Argentier of
Turin, and Botal of Asti subsequently took a similar course.

When Cardan went to study at Pavia in 1519 this tradition was unshaken. It
was not until the advent of Vesalius that the doom of the ancient system
was sounded. Then, when Anatomy sprang to the front as the potent ally of
Medicine, the science of healing entered upon a fresh stage, but this new
force did not make itself felt soon enough to seduce Cardan from the
altars of the ancients to the worship of new gods. As long as he lived he
was a follower of the great masters, though at the same time his
admiration of the teaching of Vesalius was enthusiastic and profound. His
love of truth and sound learning forbade him to give unreflecting adhesion
to the precepts of any man, however eminent, and when he found that Galen
was a careless commentator on Hippocrates,[264] and failed to elucidate
the difficulties with which he professed to deal, he did not spare his
censure.[265] In the _De Subtilitate_ he speaks of him as "Verbosus et
studio contradicendi taedulus ut alterum vix ferre queas, in reliquo gravis
jactura artium posita sit, quam nostrae aetatis viri restituere conati
sunt."[266] But as Galen's name is quoted as an authority on almost every
page of the _Consilia Medica_, it may be assumed that Cardan's faith in
his primary theories was unshaken. In his Commentaries on Hippocrates,
Galen professes a profound respect for his master, but the two great men
must be regarded as the leaders of rival schools; indeed it could hardly
be otherwise, seeing how vast was the mass of knowledge which Galen added
to the art during his lifetime.

Hippocrates, by denying the supernatural origin of disease, by his method
of diagnosis, by the importance he attached to air and diet, by his
discriminating use of drugs, and by the simplicity of his system
generally, had placed Medicine on a rational basis. In the six hundred
years' space which elapsed before the appearance of Galen, Medicine was
broken up into many rival schools. The Dogmatici and the Empirici for many
years wrangled undisturbed, but shortly after the Christian era the
Methodici entered the field, to be followed later on by the Eclectici and
a troop of other sects, whose wranglings, and whose very names, are now
forgotten. In his _History of Medicine_, Dr. Bostock gives a sketch of the
attitude of Galen towards the rival schools. "In his general principles he
may be considered as belonging to the Dog