rince, who had been clothed
with an authority only a little less than divine, became anathema. Under
the leadership of the Montpellier School, the Arabians made a strong
fight, but it was a losing battle all along the line. This group
of medical humanists--men who were devoted to the study of the old
humanities, as Latin and Greek were called--has had a great and
beneficial influence upon the profession. They were for the most part
cultivated gentlemen with a triple interest--literature, medicine and
natural history. How important is the part they played may be gathered
from a glance at the "Lives" given by Bayle in his "Biographic Medicale"
(Paris, 1855) between the years 1500 and 1575. More than one half of
them had translated or edited works of Hippocrates or Galen; many of
them had made important contributions to general literature, and a large
proportion of them were naturalists: Leonicenus, Linacre, Champier,
Fernel, Fracastorius, Gonthier, Caius, J. Sylvius, Brasavola, Fuchsius,
Matthiolus, Conrad Gesner, to mention only those I know best, form a
great group. Linacre edited Greek works for Aldus, translated works
of Galen, taught Greek at Oxford, wrote Latin grammars and founded
the Royal College of Physicians.(*) Caius was a keen Greek scholar,
an ardent student of natural history, and his name is enshrined as
co-founder of one of the most important of the Cambridge colleges.
Gonthier, Fernel, Fuchs and Mattioli were great scholars and greater
physicians. Champier, one of the most remarkable of the group, was
the founder of the Hotel Dieu at Lyons, and author of books of a
characteristic Renaissance type and of singular bibliographical
interest. In many ways greatest of all was Conrad Gesner, whose mors
inopinata at forty-nine, bravely fighting the plague, is so touchingly
and tenderly mourned by his friend Caius.(2) Physician, botanist,
mineralogist, geologist, chemist, the first great modern bibliographer,
he is the very embodiment of the spirit of the age.(2a) On the flyleaf
of my copy of the "Bibliotheca Universalis" (1545), is written a fine
tribute to his memory. I do not know by whom it is, but I do know from
my reading that it is true:

(*) Cf. Osler: Thomas Linacre, Cambridge University Press,
1908.--Ed.

(2) Joannis Caii Britanni de libris suis, etc., 1570.

(2a) See J. C. Bay: Papers Bibliog. Soc. of America, 1916, X,
No. 2, 53-86.

"Conrad Gesner, who kept open house