Eminent doctors: Their lives and their work; Vol. 1 of 2

by G. T. Bettany

After spending much time on executing his share of a scheme for translating Aristotle’s entire works into Latin, in conjunction with Grocyn and Thomas Latimer, and which unfortunately never was published, Dr. Linacre betook himself to the congenial task of translating into Latin Galen’s works, the first portion of which, on the Preservation of Health, was published at Paris in 1517, and dedicated to Henry VIII. The feelings which moved him to this act arose, as he declares to the king, from finding himself wanting in the means of vying with those who, allured by the renown and glory of his name, daily contended in the number and variety of their gifts. For this reason he knew nothing more becoming his duty or his calling, than the dedication of some memorial of his studies, that he might satisfactorily account for the leisure which, by the royal indulgence, he sometimes stole from his appointed attendance, and at the same time show that he not only spent the hours of office, but even of recreation from its duties, in accomplishing, to the best of his ability, what he thought would be acceptable to him. A copy of this work on vellum, and magnificently embellished, was presented to Wolsey, with an adulatory letter. These are still preserved in the British Museum.

This translation was followed by several others from Galen, including the Method of Healing, 1519, dedicated to the king; the treatise on Temperaments, 1521, dedicated to Leo X.; on the Natural Functions, 1523, dedicated to Warham; on the Pulse, 1523, dedicated to Wolsey. Other treatises left complete at Linacre’s death were printed by Pynson in 1524. Of the treatises on grammar and language, compiled by Linacre, we need not here attempt to give an account.

Most important of all Linacre’s achievements towards the advancement of medicine was undoubtedly his securing the foundation of the Royal College of Physicians. “The practice of medicine,” says his biographer, Dr. J. N. Johnson, “when this scheme was carried into effect, was scarcely elevated above that of the mechanical arts; nor were the majority of its practitioners better educated than mechanics. No society as yet existed, independent of the monastic and ecclesiastical, which could at all be considered learned.”

Linacre was at the sole expense of founding the college, for the crown merely granted the letters patent. These were issued in 1518, incorporating all physicians in London as one faculty and college, with power to elect a president, to use a common seal, and to hold lands not exceeding the annual value of £12. They were to hold assemblies and govern their faculty in London and within seven miles, all persons being interdicted from practice who did not hold their license. Four censors were to be chosen yearly, for the correction and government of physic and its professors, the examination of medicines, and the punishment of offenders; and physicians were to be exempt from attendance at assizes, inquests, and juries. The power of correction by fine or imprisonment occasioned some embarrassment at a subsequent period, for when some offenders were committed by the college, the gaolers would not receive them into prison, considering the college must charge itself with the custody of its own culprits. To obviate this difficulty a statute (I Mary, sess. 2, c. 9) was passed, requiring gaolers to receive persons committed by the college, and also enjoining all justices, mayors, &c., in London to assist the President of the college in searching for faulty apothecary wares.

Various defects having been found in the original letters patent, they were confirmed by a statute, 14 Henry VIII. (1523), which provided among other things that no person except graduates of Oxford or Cambridge should be permitted to practise physic throughout England, unless examined and approved by the President of the College of Physicians of London, and at least three other selected members. Previous to Linacre’s time, the bishops or their vicars-general were the persons who could grant licences to practise medicine (in addition to the universities), and this power was long after this retained by them, although they called in physicians to assist them in determining to whom licences should be granted.

As was but natural, Linacre was the first President of the college which owed its existence to himself, and he held that office till his death. His residence, the Stone House, in Knight-Rider Street, Paul’s Wharf, convenient for access to the Court, then kept up at Bridewell, was also the meeting-place of the college. The front portion of the house, a parlour below, and a council room and library above, were given to the college during his lifetime, and remained the property of the college until 1860.

In considering the import of Linacre’s endeavours to promote the study of medicine at Oxford and Cambridge, it must be remembered that the idea of establishing lectureships or professorships for public instruction was quite a novel one in England, and that Fox, Bishop of Winchester, appears to have been the first, in 1517, to endow lectures in Greek and Latin. And Linacre unquestionably has the merit of first applying such an idea to the improvement of instruction in medicine. His foundations did not take full effect till 1524. Again, we have a letter from the University of Oxford “to the renowned Dr. Linacre,” couched in the most exaggerated style of panegyric, thanking him for his proposition to endow “splendid lectures” in medicine, lauding his “sober gravity and erudite judgment,” “his greatness,” “the transcendency of his gifts.” The letters patent founding the lectures were dated on the 12th of October, 1524, only eight days before his death. Two of the lectureships were to be founded at Oxford and one at Cambridge, and to be named Linacre’s Lectures. Thirty pounds a year, a considerable sum then, was to be devoted to this purpose by his trustees, out of the proceeds of two manors at Newington, near Sittingbourne. But although the trustees, Sir Thomas More, Tonstal, Stokesley, Tonstal’s successor, and John Shelley, were men who might have been expected to pay attention to Linacre’s desires, yet, probably owing to the busy occupations in which they were engaged, they failed to carry them into full effect; and it was not till the third year of Edward VI. that Tonstal, the surviving trustee, assigned two of the lecturers to Merton College, Oxford, and one to St. John’s College, Cambridge. Their office was to expound publicly certain parts of Hippocrates or Galen. That his lectures failed to become what Linacre would have wished, was due to the common defect of that age in not foreseeing the revolutions in learning that were to come, and not providing any elasticity in their foundations. Thus these lectureships, which might have powerfully aided the development of medicine, remained of little use till modern times, when they have been placed on an improved footing.

“It has been questioned,” writes his biographer, “whether he was a better Latinist or Grecian, a better grammarian or physician, a better scholar or man. That Linacre was of a great natural sagacity, and of a discerning judgment in his own profession, we have the concurrent testimony of the most knowing of his contemporaries. In many cases which were considered desperate, his practice was successful. In the case of his friend Lilye, he foretold his certain death if he submitted to the opinion of some rash persons who advised him and prevailed with him to have a malignant strumous tumour in his hip cut off, and his prognostic was justified by the event.

“In private life he had an utter detestation of everything that was dishonourable; he was a faithful friend, and was valued and beloved by all ranks in life. He showed a remarkable kindness to young students in his profession; and those whom he found distinguished for ingenuity, modesty, learning, good manners, or a desire to excel, he assisted with his advice, his interest, and his purse.”

Linacre had suffered for years from stone in the bladder, which had limited his usefulness and the perfection of several of his designs; and he died of ulceration of the bladder, on the 20th October, 1524, having made his will four months previously. He was buried in St. Paul’s Cathedral, in a spot chosen by himself, and expressly named in his will. No memorial was erected over his grave until 1557, when Dr. Caius, one of his successors, reared a monument with a suitable inscription, ending with a favourite expression which he afterwards placed on his own tomb, “Vivit post funera virtus.”