Ring M E
Bull Med Libr Assoc. 1972 Jul;60(3):467-70.
At the time that printing came onto the scene in western Europe in the mid-1400s, the medical community was struggling in the depths of superstition, and little rational medicine was being practiced. With this new invention, a flood of ancient, outmoded texts was released upon the public, and eager readers frequently were unaware that books they were being sold as new works were actually in some cases a thousand years old. Added to this was the fact that the appearance in print of this irrational material lent credibility and authoritativeness to unscientific writings. Thus, in contrast to many other fields which were immeasurably helped by the advent of the printed book, rational medicine was in fact held back and prevented from developing for at least a full century. It was not until the Renaissance was well under way that important original contributions by such towering figures as Vesalius supplanted these worthless repetitions of ancient superstitions.
15世纪中叶印刷术在西欧出现时，医学界正深陷迷信的泥沼，几乎没有理性医学的实践。随着这项新发明，大量古老、过时的文本涌入公众视野，急切的读者常常并未意识到，那些被当作新作品出售的书籍，有些实际上已有千年历史。此外，这些非理性材料的印刷出版，赋予了非科学著作可信度和权威性。因此，与许多因印刷书籍的出现而得到极大助力的其他领域形成对比的是，理性医学实际上至少在整整一个世纪里受到阻碍，无法发展。直到文艺复兴蓬勃发展之时，像维萨里这样的杰出人物所做出的重要原创贡献，才取代了这些对古代迷信的无价值重复。
