Raymond Lulli (1235-1315) was a man of great intellect, who sought the secrets of transmutation of metals and the philosopher’s stone. He was a bold thinker, an astrologer, and a physician of great repute. Naturally he was accused of magic. His acquaintance with the Arabians directed his mind to the study of chemistry. He wrote on medical subjects, the titles of his best known works being De Pulsibus et Urinis, De Medicina Theorica et Practica, De Aquis et Oleis.
Roger Bacon (1214-1298). By theologians he was believed to be in league with the devil, because of his belief in astrology and his scientific attainments. It is probable that his reputed invention of certain optical instruments was really due to his acquaintance with Arabic, as the Arabians were familiar with the camera, burning glass, and microscope, which have been attributed to him. Neither is it the fact that he invented gunpowder, as is usually supposed. Bacon wrote voluminously on theology, philosophy, and science. Although he believed in astrology and the philospher’s stone, he had a true scientific idea of the value of experiment, which forcibly reminds us of the Francis Bacon which future ages would reveal.
“Experimental science,” he said, “has three great prerogatives over all other sciences: (1) it verifies their conclusions by direct experiments; (2) it discovers truths which they could never reach; (3) it investigates the secrets of nature, and opens to us a knowledge of past and future.”[782] As an instance of his method, Bacon gives an investigation into the phenomena of the rainbow, which is doubtless a very remarkable example of inductive research.
Roger Bacon proved himself far in advance of his time by his insistence of the supremacy of experiment. So different was his mental attitude in this regard from the temper of his time that Whewell finds it difficult to conceive how such a character could then exist.[783] He learned much from Arabian writers, but certainly not from them did he learn to emancipate himself from the bondage to Aristotle which everywhere enslaved them. Doubtless he learned from Aristotle himself to call no man master in science, for the Stagyrite declared that all knowledge must come from observation, and that science must be collected from facts by induction.[784] Probably the truth about Aristotle is that Bacon’s objections were directed against the Latin translations of the Greek philosopher, which were very bad ones. Of both Avicenna and Averroes he speaks respectfully, and it is doubted whether any passages in Bacon’s works can be construed into opposition to Aristotle’s own authority.[785]
Wood says[786] that Roger Bacon was accounted the fourth in order of the chief chemists the world had ever produced, their names being (1) Hermes Trismegistus, the first chemist, (2) Geber, (3) Morienus Romanus, (4) Roger Bacon, (5) Raymond Lulli, (6) Paracelsus.
Roger Bacon made such prodigious chemical experiments at Oxford and Paris “that none could be convinced to the contrary but that he dealt with the devil.”
Jean Pitard (1228-1315) founded the surgical society in France, which exercised a very important influence on the development of the healing art in that country, under the title of the “College de Saint Côme.”[787] At a time when surgery of the lower character was practised by barbers, this important corporation of educated men broke off from the inferior association and combined to form an academy of the higher surgery.
Peter de Maharncourt was an Oxford student, so “excellent in chemical experiments that he was instituted Dominus Experimentorum.”[788] He not only worked in metallurgy, but interested himself in “the experiments of old women, their charms, magical spells, and verses that they used to repeat when they applied or gave anything to their patients.”
Nicholas Myrepsus (circ. A.D. 1250), “Actuarius,” i.e. physician-in-ordinary, wrote a vast work on materia medica, containing 2,656 prescriptions for every disease, real or imaginary, which afflicts our race. He had studied at Salerno.
John Actuarius (circ. 1283) was a medical genius in advance of his age. He wrote a useful materia medica and a treatise on the kidney secretion, in which he explains the use of a graduated glass for estimating the amount of sediments, which he classifies according to their colours. He appeared, says Haeser, “like the last flickerings of a dying flame” just before the Turks destroyed the glorious work of the Greeks in the civilized world.