This dual profession is important, for Donne is an artist as well as a doctor; he is "great not only in the scientific world, but also in the world of letters" (p. 104). His popularity arises from his ability to clothe the "dry bones" of science in "so elegantly literary a pattern." He is also a characteristic fin-de-siecle writer in being misunderstood: the lectures have become a "social function" and have "almost succeeded in making science fashionable" (p. 105).