JUNE 20, ROGER BAiCON. r Tnz Bum 3 JUNE 20, 1914119141 ROGER BACON. I MEDICAL JOUNIA!. T365 Bacon ROGER lhad already written nmany tlhings for the instruction BACON. of youtlh, on planits, on physics, nietaplivsics and-dtlier ALTHOUGH tlle date of the birtlh of Roger Bacon is subjects. uncertain, it is known tllat he flourished in the' thirteenth It is crtiou1s that witlhin a few years of the foundation century, in whichl he was one of the leaders of scientific of a mendicant order which was initended purely to preaclh thought. It is conjectured that lie was born in 1214, and the Gospel to the people, and to give active service to the it is on that assumption that the present year was poor, Bacon, who was to give his life to learning, should chosen for the formal celebration of his seven hundredtl have become a disciple of the "little poor maln " of anniversary, which took place at Oxford on June 10th. Assisi. It may have been a sudden conversion or a desire Sttictly speaking, hiowever, June 10th, was the eve of his for shelter from what was then a world of violeniec anid death, wlichl occutrred on the feast of St. Barnabas, disorder. It should be remembered, however, that very June 11th, 1294. The principal part of tlle -commemora- soon tlle English Franciscans became the most learned Lion ceremony was the unveiling of a statue. by Mr. Hope body in Europe, and that doubtless was a great attraction Pinker in the University Museum in the presence of a to Roger., number of distinguished men of science and letters In 1234 he went to Paris, where hc remained till 1250, representing not only Great Britain, but France, Italy, there increasing the great reputation as a student and a and America. Thle statue, as teacher which he had already will be seen from the photo. gained at Oxford. In Paris lhe grapli liere reproduiced, repre obtained the degree of D.D. sents Bacon in his hlabit as a and the appellation- of "*Doctor Franciscan friar, standing by a iMirabilis." He was to spendc desk and holding in his hands two further considerable periods an astrolabe. of time in Paris under super- The statue was unveiled by vision, as he had become suspect Sir Arclhibald Geikie, ex-Pre- to the authorities owing to his sident of the Royal Society, wlho devotion to learning and the said Roger Bacon was one of the plain speaking to wlhichi- that great foreruLnners in tlhe deve- led him, as was the fate of lopnment of experimental scienco Rabelais three centuries later. which four centuries later arose The first of these exiles, wlhicl into quickened activity under was imposed upon him by St. the inspiration of his illustrious Bonaventure, the "Seraphiie namesake, Francis Bacon. Lord Doctor," exteinded from 1257 to Cur4zon of Kedlestoin, Chancellor 1267; the second lasted fourteen of thle University, said the g ears. Bacon was released iui erection of the statue was the and returned to Oxford, reparation of a long neglect. where he died, probably in 1294. Roger Bacon was one of the Unlike Rabelais lie remained most universal geniiuses this among his brethren to the end, country and this race had ever and he was buried in the Clhurcl produced. An address was pre- of the Franciscanis long since sented by Father David Fleminag swept away. Sir John Sandys in the name of the General and says that a tower traditionally, the whole order of St. Francis. known as "Friar Bacon's Study ' The proceedings ended witlh an: stood on the old Grandl Pont address by Mr. A. D. Godley, or Folly Bridge on tlle soutl the Public Orator, wlho liailed side of Oxford till 1779. the return of Bacon to Oxford, _ , Roger Bacon, in a miuch wlhere lie might see around llim larger sens-e than hiis more the fruits of his works. famous namesake, took. all Thle interesting- cerenmony at, knowledge for his province. Oxford was- not so mnuchl a com- Mathematics, geography, astro- memoration or a resuscitation nomy anid astrology, plhysics, as a revelation. Friar Bacon, optics, chemistry and alelmeiny, for seveni centuLries a legen(dary and experimental science, besides clharacter, las niow at last taken languages, philosoplhy, and theo- hlis place in the lhistory of science. logy, all came within his intel- His workl wa's dimiily r1eConized lectual purview. While he was by a hlandful -of his contem-i- interested in eacllone of the poraries. Of his life hardly anyv- E.eiences separately, lie grasped tliing is known. Tle date of the idea that they were his birtlh is arrived at by tlhe (From a Photograph by CGiillman andl Co.,Oxford.) closely connected with each hypothesis that lie was 13 years other and mutually interdepen- of age whlen he began to study- sciences and languages; in dent as parts of the same whole. In hlis own words: 1267 lie said that he had then spent forty years in their All the sciences are connected and foster one another with study. He is said to have been born at Ichester in Somerset, mutual aids like parts of the same whole every one of which and to hiave belonged to a wealthv family which ruined itself accoviplishes its own work not for itself alone, but for the in the cause of the King in the great struggle between others also. Henry III and the barons, 1258-65. At Oxford he came It has been said by R. Adamson (quoted by Sandys) under the influence of Edmund Rich, afterwards Arch- that Roger Bacon came very near-nearer certainly bishop of Canterbury, the first scholar in 'Western Europe than any preceding and than any succeeding writer to lecture on the book of Aristotle's Organon known as until quite recent times-to a satisfactory theory of a the Solhistical Refutations. A more powerful influence scientific method1. Unlike some of hIis Arabian pre- was that of Robert Grossetete, afterwards Bishop of decessors, hie always had in mind the application of Lincoln, who had been appointed lecturer to the Fran- mathematical trutlis to practical ends. He gave much ciscans shortly after their establishment at Oxford in attention to the means of prolonging buman life and 1224. It was he probably who influenced Roger to learn to natural philosophy generally. He gave ten years to the Greek, and Sir John Sandys, who on May 27th read a study of optics, foresaw the telescope, and had a clear con- most interesting and informative paperon Bacon,' thinks ception of the simuple microscope. He seems to h-ave it was probably also at Gromet'te's suggestion that Roger almost foreseen other more modern discoveries whlen he entered the Franciscan Order. Before taking that step says: ! Roger Bacon. Reprinted from the Proceeditgs of the British There are many dlense bodies which altogether interfere with Academy, vol. vi. Oxford: University Press. I the visual and other senses of man, so that rays cannot pass r I 3C)r366() l ;DICALCTimBRItTIOsJOURS2X I ROGER BACON. [TUNlM 20, t9t4

wvith such energy as to produce an effect on human senise, and experiment as well as to observation and mathematics to -Net nievertheless rays really do pass withouLt our being aware cliscover tlhe secrets of nature. First he observed to seo of it. if the affirmations of books agreed with reality; thllcn lo We must always be on our guard, however, not to read made experiments. Speakingof Peter's studies in medi- too definite meanings into the vague adumbrations of cine, Bacon says that if a physicianseeks first in books tlho truths believed to be new often found in old writers. Bacon means of prolonging life and health, if lhe proposes to lhas sometimes been credited with the invention of gun- prolong human life, lie observes certain animals-eagles, powder, but, althouglh lhe refers to an explosive mixture stags, and crows--with a conviction that everytlhing is producing a noise like tlhunder and flaslhes like liglhtning, given to brutes for the instruction of men, and strives to and adds that "from saltpetre and other ingredients we discover from them the natural secrets which explain tlho are able to make a fire that shall burn at any distance we lonug duration of their lives. Peter also looked to specut- please," he does not scein to lhave known the power of lative alchemny and to operative and practical alclhemy for guLnpowder to propel projectiles. His reputation as a the production of an elixir tlh'at would make-the men of imiagician probably arose f-om a misapprehension of these his day live as long as certain aninmals and the men of tlhe and other inventions, the possibility of which he saw, patriarchal age. We are not told whetler lhe succeeded in tlhough there is no evidence that he was ever able to wresting that secret from nature, but Bacon says his work give practical shape to his ideas. The following passage was directed to increase the power of man and male his from a popular work of tlle sixteenth century, entitled life more easy, better, and longer. He even examined tlho The Famous' Historie of Fryer Bacon, is quoted by Sir charms of old women and sorcerers, the impostures and Jolhn Sandys: artifices of jugglers, to see if thlere was anything to be First, by the figurations of art, there may be made instru- learnt from them by separating wlhat wvas magical or dia- mnents of navigation without men to rowe in them, as great bolical from what was tlle work of nature and natural ships to brooke the sea, only with one man to steere them, and powers. Bacon hiimself sought knowledge of husbandmen thev shall sayle far more swiftly than if they were full of men: folk were in direct contact also chariots that shall move with an unspeakable force, with- and other unlearned who witlh out any livinig creature to stirre them. Likewise, an instrument nature. For a knowledge of geography he consulted the may be made to fly withall, if one sit in the midst of, the instru- authiors and men of his time wlho lhad travelled by land ment, and doe turne an engine, by which the wings, being and sea. He questioned Brother William, sent in 1253 art ticially composed, may beat the ayre after tlhe manner of among the Tartars, and many otlhers who lhave explored a tlying bird.... But phisicall figurations are farre more It seems to have been a strange: for by that may be framed perspects and looking- the East and the Soutlh. passage glasses, that one thing shall appeare to be many, as one man in one of Bacon's writings that tuLrned the tlhoughlts of shall appeare to be a wlhole army, and one sunne or moone Columbus to the voyage of exploration whlich led to tlhe shall seem divers. Also perspects may be so framed, that discovery of a new world. things farre off shall seem most nigh unto us. We lhave seen that Bacon always went direct to tlhe Bacon says there was a dispute between the English and source for first-hand knowledge wlherever it was obtain- Parisian naturalists on a question of capital importance, able. He adopted the same method in regard to languages. niamely, the generation of hiumours by the elements and Roger knew Greek and Hebrew, as is shown by the correc- that of inanimate tlhings, and of vegetables, animals and tions he proposes in tlle text of the Old Testamnent. men by humours. On this, according to Bacon, were Towards the end of hiis life he insisted on a correction of founded natural philosophy, medicine, and alchemy. the Latin Vulgate by the Greek. He was severe on many M. FranVois Picavet, Professor of the History of Philo- of his contemporaries because they used translations of tlhe soplhy and the Middle Ages, who represented the Uni- ancients instead of the originals. He constantly insists oni versity of Paris at the commemoration on June 10th, going to the source, and not trusting to translations. He dlevotes an elaborate article to Roger Bacon in the Revue urges the necessity of getting authentic texts wlerever des Deux Mondes of Jutne 1st. From this we learn that in they are to be found. Furtlher, lie insists on a complete France at least, to wliclh Bacon so largely belonged by knowledge of the tongues in which these books were education, he was appreciated by some distinguished men. written. This was to be obtained by intercourse with At the beginnina of the seventeenth century Gabriel men who spoke tlhem. Roger hiimself had a special apti- Naude, in an apology for the great men accused of magic, tude for learning foreign languages. In a passage of his mentioned hiim as the most eminent of chemists, astro- compendium of 1272 lhe says: nomers, and matlhematicians of his time. D'Alembert, who could only have known the Opus' Maius published in To get pure wisdom one must draw it at its source, Hebrew, Greek or Arabic. Those who do not see it in the languages ill an incomplete form by Samuel Jebb in 1733, and wlho must which it has been originally set forth have never been able to lhave been driven by the sheer force of evidence to do contemplate its dignity ill its form, figure, and beauty. Ol justice to a friar, placed Bacon ini the number of the how agreeable is the taste of wisdom to those who have drunik "superior geniuses wlho can raise tlhemselves above their fully of it from its primitive source. Those who havo ino more feel its charm than a man century and draw tlleir knowledge from their own sagacity experience of this no paralyse(d in his sense of taste can perceive the savour of food or one de3f and the study of Nature." We may add thlat Humboldt from his birth the pleasure of harmony. saw in him " the most astoinishing phenomenon of the Middle Ages." Professor Picavet himself describes How far Roger himself attained this knowledgo we Bacon as one of the renovators of the experimental hiave no means of knowing, but he was often in contact methods and one of those who sought to prolong human with men who spoke CGreek, Hebrew, and Arabic, and lio life by means drawn from observation and experience, liad begun the study of languages early, and continued it a forerunner of Kepler in optics and of modern physicists long. in tho propagation of force. He was besides the most In the matter of biblical exegesis he traced out the plan learned man of hlis time and anticipated the chief ideas adopted by the wisest of the moderns. He argued thlat of the Renaissance. the Greek and Hebrew texts should be examined and that There was a large element of mysticism in Roger Bacon, no reliance should be placed on copies mutilated or as there could lhardly fail to be, considering the age in falsified, wittingly or otherwise, which might be furnislhed which he lived and the influences by which he was by the Greeks and the Hebrews. One should try to make surrounded, but in natural science he always comes back them as correct as possible, and to collate with them the to experiment, and he rejects the authority of Aristotle old copies of the Latin versions in which there are tlhe and others blindly followed by most teachers of his fewest gaps or blunders. Tlis is just what is being done day. The teacher from whom he learnt most, he says, at the present day by the newly-elected Englislh Cardiuial was Peter the Picard, probably identified as Petrus Gasquet and his fellow-workers on the Vulgate Com- Peregrinus de Maricourt, author of a treatise on the mission. The numerous corrections proposed by Roger magnet, one MS. of whiclh is dated 1269. Peter lhad in the Old Testament, which are for the most part already been working for three years at the construction accepted to-day by the best authorities, shows that sucl of a burning glass, wlhich he had at last completed after a work directed by him would have made useless mucl muclh difficulty and expense. He also devised, probably of the work now credited to the Renaissance and to moderni withl the co-operation of Bacon, the plan of a spherical times. This would hiave led to a comparative hiistory of astrolabe representing the movements of the heavenly religions which lhe sketches out and to comparative philo- bodies, comets, and the waves of the sea. Bacon calls him logy. He had the conception of a general or universal same in the " master of experiment," because he always trusted to grammar; he looked upon grammar as being the 7JUNE 20, 1914] * i E ASSOCIATION AND THE PROFESSION. FTM*DlCA olMI substance in all languages, the differences being accidental. (fragments of which were published in 1859, 1909, and By this means he would trace out the origin of languages. 1912), the Quaestiones on the physics and metaphysics of It has to be remembered that nearly all that is known of Aristotle and the De Plantis, the Communia Mathematicae, Bacon's teaching is contained in three worksvery hurriedly and perhaps the ConipUtus Naturalium. Following these prepared in' self-defence for tlhe Pope. This probably will come critical editions of the Optt Maju8 and the accounts for the summariness of his statements; he had to Opus Minuts (of which only fragments exist), the De compress his ideas within the smallest possible compass. Naturi8 Metallorurm, and the Tractatus Triurn Verborum. His keen sense of the futility of the scholastic quibbling The manuscripts scattered about in different countries which passed for learning in his day, and of tQe evils of will be carefully collated by competent scholars. To carry the use of bad translations of Aristotle and other ancient this scheme to fulfilment it will be necessary, says writers at second or third hand through Arabic and Latin, M. Picavet, to found a society bearing the name of Roger may also be held to account for the extreme frankness Bacon; he expresses the hope that the establishment of with which he speaks of the mostTenowned teachers of his such a society may be one of the outcomes of the Oxford time, including Alexander Hales, Albert the Great, and St. celebration. Thomas Aquinas. One gathers from his books that he was of somewhat impetuous temper, and did not suffer fools gladly. But then, his patience was sorely tried in many THE BRITISH MEDICAL ASSOCIATION ways. He was for many years forbidden to write, and this doubtless is the reason that we have his conceptions only AND THE MEDICAL PROFESSION. in more -or less fragmentary form. What we have is sufficient to show the power and scope of his mind. Ex A CRITICAL REVIEW OF THEIR pede Hercutem. RELATIONS. It will be seen that Roger Bacon had the largest ideas. (Conttinued from vpage 1308.) The whole of his long life was given to the acquirement of knowledge and to the strenuous pursuit of tr-ath. His IV. Compendiunm Studii T'heologici was written when he was STATE MEDICINE AND THE PUBLIC HEALTH nearly eighty years of age. *His learning and his SERVICES. philosophy were not systems of. dead words, but living, WHEN the essential bases of the science of State medicine and always applied to practical uses. How far he actually are distinguished from public health administration and all realized his own ideals we have no means of knowing, but its 'executiye and legal 'machinery, it will be found that it is unquestionable that he was a man of the most eager they consist in accurate knowledge of the natural history desire for knowledge, of the most tireless industry, and of of disease and of the effect on health of environment and the that, Chaucer's " Clerk occupation, coupled with similar knowledge of (a) the widest learning. It is clear like degree to which the size, and age, and sex distribution of of Oxenforde"- the population of any given locality are being changed by For all that he might of his friendes hente birth on the one hand and by deaths on the other; (b) of On books and on learning he it spente. the diseases chiefly prevailing among it habitually or It is wonderful that a man sworn to poverty, witlh few temporarily~; and (c) of any physical or other circumstances patrons to finance him, living in an atmosphere either in a locality which may affect favourably or otherwise the hostile or indifferent, should have been able to do so much. natural resistance towards disease processes initially But he often complains of the want of money. For the possessed by its inhabitants. study and experiments which he felt to be necessary he This statement may seem a mere truism; its interesb says much money was needed besides the assistance of lies in the fact that it very closely describes the kind of lords, kings, and especially of the sovereign Pontiff. This knoowledge that the Association set to work to obtain as he asked for, but does not seem to have obtained. It is soon as it came into existence.' In fact, the desire for that bv no means certain that the summaries of his studies knowledge was one of the many factors which led to the ever actually reached the hands of Clement IV, who had Association being founded. However, to perceive the full asked for them. Bacon collected all the books he could interest of *this circumstance, as also its bearing upon get hold of-a most difficult and co3tly enterprise in the subsequent events, 'it is necessary to keep in mind the thirteenth century-and he made experiments in optics and history of State medicine; so before going any further it other branches of science necessarily with the most scanty may be well to trace this in outline. and imperfect apparatus. What such a man could have In 1832 the statement which we have described as a accomplished with the resources of modern scientific truism was no truism at all, for at that date the science of research can only be faintly conjectured. But what State medicine was still entirely larval, and practically Roger Bacon actually knew or discovered matters little to speaking there was no general recognition of the need of us nowadays. His achievement is the method which he any kind of public health service whatever. Comparatively sought to impress on his generation-namely, to look at few towns were paved, fewer still were sewered, the vast nature through their own eyes, not througih the -blurred majority of the population depended upon shallow wells spectacles of inaccurate translations and auithorities who for their water supply, and except for such data as mistook subtlety of reasoning on metaphysical ideas for might be derived from parish records no information the advancement of knowledge. was available as to the occurrence of births and deaths. Much of his work has never yet seen the light. But as As for legal enactments, port authorities had power to we stated in the BRITISH MEDICAL JOURNAL of January impose quarantine on incoming ships, and towards the end 24th, 1914, this further tribute is now about to be paid to of the year 1831, when cholera was raging in Europe, the hiis memory. An editorial committee, consisting of Messrs. Privy Council had hurriedly called into existence a number J. P.- Gilson of the British Museum, F. Madan of the of local health boards-or rather, had provided machinery Bodleian Library, Oxford, Professor A. G. Little, with for creating them in the event of any locality being threat. M. Franqois Picavet as a foreign corresponding member, ened with cholera. But except for these facts State was appointed some time ago to take the necessary steps medicine in 1832 was, from a legislative and most other for the issue of an edition of Roger Bacon's works, points of view, entirely virgin soil. critically revised and arranged as far as possible in proper The first sod may be regarded as having been turned in chronological order, as soon as the necessary funds have the last year of the reign of WilJiam IV; the second in been collected. M. Picavet stated in the Revue Philo- 1840; the third in 1846; and the fourth in 1848. The firsb sophique for January that the first volume, containing of these dates brought into existence official registration Bacon's unpublished treatise and his commentary on the of births, deatlhs, and marriages; the second saw the pas- Secret and Secrets of the pseudo-Aristotle is in the sage of the first Vaccination Act; the third the passage of press. The -second will probably contain medical a private Act which led in the following year to the treatises, and will be edited by Dr. Withington and appointment by the City of Liverpool of the first medical Professor Little. Among the contents will be the officer of health ever employed in this country; the fourth famous treatise D3e Retardanzdis senectuetis accidentibus saw the establishment of the General Board of Health. et de sensibuis conservanxdis, which it will be interesting to This Board, which may be regarded as the forerunner of compare withl Descartes's observations on the means of the present Local Government Board, did its work under prolonging human life in his Discours de 1a Meithode. the Privy Council. and was at first formed'solely of laymen, Other volumes will contain the whole of the Opus Tertiuns but in 1850 a medical member was added. and three years