e for results just as if
everything depended on God." There is no lack of logic in this; and
the physician of the present day who realizes his impotency in the
presence of so many of the serious ailments of mankind is not a
scoffer at the attitude of mind that looks for help from prayer; but
if he is sensible, welcomes the placidity of mind this will give his
patient, even if he does not, as many actually do, however, believe in
the possible interposition of supernatural forces.

If Prof. White knew anything about the lives of the men whose names
are most distinguished in the history of medicine during the
thirteenth, fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, we would have heard
nothing of his almost incomprehensible negation of the existence of
scientific medicine, during centuries when so many men who have
stamped their names indelibly on the history of the medical sciences
were doing their work and {202} writing. If he had taken any pains to
learn even a few details of the personal relations of these old-time
makers of medicine to the Popes, we would have heard none of this
utter absurdity of Papal opposition to medicine or ecclesiastical
hampering of medical science. To answer Prof. White's argument, that
"it would be expecting too much from human nature to imagine that
Pontiffs should favor the development of any science which undermined
their interests," the simple story of the men the Popes choose as
their own medical advisers, and who because of the prestige of their
appointment as Papal Physicians helped to raise up in the eyes of the
people the dignity of the medical profession which they represented,
will be quite enough. It will also serve to show how different is
history founded on an assumption from history founded on actual facts.

The best, most easily obtainable, and most impressive data for the
inductive method of reaching the truth as regards the relation of the
Popes to medical science and (because of the fact that physicians were
the scientists _par excellence_ of the Middle Ages) to all science,
will be found in a brief consideration of the lives of the men who
occupied the position of Papal Physician during the last seven
centuries. I do not think that this group of men has ever been treated
together before; at least I have been unable to find any work on the
subject. While I am able to present a considerable amount of
interesting material in brief form with regard to them, I am sure that
there are ma