An historical sketch of medicine and surgery, from their origin to the present time; and of the principal authors, discoveries, improvements, imperfections and errors / by W. Black.
- Date:
- 1782
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: An historical sketch of medicine and surgery, from their origin to the present time; and of the principal authors, discoveries, improvements, imperfections and errors / by W. Black. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.
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![[ *35 ] ancients had either written on the papyrus or upon parchment, and the books of the latter defcrip- tion, were now extremely dear. Few private per- fons before this difcovery pofleOed a fingle book. In fome monafteries they had but one miflal. A book of homilies, compiled by fome French Saint, fold for two hundred flieep, befides a large quan- tity of corn. Even fo late as 1471, Lewis the Xlth of France, borrowed the works of R hazes the A- rabian phyfician, from the Parifian faculty of me- dicine j but, previoufly was obliged to depofit a quantity of plate as fecurity, and to find a noble- man to join in an additional bond for the care and return of the book. This is a proof that manu- fcripts and books were then exceedingly fcarce, and that fcience and medicine were in the hands of a fmall number. The hiftory of the church during the dark ages affords many examples of bilhops aflifting at councils, who made the fign of the crofs, becaufe they had not learned to write. Scholastic theology, fcholiums, magic, Ro- man jurifprudence, and the canon laws enaded by the different churches and monafteries, yet em- braced almoft the whole fcope of their ftudies, Ariftotle too was univerfally admired j and unfor- tunately his fubtle refinements gave a wrong turn, to the firft efforts of reviving genius in Europe,. This little ftock of learning was principally con- fined to the clergy and monks, who on that ac- count engrofied moft of the religious and civil em- ployments, accompanied with profit or precedence,](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21909660_0149.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
