[From Dubovrgdiev: Aphorism Prognostici Hippocrates, Romae, 1659.] ANNALS OF MEDICAL HISTORY New Seri es , Volu me IV March , 1932 Number 2

THE LIFE AND TIMES OF DR. WILLAM HARVEY* By SIR WILMOT HERRINGHAM, K.C.M.G., C.B., M.D., F.R.C.P.

HAMPSTEAD, ENGLAND Part i 1. Harvey fr om 1578-1600 Dean and Chapter. There were fifty ILLIAMW Harvey boys on the foundation, and others was the son of were allowed to come who were not on it, of whom Harvey was one, Thomas Harvey, yeoman, of Folkc- but all were required to have learned tone. Thomas, who reading, writing and the rudiments of as born at Folke- grammar, previously.! This, there- stone in 1549, mar- fore, was not Harvey’s first school; ried as his first wife, Juliana Jenkin, he must have been taught in a small who dying left him a daughter, Julian. grammar school, of which there were a great number in the country, either He married in January, 1577, his sec- ond wife, Joan Hawke, or Halkc, by at Folkestone itself or elsewhere. whom he had seven sons, called by Ful- Canterbury held the position of a ler “a week of sons,” and two daugh- modern public school. It had six ters. William, the eldest child, was born forms, which read the usual Latin authors in order: Cato, Aesop, Ter- at Folkestone, on April 1, 1578. ence, Horace and Cicero, with one or Nothing is known of William Har- vey’s childhood. At ten years of age two moderns who wrote in Latin, he was admitted to the King’s School such as Mantuanus and Erasmus. at Canterbury, a very old foundation f In a list of King’s Scholars of 1591, the which had hitherto been governed only list of Harvey’s time that is extant, his name does not appear (see Woodruff and by the Archbishop, but had been Cape. History of the King’s School Canter- taken over by Henry vm, enlarged, bury, 1908). He must therefore have been a re-endowed, and placed under the “commoner,” a scholar not on the foundation. *In the time of Harvey the year began officially on March 25. Thus March 24, 1650, is March 24, 1651, according to our present calendar. Dates have been corrected to accord with the present method. The upper forms wrote Latin prose and preferred letters (Hterae human- and Latin verse, and, as usual then, iores) to logic, the religious because the boys were ordered to speak noth- it revived the old pagan names, and

adored the old pagan beauties. In spite of encouragement by Fox at Corpus, it had pretty well perished ing but Latin and Greek whether at out of Oxford, in consequence of the work or play. The statutes, given to feud between the “Greeks” and the the school in 1541, are still extant. “Trojans,” and at Cambridge the Although Greek is mentioned as an first Greek chair was set up by the alternative, and the head master is orders of Legh, the visitor sent by supposed to be learned in Latin and Thomas Cromwell in 1535. A quarrel Greek, no Greek authors are given about pronunciation between 1540 in the curriculum, and we may take and 1550 probably did not improve it that in 1541 it was not taught. matters. Smith and Cheke following Grocyn and Linacre had taught it in Erasmus, maintained that the modern Oxford at the end of the 15th century, Greeks had lost the old pronunciation, and Erasmus was invited to Cam- and in spite of the opposition of Gar- bridge in 1516. But Greek was the diner the Chancellor, and of Caius, mark of the beast, the new spirit in who had learned from Greeks in learning to which all the authorities Italy, the pronunciation we now use were opposed, the educational because won the day. The pronunciation of it attacked the old scholastic teaching, Latin as if it were English also began about the middle of the 16th century. Commons for the boys at Canter- It was not until the Marian refugees, bury were rated at 10 d. a week. returning with the accession of Eliza- The schools closed for three weeks beth, brought a new reverence for Greek as one of the Biblical languages, that it gained a secure position. Backed by the strong Calvinist propa- ganda many of the grammar schools began to teach Greek, and some Hebrew. This movement had had plenty of time to grow by 1588, when Harvey went to a public school, and we may take it as certain that, when he went to Cambridge six years later, he could not only read, write, and talk Latin, but also had a working knowledge of Greek. Latin was then the universal language, and every school taught it colloquially. Mon- taigne it may be remembered was not allowed to speak anything else until he was six. From school time-tables and stat- utes, especially from that of Eton, which have been preserved, we know something of public school life at that in the summer, when all boys went time. Boys got up at 5; had prayers home. But at Christmas and Easter, at 6, and worked from 6 to 9. At 9 though they had ten days or so breakfast, probably bread and beer. without lessons, boys did not go home From 9.45 to 11 school again. At 11, unless they lived nearby. Travelling dinner. From 1 to 5 school again. At was difficult in those days. Though 5, supper, and bedtime at 8. Their there do not seem to have been any stomachs must have been very empty, regular half-holidays in the week, and their heads very tired by 9 Mr. Leach (from whose “Schools of o’clock, and it was a foolish plan to Mediaeval England” I have taken put off breakfast so late when dinner the preceding details) calculates that was so early. But the interval from owing to Church feasts they must 11 to 1 must have given them time have had a whole or a half-holiday for a game of some kind. almost every week. Each of the The prefect system was in full greater saints provided a “whole swing, though the prefects (Custodes) Remedy” (remedium) when the pres- were chiefly spies to report misdeeds ent writer was at Winchester. to the masters, and the flogging was It may be added that the rules for most brutal and continual. Ascham, getting up were much more severe in the “Scholemaster” (1570), was for schoolboys and undergraduates one of the first to advocate teaching (see above) than for the servants of by kindness. a country gentleman like John Haring- ton, who were only required to be out who received a stipend from the of bed by 6 a .m . in summer, and college funds. 7 a .m . in winter.1 P. tertii ordinis were the Common- Harvey entered at Cains in May, ers, who received nothing. 1593. His certificate of entry is still 5. The Sizars, who performed cer- preserved there and runs as follows: tain menial duties for the Fellows, waited on them, and were fed on Gul. Harvie, filius Thomae Harvie what remained after the Fellows had yeoman, Cantianus ex oppido Folkeston, dined. educatus in ludo literario Cantuarensi, All Pensioners paid for their annos natus 16, admissus est Pensionarius minor Com. Scholar, ultimo die Maii Commons. The Scholars had a room 1593 sub tutela Mgri Geo. Estey, CoIIegii or part of a room and College tuition Socii, qui pro eo fidejubet. Solvit pro hoc free, at least this is provided in the ingressu suo in Collegium iijs. iiijd. foundation of the Matthew Parker William Harvey, son of Thomas Harvey Scholarship; the Commoners paid for yeoman, from the town of Folkestone, in rooms, tuition and commons. the county of Kent, educated at Canter- “Com. Scholar.” The usual form bury School, in his 16th year, has been was “in Commeatum Scholarium,” admitted as Pensionarius minor to the which is what the previous biogra- Scholars’ mess on the last day of May phers print. But the exact words in 1593, under the tutorship of Master the present instance are as they are [Magister] Geo. Estey, Fellow of the given here. The preposition may have College, who goes surety for him. He been omitted in error; if not, it is the pays for this his entrance into the College three shillings and fourpence. dative case, which is possible. “Sub tutela etc.” Every under- A few notes may be added. graduate was allotted to a tutor who Previous biographers, Lawrence, was responsible for his debts to the Willis and Power, by placing the College (fidejubet), and also for the comma wrongly before instead of after supervision of his education and con- the word yeoman, have made William duct. The tutor was selected with some the yeoman instead of his father. care and was often either a country Dr. Venn2 in a valuable note on the neighbor or a relation (Venn). (For “Status of Students in Elizabethan details respecting Estey see p.i 13.) times” tells us that they were then “Solvit 3/qd.” The entrance fee divided into five classes. was 6/8d. for P. majores, 3/qd. for 1. Pensionarii majores, Fellow com- P. minores, by the Statutes of Cains. moners, who were generally younger, Cains required of scholars that they were richer, dined at the Fellows’ should write decently, should be able table, and seldom took a degree. to sing, should know grammar (Latin) 2-4. Pensionarii minores primi, se- and Greek and that they should be cundi and tertii ordinis. asked “an organistae sint” and “an P. primi ordinis were the Bachelors. carmen componant.”* But from 1581 They had a separate mess, and their the scholarships were not given on commons were rather dearer than * At some Song Schools choristers were those of the other two. taught the organ. (Ottery St. Mary, Leach P. secundi ordinis were the scholars Schools of Med., England, p. 194.) Perhaps in the restricted sense of the term, carmen componere meant musical composition. admission but after some period of to cause the rest to be defaced, which was residence. Harvey did not obtain his accomplished yesterday with the willing till Michaelmas. hartes as appeared of ye whole company Up to 1559, that is for a year of that house. after the new foundation, there were only six scholarships at Cains. In Byng accompanied by Whitgift, Mas- 1581 there were thirty-one. Cains ter of Trinity, afterwards Archbishop, founded twenty, who received four and Goadc, Provost of King’s, broke marks (£2.13.4) yearly, and Matthew open the room in which the things Parker, Archbishop of Canterbury, were kept and smashed to pieces in 1571 gave the College £61.13. 4 to what he could not burn. Cains had found a medical scholarship for a boy for some time been on bad terms with from Canterbury (at Cains’ request his Fellows on matters of discipline, according to Dean Hook). It was and they probably also were like the invested in land and produced a rest of the University, strong Calvin- yearly stipend of £3.o.8d., “Sine ists. They took their revenge. But dcductione cubiculi ant lectionum do- Cains had reserved the right to nom- mesticarum.’’ It lasted for six years, inate his successor, and appointed the first three of which were to be his friend Legge, who was a High given to studies preliminary to Medi- Churchman. Legge was Master in cine (quae ad Medicinam pertinent) Harvey’s time. the remainder to Medicine itself (quae Among the Fellows during Harvey’s Medicinam ipsam faciunt). It is the years, 1693-1699, were: first case of a scholarship for medical Stephen Perse, m.d ., Founder of the training. This was the Scholarship Perse School. which Harvey held. Edward Wright, a mathematician. A large proportion of Cains men Thomas Grimston, m.d ., anatomist, came from Norfolk and Suffolk, some, who no doubt conducted the two owing to connection with the Bour- yearly dissections for which Cains chiers, from Devonshire, and a con- had obtained a license. Harvey must siderable number from Yorkshire. have attended them. This last fact is due in Dr. Venn’s Robert Church, Lady Margaret opinion to the religious opinions of Preacher, a friend of Gabriel Harvey. the College. Yorkshire was largely George Estey, Harvey’s tutor, first Romanist, and Cains, though per- lecturer in Hebrew on the Frankland mitted to retain the Mastership when foundation of 1575, an incumbent and other Romanist officials were expelled, a divine. was supposed to be of that religion Alexander Roberts, afterwards head himself. Byng, the Vice-Chancellor, master of Lynn Grammar School, and wrote to Burghley on Dec. 14, 1572, divine. that there were in the College many John Fletcher, mathematician, Popish utensils. with a reputation as an astrologer, though not apparently sought by It was thought good by the whole himself. consent of the Heads of Houses to burn In the lists of admission from 1590 the bookes and such other things as to 1600 which comprise all Harvey’s served most for idolatrous abuses, and contemporaries there arc very few names which were known in after of gentlemen, the remainder being life. The following may be mentioned: sons of yeomen, as Harvey was, of Admitted tradesmen, or “mediocris fortunac.” More than one gentleman’s son is Richard Parker, Antiquary . . 1589 admitted as a sizar. Thomas Brudenell, Baron, 1628, We would give a good deal to know Recusant and Royalist, Earl how the day of an undergraduate was of Cardigan, 1661...... 1592 then spent, but unfortunately that is Hammond Whichcote, Parly. just the kind of information that is Commissioner...... 1592 the hardest to obtain. We have to John Botterill deprived of his piece it together, and then very benefice by Bp. of Lincoln imperfectly, from various sources. Be- (Williams) 1622...... 1593 tween 5 and 6 a .m . Chapel took Wm. Mallory, Royalist, fined place.3 There was a line for being £2,219 by Park...... !593 late or absent. At 6 a .m . lectures Thomas Browne, Romanist, but began, and continued for four or five took Oath of Supremacy . . 1593 hours. Most men in that age took a Henry Coppinger, Jesuit. . . . 1594 morning drink of beer or wine with William Denny, m.p. Norwich. 1594 bread. When the students got it is Geo. Wharton, son of Philip, doubtful. Lectures would finish at Lord Wharton, k. in duel, 1609 1595 ten or eleven. Dinner followed. Dr. Thos. Fothcrly, in Household Lever, Master of St. John’s, thus of Chas. 1...... 1596 describes it and the remainder of the Sir Wm. Heidon, drowned at poor scholars’ day, as it was in 1550.4 Rhe...... 1597 He says: Thos. Woodehouse, Parliamen- tarian, m.p. Thetford . . . . 1597 At ten of the clocke they go to dynner, John Brudenell, brother of whereas they be content with a penye Thomas, Royalist, died in pyece of byefe amongest iiii, having a prison, 1647...... 1597 fewe porage made of the brothe of the Thomas Wake, drunken parson same byefe with salte and otemell and ejected 1644...... 1598 nothynge els. After thys slender dinner Richard Plumley, Parker they be either teachynge or learnynge Scholar, vice Harvey . . . . 1599 untyll v. of the clocke in the evenynge, George Snell, Royalist, but took when as they have a supper not much the Covenant...... 1599 better than theyr dyner. Immedyatelye after the whyche, they go eyther to These names, though not of remark- reasonyng in problemes or unto some able people, show well the division other studye untyll it be nyne or tenne which the religion and politics of the of the clocke, and there beyng without time caused among men at one College, fyre are fayne to walk or runne up and and recall the fictitious characters of downe halfe an houre, to get a heate on the two old friends, Rochecliffe, the their feete whan they go to bed.* royalist Anglican, and Holdenough, the Presbyterian, whom Scott in “Wood- * There are three Sermons in the reprint, all preached in 1650. They are extremely stock” portrays as old Cains men. interesting as evidence by a man devoted to In the same years, out of 295 men education, of the corrupt diversion of funds admitted, 114 are described as sons originally left for this purpose. So far as the food goes this is not before the present writer was in starvation. In 1554 St. Bartholomew’s college there.* Hospital was paying a penny a pound To us, accustomed to the regular for beef and mutton, and if Cam- part which athletics take in college bridge prices, as is likely, were as life, the absence of any regular exer- low, these boys would be getting half cise in Dr. Lever’s program is striking. a pound of meat in the two meals Earle, however, in his “Micro- beside, no doubt, bread and a few cosmography,” published in 1628, extras. describes an undergraduate very Mallet gives the prices of commons differently. at the time of foundation of the A young gentleman of the University various Oxford Colleges. Commons is one that comes thither to wear a gown for undergraduates were lower than and to say hereafter he has beene at the those for Fellows. They were rated: University. His father sent him thither In the 13th century at 8d. a week. because he heard there were the best In the 14th century at izd. though Fencing and Dancing Schools; from there in the latter half of the century they he has his Education, from his Tutor the rose to i8d. oversight. The two marks of his seniority In the 15th century at i6d. a week. is [sic] the bare velvet of his gown and In the 16th century at I2d. and this his proficiency at Tennis, where when he was the rate at Trinity, Cambridge, can once play a set he is a Freshman no in 1556. more. His Study has commonly handsome shelves, his Bookes neat silk strings, etc. At the prices given here for St. Bartholomew’s the meat would have Simonds D’Ewes, who was a devout cost only 3^d. a week, and there would Puritan and went up in 1618, com- be 8>£d. left over for bread, beer and plains of the frivolity of his contempo- extras. raries. It is to be feared that he With this may be compared the would make similar complaints even board wages of the Matron of St. now. But those amusements would Bartholomew’s which in 1552 were be for richer men. Simonds D’Ewes i8d. a week, and we need not suppose does not seem to have practiced that the matron starved. them, but he developed a taste for Harvey’s scholarship was £3.o.8d. bell-ringing, when he was at Cam- per annum, which as we know from bridge, so that pastime was possible. the College Computus, or account Football gave rise to such a riot in book, was very nearly sufficient to a match with Chesterton in 1579, pay the whole of his commons.5 that the next year all football outside Cold was the great hardship. The college precincts was forbidden, and boys must have worked in their in 1595 Goade, now Vice-Chancellor, rooms, for there was nowhere else ordered that “the hurtfull and un- for them, and it is no wonder they scholarlike exercise of Football and wanted a run to warm themselves. meetings tending to that end do from Washing, we may be sure, was at a henceforth utterly cease (except with- minimum, as it always is in cold * Water was not laid on to “Chambers” climates. It was probably done at a before 1837 at Winchester. And at Eton, I pump or conduit in the open air, as gather it was even later (see A. K. Cook, it was at Winchester not so very long Winchester). in places severall to the Colleges, in 1566 and as part of Theseus’ hunting and that for them only that be of ye there was a cry of hounds “upon the same Colledges),” apparently a ban train of a fox” (Wood) which excited on inter-college matches. the students to the Queen’s great de- The most curious regulation is the light. “Gammer Gurton’s Needle” prohibition of bathing and swimming. was played the same year at Cam- In 1571 the Vice-Chancellor and the bridge. In 1597 Clare gave a play Heads ordered that if any scholar called “Club Law” to which they should go into any river, pool or other invited the Mayor and Corporation water in the County of Cambridge and their wives, and seated them by day or night to swim or wash, he carefully in the middle. The play should, if under the degree of b .a ., was an amusing skit on the town for the first offence be sharply and authorities, who being surrounded severely whipped publicly in the com- by students could not make an exit, mon hall of the College in which he and had to sit the play out. The dwelt, and On the next day should be Mayor complained to the Privy again openly whipped in the public Council, and the Council proposed school (i.e., lecture room) where he was to come down and see it, but the or ought to be an auditor; if he was a Mayor thought it better to drop b .a ., he was to sit in the stocks a whole proceedings. In 1602 the “Return of day. It must have been considered an Parnassus,” well-known for its ref- offence against public decency. erence to Shakespeare, was played; Although by Elizabethan times in 1615 one of the plays given at comfort had spread so far that in James’ visit contained a caricature of a Bachelor’s room pillows and bol- Sir Edward Ratcliffe his physician, sters were on the bed and pictures and another was “Ignoramus” in on the walls, and though Robert which Brakyn the Town Recorder Devereux, Earl of Essex, when he was satirized. went up to Trinity (Cambridge) in But though domestic theatricals 1577, paid £7.0.0 for fitting up his were permitted there was the strict- rooms, it is doubtful if a poor scholar est prohibition of professional acting. had a room to himself. Certainly in Lord Oxford’s, and Leicester’s troupes the earlier half of the century he were both refused permission in 1580, shared with three or four others. and even the Queen of Bohemia’s Nor had he yet a fire except in Hall. company in later times. One amusement, the acting of plays, The turbulent spirits of youth which, was common, and authorized, at the in modern days, have been diverted time we are considering. The plays to athletics, found in the Middle were written and acted by the younger Ages, and even in the 16th and 17th graduates, and were given in the Halls centuries, less desirable outlets. either at Christmas or on the occasion In early times the Universities were of a royal visit. They were usually, terrible places for fighting; there were but not always, farces on the model pitched battles between the Nations, of Plautus, and commonly contained a and between North and South, be- caricature of some person well-known sides quarrels between Colleges, with- in the university. Palamon and Arcite in the University, and there were was played before Elizabeth at Oxford still fiercer fights, sometimes led by the authorities themselves, against bacco smoking, which seems to have the town, in which men were not been extremely common then among infrequently killed. Cooper6 under men, and occasional even among the year 1575, quotes a letter in women. In 1607 anyone convicted which the fighting between town and of excessive drinking or taking to- gown is described as continual, and bacco in public taverns or shops at that the antagonism was not confined night is to be expelled, and anyone to undergraduates is shown by the smoking in St. Mary’s at commence- statement that when University men ment, or in the Schools, or in any walk the streets they will take the dining hall, or when plays are being wall of everyone, whence the proverb performed, is to be fined 6/8d. The that a Royston horse and a Cambridge order was repeated in 1615, before m.a . are a couple of creatures that will the King’s visit, and again in 1631. give way to nobody. Smoking in St. Mary’s does not At Oxford, Christchurch and Exeter seem to have occurred during divine were at such violent feud that in service, but during University cere- 1630 Duppa excused the Christchurch monies. But there is an order in 1595, men from responding in the Schools forbidding students to be covered for fear of the consequences, and in during the sermon, and a complaint 1637 they were still enemies, the later (1636) that though the Uni- masters wrangling in the Schools versity is uncovered at such times, and the students fighting in the the townspeople wear their hats, streets.7 which reminds us of contemporary Poaching was as old and as popular Dutch pictures of Church interiors, as fighting. As late as 1586 Lord where the congregation are listening Norreys came with a party of men to the preacher with their hats on. to Oxford to complain to the authori- From the earliest times students ties that one of his keepers had been had been noted for extravagance in killed. The undergraduates mustered dress, and this still continued. In on Magdalen Tower and stoned his 1578 Burghley forbade “hoses of party as they rode out by the bridge, unseemly greatness,” (i.e., trunk hose) inflicting considerable injuries. In 1627 excessive ruffs, apparel of velvet and the King wrote to the Vice-Chancellor silk and the wearing of swords and ordering him to expel certain under- rapiers. graduates who had been killing his In 1602 his son, Robert Cecil, makes game at Woodstock (Cal. S. P. Dom. a similar complaint. In 1615 there is Charles 1). a decree: Drunkenness was inveterate from . . . Consideringe the fearfull enormi- the earliest times to the 17th century. tye and excess of apparell seene in all de- The visit of James to Oxford, in grees, as namely, strange pekadivelas 1605, led to a great increase of it, [piccadillies, some kind of collar attached and in 1639 the scholars, being hunted to the doublet!, vast bands, huge cuffs, out of the alehouses by the Vice- shoe roses . . . it is straightly charged etc. Chancellor, took to bibbing and gam- and in 1636 Laud was informed that ing in their own rooms. men were wearing gowns of all colours During James’ reign orders begin instead of the regulation black, “round to appear at Cambridge against to- rustic caps if they wear any at all,” and other garments light and gay, some notice that the Earl of Suffolk (Thomas with boots and spurs, others with Howard), Chancellor of the Univer- stockings of diverse colours.* sity, was appealed to by the Fellows of Caius, who had passed a resolution Their hair also was ordered in that the Master, William Branthwayt, 1560 to be polled, netted (shorn), had neglected his duties, and that he or rounded, and in 1615 “tufts locks be asked to resign. The Chancellor and topps of hare” are forbidden. summoned them to Audley’s Inn Idleness and insubordination of va- (Aedes Audlianae), now Audley End, rious kinds are a continual source of which had been largely built by his complaint. Elizabeth and Charles both uncle and predecessor, the Earl of wrote to the Chancellor of the day, Northampton, and decided that the and Parliament complained about it. Master had committed many serious Burghley actually resigned three years offences which he must rectify, and after his appointment on account of among others “that he must hand it, but was persuaded to stay on. over to the College Chest Dr. Harvie’s Shirking Chapel and Hall, and refus- 100 li. and that it be imployed with all ing to wear surplices, are specially convenience and speed to provide land mentioned, but disobedience to regu- for the maintenance of a SchoIIer.” lations was widespread, and in 1587 This, however, was not carried out Burghley writes that Tutors have too till ten years later, when a parcel of large a stipend, that they neglect land at Bassingbourne was bought their pupils and are afraid of them, for £180, of which Harvey’s gift pro- and that poor people cannot afford vided £100, the College Chest the to send their sons to the University. rest. The value of the scholarship was Harvey took his degree in Arts in fixed at £4.10.0. But the rent of the 1597 but there are no details available land was £11.0.0, so that the College of that, or of his subsequent work at for its £80 got £6.10.0 and the scholar- Cambridge on more purely medical ship for its £100 got £2 less. On May subjects. His scholarship was last 6, 1628, “Edwardus Baldwinus, Suf- paid at Christmas, 1599. But whereas folciensis, electus scholaris primus, ex for the first three years he was hardly fundatione Doctoris Harvey.”8 ever absent from college, during the Harvey does not mention Cam- last three, 1596-1599, he was away bridge in any of his writings, nor do for as much as sixteen months alto- we hear of his going there after he had gether, and once as long as two months taken his degree. He did not mention at a stretch. His absences were ap- the College or the University in his parently due to ill health, f will. In order to complete the connection of Harvey with Caius, the following 11. Univ ers ity Teach ing in Harve y ’s Time record is inscribed here. In the year Medicine did not form part of the 1617 the “Annals of Caius” contain a Arts course in Medieval times. The * Hoses of unseemly greatness, stockings of Trivium, Grammar, Logic and Rheto- diverse colors, and round rustic caps form ric, and the Quadrivium, Music, Arith- the dress of about half the undergraduates nowadays. metic, Geometry and Astronomy, led f Barlow.5 Information derived from Dr. to the degree of Master of Arts at the Venn. end of seven years, and most men took that degree before they began Up to the sixteenth century the the study of Medicine. At Oxford a belief in the influence of the stars on course of four years was then required human life was so universal, that to become a Bachelor, and two years astronomy was considered a necessary more to become a Doctor of Medicine. part of medical education, and though Each degree in Medicine was attended by the seventeenth century, it had with similar disputations to those in been discredited, Fletcher, a Fellow Arts, which took the place of our of Caius in Harvey’s time, was asked examinations. for an astrological opinion, and Aubrey At Cambridge the statute ordered believed in the science. that no one should be admitted to a Lectures were given by the resident degree in Medicine unless he had first Doctors of Medicine, but there was taken his m.a . (in artibus rexerit), and sometimes a dearth of teachers, for in had for at least five years, in that or 1414 there was only one at Oxford, some other university, attended a and he was a foreigner.9 course in Medicine including lectures Anatomy seems to have been hardly on “libros non commentatos,” viz.: taught at all, and it is uncertain what Johannicius, Philaratus de pulsibus, practical instruction was given. Theophilus de Urinis, Isaac, and the At Oxford, up to the sixteenth Antidotarium of Nicolaus, and “libros century, Medicine seems to have been commentatos” Tegni Galieni, the a small and struggling faculty, and Prognostics and the Aphorisms of few facilities were given to it. When Hippocrates, and the Regimen Acu- Merton was founded (1274), Fellows torum, and had lectured on (legerit) were allowed to study Medicine. This at least one book of theory and one of was forbidden in 1284 by Archbishop practice, had opposed and responded Peckham, but seems to have been in the Schools, had been exercised in allowed again later, for several phy- practice for a year, had a good charac- sicians, John of Gaddesden, John ter, and had been approved by the Mas- Ashenden and Chamber, physician to ters in his faculty. A later clause extends Henry vii and Henry vm, were Merton the term of practice to two years. men. William of Wykeham allowed Hippocrates and Galen were the two Fellows of New (1379) to study chief authors, and in an account of Medicine. Cambridge drawn up by, or for, Sir Surgeons could obtain a license to Robert Cecil, when he became Chan- practice, but not a degree. cellor, in 1601, the duty of the Queen’s In the early years of the sixteenth Reader in Physicke (Regius Professor), century Linacre’s bequest founded then Sir William Ward was, “to read two lectureships in Medicine at Merton and to interpreate Hippocrates and and one at Cambridge, but they seem Galen in such sort as shall seem meete soon to have become ineffective. Wol- for his auditory.” sey contemplated founding a Profes- Chaucer mentions several other au- sorship of Physic in his College, and thors whom his Doctour of Phisik in 1546 Henry vm founded a Regius had read, and says of him: Professorship of which the first occu- In al this world ne’ was there non him lyk pant was Dr. John Warner, Warden To speke of phisik and of surgerye of All Souls. The Visitors of 1549 made For he was grounded in astronomye. drastic reforms at Oxford, and by their statutes a student of Medicine to that in other countries, and in was obliged to study six years, to other professions in England. dispute twice, to respond once, and Matthew Parker, the Archbishop, to see two anatomies before securing left an endowment for a medical his m.b . He had to perform two scholarship at Caius, the first of its anatomies, and to prove that he had kind. The Elizabethan Statutes given effected at least three cures, before he to Cambridge in 1570 permitted a was admitted to practice, and appar- man to take the Medical degrees with- ently to see two or three more anato- out previously taking the Arts Course. mies, to dispute twice, and to respond Harrison (quoted by Cooper6) writing twice, for his Doctor’s degree.10 in 1577, states that “a man may, if he James i added the Mastership of will, beginne his study with the Lawe Ewelme Hospital to the Chair of or Physicke so soon as he cometh to Physic, and in 1624 Tomlins endowed the Universitie, if his knowledge in the a Lectureship on Anatomy which was tongues and rypeness of judgment to be held by the Physic Professor. serve therefore.” In that case “he At Cambridge by the statutes of performs such actes in his own studies Gonville and Bateman (1348) two as the Bachelors of Divinity do.” Fellows were allowed after taking the By that time therefore a man might m.a . to study medicine. At King’s specialize in Medicine without taking (1440), of 70 Fellow-Scholars two were an Arts degree. allowed the same privilege. In 1540 a But the whole subject was in a most Regius Professorship was founded with unsatisfactory condition. Indeed the a salary of £40, the first Professor teaching of medicine in England up to being John Blythe of King’s, m.d . of the nineteenth century was a national Ferrara, a brother-in-law of Cheke. disgrace. Except for the formal lectures In 1546 Trinity was founded, and of mentioned here there was no attempt 60 Fellowships two were allotted to at medical instruction at Cambridge Medicine. In 1549 the Visitors ordered until Sir George Paget became Regius that non-Regent Masters of Arts were Professor (1872) or at Oxford until to study Theology, Hebrew, Law or even later. Clinical instruction in Medicine if they wished to stay at the London began as private classes con- university. Previously, in 1535, the ducted by a few leading men in the Universities had been found full of latter half of the eighteenth century. parsons who preferred the social ameni- Before that time men took their first ties of Oxford and Cambridge to the degree, the m.b ., at the University, and cure of their parishes. In 1558 Caius were then obliged to go abroad to refounded Gonville, and of the three obtain the practical teaching which Fellows on his own foundation two was not to be found in England. were to study Medicine and might go Moreover, the granting of degrees abroad for the purpose. He mentions was managed in a very improper and Padua, Bologna, Montpellier and corrupt fashion. Paris as good schools. He refused a In 1634 the College of Physicians like permission to other Fellows, be- wrote to Collins, who was Regius cause their studies could be as well Professor at Cambridge, and also a pursued in England, which shows that Fellow of the London College, com- medical education here was inferior plaining that the degree was given to unfit and ignorant persons. Collins been already mentioned (see p. 110), acknowledged the abuse, but said and though Greek had been established that it was only natural that the in Harvey’s time, MuIIinger considers University should be indulgent to its that it was still much neglected, that alumni and should be a little blind to there was hardly any history taught their faults. “Perhaps,” he went on, but that of Greece and Rome, and “you will say it is my fault that so that Civil Law had long been declin- many analphabetarii licentiati are ing. In 1628 Fulke Greville, Lord sent out by us.” He makes the excuse Brooke, wishing to improve the study that if he refused their exercises they of history, founded by his will a new had only to go to two other doctors. chair to which he invited the eminent Every learned Society had fools in it, Dutch savant, Isaac Dorislaus. But and the College need not complain. the University authorities considered Collins died that year and in 1635 that, since he came from a republican Winterton, the new Regius Professor, country, his opinions might be danger- wrote to the college complaining spon- ous, and the opposition roused against taneously of the scandalous way in him was so great that he resigned. which the m.d . was given: The main intellectual interest in the University, as in general society, was Incorporation being obtained by a little polemical theology. It had begun with summe of money which by orderly pro- ceeding would take twelve years study in Cartwright in 1571, and continued • the University, besides performing of unabated to the time of the Common- exercises and much expense. In the wealth. University preachers were University at this time I do protest I do constantly censured, now in one direc- not know any one that intends the studye tion, now in the other, according to of Physick and practice thereof according the opinions of the Archbishop of the to the Statutes. Chirurgeons and apothe- day. caries are sought unto, and Physicians It was indeed a difficult task for a seldom but in a desperate case are con- man in those days to act according to sulted with, when the Patient is ready to his conscience. Elizabeth’s Oath of die. Supremacy and Act of Uniformity He asks the President to urge Clayton, had caused many to resign. The the Regius Professor at Oxford, to Canons of 1604, to which James, in move in the matter there. In 1637 1613, ordered all doctors of the Uni- the College ordered that no one should versity to subscribe, were a fresh be admitted a Fellow who had not burden.* These were abolished by the performed all his exercises and dis- Long Parliament and the National putations in one of the Universities Oath and Covenant, Presbyterian in without dispensation (sine gratia). religion, but including allegiance to The unsatisfactory character of the the King and Constitution, was sub- University degree goes far to justify stituted, and lastly, on the abolition the College in rigorously maintaining of Monarchy, the Engagement of its sole right to grant licenses to Fidelity to the republican form of practice in town. Government was exacted. This was Nor was the general education in refused by the Chancellor of the Arts satisfactory. The decline in classi- * They included the obligation to wear cal studies, especially in Greek, has surplices and to take the Sacrament kneeling. University, the Earl of Manchester, taught profoundly, Optics has been himself. lately a subject of research, and To return to the subject of educa- Astronomy is up to date. tion. About the middle of the seven- The mischief is, we are not given to teenth century several criticisms ap- Astrology, and as for Natural Magique peared. In 1649, John Hall published notwithstanding this lamentable persecu- “An humble motion to the Parliament tion, I dare adventure my life, that Mr. &c,” in which he complained of the Webster may pass safely with this medieval character of the course. Examen, carrying it either in his pocket There was no recognition of the or in his hand or in his mouth, through natural sciences, such as chemistry, both the Universities of this Nation, the botany and even anatomy, while several Colleges of Eaton, Winchester, history was badly taught, and arche- etc., the College of Physicians at London ology not at all. Even mathematics and all the rest (provided he have a care and the classics were neglected, while how he pass by the College at Bethlem) without any danger of Bell, Book or ethics was nothing but Aristotle. Candle, Fire, Sword or Execration. Hobbes in “Behemoth” declaims against the “Aristotelity” which, he Chymistry is not neglected at Oxford. says, prevails, and Webster in 1653 Funds have been provided and several makes some foolish criticisms, and men are working at it. He then passes some still more foolish claims. His to the criticism that we have not pamphlet (“Examen Academiarum”) altered the teaching of Medicine in is interesting only for a sentence: we accord with the modern discoveries are, he says, teaching nothing but and he answers it thus. Galen though “our never sufficiently honoured countryman Dr. Harvey The practice of Physick hath been bottomed upon experience and observa- has advanced the study of Anatomy.” tion. And that is the reason that the His value as a critic is somewhat dis- discoveries of the Circulation of the blood, counted by his complaint that Astrol- of the venae lacteae both Mesentericall ogy is neglected, natural magique and Thoracicall, of the vas breve, and persecuted, and the mystical Anatomy severall new ductus, vasa lympbatica etc., of Dr. Fludd despised. have not made an alteration in the Seth Ward, in the “ Vindicia Acade- practise of Physick answerable to the miarum” (1654) made mincemeat of advantage they have given to the Theory. Webster, and though he treated Hob- And the College of Physicians at bes with more respect he remarks, London is the glory of this Nation, and “About that time when Mr. Hobbs indeed of Europe, for their learning and felicity in the cures of desperate ulcers was conversant in Magdalen Hall the and diseases, even of the cancer, and Constitution and way of the Uni- those he* [ignorantly] mentions which versity might likely be enclining to have been diverse times performed by his character of it, but now his dis- Dr. Harvey and others. course seemes like that of the seven sleepers.” He states that Aristotle, He adds, “It is a real designe though honored and taught, is freely amongst us wanting only some assist- criticized, that inductive reasoning is ance for execution, to erect a Mag- studied equally with the syllogism, neticall, Mechanicall and Optick that Arithmetic and Geometry are * i.e., Webster. Schoole furnished with the best [of which Dell was Master], and that Instruments.” other University.” The treatise which is prefaced by a Dell was not only a fanatic but an letter from N.S. and is in form a reply eccentric as well, and his evidence on by H.D. (the last letters of the the wickedness of the University is names John Wilkins and Seth Ward) about as valuable as that of Simonds is not only amusing, but is also valu- D’Ewes. Nor must we omit Milton’s able, since it shows that there was at “Treatise on Education” addressed to Oxford a high appreciation of the Hartlib. It is not very original. He different branches of science. The pro- quarrels with the usual method of vision made for “Chymistry,” and teaching Latin and Greek by grammar the scheme for a Physics Laboratory and composition, and he proposes as soon as funds can be got, might institutions to hold 100 scholars which have been w’ritten today for the spirit shall be both schools and colleges they profess, and if, as Hobbes said, teaching from the school level up to though untruly, Gresham had at- that of the m.a . He includes a good tracted all natural science to herself, deal of science, and a good many it was from Oxford and Cambridge technical subjects, agriculture, engi- that she had drawn the professors to neering, and navigation for instance, teach it. in the course, and about an hour and a The criticism of William Dell was half’s daily exercise in learning the of a different kind. It is a postscript use of their weapons (Milton was a to a treatise called “The Triall of competent swordsman himself), and Spirits, etc.,” and contains several wrestling. He had educated several proposals with most of which Ward boys, and his views are just those of a agrees. Dell wished that schools should man who has had a small class and has be set up in all villages to teach been able to give special attention to English and the Bible, others in towns them in consequence. for Latin, Greek and Hebrew, and But besides these criticisms of teach- Universities in large towns such as ing there was complaint also of the London, York, Bristol, Exeter, Nor- expense of university life. In 1642 wich and others in addition to Oxford both Manchester and York petitioned and Cambridge, which should teach for a local university, partly on that Mathematics, Physic and Law. ground, partly on account of distance. These proposals show a liberal and In 1643 the Assembly of Divines asked far-reaching view which was not car- for a University at London. ried out until late in the nineteenth The early part of the sixteenth century when provincial universities century had been a time of great began to be established. trouble for the universities. They But Dell went on to complain of the were then almost entirely ecclesiastic licentiousness and profaneness of the in their aims. The colleges had been Universities. Ward replies that Oxford founded to train ecclesiastics for the is neither licentious nor profane, but service of the Church and of the State, that Dell is charged by common fame and the great majority of under- “to have a studyed designe [by letting graduates were intended for Holy fall all discipline] to let in license with Orders. But the Church had been so its usual traine both into Cays College pillaged by the Crown and by her patrons, both lay and ecclesiastic, and pounds to support a poor scholar at the upper clergy had become such the university. pluralists, that the prospects of mak- Elizabeth had altered this. Partly ing a decent living were very small. from vanity of her own accomplish- The worst example of pluralism was ments, and partly out of a real love of that of Wolsey himself, but the prac- learning, she began the system of tice was defended by Bancroft and Royal visits to the universities which was rife in Stuart times also. Spencer the Stuarts continued and thus made in “Mother Hubberd’s Tale” tells us: the universities fashionable. She her- For some good gentleman that hath the right self, determined to keep her expenses Unto his Church for to present a wight, within her income, gave nothing, but Will cope with thee in reasonable wise; her courtiers did, and the sons of That if the living yerely doo arise rich men and nobles flocked to the To fortie pound, that then his yongest sonne colleges, which thus became what they Shall twentie have, and twentie thou has have been ever since, representative of wonne. all but the lowest classes in the Laud tried to stop his bishops from country. (See the figures for Caius cutting down the trees belonging to p. 114.) The numbers at Oxford were the See and pocketing the proceeds, said to have been below 1000 about and a report was presented to the 1550; they were 2500 by the end of her Long Parliament on the parish of reign. Wokingham, in the gift of the Dean But it was not an unmixed blessing. and Chapter of Salisbury, who had These rich boys brought with them leased the rectory to a layman for the habits of their own class, and we life, with the result that, as there was can well understand that though the no vicarage, the parishioners had for poor scholar remained as before, the several years been compelled to pay a general standard of expense would be preacher out of their own pockets likely to rise. {Journal of House of Commons). It A few instances of an undergradu- was an age of universal pecuniary ate’s expenses are known. MuIIinger11 corruption, in which the upper clergy, quotes from a ms . source the case of a with some honorable exceptions, Norfolk squire named Wilton who shared. allowed his son £30 a year. Simonds As a result the number of students D’Ewes had £50 a year, and Alice had sunk very low both at Oxford and Thornton’s son after the Restoration Cambridge* and in addition by the cost her £100 a year, but he was a dissolution of the monasteries they spendthrift. At the end of the six- had lost all the exhibitioners who used teenth century Sir Thomas Smith, a to be sent up by them. Fellow of his College, writes that for There were repeated injunctions by £30 he can keep three horses and three the Tudors that clergy whose benefices servants. were worth £ i oo a year should contri- Extravagance however, as some of bute £3-6.8d. out of every hundred the complaints indicate, was by no means confined to the undergraduates. * Fuller, 1542-3. “There was now a general decay of students, no college having more Fellows were accused in 1587 of wear- scholars therein than hardly those of the ing “satin doublets, silk and velvet foundation.” overstockes, gownes faced with velvet and satten to the grownde and great forbidding renewal before the time, fine ruffs,” and under Charles of in order to prevent the Fellows from “frizling” their hair and wearing shoe pocketing large fines derived from roses. But they did a good deal worse long leases at low rents. A bill was than that. In 1602 Cecil, succeeding even brought forward then, and again his father as Chancellor, complains of in 1625, forbidding the sale of fellow- the negligence of Tutors, of the neglect ships, headships, and other college of disputations and lectures, and of offices. Heads of Houses nearly always the scandalous way in which degrees had a cure or some other appointment, were given. “Nobiles et quasi-nobiles” and often resided out of their univer- had always been allowed to have dis- sity for the greater part of the year. pensation (gratia) from the Acts neces- Brent, for instance, Warden of Merton sary by the Statutes for a degree, and for twenty years, lived in London. when they condescended to take a But as with the Clergy, so with the degree took it merely by paying the Dons, there were always some who fees. But this gradually spread until played their parts conscientiously and as is described by Winterton any kept up the reputation of the person, even the most ignorant, university.* could obtain a degree for “a little * I have relied on Mallet and Wood for summe.” Oxford, and on Fuller, Cooper, Bass Mullin- Nor was this all. In 1576 an Act was ger and Venn for Cambridge beside the passed restricting college leases to authorities quoted in the text. twenty-one years or three lives, and (To Be Continued)

From Boyle: Opero Omnia. Venetiis. 1697.]