INTRODUCTION
I
In the Middle Ages practically the only homes
of learning were the monasteries. Here all
the knowledge of the time was taught and
all the studies carried on, so that under the
same roof the theologian, the chemist, the artist,
and the artificer sat side by side, and consequently
each drew from and modified the
study and practice of the other. In England,
at least, the dissolution of the monasteries
changed this order, and though the brilliancy
of the Renaissance for a time obscured the
loss to society in general, in the backwater
of the eighteenth century both religion and
medicine drifted into distinct circumscribed
professions. The dawn of the nineteenth
century saw an enormous revival of interest
and study in both directions, but the newfound
energy with which the two spheres of
