and Bernardino Castellani. John is the better known and was for years
the director of the Hospital of Santo Spirito and received the much
coveted title of Roman Citizen for his work for Roman citizens there.
He succeeded Elpidiano as lecturer on anatomy and surgery at the
University of the Sapienza and left a large anatomical work in
manuscript with many copper plate engravings, which were never
published. The book of his by which he is known is a volume of
directions for venesection from the standpoint of the anatomist. It
was the custom then for nearly everyone to have himself let blood
several times a year and especially in the spring, somewhat as in our
time many people take purgatives. The practices are about equally
foolish unless there is some special indication for them. In many
families the barber-surgeon was called in almost as regularly for this
and with quite as little anxiety about it as for the cutting of the
hair. Naturally there had been many mishaps in this practice because
the barbers were expert enough but ignorant, and venesection was done
from blood vessels all over the body because one patient thought his
head ought to be relieved, another his foot, another his chest, and
the like. Castellani's book then, called _Phylacterium_, which I
suppose might be translated The Protective, was meant to indicate the
anatomical landmarks that should guide the barber-surgeon so as to
avoid the danger points. Like so many other of the works of the {461}
Papal Physicians it was directed to the correction of popular
practices that were the source of injury and suffering to the people.
Castellani's book contained directions for the application of cups,
dry and wet, which was also a popular practice confided to the
barber-surgeons at this time, and like blood-letting had been subject
to many abuses.
Urban VIII (1623-44).--One of the scholarly Papal Physicians was
Julius Mancinus of Siena, who secured the much coveted position of
physician to the Santo Spirito Hospital in Rome by competition. He
obtained a great reputation for his ability to make the prognosis of
disease and acquired an extensive practice as a consequence. He
accumulated a great fortune from his practice but lived very modestly
and used his income partly for the education of ambitious youths of
talent who were without the means of securing an education and partly
in the collection of works of art. He wrote a book on "The Pictures of
Rome." A number of books were dedicated to him, and Antonio Recchi in
his scientific work expresses his gratitude to him for the help
afforded in the collection of plants, animals, and minerals from
Mexico.
Two of the Papal Physicians of Pope Urban VIII were the uncle and
nephew Sylvester and Thaddeus Collicola. Sylvester taught medicine at
the Sapienza and was a very popular teacher mentioned in a number of
books of the time. Thaddeus had studied law before taking up medicine,
but devoted himself entirely to the second profession and Mandosius
speaks of him as "the greatest physician of his time, dear to all the
learned men who knew him and to all the good men who were brought in
contact with him." Thaddeus was evidently a friend of the literary men
of his time, for he is often mentioned by poets and writers. Several
books were dedicated to him by scientific and literary admirers.
Innocent X (1644-55).--One of the copious writers among the Papal
Physicians was Baldus Baldi, who was the medical attendant of Innocent
X. We have a series of books from him, one On Contagious Diseases, a
treatise on Hippocrates' Suggestions concerning Air, Water and
Habitation, a book On Pleurisy, a detailed account of the fatal
illness and the autopsy on the body of Cardinal Bevilacqua and
academic lectures on poisons as well as a book on the Opobalsamo
Orientate.
A distinguished Papal Physician under Pope Innocent X was Paul
Zacchias, "a most learned philosopher and physician who had a very
versatile genius and whose deep interest in every form of intellectual
work, not only such serious studies as philosophy, {462} medicine,
theology and jurisprudence, but also the lighter arts of poetry,
music, painting and so forth, made him distinguished among his
contemporaries." Zacchias is best known as the author of a book on
medico-legal questions which went through a series of editions, was
published originally at Rome and afterwards at Lyons in at least two
editions there. Zacchias wrote a volume on the keeping of Lent in
which he discussed various questions of the relationship of fasting
and health, which went through several editions and is often referred
to by the moralists. He also wrote a book on Hypochondriasis. Some of
his writings that were widely circulated in manuscript are On Sudden
and Unexpected Death, On Macules Contracted from the Foetus _in
Utero_, on Rest in the Cure of Disease, on Laughter and Grief, on a
Physical Consideration of The Miracles of Holy Scriptures, and other
subjects that might be expected to interest a medico-legal expert who
was occupied particularly with the psychology of many human problems.
The Papal Physicians were not all Italians, indeed Italian as a
national designation was almost unused, men were Neopolitans, Genoese,
Venetians, Paduans, Bolognese, Sicilians, Milanese quite as distinctly
as now they are French, English, Spanish or whatever else it may be.
The Popes usually chose physicians from their own cities but not to
the exclusion of others and not a few Papal Physicians were from
outside of Italy. Pope Innocent X chose Gabriel Fonseca, a Portuguese,
whose father had been a teacher of medicine at Pisa and at Padua, and
who himself held chairs in medicine at both of these universities
before he was invited to Rome to be a lecturer at the Sapienza and
Papal Physician. Van der Linden notes among his writings a work on
medical economy, _Medici Oeconomia_, and a series of lectures on
Contagious Fevers, as well as a book on Medical Banquets. Fonseca came
to be looked upon as one of the most distinguished teachers of
medicine in Italy in his time.
Alexander VII (1655-67).--One of the physicians of Pope Alexander VII
was Matthias Naldius, Doctor of Medicine and of Philosophy and a man
of great erudition, a scholar in Latin and in Greek, who knew Hebrew,
Chaldaic and Arabic. He was sent by the Duke of Etruria on a medical
mission of consultation to the Prince of Damascus, who was suffering
from what seemed to his attending physicians an incurable disease, and
Naldius was able to relieve him. The incident called attention to him
all over Italy and he was sent for in consultations to most of the
Italian cities. He taught at the medical school of Siena, his
birthplace, and wrote {463} a series of volumes on medical subjects.
One of these is the rather well-known "Pamphilia or Friendship of the
Whole World," the subtitle of which is "The Conciliation of the
Opinions of Disagreeing Philosophers." This was published at Siena in
1647 in quarto. He issued a small volume of "Rules for the Cure of
Contagious Diseases," Rome, 1656. His great work is the _Rei Medicae
Prodromi_, or introduction to medical science, which has for subtitle
"Treatise on the Principal Problems of Physiology."
A distinguished scientist of the seventeenth century who found Rome a
refuge and place of opportunity for his studies at this time when
beset with difficulties elsewhere, was Borelli, the first to apply
mechanical principles to the explanation of physiological problems in
his work _De Motu Animalium_. Borelli had been a professor of science
in Messina, visited Florence for a time in order to be with Galileo
shortly before the great astronomer's death, accepted the call of the
Duke of Tuscany to Pisa, where he had as colleagues Redi and Malpighi,
with whom he founded the Accademia del Cimento. He left Pisa, not long
after, to return to Messina, whence however he had to flee, having
fallen under the suspicion of taking part in a conspiracy against the
government, and now found a refuge in Rome. He was pensioned by Queen
Christina of Sweden, who was then living in the Papal Capital, but
after a time he retired to the monastery of San Pantaleone in Rome,
where two years later he died. Professor Foster, in his Lectures on
the History of Physiology, which were delivered at a number of
universities in this country and subsequently published in the
Cambridge Biological Series, devotes a whole lecture, some thirty
pages, to "Borelli and the Influence of the New Physics." He does not
hesitate to say at the conclusion of the lecture that "when we
consider the effect which a perusal of Borelli's book has upon the
reader now, we can easily understand how he was the founder of a great
school which flourished long after him. He was so successful in his
mechanical solutions of physiological problems that many coming after
him readily rushed to the conclusion that all such problems could be
solved by the same method. And as is often the case the less qualified
alike as regards mechanical as well as physiological knowledge and
insight to follow in Borelli's path were the men of succeeding times
the more loudly did they often proclaim the might of Borelli's
method." It has always been thus and doubtless always will be. The
smaller men who come after the great masters are quite sure that they
can go farther than the master himself and push his system, as did the
Darwinians in {464} our time, to silly exaggerations. When the
question of the attitude of the Popes to science is under
consideration, however, it is well to recall that Borelli's
revolutionary work was completed under the aegis of the Popes and a
religious order in Rome and the account of it was not actually
published in its completed form until after Borelli's death, and then
at the expense of ecclesiastics. It is the knowledge of details of
this kind that gives us a real insight into the significance of
ecclesiastical relations to science.
Innocent XI (1676-89).--The Papal Physician of this Pope was Floridus
Salvatorius, to whom the Provost, the Trustees and his Colleagues of
the College of Physicians of Rome dedicated, in an Introductory
Epistle, a volume of the Statutes of the College of Physicians of the
City, in which they praised him very highly. He seems to have been a
great favorite with the members of the medical profession in his time
at Rome, and other books on medicine were also dedicated to him.
Another of this Pope's physicians was Lancisi, one of the most
important in the list, whose place in the history of medicine is
pointed out in the body of this book.
Alexander VIII (1689-91).--The physician to this Pope was Romulus
Spezioli, doctor of philosophy and of medicine of the University of
Firmo, who acquired a great reputation at Rome as physician and
finally was selected as Papal Physician. He became professor at the
Sapienza, the Roman University, and was very popular as a teacher.
After the death of the Pope he gave up his profession of medicine and,
like Linacre a century before, became a priest, but his scientific
knowledge was taken advantage of to enable him to give lectures on
subjects in the borderland between religion and medicine, what has
come to be called in our time pastoral medicine, to the theological
students at the Roman University, and his medical experience was used
in the causes of canonization in order to pass on miracles.
Innocent XII (1691-1700).--Both of the physicians of Innocent XII,
Malpighi and Lucas Tozzi, are very well known. Malpighi deserves in
medical history a place beside Harvey as one of the greatest of the
contributors to the medical sciences and probably even a niche higher
than the Englishman because of the number of original observations
that he made. I dealt with him earlier in this volume. Lucas Tozzi is
the author of a series of books on The Theory and Practice of Medicine
that are classics. One of these was issued at Lyons in 1731, another
at Paris in 1737, and a commentary on the Aphorisms of Hippocrates at
Naples, 1743. He {465} wrote also a commentary on the _Ars Medicinalis
Galeni_, besides smaller contributions to medical theory and practice.
One of his books, with the title _De Anima Mundi_, The Soul of the
World, in which he brings together a large number of the fallacies of
philosophic writers before his time regarding the universe and man and
their origin and destiny, was widely read. He suggests not only how
little there is that we know, but how much there is that we think we
know that is not so.
Pope Innocent XII died in 1700, and with the beginning of the
eighteenth century we feel that we are in our own times. Whatever of
direct opposition there has been supposed to be between the Popes and
science has always been traced to the older times. It was nearly
always shrouded in the mists of medieval history. It does not seem so
important then, to follow out the lives of the Papal Physicians in
detail in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. For anyone who
wishes really to know, the information is readily available. There is
abundant evidence, moreover, of the favorable attitude of the Popes
towards the medical sciences and a number of distinguished men are
among their physicians. The great Morgagni, who in his time was
undoubtedly the greatest of living physicians, was the intimate friend
of a number of Popes and was frequently consulted on all scientific as
well as medical matters. Both Pope Benedict XIV (1740-58) and his
successor Clement XIII (1758-69) insisted, as we have said in the body
of this volume, on having the great pathologist consider the Papal
Palace always open to him as a place of residence, whenever he visited
Rome. Almost needless to say this same favorable attitude has
continued during the nineteenth century.
Pius VI (1775-99).--Among the physicians who treated Pius VI during
the severe physical trials of a stormy pontificate was Professor
Cotugno of Naples, to whom we owe a number of important discoveries in
medicine. He was the first to point out the presence of the
cerebro-spinal fluid and ably supplemented the investigations of
Valsalva on the ear which did so much to clear up many problems in
connection with that organ, most of whose anatomy we owe to Italians.
He made a careful study of sciatica, _De Ischiada Nervosa_, Vienna,
1770, which is the classic foundation of our modern knowledge of that
affection. He made a series of _post-mortem_ observations on typhoid
fever in which he demonstrated very clearly the intestinal lesions of
that affection and came very near solving the important problem of the
pathological basis of the disease. Like a number of others about the
middle of {466} the eighteenth century, in spite of acute observations
on intestinal lesions, he could not get away from the theory of fevers
being constitutional and so was unable to separate abdominal typhus
from dysentery on the one hand, nor true typhus on the other. The
constitutional nature of the disease we have come to recognize to some
extent again after the pendulum had swung very far in the direction of
the declaration of its local character.
Pius VII (1800-23).--One of the physicians of Pope Pius VII was
Professor Giambattista Bomba, who was professor of physiology at the
Sapienza or Roman University of that time. One of the surgeons in
attendance at the Papal Court was Antonio Baccelli, the father of
Professor Guido Baccelli, the distinguished Italian scientist and
statesman of the modern time.
Another of the physicians of Pius VII was Flajani, to whom we owe the
first description of the affection known as Graves' Disease in
English-speaking countries, and often as Basedow's Disease on the
Continent, though the English physician Parry anticipated both of
these in 1822. Graves' description did not come until 1835, Flajani's
had been published in 1802; Basedow did not write the more complete
description in which he called attention not only to the goitre and
the rapid heart action as his Irish and Italian predecessors had done,
but also to the exophthalmos, which is so common an accompaniment,
until 1850. Flajani was distinguished for his ability as a clinical
observer as his priority in this matter would well suggest.
Gregory XVI (1831-46).--The two of Gregory XVI's physicians who were
best known were Professor Paolo Baroni, the distinguished Professor of
Surgery, the University of Bologna, and Pier Luigi Valentini,
Professor of the Theory and Practice of Medicine at the Roman
University. At the conclave which followed his death for the election
of his successor, Professor Giusseppe Constantini, the Professor of
the Institutes of Surgery at the Roman University, was in attendance.
[Footnote 53]
[Footnote 63: When the material of the famous Challenger expedition
was being assigned for investigation to those who were expected to use
it to the best advantage of science, the diatoms were handed over to
the study of Francesco Castracane degli Anteminelli. He discovered in
the material submitted to him three new genera of diatoms, 225 new
species and some thirty varieties. Altogether he had written some 112
papers on the biology of his favorite microscopic plants. Castracane
was a Catholic priest living at Rome in high favor with the
ecclesiastical authorities and directly encouraged by the Pope in his
work.]
Leo XIII (1878-1903) was so situated in his relations to the Italian
government that it would have been almost impossible for him to have
selected one of the distinguished professors at the {467} University
at Rome, which was, after all, a government institution. His physician
then was chosen from distant Ancona and proved to be a man of distinct
intellectual capacity, who impressed himself upon the science of Rome
in certain ways. This was Dr. Joseph Lapponi, whom those of us who had
the privilege of meeting remember with special pleasure. He was
professor of practical anthropology at the Academy of the
Historico-Juridical Conferences of Rome and the author of a book on
"Hypnotism and Spiritism; A Critical and Medical Study," which ran
through two or more editions in the original Italian and was
translated into several foreign languages. The English edition
published by Longmans is well known.
Pius X (1903-14).--Dr. Lapponi continued as the Papal Physician of Leo
XIII's successor until his death. Political conditions in Rome having
been modified somewhat Professor Marchiafava of the Roman University,
now in the hands of the Italian government, became the consultant
Papal Physician, the latest of a long line of distinguished men.
Marchiafava has done some excellent work with regard to malaria,
working out the life cycle of the malarial parasite and demonstrating
that the organisms of pernicious malaria and the tertian and quartan
malarial fevers are quite different. In recent years Marchiafava has
been particularly interested in the pathology of alcoholism, being a
prominent factor in that movement in Europe which during our time has
made it very clear that alcohol is never a stimulant but only a
narcotic and that in practically all cases where it is used regularly,
even though not consumed to excess, it produces definite pathological
changes in human tissues.
With this list before him, the reader will have all the material
necessary to understand the declaration that there is no series of men
whose names are connected together by any bond in the history of
medicine, even as members of the faculty of our oldest medical
schools, that represent so much achievement and original investigation
in medical matters as the Papal Physicians. With these men beside them
as advisers and very often as intimate friends, it would have been
quite impossible for the Popes to have been deliberate opponents of
scientific progress. We all know that by a curious irony of fate
physicians are sometimes found ranged against the line of advance in
medical science, but this is inevitable with human frailty and the
incidents of opposition have not done nearly so much harm as their
conservative refusal to listen to enthusiastic discoverers, whose
discovery was of no significance, has done of {468} good. No medical
society in the world has an unblemished record of constant readiness
to accept genuine new discoveries and all of them have sometime or
other been in opposition to what proved eventually to be significant
scientific progress. There are no striking incidents in the lives of
the Papal Physicians in this regard though their admiration for
Aristotle, Hippocrates and Galen sometimes kept them over
conservative. As a rule, however, they were ready to welcome every new
step in medical advance that was made.
We all know how much a man's physician usually means in influencing
him with regard to the attitude that he shall assume towards
scientific advances generally and particularly announced progress in
the biological sciences. The Popes could scarcely have had better
advisers in this matter than the men who were actually chosen as Papal
Physicians. They came from every part of Italy and sometimes even from
other countries. A library consisting of their works alone would
contain an extremely valuable collection of books illustrating nearly
every phase of advance in medicine.
{469}
APPENDIX VI.
ASTRONOMY AND THE CHURCH.
_Some Roman Astronomers_.
A formal list of Papal Astronomers in any way comparable to that of
the Papal Physicians cannot be given. Astronomy is not so compelling
in its interests as medicine and while man's first serious scientific
interest is his body, and the first modern university, that of
Salerno, was founded around a medical school, the development of
astronomy as a science was practically delayed until the Renaissance.
Though a formal list of Papal Astronomers is not available, there is,
however, a long series of names of workers in astronomy at Rome, some
of whom occupied positions in the Papal capital actually called by
that name, with many others who merited it for the work they did with
Papal aid and encouragement. A large number of astronomical
investigators conducted their researches under the patronage of the
Popes, often dedicated their books, with permission, to them, were
frequently supported by Papal revenues and had their observatories
supplied by the Papal government, or else they were in intimate
relations with the Papacy and received every stimulus for their
researches.
For special purposes, as the correction of the calendar, distinguished
astronomers were summoned from long distances to Rome. At the Sapienza
Papal University and later at the Roman College directly under the
control of the Jesuits, but with the entire approval and constant
effective good-will of the Popes, men of great distinction in
astronomy and mathematics have frequently been professors. Some of the
very greatest contributions to the science of astronomy have been
issued not only with dedications to the Popes, as I have said, but not
infrequently have been printed at the expense of the Holy See.
In the chapter on Papal Physicians I have suggested that no list of
men connected by any bond in the history of medicine are so
distinguished as the roll of the Papal Physicians. The faculty of no
medical school, for instance, no matter how long it may be able to
trace its history, contains so many distinguished names. This same
thing might well be said of the list of men who have done
distinguished work in astronomy whose names are in some way {470}
connected with the Papacy and whose relations to the Popes make it
very clear that far from a determined course of opposition there was,
on the contrary, a definite policy of encouragement and patronage for
astronomical workers and that this greatly helped the diffusion of
valuable scientific information with regard to the heavens and made
the ecclesiastics of the world particularly interested in these
important advances in human knowledge. In this appendix, then, as a
complement to the appendix on the Papal Physicians, I have brought
together some of the names and the achievements of astronomers who
worked at Rome or were in some way connected with the Popes. I know
that it is incomplete, but even as it stands it is a strong
confirmation of that principle so surprising to many presumably
well-informed people that the Popes were, as far as conditions
permitted, always the patrons, not the persecutors, of scientists in
all departments of the purely physical as well as biological,
theoretic and applied sciences.