About thirteen
moneths after his return to his own Countrey, on a sudden the ingrafted
nose grew cold, putrified, and within few days drops off. To those of
his friends that were curious in the exploration of the cause of this
unexpected misfortune, it was discovered, that the Porter expired,
neer about the same punctilio of time, wherein the nose grew frigid and
cadaverous. There are at Bruxels yet surviving, some of good repute, that
were eye-witnesses of these occurrences."(18)
(18) Charleton: Of the Magnetic Cure of Wounds, London, 1650, p.
13.
Equally in the history of science and of medicine, 1542 is a starred
year, marked by a revolution in our knowledge alike of Macrocosm and
Microcosm. In Frauenburg, the town physician and a canon, now nearing
the Psalmist limit and his end, had sent to the press the studies of a
lifetime--"De revolutionibus orbium coelestium." It was no new thought,
no new demonstration that Copernicus thus gave to his generation.
Centuries before, men of the keenest scientific minds from Pythagoras on
had worked out a heliocentric theory, fully promulgated by Aristarchus,
and very generally accepted by the brilliant investigators of the
Alexandrian school; but in the long interval, lapped in Oriental
lethargy, man had been content to acknowledge that the heavens declare
the glory of God and that the firmament sheweth his handiwork.
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