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SEPTEMBER 19, 1936
THE BULLETIN OF THE CATHOLIC LAYMEN’S ASSOCIATION OF GEORGIA
THIRTEEN
The Church and Medicine
Radio Address Over WRDW, Augusta, by Father John J.
Kennedy on K. of C. Hour
“The Catholic Church anti
Medical Science” was the sub
ject o£ an interesting and scholar
ly address recently by the Rev.
John J. Kennedy of St. Mary’s-
On-The-Hill, Augusta, on the
program presented each Sunday
afternoon by Patrick Walsh
Council, Knights of Columbus,
through the courtesy of Station
WRDW. The program is now in
its fourth year; C. Victor Mark-
waiter is grand knight of the
Council; and J. Coleman Demp
sey has been chairman of the pro
gram committee and announcer
each Sunday since the program
was inaugurated. Father Ken
nedy’s address follows:
Recently an excellent and educa
tional picture entitled Louis Pasteur
was shown at a local theatre. The au
thor of the story, the playwright, and
the producers all combined in filming
a splendid portrayal of the character
and life-work of the celebrated
French chemist, but whether by de
sign or by accident not the slightest
allusion was made to the fact that
this great man was an exemplary
Catholic. Apropos of this great scien
tist’s religion. I wish to prove today
that not only is it true that Cath
olics have been keen students in most
branches of intellectual activity, but
I boldly assert without fear of contra
diction that again and again it is Cath
olics who have blazed the trail in the
new paths of scientific investigation.
In in this talk I shall point out a few
of the Catholic names that lie along
the line of medical achievement.
It should be scarcely necessary to
remind my audience, what is gen
erally said by the. opponents of Cath
olicism, with regard to the so-called
ignorance and superstition of the
Middle Ages. Indeed we Catholics of
the present age are often considered
its legitimate and veritable heirs.
Many of the Catholic names of medi
cal fame occurring in this lecture
will prove conclusively that such a
charge is untrue as made against the
Middle Ages.
<0-
I
13-
SURGERY
-□
-d
Let us first turn our attention to
surgery. The science of surgery is or
dinarily regarded as being something
exclusively modern, whereas in
reality, the surgery of the thirteenth
centuries has been surpassed only in
our own day.
Professor Clifford Allbutt, the Re-
gious Professor of Physic at the Uni
versity of Cambridge, delivered by
special invitation of the Congress of
Aras and Sciences at St. Louis in 1904
an address on “The Historical Rela
tions of Medicine and Surgery down
to the Sixteenth Century.”
It was the aim of the distinguished
professor to give his hearers some
idea of the magnificent work accom
plished by his fellow medical men of
several centuries before. His asser
tions which are based on actual his
torical evidence, give the lie direct
to the wide-spread conviction that
the practice of anything that may be
called surgery was virtually in abey
ance when the Papacy ruled Christ
endom.
Of William Salicet, Professor All-
but says: "Both for his own great
merits and as an original and inde
pendent observer, and as the master
of Lanfranc, William Salicet was
eminent among the great physicians
of the 13th century.”
According to the learned professor,
William taught that dropsy was due
to the hardening of the kidneys. He
described the danger of wounds of
the neck. He substituted the knife for
the abuse of the cautery which had
been introduced by tire Arabs
through fear of hemorrage.
Many of William's ideas are antici
pations of what have been erroneous
ly regarded as nineteenth century dis
coveries. His insisting upon the teach
ing of medicine by clinical methods
shows the profound ignorance of
those who assert that teaching in the
medieval universities was purely
speculative.
Allbutt next considers the case of
the Italian Lanfranc-(Lanfranchi). He
says of him: ‘‘Lanfranc’s ‘Chirurigia
Magna’ was a great work . . . He
distinguished between venous and
arterial hemorrage . . . His chapter
on injuries of the head is one of the
classics of medieval surgery.
It is of deep interest to use to note
that both these very keen mediaeval
men were clerics, i. e., they belonged
to the ecclesiastical body and had
taken minor orders.
From Lanfrance we pass to his
pupil the Frenchman, Henri-De-
Mondeville, who was almost equal to
his master in surgical skill. Born in
Normandy sometime about the year
1275, he became surgeon to the
French King Philip the Fair. His best
title to fame is without doubt the
powerful influence he exercised over
Guv De Chauhiac.
Guy De Chauliac was born some
time in the last decade of the 13th
century, and lived to about the age
of seyenty-two. His birthplace was
the village of Chauliac in that part
of France now called the department
of Lozere. His contemporaries were
Dante, Boccacio and Petrarch in
Italy, and Chaucer in England. A
mere farmer's lad. Guy was helped
throughout by the generosity of
friends, to pursue his studies at Tou
louse and Montpelier. At Bologna he
studied anatomy under Bertruccio.
the successor to Mondino.
After completing his studies he
practiced for some years in the city
of Lyons, where he was actually a
senior Canon in the Church of St.
Just. At Avignon he was Chamber
lain-physician to three successive
Popes-Clement VI, Innocent VI, and
Urban, V.
As a solace for his declining years
he wrote an immense text-book on
surgery. From this monumental work,
which for two centuries after his
time was studied as a text-book in
practically all the medical schools of
Europe we learn with absolute au
thenticity his profound surgical
skill.
Chauliac's descriptions of instru
ment of hernia are strikingly com
plete. He understood the opera
tion of trephining, and he wrote
a monograph on cataract of the eye.
In a .word, there seems to be nothing
attempted in modern times which
Chauliac did not discuss with re
markable common-sense as well as
surgical acumen.
It Is no cause for wonder that we
find in Puschman’s Handbook of the
history of Medicine, the following
sentence: “Chauliac represents the
summit of attainment in medieval
surgery, and laid the foundation in
that primacy in surgery which the
French maintained down to the nine
teenth century.”
It may be a cause of modern won
der that the history of anasthesia
tells us that there was a form of an
asthesia introduced in the thirteenth
century by Ugo Da Lucca, and that
some method of inhalation was em
ployed for that purpose. The medie
val surgeons induced insensibility by
means of sponges soaked in a mixture
of opium, mandragora, henbane and
wild lettuce. To wash wounds and to
counteract the danger of septic poiso-
ing, the medieval surgeon (imitating
the example of the Good Samaritan
in the Gospel) used wine which was
the very best antiseptic that they
could have employed.
As we come down through the
centuries we find the name of the
great military surgeon who revolu
tionised military surgery in the six
teenth century, Ambroise Pare (1517-
1590). Tal has given documentary
evidence refuting the legend that
Pare was a Huguenot.
Another renowned Franch Catho
lic surgeon is Auguste Nelaton. who
lived for almost the first seven de
cades of the last century. His name
is commemorated in the Nelaton line
(an imaginery line running across the
hip), the Nelaton dislocation and also
in the Nelaton probe. The latter has
been superseded by the X-rays, and
the X-rays by the way were discov
ered by a Catholic, Dr. Rontgen.
□ □
ANATOMY !
□ □
During the first half of the fifth-
eenth century, anatomy began its
modern phase, original work of a
very high order being accomplished.
There are five medical scientists who
deserve to be mentioned in this
period, for they did work in anatomy
which was epoch-making. They are
Zerbi, Achillini. Berengar of Carpi,
Matthew of Gardi and Benivieni.
Professor Turner,, the distinguished
Edinburgh anatomist in the article on
anatomy, in the Encyclopedia Brit-
tanica says: “Italy long retained the
distinction of giving birth to the first
eminent anatomists in Europe, and
the glory she asquired in the names
of Mondino, Achillini, Berengar of
Carpi and Masa, was destined to be
come more conspicious in the labours
of Columbo, Fallopious and Eustach-
ius.”
Zerbi, who did his work at Verona,
traced the olfactory nerves, and de
scribes the nerve supply of the spec
ial senses more completely than it
had ever been described before.
Achillini added much to our know
ledge of the anatomy of the head,
being the first to describe the small
bones of the ear and also to recog
nize the orifices of Warton's ducts.
Matthew of Grada was the first to
represent the ovaries in the correct
light as regards their anatomical re
lations to their functions.
The most distinguished of these
investigators in pure anatomy is Ber-
engarius, who did his work at Bol
ogna at the end of the fifteenth and
the beginning of the sixteenth cen
turies. Had he done nothing else but
first mention the vermiform appen
dix. it would have been sufficient to
give him a distinction in cur day.
Turner says of Berengarius in the
article already mentioned: “In the an
nals of medicine. Berengar’s name
will be remembered as one of the
most zealous and eminent in culti
vating the anatomy of the human
body.”
Another distinguished fifteenth
century student of anatomy was Ben-
evieni, for whom Professor Albutt
claims the title of Father of Patho
logy.
Anatomical Science was a lusty in
fant of great promise when the Cath
olic Vesalius came on the scene.
Vasalius the universally recognized
founder of modern anatomv was born
-at Brussels in 1514 and died in 1"61
of exposure due to shipwreck on the
island of Zante whilst returning from
a pilgrimage to the Holv Land.
After graduating at the Catholic
University of Louvain in philosophy
and philology. Versalius went to
study medicine in Paris, where he
had as Professor. Jacobus Sylvius,
whose name is commemorated in the
Slyvian ventricle and the Sylvian
fissure of the human brain.
From earliest years Vesalius had
devoted himself to th« s*udy o*
From earliest years Vesalius had
devoted himself to the study of ana
tomy. Nothing else than original re
search at first hand would satisfy his
ardent desire for information. So he
wer’ down to Italy. Italy was to the
rest of the world of the fifteenth and
sixteenth centuries the home of post
graduate work, not only in medical
science but in all the sciences. Church
influence was predominant, ecclesias
tics being the actual rulers of the
universities. The tradition of the
work dene by the great Italian
anatomists was well known in all
the medical schools of Europe. More
than a decade before the birth of
Vesalius, the Catholic priest Thomas
Linacre, the distinguished English
physician and founder of the Royal
College of Physicians, went to Italy
to complete his anatomical studies.
After ten years of un-remitting
labor in the-service of anatomy Ve
salius before the age of thirty, com
pleted his remarkable text-book on
anatomy which is still one of the land
marks of anatomical history.
So much does medical science owe
to Catholics, that names of Catholics
are written in anatomical terms on
the human body.
The Italian Catholic scientist Ga
briele Fallopio (1523-1962), though
dying before the age of forty, has
left his mark for all time on the
science of anatomy. His name is
commemorated in the Fallopian canal
of the skull and also in the Fallo
pian tubes. He invented the aural
speculum. His discoveries in the
bony structures of the human skull
are sufficient to stamp him as an
anatomical specialist in the eye, the
ear, and the nose.
Another distinguished Italian ana
tomist is the renowned Bartolomeo
Eustachio. Born in Ancona at the
beginning of the sixteenth century,
he died in Rome in 1574. There were
few branches of anatomy which he
did not study. One of his most im
portant discoveries was concerned
with the levator muscle of the eye,
the muscle that comes into play when
a man winks. His name is immortal
ized in the Eustachian tubes and in
the Ustachian valves of the heart.
Eustachio’s predecessor in the chair
of anatomy in the Papal University of
the Eapienza was another Catholic,
Realdo Colombo, who had been in
vited by Pope Paul III to teach in
Rome. Such were the lectures de
livered by Colombo and such was the
reputation which in consequence he
otbained, that not only medical stu
dents but even ecclesiastics (including
important members of the hierarchy)
came to drink at the fount of his
medical wisdom.
Colombo at the very least blazed
the trail for Harvey in the latter’s
discovery of the circulation of the
blood. Colombo discovered that
blood circulated in the lungs. Har-
very himself confesses at the begin
ning of his work on circulation that
Colombo’s discovery meant much to
him.
The Protestant Harvey (1578-1657) is
usually credited with the discovery of
the circulation of the blood, but few
of us ever had the opportunity of
knowing that beyond the narrow
horizons of British scholarship Har-
verys’ right to the full merit of the
initial discovery has been vigorously
challenged in favor of other pioneers.
We shall consider how much Har
vey owed to his Catholic professors.
Harvey was educated in the Univer
sity of Cambridge at Caius College,
named after the dstinguished Catho
lic medical man John Caius, a for
mer pupil of Vesalius in Padua.
Harvey, like many another disciple of
the healing art, went to Italy and
studied at the University of Padua-
At Padua, Harvey had as profes
sor the renowned Catholic scientist,
Girolamo Fabriscio (1537-1619),
whose chief claim to remembrance
rests upon his discovery of the valvu
lar system of the veins, a discovery
which meant so much to Harvey.
1 do not wish to lessen Harvey’s
wonderful powers of observation or
his marvelous experimental and logi
cal method. We would point out,
however, that as regards the honor of
having first discovered the circulation
of the blood, the Italians have put
forward a very strong claim in favor
of the Catholic Cesalpinus of Arezzo
(1519-1603), whose scientific papers
contains they say, a complete descrip
tion of the circulation of the blood,
a full generation before the time of
Harvey. Professor Foster in his lec
tures on the History of Physiology
delivered in San Francisco and pub
lished by the Cambridge University
Press quotes a passage in which Ces-
salpinus made it very clear that he
grasped every essential detail of the
circulation of the blood.
Leaving aside the consideration of
the controversy, we know from the
medical history of the time that when
Harvey first proclaimed his discovery
to the world, he was looked upon as
a faddist - he lost friends and half of
his practice. People refused to con
sult with one who as they thought
held such strange ideas, maintaining
that he could not be in his right
senses. There is no doubt that the
needed confirmation of Harvey’s
theory was due to the work of two
very distinguished Catholic investiga
tors, Malpigi and Stensen-
Malpigi (1628-1694), the distinguish
ed founder of comparative anatomy,
was the admiration of all for his ana
tomical information. Harvey did not
know how the blood passed from the
arteries to the veins. The problem
was solved by Malpigi. Four years
after the death of Harvey, he dem
onstrated with the aid of the micro
scope the existence of the capillaries,
these tiny hair-line channels which
connect the veins with the arteries.
Thus by showing the continuity of
both the blood systems .he proved be
yond all doubt the certainty of the
teaching that the blood does circulate.
His name will be remembered for ail
Senator Walsh Is Speaker at
K. of C. Toronto Convention
Francis J. Heazel of Asheville, N. C., Is Again Elected
to Supreme Bo ard of the Order
(By N. C. W. C. News Service)
TORONTO—The Knights of Colum-
mus, gathered here for their annual
convention, were urged by Senator
David I. Walsh, of Massachusetts, to
carry on a world-wide campaign
against irreligion and the forces seek
ing to deprive men of their primary
human rights.
Five members of the Supreme Board
of Directors of the Knights of Colum
bus were reelected at the convention.
The supreme officers were elected last
year.
The directors reelected are:
Daniel A. Tobin, of Brooklyn, N. Y.;
Willim J. Guste, of New Orleans,
La.; Francis J. Heazel, of Asheville,
N. C.; Francis Fauteux, of Montreal,
and Ray T. Miller, of Cleveland.
PICTURE HAS CHANGED
Senator Walsh lauded the achieve
ments of the Knights of Columbus in
the last half century, declaring that it
was created in a period of relative
tranquility. The picture today has
changed, however, he said, saying that
the world “is passing through a period
of civic, religious and economic tur
moil.” In spite of the people’s desire
for peace, he declared, preparations
are being made for war by “material
istic, mad and despotic statesmen.”
The great difference between the pre
sent day and that of the founders of
the Knights, the Senator declared, is
in the field of religion.
“Controversies in their day,” he
said, ‘revolved around differences
over dogmas, religious ceremonies and
Christian ethics. Today the contest is
between religion and irreligion, be
tween God and Godlessness.”
In combatting such conditions, the
Senator said, religion must become
the primary motive of the Knights of
Columbus, enrolled in a ‘battle
against God’s enemies.”
MEXICO
The Knights of Columbus will con
tinue their efforts in behalf of the
persecuted people of Mexico, particu
larly in their insistence that the
United States Government use its
good offices to bring about a cessa
tion of the war on religion in that
country. This intention was set forth
at the closing session of the conven
tion when a resolution on Mexico was
unanimously adopted.
The delegates also adopted a resolu
tion commending the supreme officers
and the supreme board of directors on
their course of action in regard to
the Mexican situation in the past
year and commissioning them to carry
on the order's campaign to secure the
exercise of American influence to
bring about relief to the Mexican
people.
In this report, the Committee on
Laws and Resolutions describes the
Dast efforts of the Knights of Colum
bus to induce the United States Gov
ernment to aid the persecuted Mexi
cans by appealing to the Mexican
Govrnment to aid the persecuted
to temper its persecution of religion.
time for his discoveries, the “Rete
Malpigi” (a layer of the skin) and the
Malpighian corpuscles in the kidney
and in the spleen. At the time of his
death he was Papal Physician to
Pone Innocent XII.
There was another gap in Harvey’s
explanation of the circulation of the
blood. He never quite solved what
caused the blood to rush upon its
constantly recurring course. It was
Stensen ( Steno) who discovered that
the heart is a muscle and that its
contraction gave the key to the mo
tive power of the blood circulation.
There are many other Catholic
names in the history of medicine,
many of whom we must pass over,
others we shall just touch upon.
The celebrated French chemist. Pas
teur (1822-1895) verified the prophetic
utterances of Father Kircher when he
laid the foundations of the science
of bacteriology.
Arcund the walls of the little
church erected to commemorate Pas
teur’s name are inscribed the scienti
fic triumphs of the master whose
ashes lie within. It is a striking
catalogue- Each heading reprerents
a great step forward in Science-
1848, Molecular Dissymmetry; 1857,
Fermentations; 1862, So-called spon
taneous Generation; 1863. Studies in
Wine. 1865, Disease of Silk Worms;
1877 Virulent Microbic Diseases; 1880
Vaccinating Viruses; 1885, Prophylaxis
of Rabies.
Pasteur’s faith was no less genuine
than his science. In his panegyric of
Littre he said: “Happy the man who
bears within him a divinity, an ideal
of beauty and obeys it; an ideal of
the virtues of the Gospel”. These
words are graven round his tomb
in the Institute Pasteur. Some of his
letters to his children breathe pro
found simple piety. He declared:
“The more I know, the more cleraiy
is my faith that of the Breton pea
sant. Could I but know all. I rvould
have the faith of a Breton peasant
woman." Waht he could not above
| all understand is the failure of scien-
j tis’.s to recognize the demonstration
[ of the existence of the Creator that
there is in the world around us- He
died with his rosary in his hand, and
so he left to us a legacy of child-like
faith as well as of un-precented
scientific achievements. In his ta'k
on medical scien r e I have merely
touched upon the fringe of a very
vast subject, but it should serv~ to
show the mightv factory that Catho
lics and the Church have had in
developing medicine to its present
status.
CONVENTION MASS— The con
vention was opened by a solemn pon-
tificial Mass, celebrated in St.
Michael’s Cathedral by the Most Rev.
Michael J. O’Brien, Coadjutor Bishop
of Kingston. The sermon at the mass
was delivered by the Most Rev. James
C. McGuigan. Archbishop of Toronto
and state chaplain of the Knights of
Columbus of Ontario.
Archbishop McGuigan in his ser
mon, emphasized the important part
which Catholic laymen must play to
ease the burden of the masses and
bring about a more equitable social
order.
Following the Mass, an official
welcome was extended to the dele
gates and visitors at the official
headquarters by Lieutenant Governor
Herbert A. Bruce, of the Province of
Ontario, who represented the King;
Controller Wadsworth, who represent
ed the City of Toronto. William Hurley
grand knight of the. Toronto
Council, and representatives of Rotary
and Kiwanis clubs. Philip Phelan, of
Ottawa, state deputy of Ontario, pre
sided and welcomed the delegates on
behalf of the state group. Martin H.
Carmody, supreme knight of the K. of
C., responded.
On the eve of the convention open
ing, Mr. Carmody delivered an ad
dress over an international radio
hookup from Station CRCT, in which
he paid tribute to the Canadian
people and assailed “others, whose
numbers are menacingly large that
seek to destroy our principles, of
government and standards of justice
and morality.” “Against their specious
and dangerous theories of life and
government,” he said, “the patriotic
citizens of both countries must main
tain an organized line of common de
fense.”
Later in the morning of the open
ing day, Mr. Carmody laid a wreath
at the cenotaph at City Hall in a ser
vice which was attended by more
than 3,000 persons.
. THE MEMBERS of the Knights of
Columbus on June 30. last, was 442,-
029, it was made known at the open
ing session of the convention, when
reports of the Supreme Officers were
read. Of this total, 227.122 represented
insurance members with insurance in
force amounting to $264,301,767.
In the last fiscal year, it was report
ed by the Supreme Secretary, Wil
liam J. McGinley, the Knights of Co
lumbus paid $2,576,218.95 in death
claims. Its ratio of assets to liabilities
was announced as 118.78 per cent.
The report of Supreme Knight Car
mody. noted that the fact that the
annual convention was being held
this year in Toronto served to em
phasize the international character of
the organization.
Mr. Carmody told of the program of
progress upon which the Order has
embarked following its ‘Mobilization
for Catholic Action” a year ago. Many
councils that had been inactive have
become active, and many others have
increased their activities and mem
bership.
Every council, he said, should be
more than merely an organization; it
must be "at all times, in conduct and
achievements, a strong expression of
united Catholic lay-action.”
“It must represent Catholic thought,
principles and standards,” he said.
These should find expression in the
civil and social life of a community
by the council assuming a frank,
open, affirmative position and par
ticipation in community matters. To
this end I would like to see in every
council a group of members, no mat
ter how small it may be. who will
form a study club and be well train
ed and prepared to express clearly the
Catholic position on social, moral and
civic questions as they arise in the
every day relations of life. Many such
clubs have already been formed to
the great benefit of the councils
where they function.
'To know and to be able to ex
press the Catholic position in these
matters is every member's duty and
responsibility to his Faith and to his
neighbors and his State. If we are to
exercise any - influence as a Catholic
body in shaping of public thought and
public affairs—and as a Catholic so
ciety w T c should when necessax - y do
this—then we should have in each
council a well trained group capable
of directing its activities along these
lines.”
BOY LIFE BUREAU—The report of
the Supreme Secretary also presented
a statement of the activities and ac
complishments of the Bay Life
Bureau. The Bureau has completed its
thirteenth year and already graduated
eleven classes of Knights of Columbus
scholars at the University of Notre
Dame.
The Educational Bureau of the Or
der. the Supreme Secretary reported,
is engaged chiefly in the operation of
the correspondence school, which is
open to the members of the K. of C.,
their famibes and Columbian Squires.
Another of the Bureau’s activities is
concerned with the Catholic Univer
sity Foundation and the Knights of
Columbus Scholarships at that insti
tution. Tile scholarships are open to
graduate students. Competitive exam
inations are held annually at the uni
versity and candidates come annual
ly from all parts of this country and
Canada and from both Catholic and
ncn-Cathoiic colleges.
LITTLE CrCSFY, near Liverpool
Lng., which has kept the faith since
Catholic times, load "not a begger, not
an alehouse and not a Protestant” in
it 250 years ago. according to Will
iam Blundell who wrote at that time.
°ntl that i- the situation today a new
book by Charles L. Lamb savs.