But experience is of two kinds; one is gained through our external senses, and in this way we gain our experience of those things that are in the heavens by instruments made for this purpose, and of those things here below by means attested by our vision. Things that do not belong in our part of the world we know through other scientists who have had experience of them. As, for example, Aristotle on the authority of Alexander sent two thousand men through different parts of the world to gain experimental knowledge of all things that are on the surface of the earth, as Pliny bears witness in his Natural History. This experience is both human and philosophical, as far as man can act in accordance with the grace given him; but this experience does not suffice him, because it does not give full attestation in regard to things corporeal owing to its difficulty, and does not touch at all on things spiritual. It is necessary, therefore, that the intellect of man should be otherwise aided, and for this reason the holy patriarchs and prophets, who first gave sciences to the world, received illumination within and were not dependent on sense alone. The same is true of many believers since the time of Christ. For the grace of faith illuminates greatly, as also do divine inspirations, not only in things spiritual, but in things corporeal and in the sciences of philosophy; as Ptolemy states in the Centilogium, namely, that there are two roads by which we arrive at the knowledge of facts, one through the experience of philosophy, the other through divine inspiration, which is far the better way, as he says....
Since this experimental science is wholly unknown to the rank and file of students, I am therefore unable to convince people of its utility unless at the same time I disclose its excellence and its proper signification. This science alone, therefore, knows how to test perfectly what can be done by nature, what by the effort of art, what by trickery, what the incantations, conjurations, invocations, deprecations, sacrifices, that belong to magic, mean and dream of, and what is in them, so that all falsity may be removed and the truth alone of art and nature may be retained. This science alone teaches us how to view the mad acts of magicians, that they may not be ratified but shunned, just as logic considers sophistical reasoning.
This science has three leading characteristics with respect to other sciences. The first is that it investigates by experiment the notable conclusions of all those sciences. For the other sciences know how to discover their principles by experiments, but their conclusions are reached by reasoning drawn from the principles discovered. But if they should have a particular and complete experience of their own conclusions, they must have it with the aid of this noble science. For it is true that mathematics has general experiments as regards its conclusions in its figures and calculations, which also are applied to all sciences and to this kind of experiment, because no science can be known without mathematics. But if we give our attention to particular and complete experiments and such as are attested wholly by the proper method, we must employ the principles of this science which is called experimental. I give as an example the rainbow and phenomena connected with it, of which nature are the circle around the sun and the stars, the streak [virga] also lying at the side of the sun or of a star, which is apparent to the eye in a straight line, and is called by Aristotle in the third book of the Meteorologics a perpendicular, but by Seneca a streak, and the circle is called a corona, phenomena which frequently have the colours of the rainbow. The natural philosopher discusses these phenomena, and the writer on perspective has much to add pertaining to the mode of vision that is necessary in this case. But neither Aristotle nor Avicenna in their natural histories has given us a knowledge of phenomena of this kind, nor has Seneca, who composed a special book on them. But experimental science attests them.
Let the experimenter first, then, examine visible objects, in order that he may find colours arranged as in the phenomena mentioned above and also the same figure. For let him take hexagonal stones from Ireland or from India, which are called rainbows in Solinus on the Wonders of the World, and let him hold these in a solar ray falling through the window, so that he may find all the colours of the rainbow, arranged as in it, in the shadow near the ray. And further let the same experimenter turn to a somewhat dark place and apply the stone to one of his eyes which is almost closed, and he will see the colours of the rainbow clearly arranged just as in the bow. And since many employing these stones think that the phenomenon is due to the special virtue of those stones and to their hexagonal shape, therefore let the experimenter proceed further, and he will find this same peculiarity in crystalline stones correctly shaped, and in other transparent stones. Moreover, he will find this not only in white stones like the Irish crystals, but also in black ones, as is evident in the dark crystal and in all stones of similar transparency. He will find it besides in crystals of a shape differing from the hexagonal, provided they have a roughened surface, like the Irish crystals, neither altogether smooth, nor rougher than they are. Nature produces some that have surfaces like the Irish crystals. For a difference in the corrugations causes a difference in the colours. And further let him observe rowers, and in the drops falling from the raised oars he finds the same colours when the solar rays penetrate drops of this kind. The same phenomenon is seen in water falling from the wheels of a mill; and likewise when one sees on a summer’s morning the drops of dew on the grass in meadow or field, he will observe the colours. Likewise when it is raining, if he stands in a dark place and the rays beyond it pass through the falling rain, the colours will appear in the shadow near by; and frequently at night colours appear around a candle. Moreover, if a man in summer, when he rises from sleep and has his eyes only partly open, suddenly looks at a hole through which a ray of the sun enters, he will see colours. Moreover, if seated beyond the sun he draws his cap beyond his eyes, he will see colours; and similarly if he closes an eye the same thing happens under the shade of the eyebrows; and again the same phenomenon appears through a glass vessel filled with water and placed in the sun’s rays. Or similarly if one having water in his mouth sprinkles it vigorously into the rays and stands at the side of the rays. So, too, if rays in the required position pass through an oil lamp hanging in the air so that the light falls on the surface of the oil, colours will be produced. Thus in an infinite number of ways colours of this kind appear, which the diligent experimenter knows how to discover....
Another example can be given in the field of medicine in regard to the prolongation of human life, for which the medical art has nothing to offer except the regimen of health. But a far longer extension of life is possible....
Not only are remedies possible against the conditions of old age coming at the time of one’s prime and before the time of old age, but also if the regimen of old age should be completed, the conditions of old age and senility can still be retarded, so that they do not arrive at their ordinary time, and when they do come they can be mitigated and moderated, so that both by retarding and mitigating them life may be prolonged beyond the limit, which according to the full regimen of health depends on the six articles mentioned. And there is another farther limit, which has been set by God and nature, in accordance with the property of the remedies retarding the accidents of old age and senility and mitigating their evil. The first limit can be passed but the second cannot be....
Therefore the excellent experimenter in the book on the Regimen of the Aged says that if what is tempered in the fourth degree, and what swims in the sea, and what grows in the air, and what is cast up by the sea, and a plant of India, and what is found in the vitals of a long-lived animal, and the two snakes which are the food of Tyrians and Aethiopians, be prepared and used in the proper way, and the minera [blood?] of the noble animal be present, the life of man could be greatly prolonged and the conditions of old age and senility could be retarded and mitigated. But that which is tempered in the fourth degree is gold, as is stated in the book on Spirits and Bodies, which among all things is most friendly to nature. And if by a certain experiment gold should be made the best possible, or at any rate far better than natu
re and the art of alchemy can make it, as was the vessel found by the rustic, and it should be dissolved in such water as the ploughman drank, it would then produce a wonderful action on the body of man. And if there is added that which swims in the sea, namely, the pearl, which is a thing most efficacious for preserving life, and there is added also the thing that grows in the air. This last is an anthos [flower] and is the flower of seadew, which possesses an ineffable virtue against the condition of old age. But the dianthos that is put in an electuary is not a flower, but is a mixture of leaves and fragments of wood and a small portion of flower. For the pure flower should be gathered in its proper season, and in many ways it is used in foods and drinks and electuaries. To these must be added what is cast up by the sea. This last is ambergris, which is spermaceti, a thing of wondrous virtue in this matter. The plant of India is similar to these, and is the excellent wood of the aloe, fresh and not seasoned. To these ingredients there is added that which is in the heart of a long-lived animal, namely, the stag. This is a bone growing in the stag’s heart, which possesses great power against premature old age. The snake which is the food of the Tyrians is the Tyrian snake from which Tyriaca is made, and whose flesh is properly prepared and eaten with spices. This is an excellent remedy for the condition of old age and for all the corruptions of the constitution, if it is taken with things suitable to one’s constitution and condition, as we are taught in the book on the Regimen of the Aged. Aristotle, moreover, in the book of Secrets recommends strongly the flesh of the Tyrian snake for our ills. The snake that is the food of the Aethiopians is the dragon, as David says in the Psalm, “Thou hast given it as food to the tribes of the Aethiopians.” For it is certain that wise men of Aethiopia have come to Italy, Spain, France, England, and those lands of the Christians in which there are good flying dragons, and by the secret art they possess lure the dragons from their caverns. They have saddles and bridles in readiness, and they ride on these dragons and drive them in the air at high speed, so that the rigidity of their flesh may be overcome and its hardness tempered, just as in the case of boars and bears and bulls that are driven about by dogs and beaten in various ways before they are killed for food. After they have domesticated them in this way they have the art of preparing their flesh, similar to the art of preparing the flesh of the Tyrian snake, and they use the flesh against the accidents of old age, and they prolong life and sharpen their intellect beyond all conception. For no instruction that can be given by man can produce such wisdom as the eating of this flesh, as we have learned through men of proved reliability on whose word no doubt can be cast.
If the elements should be prepared and purified in some mixture, so that there would be no action of one element on another, but so that they would be reduced to pure simplicity, the wisest have judged that they would have the most perfect medicine....
But owing to the difficulty of this very great experiment, and because few take an interest in experiments, since the labour involved is complicated and the expense very great, and because men pay no heed to the secrets of nature and the possibilities of art, it happens that very few have laboured on this very great secret of science, and still fewer have reached a laudable end....
The formation of judgments, as I have said, is a function of this science, in regard to what can happen by nature or be effected in art, and what not. This science, moreover, knows how to separate the illusions of magic and to detect all their errors in incantations, invocations, conjurations, sacrifices, and cults. But unbelievers busy themselves in these mad acts and trust in them, and have believed that the Christians used such means in working their miracles. Wherefore this science is of the greatest advantage in persuading men to accept the faith, since this branch alone of philosophy happens to proceed in this way, because this is the only branch that considers matters of this kind, and is able to overcome all falsehood and superstition and error of unbelievers in regard to magic, such as incantations and the like already mentioned. How far, moreover, it may serve to reprobate obstinate unbelievers is already shown by the violent means that have just been touched upon, and therefore I pass on.
From Opus majus of Roger Bacon, trans. R. B. Burke.
The Case of a Woman Doctor in Paris
1322
WITNESSES were brought before us ... in the inquisition made at the instance of the masters in medicine at Paris against Jacoba Felicie and others practising the art of medicine and surgery in Paris and the suburbs without the knowledge and authority of the said masters, to the end that they be punished, and that this practice be forbidden them....
The dean and the regent masters of the faculty of medicine at Paris intend to prove against the accused, Mistress Jacoba Felicie, (1) that the said Jacoba visited, in Paris and in the suburbs, many sick persons afflicted with grave illness, inspecting their urine both in common and individually, and touching, feeling, and holding their pulses, body, and limbs. Also (2) that after this inspection of urine and this touching, she said and has said to those sick persons: “I shall make you well, God willing, if you will have faith in me,” making an agreement concerning the cure with them, and receiving money for it. Also (3) that after an agreement had been made between the said defendant and the sick persons or their friends, concerning curing them of their internal illness, or from a wound or ulcer appearing on the outside of the bodies of the said sick persons, the said defendant visited and visits the sick persons very often, inspecting their urine carefully and continually, after the manner of physicians and doctors, and feeling their pulse, and their body, and touching and holding their limbs. Also (4) that after these actions, she gave and gives to the sick persons syrups to drink, comforting, laxative, digestive, both liquid and nonliquid, and aromatic, and other drinks, which they take and drink and have drunk very often in the presence of the said defendant, she prescribing and giving them. Also (5) that she has exercised and exercises, in the aforesaid matters, this function of practising medicine in Paris and in the suburbs, that she has practised and practises from day to day although she has not been approved in any official studium at Paris or elsewhere....
Jean Faber, living near the Tower in Paris... when he was asked if he knew the parties, said that he knew some of the masters by sight, others not, but that he knew the said Jacoba, because she has done well by him, as he said. Asked what he knows of those matters contained in the articles, he replied that he was suffering from a certain sickness in his head and ears at a time of great heat, that is, before the feast of the nativity of St. John [June 24], and that the said Jacoba had visited him, and had shown such great care for him that he was cured from his illness by the potations which she gave him, and by the aid of God. When he was asked what potions she had given to him, he answered that Jacoba had administered potions to him, of which the first was green, and the second and third more colourless, but how they were made he did not know. Asked if the said Jacoba has been wont to visit the sick, he said that she has, as he has heard many say. When he was asked if he had made a contract with her about curing him, he said that he had not. After he had been made well he paid her as he wished....
The lord Odo de Cormessiaco, a brother of the hospital of Paris, a witness, when he was asked what he knew of the matters contained in the articles, etc., answered this by law on his oath, that is, that when, around the feast of the nativity of St. John, he had been seized by a severe illness, to such an extent that his own limbs could not support him, Master Jean de Turre had visited him, and many other masters in medicine, Masters Martin and Herman and many others. And he had had himself taken to the house of the said Jacoba, and was there for a while, and then afterwards this Jacoba visited him both at the baths and in the aforesaid hospital. And Master Jean, who lives with this Jacoba, gave him a purgative, and they prepared many baths and bandages for him, and anointed him very often. The said Jacoba and Jean worked over him with such great care that he was completely restored to health. They also gave him herbs, that is, camomile leaves, melilot, and ve
ry many others, which he did not recall. Also, on the advice of the said Jacoba, the said Jean made a certain charcoal fire of the length and breadth of the witness, and upon this fire he placed many herbs, and afterwards he had him lie down on these herbs, and lie there until this made him sweat exceedingly. Afterwards they wrapped him in linen cloth and put him in his own bed, and cared for him with such diligence that by means of God’s help and the said care, he was cured. When he was asked if Jacoba had made a contract with him concerning visiting and healing him, he said she had not. He paid as he wished when he got well, and he believed better than otherwise....
Jeanne, wife of Denis called Bilbaut, living in the Rue de la Ferronnerie in Paris ... answered on oath that around the feast of St. Christopher [July 25], just passed, she had been seized with a fever, and very many physicians had visited her in the said illness, that is, a certain brother de Cordelis, Master Herman, Manfred, and very many others. And she was so weighed down by the said illness that on a certain Tuesday around the said feast, she was not able to speak, and the said physicians gave her up for dead. And so it would have been, if the said Jacoba had not come to her at her request. When she had come, she inspected her urine and felt her pulse, and afterwards gave her a certain clear liquid to drink, and gave her also a syrup, so that she would go to the toilet. And Jacoba so laboured over her that by the grace of God she was cured of the said illness....
These are the arguments which Jacoba said and set forth in her trial....
The said Jacoba said that if the statute, decree, admonition, prohibition, and excommunication which the said dean and masters are trying to use against her, Jacoba, had ever been made, this had been only once, on account of and against ignorant women and inexperienced fools, who, untrained in the medical art and totally ignorant of its precepts, usurped the office of practising it. From their number the said Jacoba is excepted, being expert in the art of medicine and instructed in the precepts of said art. For these reasons, the statute, decree, admonition, prohibition, and excommunication aforesaid are not binding and cannot be binding on her, since when the cause ceases, the effect ceases....
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