Heroes of science

by P. Martin Duncan

The fall of Demetrius from power removed the protector of Theophrastus, and the ignorant anti-educationalist party of the day revived their persecutions. In the year 305 B.C. a political noodle managed to frame a law, and to get it passed by the ruling body of the day, which forbade all philosophers under pain of death to give any public instruction without permission of the State.

This curious law was passed in order to prevent the education of the people being advanced, and the result was that Theophrastus and several other teachers left Athens. Good sense, however, seems to have prevailed over ignorance and hostility to learning, and the law was abolished in the following year. Moreover, the proposer of it was fined the great sum of five talents for his folly. Then Theophrastus returned to Athens, and taught there until he died. The whole population followed his body to the grave.

It is a remarkable fact that the writings of Aristoteles and Theophrastus on plants, were not improved upon for many hundreds of years. They were both observers of nature, and their works contained all the knowledge on the subject, of their time. When the Romans obtained the supremacy in Europe, and had possessions in Asia and in Africa, men were not found amongst them who could add to the knowledge of the Greeks about plants; so the books of the two great men who were the fathers of botany were simply copied by their successors, or criticized, and doubtful novelties were added.

There were many Roman writers on agriculture, but few wrote on the nature and structure of plants, and amongst them the most celebrated was Caius Plinius Secundus, commonly called Pliny the Elder.

Where this great man was born is not known, but possibly it was at Como. He was of noble family, entered the army, and became a distinguished soldier. He was appointed Augur at Rome, and subsequently had supreme power in Spain. These were not apparently the positions which were likely to stimulate a young man of wealth to study natural history, and certainly, in later days, the military man and active politician have not proved, as a rule, enthusiastic students of plants and animals. Want of time and inclination are, of course, the usual excuses of such men, and the love of luxury and of intellectual idleness might be added also. Nevertheless there is an instance in the case of the elder Plinius, where a man, greatly and importantly occupied, spent much time in studying nature, in compiling the observations made by his predecessors, and in writing books which have given him a fame which will last with the world. In summer he began his work as soon as it was light; in winter, generally at one in the morning—never later than two, and sometimes earlier. No man, writes his nephew, spent less time in bed, and sometimes he would, without retiring from his books, indulge in a short sleep, and then pursue his studies. Before daybreak he went to the Emperor Vespasian, who chose to transact business at that hour, and when the Emperor had finished, Plinius returned to his studies. After a slender repast at noon, he would in the summer recline in the sun, and during the time some book was read to him, and he made extracts from the author. He used to say that “no book was so bad but something might be learned from it.” After this he had a cold bath and took refreshment and rest. Thus reinvigorated, he resumed his studies until supper, when a book was read to him, and he made remarks on it. This, of course, must have been an occasional method of passing the day, for no man could live without some hours of exercise and sleep. Probably he retired to sleep at eight under these circumstances, and had a good sleep in the hot hours of the day. When in the country all his time was devoted to study, except when he slept and bathed. He is said to have used a carriage instead of walking, and, unfortunately, but naturally, he got weak lungs and became corpulent.

Plinius laboured for many years at natural history and the other sciences, and he was a most diligent collector of information. A warrior and a statesman, yet he contrived to write a vast number of works, his books on natural history alone amounting to twenty-seven volumes. He appears to have known all that it was possible to know at his age of the world, and yet there was no great amount of new work put into his books. It has been very properly said that the loftiness of his ideas and the nobleness of his style enhance still more his profound learning. Naturally, as he copied much from other writers, and especially, in one part of botany which relates to medicine, from an author named Dioscorides, he could not examine into the truth of every statement which had been made. Hence Plinius retailed some curious stories now and then, which are more amusing than true; but, on the whole, he established, on solid grounds, the learning of his own and previous ages.

This active-minded man, who lived in luxury and had great responsibilities, is an example to many of the same class who do not care to enjoy the study of the beautiful nature around them. He lost his life whilst endeavouring to sustain the courage of his friends, during the great eruption of Vesuvius, when the cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum were destroyed. He was on shore at the time, and probably was suffocated by noxious fumes.

The name of Dioscorides has been mentioned as that of an author known to Plinius; he was born in Cilicia, at Anazarbus, and flourished during the reign of the Emperor Nero. Nothing is known about his early life, but it appears that he was a soldier, and possibly connected with the surgical and medical art in the army. Certain it is that he travelled over many countries—Greece, Italy, Gaul, and Asia Minor—gathering plants and studying, not so much their structures and mutual resemblances and differences, as their medical or healing powers. He obtained plants from travellers in India, and learned the merits of herbs and drugs from many nations. He wrote on the substances used in medicine in a Materia Medica, and named and briefly described between five and six hundred medicinal plants. Unfortunately Dioscorides wrote in a careless manner, and there is much nonsense mixed up with truth in his writings. But he was of use; he was not merely a student of the beauties of nature, but of the value of certain plants to man in his pain and trouble, and he founded the science of medical botany.

Aristoteles, Theophrastus, Plinius, and Dioscorides are the men of mark who raised botany and plant-learning out of their infancy and gave them a youthful vigour. They placed the method of learning, on its right basis. Instead of imagining what was true, and then collecting and studying plants to prove the correctness of the imagined notion, they began in the opposite direction. They strove to learn and discover facts,—truths, and then reasoned upon them. Ignorant people, and those men who have the minds of children, always like their opinions and ideas better than facts, and especially if the facts will not fit in with their notions. Such people do not know how hard it is to find out the truth in nature, how difficult it is for finite man to comprehend infinite wisdom. This was as true formerly as it is now, and hence the method of learning, taught by the earlier of those great men, was opposed to the understandings of the majority of their fellow men. They troubled the complacent ignorance of the day, and were therefore persecuted. Like brave men, they did not care for persecution, knowing that they did not deserve the wicked charges brought against them; they persevered, and not only enjoyed life much more than their opponents, but led good and useful lives.