"In many ways, yes," Combeferre conceded. Pasteur, Darwin, Curie, and Watson - and thousands of anonymous doctors and scientists in between - had fundamentally changed medicine, and even the extent to which the human body could be understood. But Combeferre clung with a certain pride to all his colleagues had known and understood, and the knowledge he had gained in operating theaters and lecture halls. "Medicine was changing dramatically when I was at university, and any number of concepts taken for granted today were in their infancy, known, but unproven. And more than that, doctors were finally wedding medicine to scientific practice, instead of Galen tradition. What I mean to say, I suppose, is that a man from just twenty years earlier might have found the present age infinitely stranger still."

He laughed a little. "Nevertheless, I have never been so terrified of all I have to learn."