The growth of medicine from the earliest times to about 1800

by Albert H. Buck

Thomas Linacre was a man of a bright genius and a clear understanding, as well as unusual knowledge in different parts of learning: ... and, being very desirous to make further improvements by travelling, he thought he could no where succeed in his designs so well as by going to Italy, which began then to be famous for reviving the ancient Greek and Roman learning. There he was treated with extraordinary kindness by Lorenzo de Medicis, one of the politest men in his age and a great patron of letters; who favoured him so far in his studies as to give him the privilege of having the same preceptors with his own sons. Linacre knew how to make all his advantages of so lucky an opportunity; and accordingly, by the instructions of Demetrius Chalcondylas, a native of Greece, he acquired a perfect knowledge of the Greek tongue; and so far improved under his Latin master Politian, as to arrive to a greater correctness of style than even Politian himself....

Having laid in such an uncommon stock of learning, he applied himself to the study of natural philosophy and physick; particularly he made it his business, and was the first Englishman who ever did so, to be well acquainted with the original works of Aristotle and Galen. He translated and published several tracts of the latter....

In his own Faculty he distinguished himself so much that, soon after his return, he was pitched upon by that wise king, Henry the Seventh, as the fittest person to be placed about Prince Arthur, and to take care both of his health and his education. He was afterward made successively Physician to that king, to his successor Henry the Eighth, and to the Princess Mary.... And indeed, as he was perfectly skilled himself in his own art, so he always shewed a remarkable kindness for all those who bent their studies that way; and wherever he found, in young students, any ingenuity, learning, modesty, good manners, and a desire to excel, he assisted them with his advice, his interest, and his purse. And to give a still stronger proof, how much he had the good of his own Profession and that of the Publick at heart, he founded two Lectures of Physick in Oxford, and one at Cambridge....

But he had still further views for the advantage of our Profession: he saw in how low a condition the practice of Physick then was, that it was mostly engrossed by illiterate monks and empiricks, who in an infamous manner imposed on the Publick; the Bishop of London or the Dean of St. Paul’s for the time being, having the chief power in approving and admitting the practitioners in London, and the rest of the bishops in their several dioceses. And he found that there was no way left of redressing this grievance, but by giving encouragement to men of reputation and learning, and placing this power of licensing in more proper hands. Upon these motives he projected the foundations of our College [of Physicians]; and using his interest at Court, particularly with that great patriot and munificent promoter of all learning, Cardinal Wolsey, he procured Letters Patent from the King, which were confirmed by Parliament, to establish a corporate Society of Physicians in this city, by virtue of which authority the College, as a corporation, now enjoys the sole privilege of admitting all persons whatever to the practice of physick, as well as that of supervising all prescriptions. And it is expressly declared that no one shall be admitted to exercise physick in any of the dioceses in England, out of London, till such time that he be examined by the President and three of the Elects, and have letters testimonial from them, unless he be a graduate in either University, who, as such, by his very Degree, has a right to practice all over England, except within seven miles of London, without being obliged to take any license from the Bishop....

By other Acts another weighty affair is committed to the care of the College, [viz.,] the visiting of shops and the inspection of medicines; a thing surely of as much consequence at least to the patient as to the prescriber....

Linacre was the first president of his new-erected college, and held that office for the seven years he lived after.... And perhaps no Founder ever had the good fortune to have his designs succeed more to his wish; this society has constantly produced one set of men after another, who have done both credit and service to their country by their practice and their writings.

If further evidence be needed to show what was the type of mind possessed by this remarkable English physician, I may be permitted to quote here a single brief statement made by his friend Erasmus, the famous Dutch scholar and theologian, in a letter addressed to John Fisher, Chancellor of Cambridge University: “Linacre is as deep and acute a thinker as I have ever met with.”

In England, during the seventeenth century, there appeared on the scene only one practicing physician of such conspicuous ability and of so marked personal traits of character as to place his name, after the lapse of a few years from the time of his death, and by the almost unanimous assent of his associates, high up on the roll of honor. I refer to the famous physician Sydenham.

FIG. 17. THOMAS SYDENHAM.