Arizona republican., 1921-04-21
BACON CIPHER CODE REVEALED FUR FIRST
 TIME TO PHYSICIANS
IRepubIican A. p. Leased WireJ


 PHILADELPHIA, April 20.-The first public explanation of the key discovered to the cipher code used by Roger Bacon, the thirteenth cen tury philosopher monk. which has revealed Bacon knew of the tele- scope microscope, and scientific facts hitherto supposed to have been unknown until centuries later, was made tonight before the College of Physicians and Surgeons.
 Addresses were made by w. M. Voynich of London, owner of the Roger Bacon manuscript ia which the key to the code was found; Prof. Romain Newbold of the University of Pennsylvania, who Is working on the cipher, and Prof. c. E. McClub, who is assisting Prof. Newbold.
 At present 1t is only possible to conjecture at the extent and impor- tance of the discoveries, said Prof. Newbold, for the art of reading the cipher is yet in its early stages and 1t is not certain that the whole manu- script can be read.
 '"The manuscript falls in four divi- sions,' he continued, dealing with plants, the heavenly bodies, the gen eration of animal life, and prepara- ton of drugs. The common link connecting all four is probably Ba- cons interest in the prolongation of human life. Plants are discussed be- cause of their medicinal properties; the stars because they determine a mans character as his birth, and in- fluence him throughout life; embry- ology because of the bearing on later life of all factors in or following con- ception, and pharmacology because drugs are essential to the cure of disease.
 "A drawing in the second section, the late Prof. Eric Doolittie asserted was a drawing of a nebula and he declared the man who drew it must have had a telescope. The legend attached to this picture says the ob- ject was seen in a concave mirror, and gives its location in the sky. The location is that of the great nebula Andromeda.
 This is the first record of the use of the telescope.
 ''The embryological section con- tains 31 drawings. As a rule they are symbolic.
 accurately portray the appearance of certain objects that it is difficult to resist the inference that Bacon had seen them with his microscope. It is possible that the decipherment of the text may reveal unsuspected mean ings in the pictures, but the inter pEetation I have put on them seems obvious. Such are the spermatozoa- the body cells and the semeniferous tubes, the ova with their nuclei, in- dicated
 Tt seems impossible to doubt Ba- con was the first to discover these. '.The symbolic significance of the drawings relates in large part to Bacon's belief that the soul lived ir the stars before birth, and returned after death.
 Bacon sketched with amazing ac- curacy the fundamental principles oi mathematical physics as we conceive it today. Only less amazing is his | intuitive grasp of the principles oi physiology and of the textual criti. cism; his diagnosis of needed reforms | in education, of the necessity of en- 1 flowing research work, of his fore. casts of the development of medi- l cine in the direction of hygiene an( preventive medicine and of the ap- plication of chemistry to psychology agriculture, and industry | MT. Voynich told of his researche:
 which led to the discovery of ths
 manuscript. saying he was compelled
 to read the biographies of severa
 hundred persons to find one whici shed any light upon it. ---o
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