Looking back : a glance from empiricism to experiment, from superstition to research : Christian science refuted : delivered before The Middlesex Hospital Medical Society, on November 11th, 1909 / by Sir Henry Morris.

  • Morris, Henry, Sir, 1844-1926.
Date:
1909
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Licence: In copyright

Credit: Looking back : a glance from empiricism to experiment, from superstition to research : Christian science refuted : delivered before The Middlesex Hospital Medical Society, on November 11th, 1909 / by Sir Henry Morris. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    Combe, in his “Constitution of Man,”* relates that in the middle of the eighteenth century the country west of Edin- burgh was so unhealthy that every spring the farmers and their servants were seized with fever and ague, and that these visitations were believed to be sent by Providence. After a while the land was drained and the fever and ague disappeared. Swinburne, in his “Travels through Spain (1775-1776),”f tells that the clergy in the latter part of the eighteenth century were on the point of putting an end to the opera, because they attributed the want of rain to the influence of that ungodly entertainment. In 1760 the physicians of Madrid opposed the cleansing of the streets of the city, as they considered the smells emitted from them were wholesome. The argument was that “the air being sharp and piercing, it was extremel}r probable that bad smells made the atmosphere heavy, and in that way deprived it of some of its injurious properties.” But Spain was a particularly backward country, for Townsend during his journey through Spain in 1792 found that the leading physician of the country doubted the truth of the circulation of the blood, which Harvey had proved 150 years before. Even in the beginning of the nineteenth century there was not a lecture room for practical instruction in the colleges of either Madrid, Barcelona, or Cadiz. As long as it was forbidden to question the teaching of the Church, physical science made but slow progress, scien- tific investigation was under great restraint, and scientific investigators were frequently punished as heretics. As long as periodic attacks of fever and ague were believed to be visitations sent by God, it was heresy to make efforts to prevent them. As long as a lengthy period of draught was regarded as a Divine punishment for indulgence in ungodly amusements, it was conceivable that the closure of the theatres and opera houses might bring down the gentle rain from heaven as well as the drop curtain of the stage. But as soon as fever and ague disappeared with effectual * Edinburgh, 1847. f Printed in London in 1787.