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Cusanus was an extremely practical man, and was constantly looking for and devising methods of applying practical principles of science to ordinary life.
Cusanus' life and work stand, then, as a type of the accomplishment, the opportunities, the power of thought, the practical scholarship, the mathematical accuracy, the fine scientific foresight of a scholar of the fifteenth century.
We have no means of knowing now whether it was adopted to any extent or not. It may seem rather surprising that a cardinal should have been the one to make such a suggestion. Cusanus, however, was very much interested in mathematics and in the natural sciences, and we have many wonderful suggestions from his pen.
Nothing, however, makes it clearer than this, that it is not time that fosters thinking, but that great men at any time come to great thoughts. Cusanus wrote: "The law and the kingdom should be placed under the protection of a single ruler or authority. The small separate governments of princes and counts consume a disproportionately large amount of revenue without furnishing any real security.
Cues on the Moselle was his birthplace, and gave him his name Cusanus.
As we shall see in discussing his suggestion for the estimation of the pulse rate later on, he made many other similar suggestions for diagnostic purposes in medicine, and set forth other applications of mathematics and mechanics to his generation. Many of Cusanus' books have curiously modern names.
Cusanus was probably not more than thirty when he made the suggestion which represents the first practical hint for the use of laboratory methods in modern medicine. It came out of his thoughtful consideration of medical problems rather than from a store of garnered information as to what others thought.
Perhaps the work of Cusanus that is best known is that "On Learned Ignorance De Docta Ignorantia," in which the Cardinal points out how many things that educated people think they know are entirely wrong. It reminds one very much of Josh Billings's remark that it is not so much the ignorance of mankind that makes them ridiculous, as the knowing so many things that ain't so.
Cardinal Cusanus suggested then that the water-clock should be employed for estimating the pulse frequency.
Which makes me believe, if the empty seats of angels be not filled with other kind of people than those, we shall not have the final judgment these seven thousand, sixty and seven jubilees yet to come, and so Cusanus will be deceived in his conjecture. Remember that I have told you of it, and given you fair advertisement in time and place convenient.
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