ny of them whom I have omitted. Practically up to the day
of going to press I have been finding new references that led to
further precious information with regard to this most wonderful group
of men in medical history. It will be well {203} understood, then,
that impressive as the consideration of the work and character of the
men whose names I have found must be, this does not represent all the
truth in the matter, but can be supplemented without much difficulty
from other sources.

If the Popes had been interested only in the miraculous healing of
disease, and had wished to teach the lesson that men should depend
solely for their recovery from serious symptoms and ailments of all
kinds on prayers and relics and pilgrimages, then they would either
have had no physicians at all in regular attendance on them, or at
least their physicians would not have been selected from among the men
who were doing most to advance the cause of practical and scientific
medicine and of medical education. The very opposite of this is the
case. The Papal physicians were as a rule the most scientific medical
men of their time. This is not a pious exaggeration, but is literally
true for seven centuries of history, as we shall see presently. The
wonder of it is that there were not some charlatans among them. The
physicians whom educated people select are not, as physicians we'll
know, always worthy examples of progressive medical men. Literary folk
particularly seem to have a distinct tendency to want to be different
from other people, and their physicians are often the veriest
theorizers. A medical friend who occasionally quotes, but perverts the
old line, "the people people have for friends are often very queer,"
says, half in jest of course, but alas! more than half in earnest,
that "the people literary folk and the clergy have for doctors are the
queerest ducks (docs.) of all."

It is only too true that clergymen are especially prone to be erratic
in the choice of their medical advisers and {204} lacking in a
critical judgment as to the remedies and methods of treatment of which
they become the willing recipients, and occasionally even the sponsors
as regards other people, who look up to their judgment for other
reasons with confidence. Prof. Osler once said that the nearer to the
Council of Trent the clergyman, the nearer he was likely to be to
truth and common sense in medical matters; but then perhaps all would
not agree with him. It