been designated the “Hippocrates of France.” Such was the confidence which the army reposed in him, that the besieged knew no fear if it chanced that Paré was within their walls.
He was undoubtedly one of those remarkable men, “homines centenarii” as they were called by Scaliger, who exist but once in a century, but who when they do exist, elevate the country in which they are born, and the age in which they live[1]. The habit of observing, thinking, and acting for himself, the source of his reputation, drew upon him the rancorous hostility of his contemporaries,—so invariably the portion of genius in a dark age, that it only serves to confirm the favourable judgement of posterity.
Surgery languished after the death of Paré. Guillemau, his pupil and editor, Fabricrus at Padua, and Srverinus at Naples, may be mentioned however as distinguished cultivators of the art, and with peculiar respect Fasricius Hildanus of Berne.
The discovery of the circulation by our great countryman William Harvey, whilst a student at Padua, had a more immediate and important influence on the progress of anatomy and physiology than on that of physic or surgery. But as it was the first emanation of British genius, so it was beyond all question the most splendid in its ultimate effects upon medicine and mankind. Well might the learned Gassendus, when
- ↑ Butler’s Address to the Proprietors of the London Institution.
