properly provide for the practice of dissection. This was as true in
the United States until within the memory of men still alive as it had
always been hitherto in European history. Dissection came to be
allowed so freely in the medieval universities founded under
ecclesiastical influence and ruled by ecclesiastics, as the result of
the intelligent realization on the part of churchmen that the study of
the human body was necessary for a proper recognition and appreciation
of the causes of the ills to which flesh is heir. They realized that
the only way to lay the foundation of exact medical knowledge was not
only to permit, but to encourage the practice of dissection, and
accordingly this was done at everyone of a dozen medical schools of
Italy during the fourteenth, fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, and
nowhere more so than at the {15} Papal University at Rome itself
during the sixteenth century, at a time when, if we would believe Dr.
White, the Church authorities were doing everything in their power to
prevent dissection.

None of the other sciences allied to medicine were hampered in any
way, but, on the contrary, fostered and encouraged; and the devoted
students of science were prominent churchmen, some of whom were
honored with the title of saint after their deaths. In spite of
declarations to the contrary, chemistry was not forbidden by a Papal
decree or other document, though the practice of certain alchemists of
pretending to make gold and silver out of baser metals and thus
cheating people was condemned, just as we condemn the corresponding
practice of selling "gold bricks" at the present time. As will be made
very clear, the Pope who issued the decree that forbids such sharp
practices was a distinguished and discriminating patron of medical
education at the beginning of the fourteenth century, doing more for
it than any ruler for three centuries after his time; yet in doing so
he was only carrying out the policy which had been maintained by the
Popes before his time and was to continue ever afterwards.

Strange as it may appear when we recall how much has been said with
regard to Papal, and Church, and theological opposition to science,
the story that we have just told with regard to the Papal relations to
medicine and medical schools must be retold with regard to science in
every department, and the scientific studies at the great medieval
universities. Most people will find it even more difficult to acc