Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1875-09-01

| one of the most important inventions ever
made, was thought of as mere curiosity
for seventeen hundred years. Behold to-
| day the principle, started so long ago, in
its application to ocean navigation, and
| how it has changed the industries of ma
| tons!
The germs of ali that is and zviU be,
| have always existed. Dim visions of all
| we have achieved stirred the minds of men
and women of past ages. Hints of the
| magnificent attainments of to-day are
unearthed in the buried treasures OF
Egypt; what stirred Hypatia, the daugh-
| ter of Theon, to resort to the Academy in
Alexandria, and discourse upon Philoso-
ply, and give rational answers to the
questions of the perplexed people, con-
corning, "From whence are we, and
whether tending ?" "Why do we live,
&cs" Questions, the grand significance
of which, moved the noble woman to
brave and accept the most ignominious
death, rather than withhold from the eag-
er multitude who fiocked to her for knowl-
edge, the God given truthfmparted to her
soul. Hypatia was murdered end her
works on mathematics burned Cyril,
Bishop of Alexandria was triumphant.
Bigotry was jubilant. (But was Philosophy
killed, and the freedom of human thought
at an end then, A. D. 415'?) Ecclesiastical
authority ordered ready-made thought
and the terrible fate of the beautiful and
gifted Hypatia was held up as warning
to all who would cultivate so-called pro-
fame knowledge. We have so far advanc-
ed from the barbarism Of the old to the
freedom of the new, that our Tyndall and
Draper and Huxley and Darwin, though
vigorously assailed, will not be burned at
the stake, and the daughters of Hypatia in
landseven less free than ours, may talk up
on Philosophy, Science or Religion in bod
lily safety, but with a certain bitter exper-
fence that will forever be the heritage of
whatsoever contends for advancing truth.
10 the attentive student of History, no
feature is more pleasing than the fact,
that each science, in each successive gen.
Grafton, is found emerging more and more
clearly from the obscuring clouds of ig-
norance and superstition which in the
early ages and cruder period of the
worlds history EMBODIED it. Astromo-
my, the elder Of the sciences claims
an antiquity no less than 244o years
before Christ. Coming forth from
the mistiness of the early Greek schools,
we find it taking form and proportion in
the Alexandrian school founded under the
Pto!emies. Into their magnificent library
were gathered the important writings of
the earlier Astronomers and there burned
in the Seventh Century, when Egypt was
invaded and conquered by the Moham-
medans. The Arabians handed down
their system land they arrived at much
important knowledge) to the Europeans
where we find the brilliant attainments of
Kepler, Copenicus and Newton From
the rude instruments and uncertain cal
culations of the early days OF this. science,
it is grand to walk up to the revelations
of the Telescope and Specroscope, two
strong-winged angels rushing through the
sky of to-day. Chemistry, less ancient
than Astronomy, rises triumphant from
the rude experiments of the early AL
chemists to the more careful Celebrations
and grand discoveries of Priestiy and
Davy, eliminating in Faraday and the
conservation and correlation of forces.
I AS representatives of the Medical pro-
fession here assembled to discuss ques-
tons that pertain to its interests, let us &C.
cupy short time in reviewing briefly the
history of medicine, and thereby discov-
er in its past, the germs of that develop
ment from which we gather fruit to-day.
consider some of .he needs of the pres
ent, and gather hope and encouragement,
if we may, for future endeavor. 1t is the
CuEEOlIl Vi lIlOSl IllSlOI iCllS " OdtG The
tory of medicine to Greek mythology; to
Esculapius, God of Medicine, and: the
patron of Physicians. But in reality the
history of medicine can be traced to
much earlier date. In Egypt the medical
papyri of prescriptions of the old Egyp-
tians are described by Burgsch printed in
Leipsic in 1863. One, and the mostre-
markable, is called "the papyrus of Ber-
tin" which states that it was dicovered
rolled up in a case under the feet of an
Anubis, in the town of Sekhem, in the
days of Let, after whose death it was
transmitted to King Sent, and was then
restored to the feet of the statue King
Sent belonged to the second dynasty, and
if the treatise was old in his day, this date
removes the history of medicine among
the Egyptians long previous to three
thousand years before Christ. The con-
of% +, &c