" Ibid., p. 6.
Osler's unfinished Illustrated Monograph on this subject is now
being printed for the Society of which he was President.--Ed.
The medical profession gradually caught the new spirit. It has been well
said that Greece arose from the dead with the New Testament in the one
hand and Aristotle in the other. There was awakened a perfect passion
for the old Greek writers, and with it a study of the original
sources, which had now become available in many manuscripts. Gradually
Hippocrates and Galen came to their own again. Almost every professor
of medicine became a student of the MSS. of Aristotle and of the Greek
physicians, and before 1530 the presses had poured out a stream of
editions. A wave of enthusiasm swept over the profession, and the best
energies of its best minds were devoted to a study of the Fathers. Galen
became the idol of the schools. A strong revulsion of feeling arose
against the Arabians, and Avicenna, the Prince, who had been clothed
with an authority only a little less than divine, became anathema. Under
the leadership of the Montpellier School, the Arabians made a strong
fight, but it was a losing battle all along the line. This group
of medical humanists--men who were devoted to the study of the old
humanities, as Latin and Greek were called--has had a great and
beneficial influence upon the profession.
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