THE WORLD'S DEBT TO THE IRISH
physician should have a solid foundation of learning
before he took up his medical studies. This medical
school was founded by a physician of great eminence
whose skill is celebrated in the early Irish annals.
In spite of traditions which declare that physicians
are likely to be pretty far away from sanctity, he is
known in history as St. Bracan. He was the son of
Fin Loga and a disciple of St. Finian at Clonard. In
our time it has been said that “where there are
three physicians there are two atheists.” That may
be true for the rank and file of the profession but
it is not true for the great representative scientific
physicians. Some of our greatest medical scientists
have been deeply religious men. In the old times in
Ireland this seems to have been true and so there is
the tradition of the saintly Irish physician who
founded the school of Tuaim Brecain near the pres-
ent town of Belturbet in the County Cavan. The
excellent medical work done at this school secured
for it a fame that has endured down the ages ever
since. The tradition with regard to it seems thor-
oughly authentic and well founded.
Some of the old medical traditions of the Irish
people are very interesting. Many of them have
come down from generations among the people of
the countryside from time immemorial and yet they
are very suggestive and sometimes significant for
modern medicine. Some of them manifestly repre-
sent the results of practical experience that is endur-
ingly valuable. Along the seashore for instance
the Irish had the habit of eating dulse or dilse or
)4.7