Deserving of mention is an earlier and minor work of Boyle, indeed, his first published writing, only recently identified. This work, apparently written in 1649, bore the title "An Invitation to a free and generous communication of Secrets and Receits in Physick," and appeared anonymously in 1655 as part of a volume entitled Chymical, Medicinal and Chirurgical Addresses Made to Samuel Hartlib, Esquire.[40] For our purposes, it is significant as emphasizing his early interest in medicine.
Boyle seems to have acquired most of his medical knowledge between, say, 1649 and 1662. It is worth recalling some of the trends and conflicts that formed the medical environment during this period. Among the major trends, first place, perhaps, must be given to Galenic doctrine, which had come under progressively severe attack. Molière, who lived from 1622 to 1673, showed in his comedies the popular reaction to a system which, although dominant, was clearly crumbling. The cracks in the edifice even the layman could readily see. Nevertheless, Galenism had its strong supporters. Riverius, who lived from 1589 to 1655, was a staunch Galenist. An edition of his basic and clinical works[41] was translated into English in 1657, and Latin editions continued to be published well into the eighteenth century.[42]
Galenism, of course, had to withstand the great new discoveries in anatomy and physiology made by Vesalius, Aselli, Sanctonius, Harvey, and others, not to mention the host of great investigators who were more strictly contemporaries of Boyle.
Galenism also faced the rivalry of chemistry. The so-called "antimony war" in the earlier part of the century marked an important assault on Galenism, and the letters of the arch-conservative Guy Patin (who died in 1672) help us appreciate this period.[43] However, even more important was the work of van Helmont, who developed and extended the doctrines of Paracelsus and represented a major force in seventeenth-century thought. Boyle was well acquainted with the writings of van Helmont, who, although his works fell into disrepute as the mechanical philosophy gradually took over, nevertheless in the middle of the seventeenth century was a highly significant figure. In 1662 there appeared the English translation of his Oriatrike,[44] while Latin editions continued to be published later in the century.
In this connection I might also mention the subject of "natural magic," which had considerable significance for medicine. The best-known name is, perhaps, Giovanni Battista della Porta (1545-1615), whose books[45] continued to be published, in Latin and English, during this period when Boyle was achieving maturity.
Profound developments, of course, arose from the new mechanics and physics and their metaphysical background, for which I need only mention the names of Descartes, who died in 1650, and Gassendi, who died in 1655. And then there was also the new methodological approach, that critical empiricism whose most vocal exponent was Francis Bacon, which led directly to the founding of the Royal Society in 1660 and its subsequent incorporation. These phases of seventeenth-century thought and activity I do not intend to take up.
In this turbulent riptide of intellectual currents, Robert Boyle, without formal medical education, performed many medical functions, as a sometime practitioner, consultant, and researcher. Repeatedly he speaks of the patients whom he treated, and repeatedly he refers to practitioners who consulted him, or to whom he gave advice. In addition, through his interest in chemistry, he became an important experimental as well as clinical pharmacologist, and his researches in physiology indicate great stature in this field. If we were to draw a present-day comparison, we might point to investigators who had both the M.D. and the Ph.D. degrees, who had both clinical and laboratory training, and who practiced medicine partly in the clinical wards, partly in the experimental laboratories. Boyle, of course, did not have either degree, but he did have a status as the leading virtuoso of his day.
The virtuoso has been the subject of a most extensive literature.[46] He aroused considerable contemporary hostility and satire and his overall significance for medical science is probably slight, with a few striking exceptions. Robert Boyle is one of the great exceptions.
First of all, the virtuoso was an amateur. In the literal sense the amateur loves the activities in which he engages, and in the figurative sense he remains independent of any Establishment. Not trained in any rigorous, prescribed discipline, he was not committed to any set doctrine. Furthermore, he was not restricted by the regulations which all Establishments employed to preserve their status, block opposition, and prevent competition. In many fields the Establishment took the form of a guild organization—in medicine, the Royal College of Physicians.[47]
Boyle was a wealthy and highly talented man who could pursue his own bent without needing to make concessions merely to earn a living. He remained quite independent of the cares which oppressed those less well endowed in worldly goods or native talent. Sometimes, of course, necessity can impose a discipline and rigor which ultimately may serve as a disguised benefit, but in the seventeenth century, when Boyle was active, the lack of systematic training and rigorous background seemed actually an advantage. Clinical chemistry and the broad areas which we can call experimental medicine had no tradition. Work in clinical chemistry, clinical pharmacology, and experimental physiology was essentially innovation. And since innovations are often made by those who are outside the Establishment and not bound by tradition, we need feel no surprise that the experimental approach could make great progress under the aegis of amateurs. Necessarily the work was rather unsystematic and undisciplined, but system and discipline could arise only when the new approach had already achieved some measure of success. Through the casual approach of amateurs this necessary foundation could be built.