Southern standard. (McMinnville, Tenn.) 1879-current, 1886-07-10


and was one of the
most eminent French physicians
of the l4th century," 1t was he who
was shipwrecked and drowned on his
way to Rome to treat Pope Clement
V for the stone. The medical pro-
fession had already been enriched by
the treatises of Isaac Ben Soleiman
"On Fevers," son Medicine" con
Food and Remedies, " "On the
Pulse" 1t is a great error to sup
pose that in Europe as late as the
year 1900 "medicine had little claim
as an art, none as a science" In es-
timating the medical attachments Of
a student like Nostradamus, who had
taken the degree of M. ID. at the col
lege Of Montpelier, we must not over
look the fact that the art of printing
was introduced into Europe about
l440. Whether by Costor of Haar-
laem, or Gutenberg of Mentz, or by
the Venetians from China, it is boot
less to enquire. 1t was in use, and
rapidly multiplied and cheapened
books, so that before the year 1900
more than 10000 editions of separate
works, medical and otherwise, had
been issued from the press. He there
fore had not only the benefit of the
labors of those illustrious physicians
who had preceded him, but valuable
facilities for acquiring a scientific
knowledge of his profession, which
they did not possess. That he was
recognized in France as an eminent
physician, consulted by all classes of
persons for diseases" recorded, and
if he "cured the plague by a powder
of his own invention" his skill as a
practitioner was unquestionable.
The reply sneers at him as an as
trologer, and declares that he was
sled to prophesy" thereby. However
sled" to it, he "began as early as
1547 to believe himself inspired" and
claimed that his prophecies were
made by Divine inspiration. But if
he fully believed in astrology, this in
no way detracts from his intellectual,
professional or scholarly worth. He
has excellent company from Seneca
all the way down to Lord Bacon.
That Bacon believed events might be
foretold by astrology we know from
himself. Hesays: "Thus predictions
may be made of comets, of all kinds
of meteors, foundations, drouths,
heats, frosts, earthquakes, fiery erup-
tons, winds, rains, the seasons of the
year, plaques, epidemic diseases,
plenty, famine, wars, seditions, sects,
transmigrations of people and all
connections or great innovations OF
things natural or civil" He wrote
in Latin, and this translation I take
from Proctor's Myths and Marvels
of Astronomy, page ID. This was
that Bacon who 'gave to the human
mind a direction which it shall re-
tain for ages" and of whose imperial
intellect Macaulay further says, "the
largeness of his mind was all his
own" Macauley's Essays. The be,
lief in astrology seems to have been 6
logical result of the old notion thai
the earth is the centre of the universe
and all the heavenly hosts its minis
tiers. Says Proctor: "It is clear thai
the first great shock sustained by as
trology came from the arguments O
Copernicus. So long as the earth wa
regarded as the center round which
all the celestial bodies move it wa
hopeless to shake mems faith in thu
influence of the stars" Myths anC
Marvels Of Astronomy, $40.
This great argument of Copernlcu
was first published in 1913, and cop.
of the book brought to him on hi
deathbed. Its doctrine, dethronin,
the earth from her regal position ant
RELOCATING her to that of a compare
lively insignificant dependency of tn
sun, was peculiarly distasteful to tn
Romish Church, denounced as anti
: scriptural and the book declared to b
, heretical. With such opposition tn
truths it advocated made slow prog
ress. to the acceptance of mankind
and before this was accomplishe
Gallileo was not only made to den
I them, imprisoned and persecued, bu
Bruno was actually burned at tn
stake for advocating them. In 1901
+. however, occurred an event whic
9 finally secured their triumph over a
opposition. Lippershay, a Hollande
| saw his little IL year old daughtt
/, with lens in either hand lookin
: +bro,nh than Skinp what sha w,