stian; but then the experiments of John Tyndall,
fully corroborating the results of Pasteur, gave a final quietus to the
claim of "spontaneous generation" as hitherto formulated.

There for the moment the matter rests. But the end is not yet. Fauna
and flora are here, and, thanks to Lamarck and Wallace and Darwin, their
development, through the operation of those "secondary causes" which we
call laws of nature, has been proximally explained. The lowest forms of
life have been linked with the highest in unbroken chains of descent.
Meantime, through the efforts of chemists and biologists, the gap
between the inorganic and the organic worlds, which once seemed almost
infinite, has been constantly narrowed. Already philosophy can throw
a bridge across that gap. But inductive science, which builds its own
bridges, has not yet spanned the chasm, small though it appear. Until
it shall have done so, the bridge of organic evolution is not quite
complete; yet even as it stands to-day it is perhaps the most stupendous
scientific structure of the nineteenth century.

VII. EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY MEDICINE

THE SYSTEM OF BOERHAAVE

At least two pupils of William Harvey distinguished themselves in
medicine, Giorgio Baglivi (1669-1707), who has been called the "Italian
Sydenham," and Hermann Boerhaave (1668-1738). The work of Baglivi was
hardly begun before his early death removed one of the most promising of
the early eighteenth-century physicians. Like Boerhaave, he represents a
type of skilled, practical clinitian rather than the abstract scientist.
One of his contributions to medical literature is the first accurate
description of typhoid, or, as he calls it, mesenteric fever.

If for nothing else, Boerhaave must always be remembered as the teacher
of Von Haller, but in his own day he was the widest known and the most
popular teacher in the medical world. He was the idol of his pupils
at Leyden, who flocked to his lectures in such numbers that it became
necessary to "tear down the walls of Leyden to accommodate them." His
fame extended not only all over Europe but to Asia, North America, and
even into South America. A letter sent him from China was addressed
to "Boerhaave in Europe." His teachings represent the best medical
knowledge of his day, a high standard of morality, and a keen
appreciation of the value of observation; and it was through such
teachings imparted to his pupils and advanced by them, rather than to
any new