[Transcriber's note]
This is derived from a copy on the Internet Archive:
http://www.archive.org/details/catholicchurchme008742mbp
Page numbers in this book are indicated by numbers enclosed in curly braces, e.g. {99}. They have been located where page breaks occurred in the original book.
Obvious spelling errors have been corrected but "inventive" and inconsistent spelling is left unchanged.
Extended quotations and citations are indented.
Footnotes have been renumbered to avoid ambiguity, and relocated to the end of the enclosing paragraph.
[End Transcriber's note]
[FIRST SERIES]
SKETCHES OF THE LIVES OF CATHOLIC ECCLESIASTICSWHO WERE AMONG THE GREAT FOUNDERS IN SCIENCE
By
JAMES J. WALSH, K.ST.G., M.D., PH.D., LITT.D.
Dean and Professor of Medicine and of Nervous Diseasesat Fordham University School of Medicine; Professorof Physiological Psychology in the Cathedral College, New York;Member of A.M.A., N.Y. State Med. Soc.,A.A.A.S., Life Mem of N.Y. Historical Society.
SECOND EDITION
PHILADELPHIA
American Ecclesiastical Review
The Dolphin Press
MCMX.
COPYRIGHT. 1906, 1910
American Ecclesiastical Review
The Dolphin Press
"A sorrow's crown of sorrow."
THIS BOOK IS AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED TO THEMEMORY OF MY MOTHER
{vii}
The following sketches of the lives of clergymen who were greatscientists have appeared at various times during the past five yearsin Catholic magazines. They were written because the materials forthem had gradually accumulated during the preparation of variouscourses of lectures, and it seemed advisable to put them in order insuch a way that they might be helpful to others working along similarlines. They all range themselves naturally around the central ideathat the submission of the human reason to Christian belief, and ofthe mind and heart to the authority of the Church, is quite compatiblewith original thinking of the highest order, and with that absolutefreedom of investigation into physical science, which has only toooften been said to be quite impossible to churchmen. For this reasonfriends have suggested that they should be published together in aform in which they would be more easy of consultation than whenscattered in different periodicals. It was urged, too, that they wouldthus also be more effective for the cause which they uphold. Thisfriendly suggestion has been yielded to, whether justifiably or notthe reader must decide for himself. There is so great a flood ofbooks, good, bad, and indifferent, ascribing their existence to theadvice of well-meaning friends, that we poor authors are evidently notin a position to judge for ourselves of the merit of our works or ofthe possible interest they may arouse.
{viii}
I have to thank the editors of the American Catholic QuarterlyReview, of the Ave Maria, and of The Ecclesiastical Review andThe Dolphin, for their kind permission to republish the articleswhich appeared originally in their pages. All of them, thoughsubstantially remaining the same, have been revised, modified in anumber of particulars, and added to very considerably in most cases.
The call for a second edition--the third thousand--of this littlebook is gratifying. Its sale encouraged the preparation of a SecondSeries of CATHOLIC CHURCHMEN IN SCIENCE, and now the continued demandsuggests a Third Series, which will be issued during the year. Someminor