tory
of science. There was supposed to be no scientific development and no
nature study until quite recent times. The generations immediately
preceding ours knew of none, and therefore concluded there must have
been none. They went even farther, and felt that since there had been
none, there must be some special reason for this lacuna in human
progress. The Church and the Popes were the favorite scapegoats for
human failings, so they were blamed. Now we know that there was a
magnificent development of science, not only in the Renaissance period
under the fostering care of the Popes and ecclesiastics, but also
during the old university times. What has come above all to be
recognized is that the medieval universities were _scientific
universities_. They paid more attention to the ethical and
philosophical sciences than we do, but they devoted a great deal of
time to mathematics and the physical sciences. Mr. Huxley, in his
inaugural address as Rector of the University of Aberdeen, declared
thirty years ago that the curriculum of these old universities was
better calculated to develop the many-sided mind of man than the
curriculum of any modern university. Above all, in surgery and in
medicine they did magnificent work. Anaesthesia, antisepsis, and the
natural methods of cure were all anticipated in the medieval time. At
the International Congress of Medicine last summer, a section on the
history of medicine was organized because it has come to be recognized
that very much that is even of practical value can be learned from
medical history.

The fact of the matter is that during the eighteenth and early
nineteenth centuries there was a great decadence of interest in
scholarship and true education. There is a distinct descent in human
culture at this time. Education was at its lowest ebb, hospitals {iv}
were the worst ever built, art and architecture were neglected, and
human liberty was so shackled that the French Revolution was needed to
lift the fetters from men's minds as well as bodies. They, in their
ignorance, spoke slightingly of old-time scholars. During the past
century we have come to a better knowledge of the Middle Ages, and he
is indeed a backward student of history who now thinks of them as
"dark." Our millionaires have gathered, at immense expense,
magnificent examples of the arts and crafts and beautiful books of the
medieval and Renaissance periods. Our binders imitate their books, our
artists study thei