The New York herald., 1921-03-13
Reviewed by
STANTON A. COBLENTZ.

There are perhaps few fields in
which mankind has made vaster prog
ress than in medicine. There are like
wise few fields in which greater ad-
vances seem still imminent. From
primitive superstition to modern science
is a tremendous step; from modern
science 10 that of the future may be
an even more stupendous stride.
Among the uncivilized medicine is
commonly identified with religion; dis
ease is regarded as the work of evil
spirits and the art of healing con
sists in the exercising of those spirits,
whether through the beating of tom
toms, the singing of songs or the in
carnations OF the medicine man. Even
after mankind had become civilized
much of the primitive attitude toward
the human body persisted for many
centuries medicine was treated more
as a thing of magic than of scientific
accuracy; even the learned were ap-
pallingly ignorant of the functioning
of their own bodies, and among the
untutored the most intense supersti-
ton prevailed.
Nor has this antique superstition
been entirely dissipated by modern
scientific achievements; knowledge
continues to be the property or the
few rather than the possession Of the
many and the processes Of nature,
and in particular those processes as
manifested in the human frame, are
still vaguely looked upon as belonging
to the miraculous and the inexplicable.
To this very day the physician is fire.
quently regarded as somewhat of
magician rather than as a student Of
natural laws; in some mystical man
ner he is supposed to charm forth
from the elements the secret of heal
ing: and the average man does not
attempt to understand that his meth
ods are not supernatural, nor to APP
ply those methods toward the pre-
vention of disease as the physician
does toward it's cure.
These and similar thoughts will oc
cur 10 any one who reads the medical
theories of the Medieval School OF
Salernum, and then turns to such
modern book as Optimistic Medicine.
In the former he will be confronted
with beliefs almost primitive in their
crudeness; in the latter he will find
himself face to face with we'll devei-
oped science, which nevertheless seems
to have boundless prospects for future
growth And the contrast between the
knowledge Of the present and the igno-
rance of the past will strike one as lit
tie less than marvellous.
There is something particularly in
81 ,.rf,. al g.f hn
school of Salernum, not because of the
information they present, but because
of the misinformation. These medical
theories seem to be a mere tumble of
rules. often fancifully conceived, and
evidently bearing no relation TO actual
experience Their unscientific basis will
be apparent from a mere statement
of the fact that they are set forth IN
verse, which makes it literally true
that remedies were regulated accord
ing to the rhyming of words. One
wonders whether medieval physicians
ever employed drugs that did not have
good rhyming qualities. or whether
they might not have been tempted to
recommend cheese because 1t rhymed
with peas, or strychnine because It
rhymed with wine
The following is typical Of the medi-
cine of Salernum:
Some to drink only water are assigned,
But such by our consent shall drink
alone
For water and small beer we make no
question.
Are enemies to health and good dges-
ton:
And Horace In a verse OF his rehearses
That water drinkers never make good
verses.
Much Of this verse sounds as IL 1t
were not made by water drinkers.
From its general tone one would not
be surprised 10 learn that movement
had been started by the physicians of