In
1662 there appeared the English translation of his _Oriatrike_,[44]
while Latin editions continued to be published later in the century.

In this connection I might also mention the subject of "natural magic,"
which had considerable significance for medicine. The best-known name
is, perhaps, Giovanni Battista della Porta (1545-1615), whose books[45]
continued to be published, in Latin and English, during this period when
Boyle was achieving maturity.

Profound developments, of course, arose from the new mechanics and
physics and their metaphysical background, for which I need only mention
the names of Descartes, who died in 1650, and Gassendi, who died in
1655. And then there was also the new methodological approach, that
critical empiricism whose most vocal exponent was Francis Bacon, which
led directly to the founding of the Royal Society in 1660 and its
subsequent incorporation. These phases of seventeenth-century thought
and activity I do not intend to take up.

In this turbulent riptide of intellectual currents, Robert Boyle,
without formal medical education, performed many medical functions, as a
sometime practitioner, consultant, and researcher. Repeatedly he speaks
of the patients whom he treated, and repeatedly he refers to
practitioners who consulted him, or to whom he gave advice. In addition,
through his interest in chemistry, he became an important experimental
as well as clinical pharmacologist, and his researches in physiology
indicate great stature in this field. If we were to draw a present-day
comparison, we might point to investigators who had both the M.D. and
the Ph.D. degrees, who had both clinical and laboratory training, and
who practiced medicine partly in the clinical wards, partly in the
experimental laboratories. Boyle, of course, did not have either degree,
but he did have a status as the leading virtuoso of his day.

The virtuoso has been the subject of a most extensive literature.[46] He
aroused considerable contemporary hostility and satire and his overall
significance for medical science is probably slight, with a few striking
exceptions. Robert Boyle is one of the great exceptions.

First of all, the virtuoso was an amateur. In the literal sense the
amateur loves the activities in which he engages, and in the figurative
sense he remains independent of any Establishment. Not trained in any
rigorous, prescribed discipline, he was not committed to any set
doctrine. Furthermore, he