(302) As to religious scruples against dissection, and abhorrence of
the Paraschites, or embalmer, see Maspero and Sayce, The Dawn of
Civilization, p. 216. For denunciation of surgery by the Church
authorities, see Sprengel, vol. ii, pp. 432-435; also Fort, pp. 452 et
seq.; and for the reasoning which led the Church to forbid surgery to
priests, see especially Fredault, Histoire de la Medecine, p. 200. As
to the decretal of Boniface VIII, the usual statement is that he forbade
all dissections. While it was undoubtedly construed universally to
prohibit dissections for anatomical purposes, its declared intent was as
stated in the text; that it was constantly construed against anatomical
investigations can not for a moment be denied. This construction is
taken for granted in the great Histoire Litteraire de la France, founded
by the Benedictines, certainly a very high authority as to the main
current of opinion in the Church. For the decretal of Boniface VIII, see
the Corpus Juris Canonici. I have also used the edition of Paris, 1618,
where it may be found on pp. 866, 867. See also, in spite of the special
pleading of Giraldi, the Benedictine Hist. Lit. de la France, tome xvi,
p. 98.
VI. NEW BEGINNINGS OF MEDICAL SCIENCE.
In spite of all these opposing forces, the evolution of medical science continued, though but slowly. In the second century of the Christian era Galen had made himself a great authority at Rome, and from Rome had swayed the medical science of the world: his genius triumphed over the defects of his method; but, though he gave a powerful impulse to medicine, his dogmatism stood in its way long afterward.
The places where medicine, such as it thus became, could be applied, were at first mainly the infirmaries of various monasteries, especially the larger ones of the Benedictine order: these were frequently developed into hospitals. Many monks devoted themselves to such medical studies as were permitted, and sundry churchmen and laymen did much to secure and preserve copies of ancient medical treatises. So, too, in the cathedral schools established by Charlemagne and others, provision was generally made for medical teaching; but all this instruction, whether in convents or schools, was wretchedly poor. It consisted not in developing by individual thought and experiment the gifts of Hippocrates, Aristotle, and Galen, but almost entirely in the parrot-like repetition of their writings.
But, while the inherited ideas of Church leaders were thus unfavourable to any proper development of medical science, there were two bodies of men outside the Church who, though largely fettered by superstition, were far less so than the monks and students of ecclesiastical schools: these were the Jews and Mohammedans. The first of these especially had inherited many useful sanitary and hygienic ideas, which had probably been first evolved by the Egyptians, and from them transmitted to the modern world mainly through the sacred books attributed to Moses.
The Jewish scholars became especially devoted to medical science. To them is largely due the building up of the School of Salerno, which we find flourishing in the tenth century. Judged by our present standards its work was poor indeed, but compared with other medical instruction of the time it was vastly superior: it developed hygienic principles especially, and brought medicine upon a higher plane.
Still more important is the rise of the School of Montpellier; this was due almost entirely to Jewish physicians, and it developed medical studies to a yet higher point, doing much to create a medical profession worthy of the name throughout southern Europe.
As to the Arabians, we find them from the tenth to the fourteenth century, especially in Spain, giving much thought to medicine, and to chemistry as subsidiary to it. About the beginning of the ninth century, when the greater Christian writers were supporting fetich by theology, Almamon, the Moslem, declared, "They are the elect of God, his best and most useful servants, whose lives are devoted to the improvement of their rational faculties." The influence of Avicenna, the translator of the works of Aristotle, extended throughout all Europe during the eleventh century. The Arabians were indeed much fettered by tradition in medical science, but their translations of Hippocrates and Galen preserved to the world the best thus far developed in medicine, and still better were their contributions to pharmacy: these remain of value to the present hour.(303)
(303) For the great services rendered to the development of medicine by
the Jews, see Monteil, Medecine en France, p. 58; also the historians of
medicine generally. For the quotation from Almamon, see Gibbon, vol.
x, p. 42. For the services of both Jews and Arabians, see Bedarride,
Histoire des Juifs, p. 115; also Sismondi, Histoire des Francais, tome
i, p. 191. For the Arabians, especially, see Rosseeuw Saint-Hilaire,
Histoire d'Espagne, Paris, 1844, vol. iii, pp. 191 et seq. For
the tendency of the Mosaic books to insist on hygienic rather than
therapeutical treatment, and its consequences among Jewish physicians,
see Sprengel, but especially Fredault, p.14.