THE MIDDLE AGES

New Zealand Tablet, 15 June 1911, Page 1115

THE MIDDLE AGES

SOME OF THE WORKS OF THE PAST ;; I suppose about the newest thing of mine is an article on how Shakespeare used the Irish. brogue, which is to appear in an early issue of Harper’s said Dr. James J. " aish,v Dean - and ; Professor of . the History; of Medicine arid Nervous Diseases at Fordham' Fniversity, to a representative of the New York Sun ! . r ‘ I’m preparing two books on the makers of old-time medicine and the makers of astronomy, but I don’t know when they'll be ready. The best I can say about the Middle Ages is that the second edition of The Thirteenth. Century, Greatest of Centuries, came out recently.’ , ,5 rr; ;• 5 Dr. Walsh has made a specialty of bygone times, and if you want to feel something of the intense human interest ot- the Middle Ages, to reach across the centuries and shake hands with the year 1300, drop in and chat with the doctor at his home. He had just returned form delivering a lecture on Shakespeare for a charitable organisation when an inquirer called. He was to speak that evening before an Irish society, but) it would be a pleasure, he said, to use the hour he had to spare in talking about the greatness of the thirteenth century. The, doctor believes that; people in the Middle n Ages were wiser and happier than they are now, and he has written several hooks to prove it. • s£| , , f.*, g ■ .. . ‘Despite all the talk about the wonders of the twentieth scentury, in nearly every “ important way 11 we are behind the great predecessors,’ said Dr. Walsh, leaning back in his easy chair and looking over a confusion of books and manuscripts on his study table. In some things 7 e » r ® just beginning to "come back ,to where we were m the Middle Ages. ‘For instance, take those countries where the Middle Ages has touched us, where the Reformation has not blocked out the past. There were two '"great; universities in South America a hundred years a before ; Harvard was founded. Prof. Edward Gaylord l Bourne, of Yale, in writing about tepain in America shows that Spanish America surpassed the North completely, and 4 anticipated by nearly two" centuries some of the progress that; we are so proud of in the twentieth century. - . ; , > . ‘The ,spirit; of fraternity ‘ which sociologists are aiming at now was the very Spirit of the Middle Ages. In Emrland there - were y 30,000 guilds for 3,000,000 inhabitants. They carried fire insurance, life insurance, and insurance against robbery and shipwreck. ~ ' ' . ‘And you ye heard 'of that fine new idea about visiting and district nurses. Well, they had them in the

Middle Ages. They- were furnished by the guilds especially for night service, and the members—were expected to pay if they could, and if they couldn’t it came out of the guild treasury. - . : And were they happier ? Of course they were, for they had an opportunity to do what they liked best. In an English - cathedral the wonderful grilled doors are a sight for tourists. There is a bill for those doors still in the library, of the chapter house, and they were built by the village blacksmith, and the town carpenter made the exquisite choir stalls. Do you suppose they would have done so well if they hadn’t liked their work ? . And the delicate embroidery of the women is still a marvel. ( ' The subway and the elevated with steam and electricity have given us so much more time than they had. But who’s got any time now? Nobody I know of except the farmers who haven’t put in modern improvements yet. ■ ; And how’ about education- for the people? We’re just getting around to the manual training idea. Then there were art guilds, craft guilds, and merchant guilds, not to speak of the various 'trade guilds, Boys were apprenticed to men following such vocation as the youth had a liking for and received an adequate training. - ‘ The town of York had 12,000 citizens when the cathedral there was built, and the town of Lincoln the same number, -and neither had to send out for a workman. And when we ant to .build a monumental structure we search the world for artisans and then model after something in the Middle Ages.- . ‘The people were not taught to'read and write, the printing press had not been invented and few books were available, but they were taught to work and to think. The fact that they could construct such wonderful buildings and appreciate them after they were erected means a whole lot. ' How much do most get . out of their present ability to read ? The scandals of yesterday, the rumors of to-day, and the comic supplement.’ ‘But weren’t they superstitious?’ the listener ventured to ask. * ‘They weren’t any more superstitious than we are, replied Dr. Walsh. ‘ Dowie founded his city in 1900, and in 1896 people in Chicago formed a line five deep and two blocks long to pass in front of Healer Schltater and have him touch them.’ ‘Come to think of it,’ the doctor chuckled, ‘there isn’t any number 13 on this street. We have 12 and 12a. ... ‘ Superstition is appealed to now under the name of science. Just say “science,” and the people will fall for anything. Think of the quantities of patent medicines that go down the public’s throat and the hundred and one cure-all devices. Just look,,at these. ’ The doctor took out of a drawer a couple of hinged pieces of metal. One was copper and the other zinc. ‘You put one in each shoe and they make a battery which. will cure all sorts of ailments,’ he said, ‘The fellow that bought those paid two dollars for them, and they must have cost a quarter, at least. I’ve, got some fine electric belts here, too, if you want to see them. ‘ I can remember the blue glass craze very well and have a good picture in ray mind’s eye of my uncle sitting patiently under a blue glass for his rheumatism. Lots of folks were cured by the blue glass treatment. When anybody talks to me about the superstition of the Middle Ages I wonder if he isn’t joking.’ How did you come to get interested in the Middle Ages?’ was the next question. ‘ I spent three years abroad after completing my medical course,’ answered the doctor, ‘and I noticed that almost everything that I wanted to see had 1300 written on it. It might be a picture or a fine piece of embroidery or a wonderful cathedral or almost anything that Baedeker put down as interesting, and I usually found that it was built or, carved in the thirteenth century. That started my interest, and since then it has been my hobby.’ - v v - Besides his work in Fordham University and his duties in the Cathedral College of New York, Dr, Walsh has found time to be an author. His published works include lives of modern medical men. The Popes and Science, a book about men to whom important advances in electricity are due, and two volumes on Catholic Churchmen and Science.' Dr.. Walsh is a graduate of Fordham. He spent two years at the medical college of the. University of Pennsylvania, where he and his brother took seven out of the nine prizes offered. The University : of Pennsylvania then sent him abroad to report an international medical congress at St. Petersburg, and although most of the speeches were delivered in German and some in Russian he cabled back each day a full account of the proceedings. It was during this trip and the several years’ stay in Europe that followed that he developed the -fondness for the Middle Ages that characterises his writings.