Moliere and the physician / by Max Kahn.

  • Kahn, Max.
Date:
1911
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Moliere and the physician / by Max Kahn. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.

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    As strict partisans of the principles of the Parisian faculty, [346] Jean Eiolan (1577-1G57) and Guy Patin (1601-1672), stand preeminent. Patin, polemical medical man and clever humorist of that day,” said of Eiolan that he would rather give up a friend than an assertion. They were strict adher- [847] ents of the latro-chemical school, founded by Sylvius, “ which like other systems, might ratlier be called a systemic phantasy.” This system is based upon the elements of chemistry—the improved successor of alchemy and the first step toward true chemistry—; upon the new knowledge of the circulation of the blood; and upon the closer acquaintance with the chyle and lymph vessels (which had been acquired in this period), as well as upon the old doctrine of the spiritus and the calor innatus ” of the heart. His system, although its author always professes to accept only “experience by means of the senses, is constructed far less upon experience than upon false conclusions drawn from experimental observations, whose connection with his theory is on the whole arbitrary and forced.” (J. H. Baas: Geschichte der Medicin.) Opposed to their beliefs were the theories of the latro- mathematical school whose motto was, “ In your practice, concern not yourselves with theories.” The originator of this system was Santorio Santoro (1561-1636), Professor in Padua and Venice. Their idea was to treat all things with precision, and that all functions in the body were physical rather than chemical. “ Thus digestion was referred to as a process of mechanical trituration, and the absorption of chyle was ex- plained as due to the pressure arising from the action of the intestinal movements upon the comminuted food. In a similar way the secretions were referred to as the resistance created by the comers, curves, angles, etc., of the vascular system, and so on.” Guy Patin was a learned man, a brilliant writer and thoroughly acquainted with the Latin language, which he wrote to perfection. “ His creed contained but two articles— bleeding and purging with Senna.” Certainly he was not a quack, but with mediaival intolerance he opposed all who were against the existing order of things. It might have been of him that Moliere has said “ that a dead man is only a dead man, and is of no consequence, but a neglected formality does