The Great Plague. The Story of London\'s Most Deadly Year

The Doctors Stumble• 153

ration came from Francis Bacon’s electrifying call, after the Great Plague of

1603 , to reexamine the wisdom of the ancients, from Aristotle to Galen.^38

Since then, a constant drumbeat for “renovation,” “reform,” and “renewal”

had sounded from their chosen place on the medical frontier.^39 This lan-

guage sent shudders down the backs of most members of the College of

Physicians, but some individuals in the medical establishment welcomed the

attempt to integrate medicine and the new science.

Among the leading lights of the Royal Society’s scientific inquiries were

Christopher Wren, Edmund Halley (of comet fame), Richard Lower, and

Fig. 9 .Frontispiece and title page of George Thomson,Loimotomia: or the PEST
Anatomized( 1666 ). The frontispiece depicts the dissection of a cadaver covered with
plague tokens, illustrating Dr. Thomson’s controversial plague autopsy in 1665 .The
title page indicates the breadth of Thomson’s medical interests, ranging from the
signs and sources of plague to the analysis of his plague dissection, suggestions of
plague preservatives and cures, and his pamphlets against his arch-rival Galenists,
especially Dr. Nathaniel Hodges.The Wellcome Library, London