THE INFLUENCE OF GALEN 23
they become worthy to be called true Galenists}, The story is everywhere the same. The Galenists were the students of nature, which indeed need not surprise us, since there was no more genuine student of nature than Galen himself. Thus modern natural science grew out of the ancient science of the Greeks, and in what way it could have arisen otherwise is only a matter of speculation.
Clinical medicine may be thought to be that department in which the study of the ancients could be of the least use, and in which observation alone, without any reference to books, would have been the surest guide. But here, again, we find that the Greek scholars led the way. Da Monte (Montanus), first distinguished by his editions of Galen, was the earliest clinical teacher of medicine in the modem sense. His lectures at Padua attracted crowds of students from all parts of Europe. Yet Da Monte’s method of learning and teaching medicine, on which he wrote special books, was avowedly based on Galen. His pupil, our own
John Caius, followed in his steps.
1 This society issued a little book which I have not found mentioned in any history of medicine, but which is interesting as a sign of the times, entitled Novae Academiae Florentinae opuscula, adversus Avicennam et me- dicos neotericos qui Galeni disciplina neglecta barbaros colunt (Lyons, 1534, 8vo). It contains a dialogue called Barbaromastix, in which a young Galenist defendshisprinciples against adherents of the older school; also a treatise adversum Avicennam, and another adversum Mesuem et vulgares medicos omnes. The society does not appear to have been a large one; not more than four members can be distinctly traced, and none of these appear to have become eminent. In the dialogue it is needless to say that the older physicians have the worst of the argument; and it is insinuated that they cared for nothing but money and notoriety, considera- tions to which the young Galenists
Caius was a zealous
were quite superior: a distinction between young and old physicians which will probably continue to be drawn so long as physicians exist.
- ‘Ideoque per totam hanc hyemem
coepere ex Dioscoride historias et vultum plantarum observare; ex Galeno vero earum vires: uterque enim liber iugiter eis praesto erat. Porro ut oculata fides dictis attes- taretur, saepius rura montesque petiere : Novissime vero cum primum per nives licuit, dum alii notas domos salutant ac nobilium exosculantur dextras, alii convalescentes nedum aegros crebra visitatione fastidiunt, alii negociosos se populo ostentant, ac generosa per urbem mula ve- huntur, purpurati, quasi spectaculum aliquod populo praebituri; dum alii demum modis omnibus lucro inhiant; hi Apennini iuga montesque peragra- runt; atque adeo profecerunt, ut plan- tas plurimas ex nobilissimis et sus- citarint et ad usum verterint ’(p. 10).
