the necessity for giving greater + attention to the real characters and attributes of plants and + animals than to the vague groups that we are in the habit of calling + species. + +It is very evident that a man of whose work so many authorities are +agreed that it is the beginning of a new era in biology, and +especially in that most interesting of all questions, heredity, must +be worthy of close acquaintance. Hence the present sketch of his +career and personality, as far as they are ascertainable, for his +modesty, and the failure of the world to recognize his worth in his +lifetime, have unfortunately deprived us of many details that would +have been precious. + +Gregor Johann Mendel was born 27 July, 1822, at Heinzendorf, nor far +from Odrau, in Austrian Silesia. He was the son of a well-to-do +peasant farmer, who gave him every opportunity of getting a good +education when he was young. He was educated at Olmutz, in Moravia, +and after graduating from the college there, at the age of twenty-one, +he entered as a novice the Augustinian Order, beginning his novitiate +in 1843 in the Augustinian monastery Koenigen-kloster, in Altbruenn. He +was very successful in {202} his theological studies, and in 1846 he +was ordained priest. He seems to have made a striking success as a +teacher, especially of natural history and physics, in the higher +Realschule in Bruenn. He attracted the attention of his superiors, who +were persuaded to give him additional opportunities for the study of +the sciences, particularly of biological science, for which he had a +distinct liking and special talents. + +Accordingly, in 1851 he went to Vienna for the purpose of doing +post-graduate work in the natural sciences at the university there. +During the two years he spent at this institution he attracted +attention by his serious application to study, but apparently without +having given any special evidence of the talent for original +observation that was in him. In 1853 he returned to the monastery in +Altbruenn, and at the beginning of the school year became a teacher at +the Realschule in Bruenn. He remained in Bruenn for the rest of his +life, dying at the comparatively early age of sixty-two, in 1884. +During the last sixteen years of his life he held the position of +abbot of the monastery, the duties of which prevented him from +applying himself as he probably would have desired, to the further +investigation of scientific questions. + +The experiments on which his great discoveries were founded were +carried out in the garden of the monastery during the sixteen years +from 1853 to 1868. How serious was his scientific devotion may be +gathered from the fact that in {203} establishing the law which now +bears his name, and which was founded on observations on peas, some +10,000 plants were carefully examined, their various peculiarities +noted, their ancestry carefully traced, the seeds kept in definite +order and entirely separate, so as to be used for the study of certain +qualities in their descendants, and the whole scheme of +experimentation planned with such detail that for the first time in +the history of studies in heredity, no extraneous and inexplicable +data were allowed to enter the problem. Besides his work on plants, +Mendel occupied himself with other observations of a scientific +character on two subjects which were at that time attracting +considerable attention. These were the state and condition of the +ground-water--a subject which was thought to stand at the basis of +hygienic principles at the time and which had occupied the attention +of the distinguished Professor Pettenkofer and the Munich School of +Hygiene for many years--and weather observations. At that time +Pettenkofer, the most widely known of sanitary scientists, thought +that he was able to show that the curve of frequency of typhoid fever +in the different seasons of the year depended upon the closeness with +which the ground-water came to the surface. Authorities in hygiene +generally do not now accept this supposed law, for other factors have +been found which are so much more important that, if the ground-water +has any influence, it can be neglected. Mendel's observations in the +matter {204} were, however, in line with the scientific ideas of the +time and undoubtedly must be considered of value. + +The other subject in which Mendel interested himself was meteorology. +He published in the journal of the Bruenn Society of Naturalists a +series of statistical observations with regard to the weather. Besides +this he organized in connexion with the Realschule in Bruenn a series +of observation stations in different parts of the country around; and +at the time when most scientists considered meteorological problems to +be too complex for hopeful solution, Mendel seems to have realized +that the questions involved depended rather on the collation of a +sufficient number of observations and the deduction of definite laws +from them than on any theoretic principles of a supposed science of +the weather. + +The man evidently had a genius for scientific observations. His +personal character was of the highest. The fact that his fellow-monks +selected him as abbot of the monastery shows the consideration in +which he was held for tact and true religious feeling. There are many +still alive in Bruenn who remember him well and cannot say enough of +his kindly disposition, the _froeliche Liebenswuerdigkeit_ (which means +even more than our personal magnetism), that won for him respect and +reverence from all. He is remembered, not only for his successful +discoveries, and not alone by his friends and the fellow-members of +the Naturalist Society, but by practically all his {205} +contemporaries in the town; and it is his lovable personal character +that seems to have most impressed itself on them. + +He was for a time the president of the Bruenn Society of Naturalists, +while also abbot of the monastery. This is, perhaps, a combination +that would strike English-speaking people as rather curious, but seems +to have been considered not out of the regular course of events in +Austria. + +Father Mendel's introduction to his paper on plant hybridization, +which describes the result of the experiments made by him in deducing +the law which he announces, is a model of simple straightforwardness. +It breathes the spirit of the loftiest science in its clear-eyed +vision of the nature of the problem he had to solve, the factors which +make up the problem, and the experimental observations necessary to +elucidate it. We reproduce the introductory remarks here from the +translations made of them by the Royal Horticultural Society of +England. [Footnote 16] Father Mendel said at the beginning of his +paper as read 8 February, 1865:-- + + [Footnote 16: The original paper was published in the + "Verhandlungen des Naturforscher-Vereins," in Bruenn, Abhandlungen, + iv, that is, the proceedings of the year 1865, which were + published in 1866. Copies of these transactions were exchanged + with all the important scientific journals, especially those in + connexion with important societies and universities throughout + Europe, and the wonder is that this paper attracted so little + attention.] + + Experience of artificial fertilization such as is affected with + ornamental plants in order to obtain new variations in color, has + led to the experiments, the {206} details of which I am about to + discuss. The striking regularity with which the same hybrid forms + always reappeared whenever fertilization took place between the same + species, induced further experiments to be undertaken, the object of + which was to follow up the developments of the hybrid in a number of + successive generations of their progeny. + + Those who survey the work that has been done in this department up + to the present time will arrive at the conviction that among all the + numerous experiments made not one has been carried out to such an + extent and in such a way as to make it possible to determine the + number of different forms under which the offspring of hybrids + appear, or to arrange these forms with certainty, according to their + separate generations, or to ascertain definitely their statistical + relations. + +These three primary necessities for the solution of the problem of +heredity--namely, first, the number of different forms under which the +offspring of hybrids appear; secondly, the arrangement of these forms, +with definiteness and certainty, as regards their relations in the +separate generation; and thirdly, the statistical results of the +hybridization of the plants in successive generations, are the secret +of the success of Mendel's work, as has been very well said by +Bateson, in commenting on this paragraph in his work on Mendel's +"Principles of Heredity." This was the first time that any one had +ever realized exactly the nature of the problems presented in, their +naked simplicity. "To see a problem well is more than half to solve +it," and this proved to be the case with Mendel's straightforward +vision of the nature of the experiments required for advance in our +knowledge of heredity. + +{207} + +While Mendel was beginning his experiments almost absolutely under the +guidance of his own scientific spirit, and undertaking his series of +observations in the monastery garden without any reference to other +work in this line, he knew very well what distinguished botanists were +doing in this line and was by no means presumptuously following a +study of the deepest of nature's problems without knowing what others +had accomplished in the matter in recent years. In the second +paragraph of his introduction he quotes the men whose work in this +science was attracting attention, and says that to this object +numerous careful observers, such a Koelreuter, Gaertner, Herbert, Lecoq, +Wichura and others, had devoted a part of their lives with +inexhaustible perseverance. + +To quote Mendel's own words:-- + + Gaertner, especially in his work, "Die Bastarderzeugung im + Pflanzenreiche," [Footnote 17] has recorded very valuable + observations; and quite recently Wichura published the results of + some profound observations on the hybrids of the willow. That so far + no generally applicable law governing the formation and development + of hybrids has been successfully formulated can hardly be wondered + at by anyone who is acquainted with the extent of the task and can + appreciate the difficulties with which experiments of this class + have to contend. A final decision can only be arrived at when we + shall have before us the results of the changed detailed experiments + made on plants belonging to the most diverse orders. It requires + some courage indeed to undertake a labor of such far-reaching + extent; it appears, however, to be the only right way by which we + can finally reach the solution of a question the importance of which + can not be overestimated in connexion with the history of the + evolution of organic forms. + + The paper now presented records the results of such a detailed + experiment. This experiment was practically confined to a small + plant group, and is now after eight years' pursuit concluded in all + essentials. Whether the plan upon which the separate experiments + were conducted and carried out was the best suited to attain the + desired end is left to the friendly decision of the reader. + + [Footnote 17: The Production of Hybrids in the Vegetable Kingdom.] + +{208} + + +Mendel's discoveries with regard to peas and the influence of heredity +on them, were founded on very simple, but very interesting, +observations. He found that if peas of different colors were taken, +that is to say, if, for instance, yellow-colored peas were crossed +with green, the resulting pea seeds were, in the great majority of +cases, of yellow color. If the yellow-colored peas obtained from such +crossing were planted and allowed to be fertilized only by pollen from +plants raised from similar seeds, the succeeding generation, however, +did not give all yellow peas, but a definite number of yellow and a +definite number of green. In other words, while there might have been +expected a permanence of the yellow color, there was really a +reversion in a number of the plants apparently to the type of the +grandparent. Mendel tried the same experiment with seeds of different +shape. Certain peas are rounded and certain others are wrinkled. When +these were crossed, the next generation {209} consisted of wrinkled +peas, but the next succeeding generation presented a definite number +of round peas besides the wrinkled ones, and so on as before. He next +bred peas with regard to other single qualities, such as the color of +the seed coat, the inflation or constriction of the pod, as to the +coloring of the pod, as to the distribution of the flowers along the +stem, as to the length of the stem, finding always, no matter what the +quality tested, the laws of heredity he had formulated always held +true. + +What he thus discovered he formulated somewhat as follows: In the case +of each of the crosses the hybrid character, that is, the quality of +the resultant seed, resembles one of the parental forms so closely +that the other escapes observation completely or cannot be detected +with certainty. This quality thus impressed on the next generation, +Mendel called the dominant quality. As, however, the reversion of a +definite proportion of the peas in the third generation to that +quality of the original parent which did not appear in the second +generation was found to occur, thus showing that, though it cannot be +detected, it is present, Mendel called it the recessive quality. He +did not find transitional forms in any of his experiments, but +constantly observed that when plants were bred with regard to two +special qualities, one of those qualities became dominant in the +resultant hybrid, and the other became recessive, that is, present +though latent and ready to produce its effects upon a definite +proportion of the succeeding generation. + +{210} + +Remembering, then, that Mendel means by hybrid the result of the +crossing of two distinct species, his significant discovery has been +stated thus: The hybrid, whatever its own character, produces ripe +germ cells, which bear only the pure character of one parent or the +other. Thus, when one parent has the character "A," in peas, for +example, a green color, and the other the character "B," in peas once +more a yellow color, the hybrid will have in cases of simple dominance +the character "AB" or "BA," but with the second quality in either case +not noticeable. Whatever the character of the hybrid may be, that is +to say, to revert to the example of the peas, whether it be green or +yellow, its germ cells when mature will bear either the character "A" +(green), or the character "B" (yellow), but not both. + +As Professor Castle says: "This perfectly simple principle is known as +the law of segregation, or the law of the purity of the germ cells. It +bids fair to prove as fundamental to a right understanding of the +facts of heredity as is the law of definite proportions in chemistry. +From it follow many important consequences." + +To follow this acute observer's work still further by letting the +crossbreds fertilize themselves, Mendel raised a third generation. In +this generation were individuals which showed the dominant character +and also individuals which presented the recessive character. Such an +observation had of course been made in a good many instances before. + +{211} + +But Mendel noted--and this is the essence of the new discovery in his +observations--that in this third generation the numerical proportion +of dominants to recessives is in the average of a series of cases +approximately constant--being, in fact, as three to one. With almost +absolute regularity this proportion was maintained in every case of +crossing of pairs of characters, quite opposed to one another, in his +pea plants. In the first generation, raised from his crossbreds, or, +as he calls them, hybrids, there were seventy-five per cent dominants +and twenty-five per cent recessives. + +When these plants were again self-fertilized and the offspring of each +plant separately sown, a new surprise awaited the observer. The +progeny of the recessives remained pure recessive; and in any number +of subsequent generations never produced the dominant type again, that +is, never reverted to the original parent, whose qualities had failed +to appear in the second generation. When the seeds obtained by +self-fertilizing the plants with the dominant characteristics were +sown, it was found by the test of progeny that the dominants were not +all of like nature, but consisted of two classes--first, some which +gave rise to pure dominants; and secondly, others which gave a mixed +offspring, composed partly of recessives, partly of dominants. Once +more, however, the ratio of heredity asserted itself and it was found +that the average numerical proportions were constant--those with pure +dominant {212} offspring being to those with mixed offspring as one to +two. Hence, it was seen that the seventy-five per cent of dominants +are not really of identical constitution, but consist of twenty-five +per cent which are pure dominants and fifty per cent which are really +crossbreds, though like most of the crossbreds raised by crossing the +two original varieties, they exhibit the dominant character only. + +These fifty crossbreds have mixed offspring; these offspring again in +their numerical proportion follow the same law, namely, three +dominants to one recessive. The recessives are pure like those of the +last generation, but the dominants can, by further self-fertilization +and cultivation of the seeds produced, be again shown to be made up of +pure dominant and crossbreds in the same proportion of one dominant to +two crossbreds. + +The process of breaking up into the parent forms is thus continued in +each successive generation, the same numerical laws being followed so +far as observation has gone. As Mendel's observations have now been +confirmed by workers in many parts of the world, investigating many +different kinds of plants, it would seem that this law which he +discovered has a basis in the nature of things and is to furnish the +foundation for a new and scientific theory of heredity, while at the +same time affording scope for the collection of observations of the +most valuable character with a definite purpose and without any +theoretic bias. + +{213} + +The task of the practical breeder who seeks to establish or fix a new +variety produced by cross-breeding in a case involving two variable +characters is simply the isolation and propagation of that one in each +sixteen of the second generation offspring which will be pure as +regards the desired combination of characters. Mendel's discovery, by +putting the breeder in possession of this information enables him to +attack this problem systematically with confidence in the outcome, +whereas hitherto his work, important and fascinating as it is, has +consisted largely of groping for a treasure in the dark. The greater +the number of separately variable characters involved in a cross, the +greater will be the number of new combinations obtainable; the greater +too will be the number of individuals which it will be necessary to +raise in order to secure all the possible combinations; and the +greater again will be the difficulty of isolating the pure, that is, +the stable forms in such as are similar to them in appearance, but +still hybrid in one or more characters. + +The law of Mendel reduces to an exact science the art of breeding in +the case most carefully studied by him, that of entire dominance. It +gives to the breeder a new conception of "purity." No animal or plant +is "pure," simply because it is descended from a long line of +ancestors, possessing a desired combination of characters; but any +animal or plant is pure if it produces _gametes_--that is, particles +for conjugation of only one sort--even though its grandparents may +among {214} themselves have possessed opposite characters. The +existence of purity can be established with certainty only by suitable +breeding tests, especially by crossing with recessives; but it may be +safely assumed for any animal or plant, descended from parents which +were like each other and had been shown by breeding tests to be pure. + +This naturally leads us to what some biologists have considered to be +the most important part of his work--the theory which he elaborated to +explain his results, the principle which he considers to be the basis +of the laws he discovered. Mendel suggests as following logically from +the results of his experiments and observations a certain theory of +the constitution of germinal particles. He has put this important +matter so clearly himself and with such little waste of words that it +seems better to quote the translation of the passage as given by +Professor Bateson, [Footnote 18] than to attempt to explain it in +other words. Mendel says:-- + + [Footnote 18: Bateson: _Mendel's Principles of Heredity_. + Cambridge. The University Press. 1902.] + + The results of the previously described experiments induced further + experiments, the results of which appear fitted to afford some + conclusions as regards the composition of the egg and pollen-cells + of hybrids. An important matter for consideration is afforded in + peas (_pisum_) by the circumstance that among the progeny of the + hybrids constant forms appear, and that this occurs, too, in all + combinations of the associated characters. So far as experience + goes, we find it in every {215} case confirmed that constant progeny + can only be formed when the egg-cells and the fertilizing pollen are + of like character, so that both are provided with the material for + creating quite similar individuals, as is the case with the normal + fertilization of pure species. + + We must therefore regard it as essential that exactly similar + factors are at work also in the production of the constant forms in + the hybrid plants. Since the various constant forms are produced in + one plant, or even in one flower of a plant, the conclusion appears + logical that in the ovaries of the hybrids there are formed as many + sorts of egg-cells and in the anthers as many sorts of pollen-cells + as there are possible constant combination forms, and that these egg + and pollen-cells agree in their internal composition with those of + the separate forms. + + In point of fact, it is possible to demonstrate theoretically that + this hypothesis would fully suffice to account for the development + of the hybrids in the separate generations, if we might at the same + time assume that the various kinds of egg and pollen-cells were + formed in the hybrids on the average in equal numbers. + +Bateson says in a note on this passage that this last and the +preceding paragraph contain the essence of the Mendelian principles of +heredity. Mendel himself, after stating this hypothesis, gives the +details of a series of experiments by which he was able to decide that +the theoretic considerations suggested were founded in the nature of +plants and their germinal cells. + +It will, of course, be interesting to realize what the bearing of +Mendel's discoveries is on the question of the stability of species as +well as on the origin of species. Professor Morgan, in his {216} +article on Darwinism in the "Light of Modern Criticism," already +quoted, says the important fact (with regard to Mendel's Law) from the +point of view of the theory of evolution is that "the new species have +sprung fully armed from the old ones, like Minerva from the head of +Jove." "From de Vries's results," he adds, "we understand better how +it is that we do not see new forms arising, because they appear, as it +were, fully equipped over night. Old species are not slowly changed +into new ones, but a shaking up of the old organization takes place +and the egg brings forth a new species. It is like the turning of the +kaleidoscope, a slight shift and the new figure suddenly appears. It +needs no great penetration to see that this point of view is entirely +different from the conception of the formation of new species by +accumulating individual variations, until they are carried so far that +the new form may be called a new species." + +With regard to this question of the transformation of one species into +another, Mendel himself, in the concluding paragraphs of his article +on hybridization, seems to agree with the expressions of Morgan. He +quotes Gaertner's opinion with apparent approval: "Gaertner, by the +results of these transformation experiments was led to oppose the +opinion of those naturalists who dispute the stability of plant +species and believe in a continuous evolution of vegetation. He +perceives in the complete transformation of one species into another +an indubitable proof that {217} species are fixed within limits beyond +which they cannot change." "Although this opinion," adds Mendel, +"cannot be unconditionally accepted, we find, on the other hand, in +Gaertner's experiments a noteworthy confirmation of that supposition +regarding the variability of cultivated plants which has already been +expressed." This expression of opinion is not very definite, and +Bateson, in what Professor Wilson of Columbia calls his "recent +admirable little book on Mendel's principles," adds the following note +that may prove of service in elucidating Mendel's meaning, as few men +have entered so fully into the understanding of Mendel's work as +Bateson, who introduced him to the English-speaking scientific public, +"The argument of this paragraph appears to be that though the general +mutability of natural species might be doubtful, yet among cultivated +plants the transference of characters may be accomplished and may +occur by _integral steps_ [italics ours], until one species is +definitely 'transformed' into the other." + +Needless to say, this is quite different from the gradual +transformation of species that Darwinism or Lamarckism assumes to take +place. One species becomes another _per saltum_ in virtue of some +special energy infused into it, some original tendency of its +intrinsic nature, not because of gradual modification by forces +outside of the organisms, nor because of the combination of influences +they are subjected to from without and within, because of tendency to +evolute plus {218} environmental forces. This throws biology back to +the permanency of species in themselves, though successive generations +may be of different species, and does away with the idea of missing +links, since there are no gradual connecting gradations. + +A very interesting phase of Mendel's discoveries is concerned with the +relative value of the egg-cell and the pollen-cell, as regards their +effect upon future generations. It is an old and oft-discussed problem +as to which of these germinal particles is the more important in its +influence upon the transmission of parental qualities. Mendel's +observations would seem to decide definitely that, in plants and, by +implication, in animals, since the germinal process is biogenetically +similar, the value of both germinal particles is exactly equal. + +In a note, Mendel says:-- + + _In pisum_ (i. e. in peas), it is beyond doubt that, for the + formation of the new embryo, a perfect union of the elements of both + fertilizing cells must take place. How could we otherwise explain + that, among the offspring of the hybrids, both original types + reappear in equal numbers, and with all their peculiarities? If the + influence of the egg-cell upon the pollen-cell were only external, + if it fulfilled the role of a nurse only, then the result of each + artificial fertilization could be no other than that the developed + hybrid should exactly resemble the pollen parent, or, at any rate, + do so very closely. These experiments, so far, have in no wise been + confirmed. An evident proof of the complete union of the contents of + both cells is afforded by the {219} experience gained on all sides, + that it is immaterial as regards the form of the hybrid which of the + original species is the seed cell, or which the pollen parent! + +This is the first actual demonstration of the equivalent value of both +germinal particles as regards their influence on transmission +inheritance in future generations. + +It is only by simplifying the problem so that all disturbing factors +could be eliminated that Mendel succeeded in making this +demonstration. Too many qualities have hitherto been considered with +consequent confusion as to the results obtained. + +It is of the genius of the man that he should have been able to +succeed in seeing the problem in simple terms while it is apparently +so complex, and thus obtain results that are as far-reaching as the +problem they solve is basic in its character. + +Bateson, in his work Mendel's _Principles of Heredity_, says:-- + + It may seem surprising that a work of such importance should so long + have failed to find recognition and to become current in the world + of science. It is true that the Journal in which it appeared is + scarce, but this circumstance has seldom long delayed general + recognition. The cause is unquestionably to be found in that neglect + of the experimental study of the problem of species which supervened + on the general acceptance of the Darwinian doctrine. The problem of + species, as Koelreuter, Gaertner, Naudin, Wichura, and the hybridists + of the middle of the nineteenth century conceived it, attracted + thenceforth no workers. + +{220} + + The question, it was imagined, had been answered and the debate + ended. No one felt much interest in the matter. A host of other + lines of work was suddenly opened up, and in 1865 the more original + investigators naturally found these new methods of research more + attractive than the tedious observations of hybridizers, whose + inquiries were supposed, moreover, to have led to no definite + results. + + In 1868 appeared the first edition of Darwin's _Animals and Plants_, + marking the very zenith of these studies with regard to hybrids and + the questions in heredity which they illustrate, and thenceforth the + decline in the experimental investigation of evolution and the + problem of species have been studied. With the rediscovery and + confirmation of Mendel's work by de Vries, Correns and Tschermak in + 1900 a new era begins. Had Mendel's work come into the hands of + Darwin it is not too much to say that the history of the development + of evolutionary philosophy would have been very different from that + which we have witnessed. + + That Mendel's work, appearing as it did at a moment when several + naturalists of the first rank were still occupied with these + problems, should have passed wholly unnoted, will always remain + inexplicable, the more so as the Bruenn society exchanged its + publication with most of the great academies of Europe, including + both the Royal and the Linnean societies of London. + +The whole history of Mendel's work, its long period without effect +upon scientific thought, its thoroughly simple yet satisfactory +character, its basis in manifold observations of problems simplified +to the last degree, and its present complete acceptance illustrate +very well the chief defect of the last two generations of workers in +biology. {221} There has been entirely too much theorizing, too much +effort at observations for the purpose of bolstering up preconceived +ideas--preaccepted dogmas of science that have proved false in the +end--and too little straightforward observation and simple reporting +of the facts without trying to have them fit into any theory +prematurely, that is until their true place was found. This will be +the criterion by which the latter half of nineteenth century biology +will be judged; and because of failure here much of our supposed +progress will have no effect on the current of biological progress, +but will represent only an eddy in which there was no end of bustling +movement manifest but no real advance. + +As stated very clearly by Professor Morgan at the beginning of this +paper, and Professor Bateson near the end, Darwin's doctrine of +natural selection as the main factor in evolution and its practically +universal premature acceptance by scientific workers in biology are +undoubtedly responsible for this. The present generation may well be +warned, then, not to surrender their judgment to taking theories, but +to wait in patience for the facts in the case, working, not +theorizing, while they wait. + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Catholic Churchmen in Science, by James J. 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