Catholic Churchmen in Science   By: James J. Walsh (1865-1942)

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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.

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Footnotes have been renumbered to avoid ambiguity, and relocated to the end of the enclosing paragraph.

[End Transcriber's note]

CATHOLIC CHURCHMEN IN SCIENCE

[FIRST SERIES]

SKETCHES OF THE LIVES OF CATHOLIC ECCLESIASTICS WHO 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 Diseases at Fordham University School of Medicine; Professor of 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 THE MEMORY OF MY MOTHER

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PREFACE.

The following sketches of the lives of clergymen who were great scientists have appeared at various times during the past five years in Catholic magazines. They were written because the materials for them had gradually accumulated during the preparation of various courses of lectures, and it seemed advisable to put them in order in such a way that they might be helpful to others working along similar lines. They all range themselves naturally around the central idea that the submission of the human reason to Christian belief, and of the mind and heart to the authority of the Church, is quite compatible with original thinking of the highest order, and with that absolute freedom of investigation into physical science, which has only too often been said to be quite impossible to churchmen. For this reason friends have suggested that they should be published together in a form in which they would be more easy of consultation than when scattered in different periodicals. It was urged, too, that they would thus also be more effective for the cause which they uphold. This friendly suggestion has been yielded to, whether justifiably or not the reader must decide for himself. There is so great a flood of books, good, bad, and indifferent, ascribing their existence to the advice of well meaning friends, that we poor authors are evidently not in a position to judge for ourselves of the merit of our works or of the possible interest they may arouse.

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I have to thank the editors of the American Catholic Quarterly Review , of the Ave Maria , and of The Ecclesiastical Review and The Dolphin , for their kind permission to republish the articles which appeared originally in their pages. All of them, though substantially remaining the same, have been revised, modified in a number of particulars, and added to very considerably in most cases.

The call for a second edition the third thousand of this little book is gratifying. Its sale encouraged the preparation of a Second Series of CATHOLIC CHURCHMEN IN SCIENCE, and now the continued demand suggests a Third Series, which will be issued during the year. Some minor corrections have been made in this edition, but the book is substantially the same.

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CONTENTS.

PAGE

PREFACE ix

I. THE SUPPOSED OPPOSITION OF SCIENCE AND RELIGION 3

II. COPERNICUS AND HIS TIMES 15