What we now know of art, architecture, literature, the arts and crafts in the Middle Ages has almost won for them the name of the Bright Ages instead of the Dark Ages. There seems just one dark spot—the neglect of science. This book removes that. It tells the story of medieval medical education with higher standards than ours, of medieval surgery with anaesthesia and antisepsis, with beautiful hospitals and fine nursing, and of medieval dentistry with gold fillings and bridgework.
The Lancet (London): "We have said enough to whet the appetite of all interested in the history of the early makers of medicine. We cordially commend the perusal of this fascinating volume, which shows how much was accomplished in every department of intellectual effort in what is usually regarded as the unprogressive, stagnant, dark period of the Middle Ages."
The New York World said: "As in Dr. Walsh's 'Thirteenth The Greatest of Centuries' he carries amazement with his revelations of how old are many things we call new."
MODERN PROGRESS AND HISTORY:
Lectures on various academic occasions by James J. Walsh, M. D., Ph. D., K. C. St. G., Litt, D., Sc. D. Dean and Professor of The History of Medicine and of Functional Nervous Diseases at Fordham University School of Medicine, Fordham University Press, 1912. Pp. 450 Twelve illustrations. Price, $2.50 net. Postage, 15 cents.
Though delivered on various occasions, these lectures are all on the theme that our modern progress is but a repetition of previous phases of human accomplishment and that whenever men faced certain problems they solved them as well at any time in history as they do now. Educational problems are shown to have been the same in Greece and Rome as in our own time. Old time prescriptions in medicine are strangely like many that we have now. Old time dentists filled teeth with gold and tin, did fine bridgework, invented movable dentures, transplanted teeth successfully and anticipated our dental progress. Pronunciation, Old and New, shows that the Irish brogue is Shakespeare's pronunciation while The Women of Two Republics demonstrates how old are our political problems, even suffragettism. "The book is disillusioning, but marvelously illuminating."