so much with regard to the theory of light waves and the existence
of the ether to carry them. Men absolutely refused to listen to this
idea at all at the beginning, though now it is the {405} groundwork of
most of our thinking and of nearly all of our mathematical
demonstrations with regard to the movement of light. They not only
refused, however, but they expressed their scorn of the man who
invented such a cumbrous theory. Dr. George M. Gould, in one of the
volumes of his Biographic Clinics, has told the story of Dr. Young's
career, and I prefer to present it in his words rather than my own.

"A practicing physician, Young, as early as 1801, hit upon the true
theory of the luminiferous ether, and of light and color, which
nearly a century before had been discovered by Robert Hooke. But his
scientific contemporaries would not see it, and to avoid persecution
and deprivation of practice, Dr. Young was compelled to publish his
grand discoveries and papers anonymously. Published finally by the
Royal Society (one can imagine the editor's smile of superior wisdom
over such trash), they were as utterly ignored as were those of
Mitchell, Thompson and Martin as to eyestrain, two or three
generations later. Arago finally championed Dr. Young's theory in
the French Academy, but the leaders, LaPlace, Poissin, Biot, etc.,
denounced and conquered, and not until 1823 would the Academy allow
the publication of Fresnel's papers on the subject; in about
twenty-five years the silencers were themselves silenced. But Young
had been silenced too; his disgust was so great that he resigned
from the Royal Society, and devoted himself to his poor medical
practice and to deciphering Egyptian hieroglyphics." (In which, by
the way, as might be expected I suppose, he made a distinguished
name for himself.)

Many another important medical discoverer in the nineteenth century
found the truth of Auenbrugger's and Laennec's expressions, and met
the fate of Jenner and Young. Next to vaccination for small-pox,
probably the most important advance in nineteenth century medicine was
the discovery of the cause of puerperal fever, and the consequent
diminution of the death-rate from that very fatal disease. At one time
in the nineteenth century, it was much more dangerous for a woman to
have a child in a lying-in hospital in Europe than to go through an
attack of typhoid fever. The death-rate was at least 10 per cent.