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-The Project Gutenberg EBook of Andreas Vesalius the Reformer of Anatomy, by
-James Moores Ball
-
-This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most
-other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions
-whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of
-the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at
-www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have
-to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook.
-
-Title: Andreas Vesalius the Reformer of Anatomy
-
-Author: James Moores Ball
-
-Release Date: October 14, 2020 [EBook #63456]
-
-Language: English
-
-Character set encoding: UTF-8
-
-*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ANDREAS VESALIUS--REFORMER OF ANATOMY ***
-
-
-
-
-Produced by deaurider, Stephen Hutcheson, and the Online
-Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This
-file was produced from images generously made available
-by The Internet Archive)
-
-
-
-
-
-
- [Illustration: _And. Vesalius_]
-
-
-
-
- ANDREAS
- VESALIUS
- THE
- Reformer of Anatomy
-
-
- BY
- JAMES MOORES BALL, M. D.
-
- [Illustration: Ornamental block]
-
- SAINT LOUIS
- MEDICAL SCIENCE PRESS
- MDCCCCX
-
- Copyrighted, 1910
- By James Moores Ball
- _All rights reserved_
-
- TO THE MEMORY
- OF THOSE ILLUSTRIOUS MEN
- WHO
- OFTEN UNDER ADVERSE CIRCUMSTANCES
- AND
- SOMETIMES IN DANGER OF DEATH
- SUCCEEDED IN UNRAVELLING THE MYSTERIES
- OF THE STRUCTURE OF THE HUMAN BODY,
- TO THE FATHERS OF ANATOMY
- AND
- TO THE ARTIST-ANATOMISTS
- THIS BOOK
- IS DEDICATED
-
- [Illustration: Ornamental block]
-
-
-
-
- PREFACE
-
-
- [Illustration: Illuminated capital]
-
-In the annals of the medical profession the name of Andreas Vesalius of
-Brussels holds a place second to none. Every physician has heard of him,
-yet few know the details of his life, the circumstances under which his
-labors were carried out, the extent of those labors, or their
-far-reaching influence upon the progress of anatomy, physiology and
-surgery. Comparatively few physicians have seen his works; and fewer
-still have read them. The reformation which he inaugurated in anatomy,
-and incidentally in other branches of medical science, has left only a
-dim impress upon the minds of the busy, science-loving physicians of the
-nineteenth and twentieth centuries. That so little should be known about
-him is not surprising, since his writings were in Latin and were
-published prior to the middle of the sixteenth century. His books, which
-at one time were in the hands of all the scientific physicians of
-Europe, are now rarely encountered beyond the walls of the great medical
-libraries of the world. They are among the _incunabula_ of the medical
-literature. That English-speaking physicians know little of Vesalian
-literature is due to the fact that no extensive biography of the great
-anatomist has appeared in our language. Most of the Vesalian literature
-which has been written by English and American authors has been in the
-form of brief articles for the medical press; these oftentimes have been
-incorrect and unillustrated. Perhaps the best example of this class is
-the article by Mr. Henry Morley which appeared originally in _Fraser’s
-Magazine_, in 1853, and later was published in his _Clement Marot and
-Other Studies_, in 1871. The chief data for Vesalius’s biography are to
-be found in his own writings, in the archives of the Universities in
-which he taught, and in the controversial literature of the period.
-Extensive as are these sources they leave much to be desired. A vast
-mass of Vesalian literature was printed, chiefly in the Latin language,
-during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Much of it is based on
-insufficient evidence or on national prejudice. The Germans, the French,
-the Dutch and the Italians have all taken a turn at it. In modern times
-the monumental work of Roth, _Andreas Vesalius Bruxellensis_, Berlin,
-1892, has served to epitomize this literature and to make clear many
-points which formerly were not understood. I have taken Roth’s book as a
-basis for this monograph, without using the voluminous references which
-are found in the work of this thorough historian.
-
-The man who overthrew the authority of Galen; revolutionized the
-teaching of the structure of the human body; started anatomical,
-physiological, and surgical investigation in the right channels; first
-correctly illustrated his dissections; destroyed ancient dogmas, and
-made many new discoveries—this man, Andreas Vesalius of Brussels,
-deserves the name which Morley has given him, “the Luther of Anatomy.”
-
-At long intervals a bright particular star appears in the intellectual
-horizon, endowed with genius of such a superlative order as seemingly to
-comprise within itself the whole domain of an entire science. These men
-do not belong to any particular epoch in the development of the human
-mind. They are the eternal symbols of progress, and their history is the
-history of the science which they profess. Such men were Bacon, Galileo,
-Descartes, Newton, Lavoisier, and Bichat; and such also was Andreas
-Vesalius the anatomist. Young, enthusiastic, courageous and diligent,
-Vesalius dared to contradict the authority of Galen, corrected the
-anatomical mistakes of thirteen centuries and before his thirtieth year
-published the most accurate, complete, and best illustrated treatise on
-anatomy that the world had ever seen. His industry, the success which
-crowned his efforts, the jealousies which his discoveries aroused in the
-breasts of his contemporaries, the honors which were conferred upon him
-by Charles the Fifth and Philip the Second, his pilgrimage to the Holy
-Land, and his tragic death—these are events which deserve to be
-chronicled by an abler pen than mine.
-
-The year 1543 marks the date of a revolution which was won, not by force
-of arms but by the scalpel of an anatomist and the hand of an artist.
-The whole of human anatomy, as a study involving correct descriptions of
-the component parts of the body and accurate delineations thereof, may
-be said to have been founded by Andreas Vesalius and Jan Stephan van
-Calcar. As light pouring into a prism attracts little notice until it
-emerges in iridescent hues, so it was with anatomy: after passing
-through the brain of Vesalius it bore rich fruit which has been gathered
-by many hands. To turn from the writings of Galen, Mondino, Hundt,
-Peyligk, Phryesen, and Berengario da Carpi to the beauties of Vesalius’s
-_De Humani Corporis Fabrica_ is like passing from darkness into
-sunlight. To both anatomists and artists this book was a revelation. For
-more than a century after its appearance the anatomists of Europe did
-little more than make additions to, and compose commentaries upon the
-conjoint triumph of Vesalius and van Calcar. For more than two centuries
-the osteologic and myologic figures of the _Fabrica_ formed the basis of
-all treatises on Art-Anatomy.
-
- JAMES MOORES BALL.
-
- Saint Louis,
- MDCCCCX.
-
- [Illustration: Ornamental block]
-
- [Illustration: Ornamental block]
-
-
-
-
- TABLE OF CONTENTS
-
-
- PAGE
- INTRODUCTION 1-16
- The Study of Medical History—The General Renaissance—The
- Anatomical Renaissance.
- ANATOMY IN ANCIENT TIMES 17-28
- Anatomy in Egypt and in Greece—Hippocrates and the
- Asclepiadae—Alcmaeon, Empedocles and Aristotle—Early Roman
- Medicine—The Alexandrian University—Herophilus and
- Erasistratus—Claudius Galenus—The School of
- Salernum—Frederick II.
- MONDINO, THE RESTORER OF ANATOMY 29-36
- Life of Mondino—He restores the Study of Practical Anatomy—His
- Book on Anatomy.
- MONDINO’S SUCCESSORS 37-51
- Gabriel de Zerbi—John Peyligk—Magnus Hundt—Laurentius
- Phryesen—Alexander Achillinus—Berengario da Carpi—John
- Dryander—Charles Estienne.
- VESALIUS’S EARLY LIFE 52-55
- Origin of the Vesalius Family—Early Life of the
- Anatomist—Vesalius enters the University of Louvain.
- SOJOURN IN PARIS 56-69
- Vesalius goes to Paris to study Medicine—Celebrated Parisian
- Physicians of the Sixteenth Century—Jacobus
- Sylvius—Joannes Guinterius—Jean Fernel—Philosophy of
- Pierre de la Rameé—State of Anatomy at this Period.
- VESALIUS RETURNS TO LOUVAIN 70-72
- Vesalius returns to Louvain—He conducts a Course in
- Anatomy—Secures a Skeleton.
- PROFESSOR OF ANATOMY IN PADUA 73-80
- Vesalius goes to Venice, thence to Padua—Receives the Degree
- of Doctor of Medicine—He is appointed Professor of
- Anatomy—His method of Teaching—Lectures also in Bologna.
- FIRST CONTRIBUTION TO ANATOMY 81-83
- Vesalius issues a Series of Anatomical Plates under the title
- “Tabulae Anatomicae”—His Plates are extensively pirated.
- PUBLICATION OF THE FABRICA 84-94
- The Manuscript and Illustrations for the Fabrica are
- transported to Basel—Joannes Oporinus, the noted Printer
- and Greek Scholar—Publication of the Fabrica—Beauty of the
- Illustrations—Who was the unnamed Artist?—The Plates were
- erroneously ascribed to Titian—Christoforo Coriolano—Jan
- Stephan van Calcar—Popularity of the Illustrations among
- Artists and Anatomists.
- PUBLICATION OF THE EPITOME 95-97
- Publication of the Epitome—Reasons for its
- Publication—Character of the Work.
- CONTENTS OF THE FABRICA 99-113
- General Plan of the Book—A brief Review of its Contents—The
- First Book, on Osteology—Vesalius’s Contributions to the
- Anatomy of the Bones—The Second Book, on Ligaments and
- Muscles—Excellence of this Part of the “Fabrica”—The Third
- Book, on the Veins and Arteries—The Fourth Book, on the
- Nerves—The Fifth Book, on the Organs of Nutrition—The
- Sixth Book, on the Heart—Vesalius’s Idea of the
- Circulation—Quotation from his Book—The Seventh Book, on
- the Brain and the Organs of Sense—Conclusion.
- CONTEMPORARY ANATOMISTS 114-125
- The publication of the Fabrica is followed by great activity
- among Anatomists—Bartholomeus Eustachius—Realdus
- Columbus—Gabriel Fallopius—John Philip Ingrassias.
- COMMENTATORS AND PLAGIARISTS 126-129
- Plagiarism in Medicine—William Cowper and Bidloo’s
- Plates—Pirated editions of the “Tabulae Anatomicae”—Thomas
- Geminus’s editions of the “Fabrica”—The Microcosmographia
- of Helkiah Crooke—John Banister’s Book—Juan Valverde di
- Hamusco’s work on Anatomy—Best editions of the “Fabrica”.
- THE COURT PHYSICIAN 130-132
- Vesalius is appointed Archiatrus to Charles the Fifth—He
- follows the Emperor in his Journeys—Abdication of
- Charles—Vesalius is appointed Archiatrus to Philip the
- Second.
- PILGRIMAGE AND DEATH 133-136
- Vesalius leaves Madrid—He visits Venice, then goes to Cyprus,
- and passes on to Jerusalem—Reason for the Pilgrimage—Death
- of Vesalius.
-
- [Illustration: Ornamental block]
-
- [Illustration: Ornamental block]
-
-
-
-
- LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
-
-
- Andreas Vesalius—from the “Epitome”, 1543 Frontispiece
- PAGE
- Andreas Vesalius—van Kalker p.; I. Troijen s.—from an old
- copperplate engraving XVIII.
- Initial Letter—from the “Fabrica”, 1543 16
- Hippocrates 17
- Aristotle 19
- Alexander the Great 20
- Ptolemy Soter 21
- Galen 24
- Mondino’s Diagram of the Heart 31
- Anatomical Demonstration in 1493 33
- Title-page of Mondino’s Anatomy by Melerstat 34
- Colophon of the Anatomy of Mondino 36
- Anatomical Plate by Ricardus Hela, 1493 38
- Peyligk’s Diagram of the Heart, 1499 39
- Anatomical Figure from Magnus Hundt, 1501 40
- Anatomical Figure from Laurentius Phryesen, 1518 41
- Alexander Achillinus 42
- Dissection by Berengario, 1535 43
- Skeleton by Berengario, 1523 44
- Muscles by Berengario, 1521 45
- Muscles by Berengario, 1521 46
- Dryander 47
- Anatomical Figure by Estienne, 1545 48
- Skeleton by Estienne, 1545 49
- Skull by Dryander, 1541 51
- The Old University of Louvain 54
- Sylvius 57
- Winter of Andernach 62
- Jean Fernel 64
- Ramus 66
- Vivisection of a Pig—from the “Fabrica”, 1543 69
- Instruments used in Dissection—from the “Fabrica”, 1543 74
- Initial Letter—from the “Fabrica”, 1543 80
- View of the City of Basel in the Sixteenth Century 83
- Joannes Oporinus 85
- Mark of Oporinus—from the “Fabrica”, 1543 86
- Jan Stephan van Calcar—from Sandrart’s “Teutsche Academie”, 1685 88
- Second Vesalian Plate of the Muscles—from the “Fabrica”, 1543 90
- Ninth Vesalian Plate of the Muscles—from the “Fabrica”, 1543 92
- A Human Skull resting on the Skull of a Dog—from the “Fabrica”,
- 1543 94
- Title-page of Vesalius’s “Epitome”, 1543 96
- Skeleton by Vesalius—from the “Fabrica”, 1543 98
- Fifth Vesalian Plate of the Muscles—from the “Fabrica”, 1543 100
- Deep Muscles of the Back by Vesalius—from the “Fabrica”, 1543 102
- Part of the First Text-page of the “Fabrica”, 1543 103
- Plate of the Arterial Tree by Vesalius—from the “Fabrica”, 1543 104
- Dissection of the Abdomen by Vesalius—from the “Fabrica”, 1543 106
- Dissection of the Heart by Vesalius—from the “Fabrica”, 1543 107
- Initial Letter—from the “Fabrica”, 1543 113
- Brain and Nerves by Eustachius 116
- Muscles by Eustachius 117
- Title-page of Columbus’s Anatomy 120
- Gabriel Fallopius 122
- Ingrassias 125
- Charles the Fifth 131
- Philip the Second 133
-
- [Illustration: Ornamental block]
-
- [Illustration: _I. van Kalker p. I. Troÿen s._
- ANDREAS VESALIUS
- (From an old copperplate engraving)]
-
- [Illustration: Ornamental block]
-
-
-
-
- INTRODUCTION
-
-
- [Illustration: Illuminated capital]
-
-The intelligent student of medical history has at his command an
-unfailing source of pleasure. To learn the successive steps by which
-Medicine has advanced from a priest-ridden and secret art practiced with
-mysterious rites in the Greek temples, passing through the schools of
-Greek philosophy into the light of publicity, is his privilege. To hunt
-through musty and worm-eaten volumes for facts regarding the great
-physicians of antiquity is his delight; and to communicate the knowledge
-thus obtained to others, who have not the time or the facilities for
-such research, is his duty. In every period are events and incidents of
-interest, but to the Middle Ages a peculiar fascination attaches; for it
-was during this period that Europe, emerging from an intellectual
-darkness of ten centuries’ duration, awoke to the Renaissance, and
-Medicine, as ever has been the case, kept pace with the general advance
-of knowledge.
-
-The present book deals with the life of a master whose work was an
-essential factor in the evolution of the Anatomical Renaissance. In
-order to understand the New Birth of Anatomy it is necessary to know
-something of the scope and influence of the General Renaissance.
-
-
-The General Renaissance
-
-This, the Revival of Learning, includes an indefinite time in European
-history. The seeds of the new movement were planted in the Middle Ages,
-but they bore no fruit until the time had arrived for an apparently
-“spontaneous outburst of intelligence”. Definitions of the Renaissance
-will vary with the point of view. Artists and sculptors will say it was
-a revolution which was created by the recovery of ancient statues;
-littérateurs and philosophers look upon it as a radical change due to
-the discovery of the writings of the classical authors; astronomers and
-physicists will cite the names of Copernicus, Galileo, and Torricelli;
-geographers will point to the discovery of a New Continent; historians
-will name the extinction of feudalism and the capture of Constantinople
-by the Turks; inventors will recall the changed conditions of warfare
-brought about by gunpowder, the multiplication of books by the invention
-of printing, and the advent of new methods of engraving; and anatomists
-will sound the praises of Leonardo da Vinci and of Andreas Vesalius. All
-will agree that the Renaissance meant Revolution—revolution in thought,
-in conduct, in creed, and in conditions of existence. To no one fact can
-the Renaissance be attributed; nor can its scope be limited to any one
-field of human endeavor. The Renaissance was, and is, and will continue
-to be, as long as the race progresses.
-
-The new movement began in Italy and grew rapidly. When, toward the end
-of the sixteenth century, the lamp of learning began to get dim in
-Italy, it was relighted by the nations of northern Europe—the Germans,
-the Hollanders, and the English—and by them was transferred to us. The
-Revival consisted largely in the recovery of the buried writings of the
-ancient Greek and Roman authors, together with comments on what they had
-written, and the production of books which were modeled after their
-works. But it was broader than this. It included all branches of
-learning, although more progress was made in some lines than in others.
-
-Italy, a country divided into numerous small States, and so-called
-Republics, offered great opportunities for individual development and
-became famous in those paths in which individualism has gained its
-greatest triumphs. Thus in literature, in law, in medicine, in painting
-and in sculpture, the Italians were preëminent. In architecture and in
-the drama they reached no such heights as were attained by the French,
-the Germans and the English. It was in the northwest part of Italy, in
-the province of Tuscany, that the Renaissance gained its greatest
-victories. Among the earliest of the leaders of the New Learning was the
-Florentine poet, Dante Alighieri (1265-1321). “To Dante”, says Symonds,
-“in a truer sense than to any other poet, belongs the double glory of
-immortalising in verse the centuries behind him, while he inaugurated
-the new age”. His _Vita Nuova_ (New Life) and _Divina Commedia_ (Divine
-Comedy) are essentially modern in thought, but ancient in the manner in
-which the thought is expressed.
-
-Petrarch may be said to fairly open the new era. Like Dante, he was a
-Florentine. He was the apostle of Humanism, that system of philosophy
-which regarded man “as a rational being apart from theological
-determinations” and perceived that “classic literature alone displayed
-human nature in the plenitude of intellectual and moral freedom”. To a
-revolt against the despotism of the Church, it added the attempt to
-unify all that had been taught and done by man. Petrarch was a poet, a
-lawyer, an orator, a priest, and a philosopher. He lived between the
-years 1304-1374. He was a great traveler, and visited the leading
-continental cities in order to converse with learned men. Petrarch
-delighted in the study of Cicero, in collecting manuscripts, and in
-accumulating coins and inscriptions for historic purposes. He advocated
-public libraries and preached the duty of preserving ancient monuments.
-He opposed the physicians and astrologers of his day, and ridiculed the
-followers of Averröes.
-
-Boccaccio, who has been called the Father of Italian Prose, and is most
-widely known as the author of the _Decameron_, did not spend all of his
-time in describing the escapades of the knights and ladies of old.
-Influenced potently by Petrarch, Boccaccio regretted the years he had
-wasted in law and trade, when he should have been reading the classics.
-Late in life he began the study of Greek that he might read the _Iliad_
-and the _Odyssey_. What he lacked in genuine scholarship he made up in
-industry. He continued the work begun by Petrarch of hunting for lost
-manuscripts of the ancient Greek and Roman authors. Many of these
-precious documents were stored in the conventual libraries, where, too
-often, they were either wantonly destroyed or were mutilated, the words
-of the author being erased from the parchment to make way for new
-prayers. Boccaccio tells of a visit which he made to the Benedictine
-Monastery of Monte Cassino near the city of Salernum. He wished to see
-the books and found them in a room without door or key. Many of them
-were mutilated. On making inquiry as to the cause, the monks answered
-that they had sold some of the sheets, having first erased the original
-words, replacing them with psalters. The margins of the old pages were
-made into charms and were sold to women.
-
-It was owing to the unselfish labors of such men as Petrarch and
-Boccaccio that the works of Livy, Cicero, Quintilian, Terence, and
-others of the ancient authors, were preserved. In this enterprise they
-were encouraged by the rulers. Thus Cosimo de’ Medici in Florence,
-Alfonso the Magnanimous in Naples, and Nicholas V. in Rome, to say
-nothing of the despots of the smaller cities, rivaled one another in
-their zeal in unearthing and multiplying the manuscripts of the ancient
-writers. They spared neither time nor money to increase their store of
-manuscript books. They surrounded themselves with learned men who lived
-in high esteem, and who were supported by salaries paid by the State or
-by private pensions.
-
-The fifteenth century, which was one of the most remarkable epochs in
-history, was rich in accomplishment. Almost all of the great events
-which have influenced European commercial and intellectual development
-can be traced to that period. The invention of printing, the discovery
-of America, the fall of the Roman Empire in the East, the birth of the
-Reformation, and the rise of art in Italy, all belong to this wonderful
-century. In this period, when almost every city in Italy was a new
-Athens, the Italian poets, historians, and artists vied with the eminent
-men of the ancient world in carrying the lamp of learning. The Italian
-cities—Florence, Bologna, Milan, Venice, Rome and Ferrara—fought with
-one another, not for the spoils of the battlefield but for the victories
-of science and of art; not so much for the profits of commerce as for
-the wealth of genius and of learning. The intellectual development which
-occurred in northern Italy under the rule of the house of Medici, and
-particularly under the auspices of Lorenzo the Magnificent, forms one of
-the most interesting periods in European history.
-
-It is impossible in the present work to trace the steps by which the
-exquisite taste of the ancients in works of art was revived in modern
-times. Nevertheless, a few words may be devoted to this subject. While
-much must be credited to those Greek artists who had left their country
-and had settled in the Italian peninsula, it must be conceded that many
-of the works of art of the native Italians were not the less
-meritorious. The same circumstances which favored the revival of
-letters, operated to further the cause of art; and the same individuals,
-who were interested in the preservation of the manuscripts of the older
-authors, also busied themselves with the collection of ancient statues,
-paintings, gems and tapestry. The freedom of the Italian Republics
-permitted the minds of men to expand to full fruition; and the
-encouragement which was given by its rulers to artists, sculptors and
-artisans, made the city of Florence, in the fifteenth century, a not
-less renowned centre of culture than Athens had been in ancient times.
-
-The revival of art dates from the time of Cimabue (1240-1300) and Giotto
-(1276-1336). The former is known as the Father of Modern Painters; the
-latter constructed the Campanile at Florence. To Giovanni Cimabue, scion
-of a noble Florentine family, is usually given the credit of being the
-restorer of art in Italy. He is thought to have been the first painter
-to throw expression into the human countenance. His work, if judged by
-present standards, would be called crude, rude and incomplete. Much of
-the fame of this painter is to be attributed to his being the first
-person whom Vasari chronicled in his _Lives of the Painters_. For more
-than a century after the time of Cimabue and Giotto, painters displayed
-only a smattering of anatomical knowledge.
-
-Early in the fifteenth century two Flemish artists, Hubert van Eyck
-(1365-1426) and his brother John (1385-1441), in their polyptych of the
-Adoration of the Lamb, boldly struck out along new lines and committed
-the unheard-of deed of painting nude figures. Italy, however, was the
-real birthplace of Art-Anatomy. While the Flemings and others of the
-North painted everything that they saw, including the nude, the Italians
-were the first men of the Renaissance who thought of painting the nude
-figure before draping it. Leo Battista Alberti (1404-1472), in his works
-on painting, insists that the bony skeleton must first be drawn and then
-clothed with its muscles and flesh. This was an important step in
-advance, since it shows that the Florentine artists were progressing
-towards realism and were breaking away from the symbolism of the early
-Christian painters and mosaic-workers. The new movement in art found a
-worthy champion in Antonio Pollaiuolo (1432-1498). In his knowledge of
-the anatomy of the human figure he surpassed all of the artists of his
-day; and as a result of his labors he may justly be named the founder of
-the scientific study of the nude. His knowledge of anatomy was so
-accurate, and so extensive, that it could have been gained only in the
-dissecting room.
-
-Under the patronage of Lorenzo de’ Medici and the guiding mind of
-Pollaiuolo, there occurred a revival of pseudo-paganism in Art. The old
-Church subjects were largely neglected; mythological subjects again
-became the fashion; draperies were either modified or were laid aside;
-and the scientific study of anatomy, both as regards the nude figure and
-the dissection of the individual parts, became the necessary training of
-the student. Of all the masters of this period, the palm for excellence
-in drawing the naked figure must be awarded to Luca Signorelli
-(1442-1524), from whose work Michael Angelo is known to have profited.
-
-The alliance between skilled anatomists and master artists was of
-reciprocal benefit. The anatomical studies which were made conjointly by
-Leonardo da Vinci and the celebrated teacher of anatomy, Marc Antonio
-della Torre, were lost to the world by the untimely death of the latter,
-before he had finished a magnificent treatise on human anatomy.
-Leonardo’s anatomical sketches, if they had been published during his
-lifetime, would have revolutionized anatomy both as regards discoveries
-in the body and the teaching of the structure of man. These masterpieces
-of anatomical illustration long remained hidden from the world; they
-were published only in the year 1902. Even now their cost is so great
-that only a few wealthy libraries can possess them. Leonardo’s long
-unpublished drawings show him to have been a most accurate anatomist. At
-the same time, he constantly kept in view the aim of fine art, which, in
-so far as practical anatomy is concerned, needs a knowledge of only the
-bones and the muscles.
-
-Nor was Leonardo the only artist who made dissections. Raffaello Santi,
-Michael Angelo, Bartholomaus Torre, Luigi Cardi or Civoli, Jan Stephan
-van Calcar, Giuseppe Ribera, Arnold Myntens, and Pietro da Cortona
-studied practical anatomy. Rubens’s long-lost sketch-book[1], which was
-published one hundred and thirty-three years after his death, shows with
-what care he had studied human anatomy. Albrecht Dürer’s _Treatise on
-the Proportions of the Human Body_ is also worthy of mention.
-
-In the number and fame of her Universities, Italy showed supremacy. At
-the end of the fifteenth century she could boast of sixteen seats of
-learning, a number equal to that of the combined institutions of
-Britain, France, Germany, Hungary, Bohemia and Bavaria.
-
-This digression has led us away from the Humanists. Their list is a long
-one. Among them were Poggio Bracciolini, who discovered the manuscript
-of the _Institutions_ of Quintilian and the writings of Vitruvius;
-Poliziano, the first poet of the fifteenth century, and the translator
-of the works of Hippocrates and Galen; Pontanus, whose _De Stellis_ and
-_Urania_ were much admired by Italian scholars; Sannazzaro, whose epic
-on the birth of Christ cost him twenty years of labor; Vida, whose
-_Christiad_ and other poems were much admired; and Fracastoro, whose
-_Syphilis_ was hailed as a divine poem.
-
-From the viewpoint of the medical historian an important event occurred
-in the year 1443, when Thomas of Sarzana, later known as Pope Nicholas
-V., discovered a manuscript copy of the _De Medicina_ of Aulus Cornelius
-Celsus. This classic, which had been lost for many centuries, was one of
-the first medical books to pass through the press. It gave physicians an
-insight into Hippocratic medicine without the disadvantage of an
-imperfect translation. Physicians took an active part in the
-Renaissance. Thus Nicholas Leonicenus, of Ferrara, translated the
-_Aphorisms_ of Hippocrates and the _Natural History_ of Pliny; and
-Winter of Andernach did similar labor for the writings of Galen,
-Alexander, and Paulus Aegineta. Their efforts seem insignificant in
-comparison with those of Anutius Foesius, a humble practitioner of Metz,
-who spent forty years of his life in preparing a complete Greek edition
-of the works of Hippocrates. The New Learning was brought to England by
-two physicians, Thomas Linacre and John Kaye (Caius).
-
-Some of the Humanists were printers. The history of printing in Italy
-naturally forms a part of the history of the Renaissance. In 1462,
-Maintz was pillaged by Adolph of Nassau and its printers were scattered
-over Europe. Two of them wandered into Italy, living in a village in the
-Sabine mountains, where, in October, 1465, the first book was printed
-from an Italian press. It was a Latin edition of Lactantius. Six years
-later a press was established in Florence. In 1478, Mondino’s
-_Anathomia_ was printed in Pavia. It has been estimated that before the
-first year of the sixteenth century, five thousand books had been
-printed in Italy. In those days the editions were small, 265 copies
-being considered one edition. An immense amount of labor was required to
-get out a new edition. First, the manuscripts of the ancient author had
-to be collected, compared and corrected, this work being done by learned
-men who resided in the home of the publisher. The corrections were made
-without the aid of dictionaries, grammars, or book-helps of any kind.
-The proof was read aloud to the assembled scholars and the final
-corrections were added. In time, Venice came to be the most noted of the
-Italian cities in the publishing business, owing chiefly to the family
-of Aldo. This family of printers became famous for finely printed Greek
-and Latin books, which are still called Aldine editions. Nine years
-after the printing of the first book in Italy, the art was practiced in
-England by Caxton.
-
-Humanism in Italy began to decline toward the close of the fifteenth
-century. Long before this time it had degenerated into Paganism. The
-scholars influenced all life, customs and thought. Although the nation
-remained Catholic, it was such only in name. Everyone bowed before the
-shrine of classical literature. Even in the christening of children the
-Christian name was sacrificed to paganism. The saints were forgotten,
-and the names most frequently chosen were those from heathen mythology.
-The polite authors described scenes, events and actions in their
-writings in terms which long since have been banished from good society.
-A spade was called by its true name. Bembo, the secretary of Leo X.,
-could write a hymn to Saint Stephen or a monologue for Priapus with
-equal ease and elegance. The amours of the high and the low were
-flaunted in print. The nation degenerated into an intellectual and
-sensual state which involved even the Popes. Scholars and rich men alike
-vied with one another in returning to those pursuits, habits, and
-methods of thought which had ruled ancient Rome in her most corrupt
-days.
-
-Such a condition could not exist forever. The turning-point came in
-1527, when Charles the Fifth, engaging in war with Pope Clement VII.,
-captured and sacked the city of Rome. After that event everything was
-changed. Not only had the scholars lost their influence, but many of
-them had lost their lives. Valeriano, who returned to Rome after the
-siege, pathetically exclaims: “Good God! when first I began to enquire
-for the philosophers, orators, poets and professors of Greek and Latin
-literature, whose names were written on my tablets, how great, how
-horrible a tragedy was offered to me! Of all those lettered men whom I
-had hoped to see, how many had perished miserably, carried off by the
-most cruel of all fates, overwhelmed by undeserved calamities; some dead
-of plague, some brought to a slow end by penury in exile, others
-slaughtered by a foeman’s sword, others worn out by daily tortures;
-some, again, and these of all the most unhappy, driven by anguish to
-self-murder”. Such was the end of the men who made the Italian
-Renaissance. The Spaniards, the Inquisition, and the changed policy of
-the Church prevented a second revival of Humanism.
-
-While the sack of Rome marks the end of the Humanists, the Revival in
-Medicine continued to grow in vigor and extent. Many of the greatest
-discoveries in anatomy were made, and most of the important books on
-this subject were written, in the middle and latter part of the
-sixteenth century. Italian history is rich in contradictions. While
-peace, ease and comfort are generally considered to be necessary to the
-development of science and culture, Italy offers the strange spectacle
-of the steady increase in medical knowledge in spite of wars and alarms.
-The Inquisition, which had been introduced from Spain in 1224, was given
-a new and horrible impetus when, in 1540, Paul III. appointed six
-cardinals to add to its tortures. One of them, Caraffa, became Pope Paul
-IV. in 1555, and four years later originated the _Index Expurgatorius_.
-Torn by civil and foreign wars, and terrorized by the Inquisition, which
-was not abolished until late in the eighteenth century, Italy gradually
-lost her commercial and intellectual supremacy. That she should have
-accomplished so much under such unfavorable circumstances, is now a
-matter of wonderment.
-
-The origin of the Renaissance in Italy was due to many causes. The early
-Roman civilization was not entirely blotted out by the invasion of the
-barbarians of the North. And in the matter of language the Italians
-possessed an advantage, since the transition from Latin to Italian was
-easier than from Latin to Spanish, French, English or German. The
-fertility of the country; the mildness of the climate; the division into
-semi-independent states; the infusion of new northern blood into the
-veins of the Italians; the removal of the papal court to Avignon in
-1309; and the gradual rise of a powerful middle class, whose members
-included the devotees of the professions of law and medicine, were
-factors which determined that Italy, rather than France or Spain, should
-be the field for the Revival of Letters.
-
-To Italy, then, belongs the glory of having been the first to free
-herself from the trammels of ancient scholasticism and the fetters of
-mediaeval theology. She abandoned the wordy dialectics and metaphysical
-gymnastics of the philosophers of old. In place of mortification,
-penance and solitary confinement in cloistered monasteries and convents,
-she began to have a proper conception of the dignity of man and his
-relation to nature.
-
-Italy, in the time of her freedom, received the torch of learning from
-Greece; Italy revived its brilliancy, and, when her time of adversity
-and ruin arrived, she passed it on to the nations of Northern Europe.
-They in turn have transferred it to America, to Australia, to India, and
-to the uttermost parts of the earth.
-
-
-The Anatomical Renaissance
-
-Italy in the sixteenth century was the fount from which issued a
-ceaseless stream of anatomical discoveries. The ancient and illustrious
-Universities of Bologna, Pavia, Padua, Pisa and Rome, eclipsed the
-schools of Paris and Montpellier, of Toulouse and Salamanca; and the
-Italian peninsula, which, in early mediaeval times, had gloried in the
-skill of the physicians of Salernum, a second time became the medical
-centre of Europe. Vesalius and his pupil, Fallopius, taught at Padua;
-the ancient fame of Bologna was supported by Arantius and Varolius;
-Vidius, returned from establishing the anatomical school at Paris,
-taught at Pisa; Eustachius was at Rome, Ingrassias lectured at Naples,
-and the fame of the New Anatomy spread throughout the world. The Italian
-cities were filled with students from foreign lands. Padua had more than
-one thousand new students every year, salaries were paid to her one
-hundred professors, and medicine was looked upon as a noble profession.
-
-While the Italians were the leaders in progress, the Germans were still
-lecturing on Galen and Avicenna, the English had done almost nothing,
-and the Collége de France was not established until 1530.
-
-Legalized by imperial authority and sanctioned by the Church, dissection
-was no longer regarded as a crime. A bull by Pope Boniface VIII., issued
-in the year 1300, forbidding the evisceration of the dead and the
-boiling of their bodies to secure the bones for consecrated ground, as
-was done by the Crusaders, was wrongly interpreted as forbidding
-anatomical dissection. Two centuries later the Popes, standing in the
-vanguard of science, permitted dissections to be made in all the Italian
-medical schools, and paved the way for the Anatomical Renaissance.
-
-Great things were done in the sixteenth century. Under the scalpel and
-pen of Vesalius, anatomy was revolutionized. Surgery was guided into new
-paths by Ambroise Paré; and obstetrics, thanks to the labors of
-Eucharius Rhodion and Jacques Guillemeau, began to assume its legitimate
-place among the medical sciences. Servetus, visionary and argumentative,
-correctly described the pulmonary circulation in a theological work
-which was burned with its author. Eustachius, Columbus and Fallopius
-widened the path which had been blazed by Vesalius. Arantius,
-Caesalpinus and Fabricius added materially to anatomical science. The
-labors of all these great masters prepared the way for the greatest
-event occurring in the seventeenth century, namely, William Harvey’s
-discovery of the circulatory movement of the blood.
-
- [Illustration: INITIAL LETTER BY VESALIUS
- (From the “Fabrica”, 1543)]
-
-
-
-
- CHAPTER FIRST
- Anatomy in Ancient Times
-
-
- [Illustration: Illuminated capital]
-
-Egypt and Greece were the sources of the medical learning of the ancient
-world. Although the Egyptians and early Greeks possessed a certain
-amount of anatomical knowledge, which was gained in the one instance by
-the practice of embalming and in the other by an examination of the
-bones, no real progress could be made because of the laws, customs and
-prejudices of those ancient peoples. Thus we find the Egyptians stoning
-the operator who opened the abdomen in order that the body might be
-embalmed; and the Greeks inflicted the death penalty on those of their
-generals who, after a battle, neglected to bury or burn the remains of
-the slain.
-
- [Illustration: HIPPOCRATES]
-
-In the time of Hippocrates, whose life extended approximately over the
-period between 460-377 B.C., Greek medicine emerged from the domination
-of the Asclepiadae, or priests of Aesculapius, who had followed it as an
-hereditary and secret art. Prior to this time in the numerous Asclepia,
-or Temples of Aesculapius, votive offerings had been accepted, some of
-which were of anatomical interest. Thus the Temple at Athens received a
-silver heart and gold eyes. Pausanias states that Hippocrates gave to
-the Temple of Apollo, at Delphos, a skeleton which was made of brass.
-Possibly, as Moehsen[2] believes, this was a metallic figure
-representing a man who was much emaciated by the ravages of disease. In
-the Hippocratic writings, some of which are undoubtedly spurious, are
-few references to the opening of a dead body; and these examinations
-concern the investigation of the thorax and abdomen in order to
-determine the cause of death. While the Greek physicians knew little of
-the human muscles, of the nervous system and of the organs of sense,
-they were well acquainted with the anatomy of the bones. Their
-dissections were held upon the lower animals.
-
-It is impossible to determine whether or not the Greek physicians of the
-Hippocratic period dissected the human body. “It has long been a matter
-of debate”, says John Bell[3], “whether the ancients were, or were not,
-acquainted with anatomy, and the subject, with its various bearings, has
-been much and keenly agitated by the learned. If anatomy had been much
-known to the ancients, their knowledge would not have remained a subject
-of speculation. We should have had evidence of it in their works; but,
-on the contrary, we find Hippocrates spending his time in idle
-prognostics, and dissecting apes, to discover the seat of the bile.”
-
-Galen[4] states that the ancient physicians did not write works on
-anatomy; that such treatises were at that time unnecessary, because the
-Asclepiadae—to which family Hippocrates belonged—secretly instructed
-their young men in this subject; and that opportunities were given for
-such study in the temples of Aesculapius.
-
- [Illustration: ARISTOTLE]
-
-The first systematic dissections seem to have been made by the
-Pythagorean philosopher Alcmaeon, who lived in the sixth century B. C.,
-but it is uncertain whether he dissected brutes or men. The cochlea of
-the ear and the amnios of the foetus were named by Empedocles of
-Agrigentum, in the fifth century B. C. The nerves were first
-distinguished from the tendons by Aristotle, (384-322 B. C.), the most
-celebrated zoötomist of antiquity, who has been called the Father of
-Comparative Anatomy. For twenty centuries his views of natural phenomena
-were held in high esteem.
-
-For a long period the early inhabitants of Rome were practically without
-physicians. During severe epidemics they had recourse to oracles, to the
-health deities of the Greeks, and to their native gods. As early as the
-fifth century B. C., during a pestilence, a temple was erected to Apollo
-as Healer. The worship of Aesculapius was introduced into Rome in the
-year 291 B. C. Livy relates that the god of medicine in the guise of a
-serpent was transported from Epidaurus, in Greece, to the Isle of the
-Tiber where a temple was built in his honor.
-
-The Romans, like the Greeks, were accustomed to leave votive offerings,
-or donaria, in their temples. Such gifts included surgical instruments,
-pharmaceutical appliances, painted tablets representing miraculous
-cures, and great numbers of images of various parts of the human frame
-shaped in metal, stone or terra-cotta. Among the remains of Roman
-anatomical art is the marble figure which was unearthed in the villa of
-Antonius Musa, the favorite physician of the Emperor Augustus. It is a
-human torso; the front of the chest and abdomen has been removed so as
-to expose the viscera. The heart is placed vertically in the middle of
-the thorax, thus corresponding to the position of this organ as
-described by Galen who made his dissections on apes. It is a human
-thorax with simian contents. The figure is supposed to have been
-constructed for the purposes of a teacher of anatomy.
-
- [Illustration: ALEXANDER THE GREAT]
-
-It was in the famous Alexandrian University that human anatomy was first
-studied systematically and legally.
-
-Alexander the Great, after the fall of Tyre (332 B. C.) and the siege of
-Gaza, ordered his fleet to sail up the Nile as far as Memphis while he
-proceeded overland with the army. It was probably on this march, while
-viewing the pyramids and other marvelous works of the ancient Egyptians,
-that he conceived the grand idea of founding a city upon the banks of
-the Nile, which should be a model of architectural beauty, a centre of
-intellectual life and a lasting monument of his own greatness and
-magnificence. The foundation of Alexandria was laid by the warrior whose
-name it bears; but the credit of instituting the Library belongs to one
-of his lieutenants, Ptolemy Soter.
-
- [Illustration: PTOLEMY SOTER]
-
-The new city which for centuries was the intellectual and commercial
-storehouse of Europe, Africa and India, was of oblong form. Lake
-Mareotis washed its walls on the south, while the Mediterranean bathed
-its ramparts on the north. Provided with broad streets, it was adorned
-with magnificent houses, temples and public buildings. At the centre of
-the city was the Mausoleum in which was deposited the body of Alexander,
-embalmed after the manner of the Egyptians. Alexandria was divided into
-three parts: the _Regio Judaeorum_ or Jews’ quarter, in the northwest;
-the _Rhacotis_, or Egyptian section, on the west, containing the
-Serapeum with a large part of the Library; and on the north, the
-_Bruchaeum_, or Greek portion, containing the greater part of the
-Library, the Museum, the Temple of the Caesars and the Court of Justice.
-The population was cosmopolitan in character; the statues of the Greek
-gods stood by the side of those of Osiris and of Isis; the Jews forgot
-their language and spoke Greek; and under the Ptolemies, who were of
-Greek descent, Alexandria became a centre of intellectual life and
-culture.
-
-To the medical historian the most interesting feature of Alexandria was
-the Museum or University. Here were assembled the intellectual giants of
-the earth: Archimedes and Hero, the philosophers; Apelles, the painter;
-Hipparchus and Ptolemy, the astronomers; Euclid, the geometer;
-Eratosthenes and Strabo, the geographers; Manetho, the historian;
-Aristophanes, the rhetorician; Theocritus and Callimichus, the poets;
-and Erasistratus and Herophilus, the anatomists, all of whom labored in
-quiet upon the peaceful banks of the Nile. The early Christian church
-drew from “the divine school at Alexandria” such eminent teachers as
-Origen and Athanasius. Here were a chemical laboratory, a botanical and
-zoölogical garden, an astronomical observatory, a great library, and a
-room for the dissection of the dead.
-
-In the Alexandrian school of medicine Erasistratus and Herophilus taught
-the science of organization from actual dissections. The generosity of
-the Ptolemies not only furnished them with an abundance of dead
-material, but condemned malefactors were used for human vivisection.
-Celsus[5] states that the Alexandrian anatomists obtained criminals,
-“for dissection alive, and contemplated, even while they breathed, those
-parts which nature had before concealed.”
-
-Herophilus made many anatomical discoveries. He traced the delicate
-arachnoid membrane into the ventricles of the brain, which he held to be
-the seat of the soul; and first described that junction of the six
-cerebral sinuses opposite the occipital protuberance, which to this day
-is called the _torcular Herophili_. He saw the lacteals, but knew not
-their use, and regarded the nerves as organs of sensation arising from
-the brain; he described the different tunics of the eye, giving them
-names which are still retained; and first named the duodenum and
-discovered the epididymis. He attributed the pulsation of arteries to
-the action of the heart; the paralysis of muscles to an affection of the
-nerves; and first named the furrow in the fourth cerebral ventricle,
-calling it _calamus scriptorius_.
-
-Erasistratus gave names to the auricles of the heart; declared that the
-veins were blood-vessels; and the arteries, from being found empty after
-death, were air-vessels. He believed that the purpose of respiration was
-to fill the arteries with air; the air distended the arteries, made them
-beat, and in this manner the pulse was produced. When once the air
-gained entrance to the left ventricle, it became the vital spirits. The
-function of the veins was to carry blood to the extremities. He is said
-to have had a vague idea of the division of nerves into nerves of
-sensation and of motion; to the former he assigned an origin in the
-membranes of the brain, while the latter proceeded from the cerebral
-substance itself. He recognized the use of the trachea as the tube which
-conveys air to the lungs. A catheter, the first invented, which was
-figured in ancient surgical works, bore the name of the catheter of
-Erasistratus. He gravely tells us, as the result of his anatomical
-studies, that the soul is located in the membranes of the brain.
-
-The practice of human dissection did not long exist in the city of its
-origin, and after the second century was unknown. Then science underwent
-a retrogression; observations and experiments were replaced by useless
-discussions and subtle theories. The decline of the Alexandrian
-University was due to a series of disasters which began with the Roman
-domination and reached their climax with the capture of the city by the
-Arabs.
-
- [Illustration: GALEN]
-
-Claudius Galenus, the celebrated Roman physician whose writings were for
-centuries accepted as authority and whose reputation was second only to
-that of Hippocrates, was obliged to base his anatomical treatises
-largely upon the dissection of the lower animals. He advised his pupils
-to visit Alexandria, where he had studied, in order that they might
-examine the human skeleton. He complained that the physicians of his
-time—in the reign of Marcus Aurelius—had entirely neglected anatomical
-knowledge and had degenerated into mere sophists. He appreciated the
-importance of anatomy, particularly to a surgeon who is called upon to
-treat wounds and injuries. Hence he has endeavored in the four books,
-_De Anatomicis Administrationibus_, to cover this part of anatomy as
-exhaustively as possible.
-
-Galen’s voluminous writings form a precious monument of ancient
-medicine. The works of the Alexandrian anatomists having been destroyed,
-we know of their labors chiefly from what Galen has said of them. His
-treatises show a remarkable familiarity with practical anatomy, although
-his dissections were made upon the lower animals. Galen’s knowledge of
-osteology was extensive. He described the bones of the skull, the
-cranial sutures, and the essential features of the malar, maxillary,
-ethmoid and sphenoid bones. He divided the vertebrae into cervical,
-dorsal and lumbar classes. He knew that both arteries and veins were
-blood-carrying vessels; he described the valves of the heart, and
-recognized this organ as the source of pulsation. He erroneously taught
-that the interventricular septum presents foramina through which the two
-kinds of blood become mixed.
-
-In myology Galen made numerous advances. “Previous to his
-investigations”, says Fisher[6] “much confusion existed as to what
-constituted a single muscle; he adopted the general rule of considering
-each bundle of fibers that terminates in an independent tendon to be one
-muscle. He was the first to describe and give names to the platysma
-myoides, the sterno- and thyro-hyoides, and the popliteal. He described
-the six muscles of the eye, two muscles of the eyelids, and four pairs
-of muscles of the lower jaw—the temporal to raise, the masseter to draw
-to one side, and two depressors, corresponding to the digastric and
-internal pterygoid muscles. He described also the brachialis anticus,
-the biceps flexor cubiti, the sphincter and levator ani, and the
-straight and oblique muscles of the abdomen. In short, he described the
-greater portion of the muscles of the body, his treatise differing
-chiefly from a modern one in the minute account of these organs and in
-the omission of some of the smaller muscles.” Galen studied the brain
-and named the corpus callosum, the septum lucidum, the corpora
-quadrigemina and the fornix; but erroneously stated that the nerves of
-sensation arise from the brain, and those of motion from the spinal
-cord. He denied the decussation of the optic nerves. He described the
-pneumogastric and sympathetic nerves; seven pairs of cerebral and thirty
-pairs of spinal nerves; and claimed the discovery of the ganglia of the
-nervous system. He located the seat of the soul in the brain, which also
-is the source of the rational mind; the heart to him was the source of
-courage and of anger, and the liver was the seat of desire. Many of
-Galen’s anatomical statements show that he derived his knowledge from
-comparative dissections.
-
-The Galenic era was followed by that long period of ignorance, of
-slumber and of inaction which is justly known as the Dark Ages. While a
-few Greek and Arab writers, who came after Galen, contributed to the
-literature of medicine and surgery, they did nothing for anatomy. After
-the end of the fifth century even the works of Galen were forgotten. At
-this period, when medicine was chiefly in the hands of the Jews, the
-Arabs and the bigoted clergy, nothing was done for science or for art.
-The whole influence of Christianity was exerted against the schools of
-philosophy. Illustrious apostles of the Church pronounced anathemas
-against the reading of the ancient classics;[7] and eminent
-ecclesiastics regarded disease as a divine penalty or as an invaluable
-aid to saintly advancement. Art and anatomy were practically forgotten.
-Their Renaissance occurred almost simultaneously.
-
-During the period from the seventh to the fourteenth centuries the
-school of Salernum was for medicine what Bologna became for law and
-Paris for philosophy. Here, for eight hundred years, medicine was taught
-to thousands of students and the impress of the profession was so potent
-that the city called itself _Civitas Hippocratica_, and thus its seals
-were stamped. Here medical diplomas were first issued to waiting
-students who took a sacred oath to serve the poor without pay. Here with
-a book in his hand, a ring on his finger and a laurel wreath on his
-head, the candidate was kissed by each professor and was told to start
-upon his way. Here women were professors and vied with men in spreading
-the doctrines of our art.
-
-For a period of several hundred years anatomy was taught at Salernum
-from dissections made upon pigs. Copho, one of the Salernian professors
-of the early part of the twelfth century, wrote a treatise, _Anatomia
-Porci_, which gives minute directions regarding the manner in which the
-animal is to be dissected. Another anatomical work of later date,
-written by a member of the Salernian faculty, is entitled _Demonstratio
-Anatomica_; it also deals only with comparative anatomy. In the
-thirteenth century (A. D. 1231) Frederick II., Emperor of Germany and
-King of the Two Sicilies, and the author of a treatise which contained a
-complete anatomy of the falcon, decreed that a human body should be
-anatomized at Salernum at least once in five years. Physicians and
-surgeons of the kingdom were required to be present at the dissection.
-So far as is known, no record has been kept of these demonstrations.
-Creditable as was this anatomic decree, the great Hohenstaufen in other
-respects was not free from the errors of his age. A firm believer in
-_Medicina Astrologica_, he did not decide upon any undertaking until the
-stars had been consulted.
-
-It was not alone at Salernum that dissection was legalized in the
-thirteenth century. A document of the year 1308, of the Maggiore
-Consiglio of Venice, shows that a medical college located in that city
-was authorized to dissect a body once a year. This, and other isolated
-examples, indicate that the time was approaching when anatomy should be
-taught from human dissections. The credit of reinaugurating the teaching
-of this useful department of science belongs to Mondino dei Luzzi of
-Bologna.
-
- [Illustration: Ornamental block]
-
-
-
-
- CHAPTER SECOND
- Mondino, the Restorer of Anatomy
-
-
- [Illustration: Illuminated capital]
-
-In the year 1315, in the old Italian city of Bologna, an event occurred
-which marks an important epoch in the history of medicine. A wondering
-crowd of medical students witnessed the dissection of a human
-cadaver—one of the few procedures of the kind that had occurred since
-the fall of the Alexandrian University. Acting under royal authority
-Mondino, a man far in advance of the age, placed the body of a female
-upon a table where for many centuries before only the cadavera of apes,
-of swine and of dogs had been studied.
-
-Mondino, known also as Mundinus, Mundini, Raimondino, or Mondino dei
-Luzzi, was descended from a prominent Italian family. Little is known of
-his life. The year of his birth is disputed; probably 1276 was near the
-time. He was graduated in medicine in 1290 and in 1306 he became a
-professor in the University of Bologna, holding his chair with credit
-until his death in 1326. Like that of the illustrious Homer, Mondino’s
-nativity has been claimed by several rival cities. Guy de Chauliac,
-writing in 1363, states that Mondino was a Bolognese: _Mundinus
-Bononiensis_ is Chauliac’s expression.
-
-Mondino’s method of teaching anatomy is known from Chauliac’s
-testimony:—“Mundinus of Bologna, wrote on anatomy, and my master,
-Bertruccius, demonstrated it many times in this manner:—The body having
-been placed on a table, he would make from it four readings; in the
-first the digestive organs were treated, because more prone to rapid
-decomposition; in the second, the organs of respiration; in the third,
-the organs of circulation; in the fourth the extremities were treated.”
-The innovation so auspiciously begun was not continued, and after the
-death of Mondino human dissections were made only at long intervals. The
-few instances in which, in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, the
-ecclesiastical and civil authorities granted the right to make
-dissections only prove the contention, that the practical study of human
-anatomy did not gain recognition until the sixteenth century.
-
-When Mondino began his dissections the epoch of Saracen learning had
-ended, but the influence of Arab medicine exerted by the writings of
-Albucasis, Avicenna and Rhazes had not declined. The Arabian physicians
-had accomplished little for anatomy. In this line the influence of Galen
-was still potent, and was rarely questioned until the publication of the
-_Fabrica_ of Vesalius in 1543. During a long period the little treatise
-of Mondino held full sway in the mediaeval schools. Medicine was taught
-in the University of Bologna, which as early as the twelfth century was
-celebrated for its departments of literature and of law. These studies
-were free of the difficulties which beset medicine. The prejudice
-against dissection was so great that for nearly a century after his
-death few men dared to repeat the acts of Mondino.
-
-In 1316 Mondino issued his book which remained in manuscript form for
-more than one hundred and fifty years, the first printed edition bearing
-the date 1478. Small and imperfect as it was, it marks an era in the
-history of science. By command of the authorities this book was read in
-all the Italian Universities. The work of Mondino contained no new
-facts; it was compiled largely from the writings of Galen and of
-Avicenna. The descriptions, to use the words of Turner, “are corrupted
-by the barbarous leaven of the Arabian schools, and his Latin is defaced
-by the exotic nomenclature of Ibn-Sina and Al-Rasi”. Mondino divided the
-body into three cavities, of which the upper contains the animal
-members, the lower the natural members, and the middle the spiritual
-members. Many of his names are borrowed from the Arab writers. Thus, he
-calls the peritoneum _siphac_, the omentum _zyrbi_, and the mesentery
-_eucharus_. His description of the heart is much nearer accuracy than
-would be expected. He resorted to vivisection, and tells us that when
-the recurrent nerves of the larynx are cut the animal’s voice is lost.
-In his book we find the rudiments of phrenology. He states that the
-brain is divided into compartments, each of which holds one of the
-faculties of the intellect.
-
- [Illustration: MONDINO’S DIAGRAM OF THE HEART, 1513]
-
-Mondino did not himself make the dissections which are credited to him.
-According to an ancient custom which lasted until the time of Vesalius,
-the actual cutting was done by a barber who wielded a knife as large as
-a cleaver. The professor of anatomy sat upon an elevated seat and
-discoursed concerning the parts, while a demonstrator, who also did not
-soil his fingers, pointed to the different structures with a staff.
-Originally Mondino’s book contained no figures; when the art of wood
-engraving was introduced in the latter part of the fifteenth century, a
-few rude woodcuts appeared which represent Mondino and his method of
-teaching. In the _Fasciculus Medicinae_ of Joannes de Ketham, published
-at Venice in 1493, Mondino’s book is printed with an illustration
-showing a demonstration in anatomy.
-
-According to Mondino the heart is placed in the centre of the body. The
-valves he considers “wonderful works of nature”. He describes a right,
-left and middle ventricle. The right ventricle has thinner walls than
-the left, because it contains blood; the left one contains the vital
-spirit, which passes through the arteries to the body; and the middle
-ventricle consists of many small cavities “broader on the right side
-than on the left, to the end that the blood, which comes to the left
-ventricle from the right, be refined, because its refinement is the
-preparation for the generation of vital spirit, which should be
-continually formed”. Mondino describes five bones of the head, separated
-by three sutures—coronal, sagittal and occipital. The brain has two
-membranes: dura and pia. There are three cerebral ventricles—anterior,
-posterior and middle—and in these he locates the various intellectual
-qualities. He describes the cerebral nerves: olfactory, optic, motor
-oculi, facial, vagus, trigeminal, auditory and hypoglossal. He calls the
-innominate bone _os femoris_: the femur, _canna coxae_; the humerus, _os
-adjutori_; while the bones of both leg and forearm are named _focilia_
-major and minus.
-
- [Illustration: ANATOMICAL DEMONSTRATION IN 1493
- (Joannes de Ketham)]
-
- [Illustration: TITLE-PAGE OF MONDINO’S ANATOMY BY MELERSTAT
- (Printed before 1500)]
-
-Like many anatomists who succeeded him, Mondino mingled surgical ideas
-with his anatomical statements. A break in the _siphac_ causes hernia
-and a swelling in the _mirach_. He treated ascites by puncture and
-evacuation, making a valve-like opening. Wounds of the large intestines
-must be sutured; if the wound be in the small intestines he advises that
-“you should have large ants, and, making them bite the conjoined lips of
-the wound, decapitate them instantly, and continue until the lips remain
-in apposition and then reduce the gut as before”. He gives an
-explanation of the length and convolution of the intestines; “for if it
-were not convoluted the animals would have to be continuously ingesting
-food and continuously defecating, which would impede engagement in the
-higher occupations”. Digestion is aided by black bile from the spleen
-and by red bile from the liver. The kidneys he regards as glands in
-which urine is extracted from the blood. The renal veins expand and form
-a fine membrane like a sieve through which the urine is filtered but
-blood cannot pass. He mentions renal calculi: if small they pass through
-the ureter; if large they are incurable except by incision, and this is
-to be avoided. The uterus and breasts are connected by veins, hence the
-sympathy between these organs. Inguinal hernia is to be operated upon;
-the spermatic cord and testicle may or may not be dissected out, or the
-hernia may be treated by the application of a caustic. An incision in
-the neck of the bladder will heal, because this part is muscular; but a
-cut in the body of the organ will not heal. He describes the operation
-for stone:—The patient being in proper position, the stone is conducted
-to the neck of the bladder by the finger in the rectum; an incision is
-made and the stone is pulled out with an instrument called
-_trajectorium_.
-
-Mondino’s book passed through not less than twenty-three editions
-between the years 1478-1580. The only manuscript extant is in the
-National Library at Paris.
-
-The first printed edition of the _Anathomia Mundini_, Pavia, 1478, is a
-folio of twenty-two leaves. The Strassburg edition, 1513, is a small
-octavo volume of forty leaves. It contains a diagram of the heart and an
-astrological figure, a cadaver with the thorax and abdomen opened,
-surrounded by the signs of the zodiac. Such was the volume which for
-more than two hundred years was supposed to contain all that was to be
-said of human anatomy!
-
- [Illustration: COLOPHON OF THE ANATOMY OF MONDINO, 1513]
-
-So numerous are the abbreviations in Mondino’s book, so barbarous is his
-style, that the making of a translation is a difficult task. His reasons
-for writing are these:—“A work upon any science or art—as saith Galen—is
-issued for three reasons; _First_, that one may help his friends.
-_Second_, that he may exercise his best mental powers. _Third_, that he
-may be saved from the oblivion incident to old age”.
-
-
-
-
- CHAPTER THIRD
- Mondino’s Successors
-
-
- [Illustration: Illuminated capital]
-
-For two hundred years anatomists used Mondino’s book as a text for their
-lectures and for the same period anatomical writers did little more than
-comment upon this treatise. The new art of wood engraving was turned to
-anatomical use and crude illustrations of the various parts of the body
-were put into circulation. Some of these pictures were in the form of
-_Fliegende Blätter_, or flying leaves. A set of anatomical plates of
-this type was issued by a certain Ricardus Hela, a physician of Paris,
-as early as the year 1493. They were printed at Nuremberg. Their
-character may be judged by the accompanying illustration of the osseous
-system.
-
-
-Gabriel de Zerbi
-
-One of Mondino’s commentators was Gabriel de Zerbi (1468-1505), of
-Verona, who taught medicine, logic and philosophy in the Universities of
-Padua, Bologna and Rome. His book, _Anatomia Corporis Humani_, appeared
-at Venice in 1502. Zerbi imitated Mondino in style, abbreviations and
-language. The work, however, contains some original observations
-regarding the Fallopian tubes, the puncta lachrymalia and the lachrymal
-gland. From the fact that Zerbi describes two lachrymal glands in each
-orbit, it is known that many of his dissections were made upon brutes.
-
- [Illustration: ANATOMICAL PLATE BY RICARDUS HELA, 1493]
-
-Zerbi’s reputation, which extended to all parts of Europe, was the cause
-of his death. The Venetians received from Constantinople the request for
-a skillful physician who should treat one of the principal Seigniors of
-Turkey. The Republic turned its eyes to Zerbi who went to
-Constantinople, apparently cured the Seignior, and, loaded with
-presents, started on the return voyage for Venice, Unfortunately the
-patient suddenly died after a debauch. The infuriated Turks overtook the
-ship on which Zerbi and his son were passengers and carried them back to
-Constantinople, where both the anatomist and his son were quartered
-alive.
-
- [Illustration: PEYLIGK’S DIAGRAM OF THE HEART, 1499]
-
-
-John Peyligk
-
-Among the German anatomists of this period was John Peyligk, a Leipsic
-jurist, whose _Philosophiae Naturalis Compendium_, printed at Leipsic in
-1499, contains crude anatomical illustrations.
-
-
-Magnus Hundt
-
-Far more important was the _Antropologium_ of Magnus Hundt (1449-1519),
-of Magdeburg, which appeared at Leipsic in 1501. It contains four large
-and several small woodcuts which are among the earliest of anatomical
-illustrations. One of these shows the trachea on the right side of the
-neck, passing downward to the lungs; on the left side the oesophagus is
-represented. In the thorax are seen the lungs and the heart, the latter
-resembling the figure of this organ as presented on old playing cards.
-The pericardium has been opened, and the stomach and intestines are
-crudely figured. The diaphragm is absent.
-
- [Illustration: ANATOMICAL FIGURE FROM MAGNUS HUNDT, 1501]
-
-
-Laurentius Phryesen
-
-Early in the sixteenth century a Holland physician, Laurentius Phryesen
-(_Phries_, _Friesen_), residing in the German city of Colmar and later
-at Metz, wrote a popular book on medicine, _Spiegel der Artzny_, which
-was published at Strassburg in 1518. It contains two anatomical
-illustrations cut in wood, dated 1517, and supposedly made after the
-drawings of Waechtlin, a pupil of the Elder Holbein. These pictures tell
-their own story; they show a marked improvement over the figures which
-Hundt published in 1501. The other anatomical plate in Phryesen’s book
-is devoted to the skeleton.
-
- [Illustration: ANATOMICAL FIGURE FROM LAURENTIUS PHRYESEN, 1518]
-
-
-Alexander Achillinus
-
-The Italian physician Alexander Achillinus (1463-1525), professor of
-philosophy and medicine in Bologna, is deserving of mention for his
-anatomical knowledge. Zealously devoted to the Arab medical authors,
-Achillinus made numerous discoveries which are set forth in his general
-anatomy, _De Humani Corporis Anatomica_, Venice, 1516; and in a
-commentary upon Mondino’s book, _In Mundini Anatomiam Annotationes_,
-Venice, 1522. He discovered the duct of the sublingual gland, usually
-credited to Wharton; two of the auditory ossicles, the malleus and
-incus; the labyrinth; the vermiform appendix; the caecum and ileo-caecal
-valve; and the patheticus nerve. Portal credits him with a better
-knowledge of the bones and of the brain than was possessed by his
-predecessors.
-
- [Illustration: ALEXANDER ACHILLINUS]
-
-
-Berengario da Carpi
-
- [Illustration: DISSECTION BY BERENGARIO, 1535]
-
-Giacomo Berengario, Jacobus Berengarius Carpensis, also known as Carpus,
-was born in the small town of Carpi, in the Duchy of Modena, in the year
-1470. His father, who was a surgeon, directed his studies, and for a
-time he was placed under the instruction of the learned Aldus Manutius.
-Graduating in medicine from the University of Bologna, Berengario became
-noted for his skill in surgery and anatomy. He taught these branches in
-Pavia, and was a member of the Bologna faculty from 1502 to 1527. Then
-he practiced for a time in Rome, where he amassed a fortune by the
-treatment of the victims of syphilis. The last twenty years of his life
-were spent in Ferrara, where he died in 1550. Berengario was one of the
-restorers of anatomy. His first dissection is said to have been made in
-the house of Albert Pion, Seigneur de Carpi. This demonstration was
-given publicly upon the body of a pig. Soon the anatomist turned his
-attention to human subjects, of which it is said that more than a
-hundred passed beneath his scalpel.
-
-Berengario’s later years are said by Brambilla to have been made
-miserable by the machinations of the agents of the Inquisition, who
-objected to some of his opinions regarding the organs of generation. He
-was unjustly accused of dissecting living men—an accusation which arose
-from his statement that the surgeon should observe the anatomy of the
-living body whenever it was opened by wounds or accidents.
-
- [Illustration: SKELETON BY BERENGARIO, 1523]
-
-Berengario determined to improve Mondino’s book by making corrections in
-the text, and by adding suitable illustrations. No illustrations were to
-be found in the early editions of Mondino, and those which were added by
-later editors of the work were untrue to nature. To Berengario must be
-given the credit of furnishing some of the first anatomical
-illustrations that were published, and that were made from actual human
-dissections. These appeared in his “Commentaries of Carpus upon the
-Anatomy of Mundinus”, (_Carpi Commentaria super_ _Anatomia Mundini_),
-which was published at Bologna in 1521. The volume contains twenty-one
-plates which were cut in wood. They have been credited to the celebrated
-artist, Hugo da Carpi. While the drawing is somewhat coarse, the
-illustrations are true to nature and show a distinct advance over
-preceding pictures of this class. Berengario states that his plates will
-be of value not only to physicians and surgeons but also to artists (_et
-istae figurae etiam juvant pictores in lineandis membris_). Some of his
-figures are schematic; for example, those showing the abdominal muscles.
-So much better are his illustrations than those of his predecessors that
-it may fairly be claimed that Berengario was the first author to produce
-an illustrated anatomy.
-
- [Illustration: MUSCLES BY BERENGARIO, 1521]
-
-Berengario also wrote a “Short Introduction to the Anatomy of the Human
-Body”, _Isagogae Breves in Anatomiam Humani Corporis_; and a work on
-Fracture of the Skull.
-
-He was the first anatomist who described the basilar part of the
-occipital bone, the sphenoidal sinus and the tympanic membrane.
-Meryon[8] credits him with the “first correct description of the great
-omentum (gastrocolic) and transverse mesocolon; of the caecal appendix
-vermiformis, of the valvulae conniventes of the intestines; of the
-relative proportions of the thorax and pelvis in man and woman; of the
-flexor-brevis-pollicis; of the vesiculae seminales; of the separate
-cartilages of the larynx; of the membranous pellicle in front of the
-retina (attributed to Albinus); of the tricuspid valve, between the
-right auricle and ventricle of the heart; of the semilunar valves at the
-commencement of the pulmonary artery; of the inosculation between the
-epigastric and mammary arteries, and an imperfect account of the cochlea
-of the ear”. He was the first of the mediaeval anatomists to deviate
-from the Galenic teaching in regard to the structure of the heart. He
-diplomatically states that in the human subject the foramina in the
-cardiac septum are seen only with great difficulty (_sed in homine cum
-maxima difficultate videnter_).
-
- [Illustration: MUSCLES BY BERENGARIO, 1521]
-
-
-John Dryander
-
-John Dryander, a German physician, whose true name was Eichmann, called
-himself Dryander in accordance with the custom of adopting names derived
-from the Latin or Greek languages. He was born about the year 1500 in
-the Wetterau in Hesse. After obtaining proficiency in mathematics and
-astronomy, he went to Paris where he studied medicine for several years.
-Returning to Germany, he engaged in the study of practical anatomy and
-became a professor in Marburg, in which city he died in the year 1560.
-He is said to have conducted the first dissections that were made in
-Marburg, where he taught anatomy for twenty-four years, or from 1536 to
-1560.
-
- [Illustration: DRYANDER]
-
-Dryander, although he was a partisan of Mondino and da Carpi, and was a
-fierce and sometimes an unfair opponent of Vesalius, deserves to be
-regarded as one of the restorers of anatomy. He made several
-observations upon the distinction between the cortical and the medullary
-portions of the brain; and was one of the earliest practical anatomists
-of the sixteenth century to furnish anatomical illustrations. He made
-important astronomical observations and was the inventor of several
-useful instruments. He was the author of three medical works of which
-two were upon anatomy. His _Anatomia Mundini_, which was published at
-Marburg in 1541, contains forty-six plates, many of which have been
-copied from Berengario’s work.
-
- [Illustration: ANATOMICAL FIGURE BY ESTIENNE, 1545]
-
-
-Charles Estienne
-
- [Illustration: SKELETON BY ESTIENNE, 1545
- (Reduced one-half)]
-
-Charles Estienne, better known by the name of _Carolus Stephanus_, was a
-French anatomist whose work is worthy of remembrance. Born in the early
-part of the sixteenth century, he was given an excellent education. He
-belonged to a noted Huguenot family of scholars and printers who have
-made the Estienne name famous. Robert Estienne, the brother of Charles,
-became the victim of religious persecution; he was obliged to flee to
-save his life, and for a time the publishing business was conducted by
-Charles Estienne. The latter also suffered for his faith; he was thrown
-into a dungeon, where he died in the year 1564. Charles Estienne wrote
-numerous books on literature, history, forestry and botany. His
-anatomical treatise, _De Dissectione Partium Corporis Humani_, appeared
-at Paris in 1545 with sixty-two full page plates which combine
-anatomical clearness, beauty of form, and artistic representation. A
-French translation of Estienne’s Anatomy was published in 1546. This
-work was printed as far as the middle of the third book as early as the
-year 1539: some of the plates are dated as early as 1530. The
-illustrations have been excellently cut in wood; many of them show the
-entire body, with much ornamentation, so that the proper anatomical part
-seems small and irrelevant. Some of the plates show the subject in
-picturesque and even loathsome attitudes. The text of this work is
-especially valuable for the history of anatomical discovery. Although he
-was an ardent Galenist, Estienne made numerous original observations in
-anatomy. He described the synovial glands, a discovery which has been
-credited to Clopton Havers. Estienne was the first anatomist to discover
-the canal in the spinal cord; he described the capsule of the liver, a
-tissue which bears Glisson’s name; and differentiated the eight pair
-from the sympathetic nerves. He was the first anatomist to see and
-describe the valves in the veins, which he called _apophyses venarum_—
-discovery which has been claimed for Jacobus Sylvius, Cannanus, Amatus
-and Fabricius.
-
-The question of priority in the discovery of the valves of the veins
-gave rise to much controversy. It is reasonable to assume that these
-structures were noticed independently by all of the anatomists whose
-names are mentioned above.
-
- [Illustration: SKULL BY DRYANDER, 1541]
-
-
-
-
- CHAPTER FOURTH
- Vesalius’s Early Life
-
-
- [Illustration: Illuminated capital]
-
-Andreas Vesalius, or Wesalius as the family name was inscribed prior to
-the year 1537, was born in Brussels on the last day of the year 1514.
-From astrological observations made by Jerome Cardan we learn that this
-event occurred about six o’clock in the morning, and under favorable
-stellar auspices. The placenta and caul, to which popular belief
-ascribed remarkable powers, were carefully preserved by the mother.
-
-The Vesalius family originally was named Witing, (_Witting_, _Wytinck_,
-_Wytings_, according to various authorities) and adopted the name
-Wesalius from the town of Wesel, (_Wesele_, _Vesel_), in the Duchy of
-Cleves, which the family claimed as their native place. The three
-weasels (_Flemish_—“Wesel”), found in the Vesalian coat of arms, testify
-to this origin.
-
-It may be said with truth that medical learning ran in the blood of the
-Vesalius family. Andreas’s great-great-grandfather, Peter Wesalius,
-wrote a treatise on some of the works of Avicenna and at great cost
-restored the manuscripts of several medical authors. Peter’s son, John
-Wesalius, held the responsible position of physician to Mary of
-Burgundy, the first wife of Maximilian the First; in his old age John
-taught medicine in the University of Louvain. From that time the
-Vesalius family was closely associated with the Austro-Burgundian
-dynasty. Eberhard, son of John Wesalius, served as physician to Mary of
-Burgundy; he died before attaining his thirty-sixth year, and was long
-survived by his father. Eberhard, who was the grandfather of Andreas,
-wrote commentaries upon the books of Rhazes and on the _Aphorisms_ of
-Hippocrates. He was also noted as a mathematician. Eberhard’s son
-Andreas, the father of the anatomist, was apothecary to Charles the
-Fifth and to Margaret of Austria. He accompanied the great Emperor upon
-his numerous journeys and military expeditions. In 1538 he presented
-Andreas’s first anatomical plates to the Emperor, and thus opened the
-way to the court to his son. The father remained in the imperial service
-until the day of his death, which occurred in 1546. Andreas’s mother,
-Isabella Crabbe, exercised a great influence upon the youth whom she
-believed to be destined to accomplish great things. She it was who
-preserved the manuscripts and books of the Vesalian ancestors. Isabella
-happily lived long enough to see the _Fabrica_, to witness the
-intellectual triumph of her son, and to know of his activity at the
-Spanish court.
-
- [Illustration: THE OLD UNIVERSITY OF LOUVAIN
- (Erected early in the Fourteenth Century. The New Building dates
- from 1680)]
-
-Little is known of the youth of Vesalius. The traditions of his
-ancestors, their accomplishments in the field of letters and in
-medicine, and their loyalty to their sovereigns, were themes which his
-mother must have recounted with pleasure. At an early age Andreas was
-sent to the neighboring city of Louvain, whose University, founded in
-the year 1424, in the early part of the sixteenth century eclipsed many
-institutions of greater age, and in the number of its students ranked
-second only to the University of Paris. The theologians of Louvain were
-noted for their orthodox Catholicism; from the very first days of
-religious controversy they had battled strongly against the rising tide
-of the Reformation. Her professors of jurisprudence and of philosophy
-were men of eminent talents. Within the University were four literary
-schools which were named _Paedagogium Castri_, _Porci_, _Lilii_, and
-_Falconis_, from their insignia:—a fort, a pig, a lily, and a falcon.
-Here also was the _Collegium trilingue Buslidianum_, which was founded
-by Hieronymus Busleiden (+1517) for teaching the Greek, Hebrew and Latin
-languages. Vesalius selected the _Paedagogium Castri_ which he fondly
-mentions in laudatory terms in his _Fabrica_. Here, and in the
-Busleidinian College, he obtained that thorough knowledge of ancient
-languages which, in later years, astonished his hearers and served him
-well in numerous literary controversies. The names of Vesalius’s
-teachers are unknown, although Adam[9] states that John Winter of
-Andernach was his professor of Greek. Vesalius speaks scornfully of one
-of his teachers, a theologian, who, in trying to explain Aristotle’s _De
-Anima_, used a picture of the _Margarita Philosophica_ to show the
-structure of the brain. Among Vesalius’s school companions were
-Gisbertus Carbo, to whom the anatomist presented the first skeleton
-which he articulated (_Fabrica_, 1543, page 162); and the younger
-Granvella, who later was Chancellor to Charles the Fifth.
-
-At an early age Vesalius possessed a desire to study the structure of
-the human body. His powers of observation were precociously developed.
-When a boy, learning to swim by the aid of bladders filled with air, he
-noted the elasticity of these organs, and he referred to the incident in
-his _Fabrica_ (1543, page 518). When little more than a child, he tired
-of dialectics and tried to learn anatomy from the scholastic writings of
-Albertus Magnus and of Michael Scotus. He soon discovered that the true
-road to anatomical science led, not through books but through the actual
-handling of the dead tissues. He began the practical study of anatomy by
-dissecting the bodies of mice, moles, rats, dogs and cats.[10]
-
-
-
-
- CHAPTER FIFTH
- Sojourn in Paris
-
-
- [Illustration: Illuminated capital]
-
-One thought was uppermost in the mind of Vesalius, and that was to
-follow the profession of his ancestors, just as in ancient Greece the
-sons of the Asclepiadae naturally adopted the vocation of their fathers.
-Andreas possessed an excellent preliminary education and was especially
-proficient in the Greek and Latin languages; he also knew something of
-Hebrew and much of Arabic. It was in the year 1533 that the young
-Belgian travelled to Paris for the purpose of obtaining a medical
-education. At that time the French capital was the Mecca of the medical
-world—Paris, that city where classical medicine first secured support
-(_ubi primum medicinam prospere renasci vidimus_)[11]. In Paris, under
-the leadership of Budaeus, Humanism had enjoyed a rapid growth; and here
-Petrus Brissotus, after gaining the doctor’s cap in the year 1514,
-produced a revolution by delivering his lectures from the books of Galen
-in place of the treatises of Averröes and of Avicenna. At his own
-expense Brissotus published Leonicenus’s translation of Galen’s _Ars
-Curativa_, in order that his pupils might not be misled by the incorrect
-text of the Arab authors. It will be recalled that, long before this
-time, classical Greek and Latin medical literature had passed through
-the distorting crucible of Saracenic translations. At this period
-medical science, purified from Arabic dross, was taught in a splendid
-manner in Paris by such eminent professors as Jacobus Sylvius, Jean
-Fernel, and Winter of Andernach. At their feet sat young men from the
-remotest parts of Europe.
-
-The most popular of the Paris teachers was Jacobus Sylvius, or Jacques
-Dubois, whose Latinized name is perpetuated in anatomical nomenclature.
-He was born at Louville, near Amiens, in 1478. In his early years he was
-noted for his scholarly attainments in the Greek, Latin and Hebrew
-languages and was the author of a French grammar. His anatomical
-knowledge was gained under Jean Tagault, a famous Parisian practitioner
-and surgical author.
-
- [Illustration: SYLVIUS]
-
-Sylvius was noted for his industry, for his eloquence, and above all for
-his avarice. It was the inordinate desire for money which led him to
-abandon philology for medicine. While studying under Tagault he began a
-course of medical lectures, explanatory of the works of Hippocrates and
-Galen, with such success that the Faculty of the University of Paris
-protested on the score that Sylvius was not a graduate. He then went to
-Montpellier, whose medical professors had long held a high position,
-where, according to Astruc, he received the doctor’s cap at the end of
-November, 1529. He was then above fifty years of age. Armed with this
-degree, he returned to Paris and immediately entered the lists as an
-independent medical teacher, but was again halted by the Faculty who
-ruled that he must first receive the Bachelor’s degree. This he gained
-on June 28, 1531. Sylvius then resumed his lectures with such success
-that his classes in the Collége de Tréguier numbered from four to five
-hundred, while Fernel, who was a professor in the Collége de
-Cornouailles, lectured to almost empty benches. In 1550, Henry the
-Second named Sylvius Professor of Medicine, as the successor of Vidus
-Vidius, in the recently established Collége de France. Sylvius died
-January 13, 1555, and was interred in the paupers’ cemetery as he had
-wished.
-
-Sylvius was not only an eloquent lecturer but he was also a
-demonstrative teacher. He was the first professor in France who taught
-anatomy from the human cadaver. In his lectures on botany he used a
-collection of plants to elucidate the subject. His chief fault was a
-blind reverence for ancient authors. He regarded Galen’s writings as
-gospel; if the cadaver presented structures unlike Galen’s description,
-the fault was not in the book but in the dead body, or, perchance, human
-structure had changed since Galen’s time! In one of his early books[12],
-Sylvius declared that Galen’s anatomy was infallible; that Galen’s
-treatise, _De Usu Partium_, was divine; and that further progress was
-impossible!
-
-The character of Sylvius was contemptible. He was a man of vast learning
-and at the same time was rough, coarse and brutal. His avarice led him
-to endure the cold winters of Paris without the benefit of a fire; in
-severe weather he would play at football, or engage in other violent
-exercise in his room, to save the cost of fuel. Once, and once only, did
-his friends find him hilarious; they wondered and asked the cause.
-Sylvius said he was happy because he had dismissed his “three beasts,
-his mule, his cat and his maid”. He was notoriously rigid in exacting
-his fees from students, and on one occasion he threatened to stop his
-lectures until two delinquents should pay their dues. Although he was
-supposed to have amassed great wealth, little of it was found after his
-death, and these sums were secreted in secluded places. In 1616, when
-his former residence in the _rue Saint-Jacques_ was demolished, numerous
-gold pieces were found. His reputation for miserliness followed him
-beyond the grave, as witness his epitaph:
-
- _Sylbius hic situs est, gratis qui nil dedit unquàm,_
- _Mortuus et gratis quod legis ista dolet._
-
- “Sylvius lies here, who never gave anything for nothing:
- Being dead, he even grieves that you read these lines for nothing.”
-
-In controversies he was violent and vindictive—a pastmaster in the use
-of bitter language. Jealous of the fame of other anatomists, he was
-particularly enraged when, in later years, he was opposed by Vesalius.
-Sylvius spoke of him not as Vesalius, but as _Vesanus_, a madman, who
-poisoned Europe by his impiety and clouded knowledge by his blunders.
-Such was the man who, in the mid-part of the sixteenth century, filled
-the position of highest honor in the Medical Faculty of the Collége de
-France[13].
-
-Sylvius rendered valuable service in naming the muscles which, prior to
-his time, were designated by numbers. These, says Northcote[14] “were
-differently applied by almost every author; so that it was the
-description, and not the name, that must lead one to know what part was
-meant by such authors; and this required a previous thorough knowledge
-of anatomy”. He is the first writer who mentions colored injections and
-is supposed to have discovered this useful adjunct of anatomical study.
-He was the first anatomist who published satisfactory descriptions of
-the pterygoid and clinoid processes of the sphenoid bone, and of the os
-unguis. He gave a good account of the sphenoidal sinus in the adult but
-denied its existence in the child, as had been affirmed by
-Fallopius[15]. Sylvius also wrote intelligently concerning the vertebrae
-but incorrectly described the sternum. His observation concerning the
-valves in the veins gave rise to much discussion; the honor of priority
-in the discovery, however, belongs to other anatomists—Estienne and
-Cannanus. His discoveries in cerebral anatomy have caused his name to be
-attached to the _aqueduct_, the _fissure_ and the _artery of Sylvius_.
-
-The manner in which Sylvius conducted his anatomical course is known to
-us by his own writings, by the testimony of Moreau[16], and by that of
-Vesalius[17]. Thus the course for the year 1535 began with the reading,
-by Sylvius, of Galen’s treatise _De Usu Partium_. When the middle of the
-first book was reached, Sylvius remarked that the subject was too
-difficult for his students to understand and that he would not plague
-his class with it. He then jumped to the fourth book, read all to the
-tenth book, discussed a part of the tenth and omitting the eleventh,
-twelfth and thirteenth, he took up the fourteenth and the remaining
-three books. Thus he omitted all that Galen had said concerning the
-extremities. A second Galenic work which Sylvius used was the
-anatomico-physiologic treatise, _De Musculorum Motu_. Not infrequently
-the professor was unable to demonstrate in dissection the parts on which
-he had lectured. Thus, on one occasion, the students succeeded in
-finding the pulmonary and aortic valves which Sylvius had failed to find
-on the preceding day.
-
-
-Joannes Guinterius of Andernach
-
-Another famous member of the Paris Faculty of this period, and a man
-whose life-story reads like a romance, was Joannes Guinterius, the
-beggar of Deventer. Guinterius (Gonthier, Guinther, Guinter, Winter, or
-Winther), who is often called John Winter of Andernach, from the name of
-the town in which he was born, lived between the years 1487-1574, and
-rose to eminence in both the literary and the medical worlds. Born of
-humble parents, he was sent at an early age to the University of
-Utrecht. Leaving this institution because of his poverty, he went to
-Deventer where he was reduced to the necessity of begging in the
-streets. He drifted to the University of Marburg, and here displayed
-such brilliant talents that he soon obtained employment as a teacher in
-the small town of Goslar, in Brunswick. His growing reputation for
-learning led to his appointment to the chair of Greek in the noted
-University of Louvain.
-
- [Illustration: WINTER OF ANDERNACH]
-
-Desiring to study medicine, Guinterius went to Paris in 1525; he
-received the Bachelor’s degree in 1528, and the full medical title two
-years later. He passed a brilliant examination which won for him the
-commendation of the most eminent professors. Remaining in Paris, he
-engaged in practice and in teaching, and rapidly rose to eminence. In
-addition to conducting courses in anatomy, he translated into Latin the
-writings of the most noted Greek medical authors of antiquity—the books
-of Galen, of Oribasius, of Paul of Aegina, of Caelius Aurelianus, and of
-Alexander of Tralles—all of which were held in high esteem in the
-sixteenth century. His fame reached far beyond the boundaries of France.
-Christian III., the enlightened king of Denmark, who was noted for his
-love of literature, sought to attach him to the Danish court, but the
-honor was refused. Having become a convert to the religious views of
-Luther, Guinterius found that his life was in danger; he left Paris and
-resided for a time in Metz. He soon removed to Strassburg, where he was
-received with distinguished honors and was appointed to a professorship
-in the University. Owing to the activity of his enemies, his position
-became insecure; accordingly, he resigned his chair and spent a
-considerable time in travelling throughout Germany and Italy. In the
-year 1562, Ferdinand I., in appreciation of the great merits of
-Guinterius, raised him to the highest distinction by placing him among
-the nobles of the land; and thus the beggar of Deventer became a
-nobleman of Strassburg. His life ended October 4, 1574.
-
-Like Sylvius, Guinterius was a teacher of men who became greater than
-himself—Vesalius, Servetus and Rondelet sat upon his benches. Like
-Sylvius, he placed his faith in Galen and failed to grasp the great
-truth that anatomical science is based, not on the writings of the
-Fathers but on dissection of the dead body.
-
-
-Jean Fernel
-
- [Illustration: JEAN FERNEL]
-
-The third bright star of the Paris constellation was Jean Fernel
-(1485-1558), of Amiens, who was regarded as the ablest physiologist of
-his time and was physician-in-ordinary to Henry the Second. Fernel
-dipped deeply into philosophy, geometry and mathematics. Before entering
-the medical profession he issued three books on mathematic and geometric
-subjects. He received the medical degree in 1530, but continued his
-study of mathematics with such ardor that he was almost ruined
-financially. On the advice of his friends he entered upon the practice
-of medicine in Paris and met with remarkable success. He was skilled in
-anatomy and surgery and accompanied his sovereign upon numerous military
-expeditions. His medical writings are contained in many volumes and
-concern a variety of subjects, such as physiology, therapeutics,
-surgery, pathology, the treatment of fevers and the venereal diseases.
-
-Fernel’s medical views were powerfully influenced by the teachings of an
-unfortunate French philosopher, Pierre de la Rameé, or Ramus, who, like
-many other Protestants, lost his life on Saint Bartholomew’s Night.
-Brutally assassinated, his body was dragged through the streets of Paris
-and then was thrown into the Seine; but his system of philosophy
-survived and exercised a potent influence until it was eclipsed by the
-doctrines of Descartes.
-
-Ramus, who was an uncompromising opponent of the Aristotelian
-philosophy, pointed out the defects and suggested the reforms in the
-system of University education. He compared the teaching of medicine
-with that of theology, much to the disparagement of the latter:—“The
-reason”, said he, “why medicine is better taught, and the lectures are
-better attended than in theology is, that those who teach it know it,
-and practice it, and their disputations are chiefly on the books of
-Hippocrates and Galen; whilst the theologians observe a strict reticence
-on questions of the Old Testament, which they read in Hebrew, as well as
-of the New, which they read in Greek, but display their learning in
-subtle questions respecting the pagan philosophy of Plato and
-Aristotle”.[18] Ramus endeavored to withdraw the minds of both
-physicians and medical students from the authoritative dogmas of the
-ancient physicians and to substitute therefor the intelligent study of
-Nature. The practical trend of his mind is shown in his suggestion that
-institutions should be arranged for clinical teaching.
-
- [Illustration: RAMUS]
-
-Just as Ramus had become an Eclectic in philosophy, so Fernel sought the
-best from various sources and different medical systems. Like Ramus, he
-cast off the yoke which authority had placed upon him; and proposed
-carefully planned principles which should lead to the discovery of
-truth. Like Ramus, Fernel presented his views in a clear style and in
-better order than was to be found in the writings of his predecessors.
-Like Ramus, he adopted the good and rejected the bad, regardless of
-whether it had been said by Aristotle, or by Galen, or by Hippocrates.
-Fernel was a reformer who stood for freedom of thought, which, up to his
-time, had suffered from the despotism of the scholastics. Although many
-of Fernel’s physiologic and pathologic ideas seem ridiculous when viewed
-in the light of modern knowledge, yet he deserves praise for daring to
-oppose ancient dogmas, and for pointing the road to progress. In breadth
-of view, Fernel was far superior to Sylvius and Guinterius.
-
-The anatomical teaching in Paris in the early part of the sixteenth
-century was far from satisfactory. There was too much lecturing and
-theorizing from Galen’s texts, and too little of actual dissection.
-Vesalius, who was not backward in his criticisms, says that the
-dissections were made by ignorant barbers, and during the whole time
-that he was in Paris he never saw Guinterius use a knife upon a cadaver.
-Only at rare intervals was a human body brought into the amphitheatre,
-and then the dissection lasted less than three days. It comprised only a
-superficial study of the intestines and abdominal muscles; no other
-muscles were studied. The bones, veins, arteries and nerves were almost
-wholly ignored. The great lights of the Paris profession were totally
-unfit to give to the young Belgian what was his heart’s desire. They
-were ignorant and knew it not. It is not surprising that, on more than
-one occasion, Vesalius brushed the ignorant prosectors aside, took the
-knife into his own hands, and carried out the dissection in a systematic
-manner. His zeal and learning won the admiration of Guinterius who spoke
-of Vesalius and Servetus in loving terms;—“first Andreas Vesalius, a
-young man, by Hercules! of singular zeal in the study of anatomy; and
-second, Michael Villanovanus (Servetus), deeply imbued with learning of
-every kind, and behind none in his knowledge of the Galenic doctrine.
-With the aid of these two, I have examined the muscles, veins, arteries
-and nerves of the whole body, and demonstrated them to the
-students”.[19]
-
-Vesalius must have had many blue days in Paris—days when he longed to
-have a free hand in dissection. A weaker character than his would have
-fitted peacefully into the established order of things, but not of such
-stuff was Andreas made. The difficulties which beset his path only
-stimulated him to work the harder; he firmly resolved to devote his
-energy, his talents and his life to anatomical study and teaching. He
-decided to secure the opportunity to dissect the human body and to rival
-the ancient Alexandrian professors who taught the subject. “Never”, he
-says, “would I have been able to accomplish my purpose in Paris, if I
-had not taken the work into my own hands”. The Book of Nature which
-Sylvius lauded, but kept his pupils from studying, was now opened by
-Vesalius. He dissected numerous dogs and studied the only part of human
-anatomy that was available, namely, the bones. In his search for
-materials for a skeleton he haunted the Cemetery of the Innocents. On
-one occasion, when he went to Montfauçon, the place where the bodies of
-executed criminals were deposited and bones were plentiful, Vesalius and
-his fellow-student were attacked by fierce dogs. For a time the young
-anatomist was in danger of leaving his own bones to the hungry
-scavengers. By such dangers he gained what the Paris professors could
-not supply. He became a master of the osseous system, so much so that,
-when blindfolded, he was able to name and describe any part of the
-skeleton which was placed in his hands. His talents were recognized by
-both professors and students; and at the third anatomy which he attended
-in Paris he was requested to take charge of the dissection. To the
-satisfaction of the students, as well as to the astonishment of the
-barbers, he made an elaborate dissection of the abdominal organs and of
-the muscles of the arm.
-
- [Illustration: VIVISECTION OF A PIG
- (From the “Fabrica”, 1543)]
-
-
-
-
- CHAPTER SIXTH
- Vesalius Returns to Louvain
-
-
- [Illustration: Illuminated capital]
-
-In the latter part of the year 1536, owing to the outbreak of the third
-Franco-German war, Vesalius returned to the University of Louvain.
-During this period he secured a human skeleton by secret means.
-Accompanied by his faithful friend, Regnier Gemma, known as a
-mathematician as well as a physician, Vesalius visited the gallows
-outside the walls of Louvain in order to search for bones. Here he found
-a skeleton which was held together simply by the ligaments and still
-possessed the origins and insertions of the muscles. Morley states that
-the body was that of “a noted robber, who, since he deserved more than
-ordinary hanging, had been chained to the top of a high stake and
-roasted alive. He had been roasted by a slow fire made of straw, that
-was kept burning at some distance below his feet. In that way there had
-been a dish cooked for the fowls of heaven, which was regarded by them
-as a special dainty. The sweet flesh of the delicately roasted thief
-they had preferred to any other; his bones, therefore, had been
-elaborately picked and there was left suspended on the stake a skeleton
-dissected out and cleaned by many beaks with rare precision. The
-dazzling skeleton, complete and clean, was lifted up on high before the
-eyes of the anatomist, who had been striving hitherto to piece together
-such a thing out of the bones of many people, gathered as occasion
-offered”.
-
-Such a prize could not be lost. With Gemma’s assistance Vesalius climbed
-the gallows and secured the skeleton which he secretly conveyed to his
-home. The treasure, however, was not complete; one finger, a patella and
-a foot were missing. To this extent was Vesalius the owner of a human
-skeleton. In supplying the missing parts Vesalius was obliged to incur
-new dangers. He stole out of the city in the nighttime, climbed the
-gallows unaided, searched through the mass of decaying bodies, and,
-having found the coveted bones, he stole into the city by another gate.
-These secret expeditions, however, soon became unnecessary, for the
-Burgomaster of Louvain generously furnished an abundance of material for
-Vesalius’s students.
-
-It was at this period—late in the year 1536 or early in 1537—that
-Vesalius conducted the first public anatomy that had been held in
-Louvain in eighteen years. He performed the dissection and lectured at
-the same time, which was an innovation. Some remarks he made concerning
-the seat of the soul caused him to be critised by the theologians. A
-further cause for suspicion was his association with such firm
-Protestants as Guinterius and Sturm of Paris; and his friendly relations
-with the publisher Rescius, and the physician Velsius. Fortunately the
-suspicion of heresy did not lead to any formal charges, but the affair
-seems to have rankled in his memory and some years later, in his
-_Fabrica_, he sought to clear his name of even the appearance of heresy.
-
-Vesalius began his career as an author by issuing a paraphrase, or free
-translation, of the ninth book of the _Almansor_ of the celebrated
-Rhazes[20]. This book, _liber ad Almansorem_, or work dedicated to the
-Caliph Al-Mansûr, was written by a learned Arab physician who lived
-between the years 860-932. The _Almansor_ consists of ten books and was
-designed by the author for a complete body or compendium of Physic. The
-first book treats of anatomy and physiology; the second, of
-temperaments; the third, of food and simple medicines; the fourth, of
-means for preserving health; the fifth, of skin diseases and cosmetics;
-the sixth, of diet; the seventh, of surgery; the eighth, of poisons; the
-ninth, of treatment of all parts of the body; the tenth, or last book,
-deals with the treatment of fevers. The ninth book, which Vesalius
-translated from the barbarous version into a readable form, was so
-highly prized in mediaeval times that it was read publicly in the
-schools and was commentated by learned professors for more than a
-hundred years. By this publication Vesalius furnished a valuable
-contribution to medical literature. The numerous marginal and
-interlinear notes, which he supplied, show his intimate acquaintance
-with classical literature as well as with materia medica. Vesalius
-emphasizes the fact that the book of Rhazes contains many remedies which
-were unknown to the Greeks. The value of his edition was increased by
-the presence of original drawings of the plants mentioned in the text.
-
-
-
-
- CHAPTER SEVENTH
- Professor of Anatomy in Padua
-
-
- [Illustration: Illuminated capital]
-
-Shortly after the publication of his _Paraphrasis in nonum librum
-Rhazae_, Vesalius journeyed into Italy. It was in the year 1537 that he
-entered the prosperous and enlightened city of Venice. Here the study of
-anatomy not only was not tabooed, but was encouraged, particularly by
-the Theatin monks who devoted themselves to the care of the sick. At the
-head of this order stood two remarkable men: J. Peter Caraffa, who later
-ascended the papal throne as Paul IV.; and Ignatius Loyola, the founder
-of the Jesuits. It is a strange circumstance that two strong characters
-so dissimilar as were Vesalius and Loyola should meet as co-workers in
-the same field. The one was filled with a thirst for anatomical
-knowledge, and was dreaming of the day when his _opus magnum_ should
-revolutionize an important science; the other was enthused with visions
-of the world-wide acceptance of the doctrines of Catholicism. They met
-again, in 1543—the year which marks two important events, namely, the
-publication of the _Fabrica_, and the full recognition of the Jesuits by
-the Pope.
-
-In Venice the young anatomist entered into various lines of activity. He
-experimented with a new remedy, the China root, and besought his
-acquaintances to observe its effects in cases of pleurisy. He solicited
-anatomical material and possibly may have conducted a public
-demonstration in anatomy, although this is uncertain. He practiced minor
-surgery; he leeched and opened veins, particularly the popliteal vein
-which the barbers of that day did not venture to touch. In Venice he
-fortunately met his countryman, Jan Stephan van Calcar, who was soon to
-furnish the drawings for Vesalius’s first anatomical plates.
-
- [Illustration: INSTRUMENTS USED IN DISSECTION
- (From the “Fabrica”, 1543)]
-
-In order to gain all the rights and privileges of a full-fledged
-physician, Vesalius settled in Padua. On the 6th day of December, 1537,
-shortly after having received his degree as Doctor of Medicine, Andreas
-Vesalius of Brussels was appointed Professor of Surgery with the right
-to teach Anatomy in the famous University of Padua. This, says Fisher,
-“was the first purely anatomical chair ever instituted”.
-
-From his own writings and from the manuscript notes of his loyal
-student, Vitus Tritonius, a fairly good idea of Vesalius’s teaching can
-be given. The first act of the young Paduan professor was to improve the
-course in anatomy. Here, as he had done previously at Louvain, Vesalius
-discharged the entire duties of the professorship. He acted as lecturer,
-demonstrator and dissector. Dissatisfied with the ignorant barbers, he
-ignored them and employed his students as assistants. He resorted to all
-possible means to obtain anatomical material, much of which was secured
-by stealth.
-
-The aula in which Vesalius conducted his course was built of wood and
-was capable of holding five hundred persons. In the centre of the room
-was a table under which was a receptacle containing bones and joints. An
-articulated skeleton was placed in an upright position at one end of the
-table. In this elegantly appointed room, before an audience of
-distinguished laymen and students, the instruction in anatomy was given.
-The course was a strenuous one, occupying practically the entire day for
-a period of three weeks, and comprising not only human but also much
-comparative anatomy. The vivisection of dogs, pigs, and rarely of cats,
-was a regular part of the course. Drawings were used to elucidate the
-relations between the skeleton and the soft parts; and frequently
-Vesalius marked the outlines of the joints upon the skin of the subject.
-He also marked the cranial sutures with ink. His anatomical charts were
-the work of his own hand; at times he drew the pictures in the presence
-of his audience. His dissections were made with extreme neatness and
-dexterity. He used but few instruments and these were of the simplest
-kind: knives of different shapes, hooks, cannula, catheter, sounds,
-bristles, hammer, saw, needles, thread and a sponge. Forceps and
-injection apparatus were not used; he rarely used scissors. Much of the
-actual separation of tissues was done by the aid of the finger-nails. A
-vivisection board completed the list _de instrumentis quae anatomes
-studioso debent esse ad manum_.
-
-Let us now follow one Vesalius’s public courses in anatomy. It is the
-month of December, in the year 1537. The report has spread that the
-young Belgian professor will begin his course. Long before the hour set
-for the lecture, every available seat has been taken and many persons
-are standing. An audience comprising the professors of the University,
-the students of medicine, officials of the city of Padua, and learned
-persons of all ranks, including members of the clergy, numbering more
-than five hundred persons, has assembled to do honor to the professor of
-anatomy.
-
-Vesalius comes into the arena and walks to the table which is closely
-surrounded by his auditors. He wastes no time; after a few preliminary
-remarks on the importance of anatomy and the methods of acquiring a
-knowledge of this science, he launches into the practical demonstration.
-After rapidly pointing out the divisions of the body, and demonstrating
-the skin, joints, cartilages, ligaments, glands, fat and muscles, he
-passes to the more complex parts, all of which are shown upon the
-skinned body of a dog or of a lamb, in order to conserve the human
-material. Now the human cadaver is placed on the table; all eyes are
-turned upon it, for such a demonstration occurs only at long intervals.
-Vesalius speaks first of the difference in the structure of joints at
-different ages and in different sexes, illustrating his remarks by means
-of drawings and by an abundant supply of bones of man and of the lower
-animals.
-
-Now comes the dissection. This is made rapidly and in regular order. Its
-course depends upon the amount of material at hand; if the professor
-resorts to two bodies, as in the year 1538, the demonstration is handled
-in grand style. Vesalius uses the first body for a comprehensive
-examination of the muscles, ligaments and viscera; whilst the second
-cadaver is devoted to the relations of the veins, arteries, nerves and
-viscera. The text of the _Fabrica_ is written according to this plan of
-public dissection.
-
-At times Vesalius attempted to teach the whole of anatomy on one
-cadaver. In this event, osteology was followed by the dissection of the
-abdominal muscles layer by layer, the demonstration closing with an
-examination of the entire contents of the abdomen. The pelvic organs
-were reached by incision and separation of the symphysis pubis. If the
-cadaver was that of a female, the dissection began with the mammary
-glands and then passed to the inferior venter. In pregnancy the foetal
-membranes were removed intact, and were placed in a vessel filled with
-water. The foetus was opened and its anastomosing vessels were found.
-For demonstrating the cotyledons, the uterus of a sheep or goat was
-used. After the thorax had been raised by means of a log or brick,
-Vesalius passed to the face and the anterior part of the neck, freely
-exposing the muscles on one side and the vessels and nerves on the
-other. Then followed the unilateral preparation of the muscles of the
-shoulder and back, then those of the mouth, which were approached by
-means of division of the lower jaw; and, finally, the pharynx and the
-larynx were exposed. The rectus anticus muscle was next brought into
-view, whereupon Vesalius detached the head from the vertebral column.
-Decapitation was followed by an examination of the cranium; the
-skull-cap was sawed and the brain was dissected in its natural position.
-Then came the examination of the eye, which Vesalius dissected in two
-ways: either by a complete section, or layer by layer from without
-inwards.
-
-The ear and the cavities of the frontal and sphenoidal bones were next
-opened, provided these bones were not needed for the setting up of a
-skeleton. Finally he took up the extremities, demonstrating the muscles
-of an arm and a leg on one side, and the nerves and vessels on the
-other. The anatomy lesson ended with the introduction of numerous
-vivisections.
-
-Vesalius could not entirely escape disputations, but he gave to them a
-close anatomic basis. Theoretical physiology was repugnant to him; for
-him physiology was not speculation but the sequel of anatomic research.
-If he at times gave free reign to his views, he indicated them as mere
-theories. He did not ignore pathologic conditions, but he handled them
-as briefly as possible. Fearing to tire his audience with too much
-variety, he confined his students closely to the structure of the human
-body.
-
-The merit of Vesalius’s public dissections, and the impression which
-they made upon his auditors, can be appreciated only by comparison with
-similar demonstrations made by his predecessors. The large and
-enlightened audience remained day by day for a period of three or four
-weeks. He says not a word about the physical and mental strain incident
-to such a strenuous course, in which his entire time was employed. The
-courses brought great financial profit to the professor.
-
-On two occasions, probably in the years 1539 and 1540, Vesalius was
-called from Padua to Bologna to conduct public dissections. This was a
-great honor, for Bologna was the city in which Mondino had revived the
-practical teaching of anatomy. These courses were conducted by Vesalius
-in a wooden building erected for that particular purpose. Here, as in
-Padua, the professor acted as demonstrator and lecturer, remaining in
-this ancient city for a period of several weeks. On the first occasion
-he was supplied with three human bodies and was enabled to handle the
-subject in grand style. At the first séance he engaged with the
-celebrated Professor Matthaeus Curtius, whose acquaintance he had made
-in 1538 while on a vacation trip, in a deep study of the question of
-venesection. Before a large and select assembly he demonstrated in all
-three bodies that Galen’s description of the vena azygos was incorrect.
-On the second convocation Vesalius seems to have disposed of more
-bodies. He reviewed Galen’s work on the joints, and by numerous
-specimens, which were prepared by the students, he demonstrated the
-difference in the ancient knowledge of the skeleton. On this occasion he
-undertook the complete dissection of an ape and presented its skeleton,
-as well as that of a man, to Professor John Andreas Albius, who held the
-chair of Hippocratic medicine in Bologna.
-
-Little is known of the way in which Vesalius taught surgery. The first
-year he was in Padua, he began with Avicenna’s treatise on tumors.
-According to the fragmentary notes in the college book of his ardent
-pupil, Vitus Tritonius, Vesalius compared Avicenna’s teachings with the
-classical works of Hippocrates, Galen, Paul of Aegina, and Aetius,
-explaining and correcting them.
-
- [Illustration: INITIAL LETTER BY VESALIUS
- (From the “Fabrica”, 1543)]
-
-
-
-
- CHAPTER EIGHTH
- First Contribution to Anatomy
-
-
- [Illustration: Illuminated capital]
-
-Like all great teachers, Vesalius was ever mindful of the interests of
-his students. Soon after accepting the chair of Anatomy in Padua, he
-articulated a human skeleton for use in his class room. His next work
-was the preparation of a set of anatomical plates, _Tabulae Anatomicae_,
-which were intended to pave the way to anatomy for beginners. For the
-further benefit of his class, he edited an edition of Guinterius’s
-_Institutionuin Anatomicarum_, which was issued in April, 1538.
-
-
-Tabulae Anatomicae
-
-The _Tabulae Anatomicae_ were in the form of _Fliegende Blätter_, or
-loose leaves, and consisted of six plates which are now among the rarest
-of medical works. They bore the following title:
-
- _Tabulae Anatomicae. Imprimebat Venetiis B(ernardinus).
- Vitalis Venetus sumptibus Joannis Stephani
- Calcarensis Prostrant verò in officina
- D. Bernardini. a. 1538._
-
-In the preface Vesalius says that no one can learn either botany or
-anatomy from figures alone, but illustrations are a valuable means
-toward the imparting of knowledge. In publishing these plates he hopes
-to benefit those persons who had attended his public dissections. Not a
-line in these pictures is unnatural; all has been reproduced just as he
-had shown in his demonstrations. He gives due credit to van Calcar, the
-artist who made the drawings of the three skeletons. The other pictures
-were made by the author himself.
-
-The _Tabulae Anatomicae_ were arranged in the following order:—
-
- I.—The Portal System and the Organs of Generation;
- II.—The Venae Cavae and Chief Veins;
- III.—The Great Artery—Arteria Magna—and the Heart;
- IV.—The Skeleton in its Anterior View;
- V.—The Skeleton in its Side View;
- VI.—The Skeleton in its Posterior View.
-
-The plates are of large dimensions, measuring over sixteen inches in
-length, and were cut in wood. Like those in the _Fabrica_, they were
-made in Italy. Owing to their transient use by medical students, the
-_Tabulae_ were soon destroyed, although unauthorized editions were
-printed in several cities. The book was dedicated to Narcissus of
-Parthenope (Narciso Verdunno, or Vertuneo) who, in 1520, was first
-physician to the crown of Naples, and later, in 1524, was physician and
-councilor to Charles the Fifth. It is noteworthy that three of these
-plates deal with the skeleton, a subject to which Vesalius had given
-much attention. The absence of a plate showing the nervous system is
-also to be noted. Vesalius had such a plate prepared, and it appeared in
-a pirated edition of the _Tabulae_ which was published at Cologne in
-1539. The large size of these plates, their fidelity to nature, and the
-skill with which they were cut in wood, were features which showed to
-the world that a real master of anatomy had been born. The original
-drawings were made by Jan Stephan van Calcar, who probably also was the
-engraver.
-
-Only two copies of the _Tabulae Anatomicae_ are known. A fine edition of
-these plates, reproduced by photography, was privately issued in 1874 by
-Sir William Stirling-Maxwell, the talented author of the _Annals of the
-Artists of Spain_.
-
- [Illustration: VIEW OF THE CITY OF BASEL IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY]
-
-
-
-
- CHAPTER NINTH
- Publication of the Fabrica
-
-
- [Illustration: Illuminated capital]
-
-On the first day of August, 1542, after three years of strenuous labor,
-Vesalius completed the _Fabrica_, and twelve days later he wrote the
-last word of the _Epitome_. The blocks for the _Fabrica_, and also those
-for the _Epitome_, were made in Italy. In the summer of 1542 they were
-conveyed to Basel by a merchant named Danoni and were safely delivered
-to the printer, Oporinus. They were accompanied by a long Latin letter,
-written by Vesalius to his friend, “Joannes Oporinus, professor of Greek
-letters in Basel”. He begs Oporinus to take the greatest care that the
-printed illustrations shall correspond with the proofs which accompany
-the blocks. “Every detail must be distinctly visible, so that each cut
-shall have the effect of a picture”. Early in the following year
-Vesalius went to Basel to superintend the printing of his books. While
-there, he conducted a demonstration in anatomy—the first which had
-occurred in that city since 1531—and presented the articulated skeleton
-of the subject to the University. Part of this skeleton exists today. It
-is thought to be the oldest anatomical preparation in existence.
-
-
-The Fabrica
-
-The heart of Vesalius must have filled with joy when he saw the final
-page of his book turned from the press. The treatise which founded
-modern anatomy bears this title:—
-
- _Andreae Desalii Brurellensis, Scholae medicorum
- Patabinae professoris, de humani corporis
- fabrica Libri septem. Basileae._
- MDXLIII
-
-A fortune was lavished upon the illustration and publication of this
-grand work. To use the words of Fisher, “it was and is a glorious book,
-a rare and precious monument of genius, industry and liberality”. It
-abounds with curious initial letters bearing quaint and interesting
-anatomical conceits, each one teaching its lesson. One of these, reduced
-in size, introduces the present chapter; and it was this letter that
-Vesalius used in his opening sentence: _Os caeterarum hominis partium
-est durissimum & ardissimum, maximaque terrestre & frigidum, & sensus
-denique praeter solos dentes expers._
-
- [Illustration: JOANNES OPORINUS]
-
-The first edition of the _Fabrica_ is a folio volume with magnificent
-illustrations on wood, all carefully printed by Joannes Oporinus
-(1507-1568) of Basel.
-
-The title-page is a beautiful engraving which represents Vesalius at
-work dissecting a female subject. He is surrounded by interested
-spectators who crowd the amphitheatre. The abdomen of the subject is
-opened. Vesalius has raised his left hand; his right hand grasps a small
-rod which rests on the viscera. The great teacher is talking to his
-pupils. Placed at the head of the dissecting table is an upright
-skeleton which grasps a long staff with its right hand. In the audience
-are many persons of different rank. To the left a naked man is climbing
-a pillar, while to the right, and below, a dog is being brought into the
-arena. To the left, and below, is a monkey which appears to enjoy the
-demonstration. Above, in the architecture, we see the monogram of the
-publisher, Oporinus; in the centre, on a shield, are the three weasels
-of the Vesalius family, and below, is a shield which bears the
-privilegium. This old engraving is one of the most spirited and
-elaborate to be found in the whole range of medical literature. In the
-1725 edition, for which Jan Wandelaar made copperplate reproductions of
-the original figures, the title-page is altered:—the monogram of
-Oporinus is absent and the architecture is slightly changed.
-
- [Illustration: MARK OF OPORINUS]
-
-Who was the unnamed artist? It is noteworthy that Vesalius does not
-state who drew the illustrations, or who cut them in wood, for his
-_Fabrica_. He only states that this book has cost him a monstrous amount
-of labor in the preparation of the dissections, and in the directing of
-the eye, the hand, and the intelligence of the artist. He complains
-bitterly of the obstinacy of the artist, who, at times so tormented him
-that he—Vesalius—considered himself more unfortunate than the criminal
-whose body had been dissected[21]. It was probably owing to this
-unpleasant experience that Vesalius omitted the artist’s name. The great
-anatomist speaks regretfully of the large sums which he was obliged to
-pay, in order to induce skilled artists to undertake this class of work.
-He states that they were much more interested in painting Venus and The
-Graces than in drawing pictures of skinned and foul smelling bodies.
-Moehsen[22] assumes that Vesalius had Titian in mind when he penned
-these thoughts, but this is questionable. It is not surprising that
-eminent artists should have disliked anatomical drawing, at a time when
-antiseptic injections and preserving fluids were not known. Foul odors
-had no terrors for the great Belgian, who haunted cemeteries for
-anatomical material and often kept parts of cadavers in his bedchamber
-for weeks at a time.
-
-For a period of two centuries the Vesalian pictures were ascribed to
-Titian, but on insufficient grounds. The famous Venetian painter was
-over sixty years of age at the time of the publication of the _Fabrica_;
-his services were much in demand, and he was signally honored by the
-Spanish emperor, Charles the Fifth. His powers remained undiminished
-until shortly before his death, which occurred in 1576. He had the
-ability to make the Vesalian illustrations, but it is doubtful if he had
-the time. Although Titian may have taken an interest in these anatomical
-plates, it is not now believed that he drew them.
-
- [Illustration: JAN STEPHAN VAN CALCAR]
-
-The Vesalian pictures have been attributed to Christoforo Coriolano; but
-he could not have been the artist, since his earliest work dates from
-1568. He is known to have furnished the drawings for Jerome
-Mercurialis’s _De Arte Gymnastica_, and for Vasari’s _Lives of the
-Painters_. Roth is of the opinion that Vesalius himself made most of the
-illustrations; but such a view would credit the comparatively short and
-busy life of the great anatomist with too much accomplishment.
-
-I conclude that the illustrations for the _Fabrica_, like the osseous
-figures in the _Tabulae Anatomicae_, which Vesalius issued in 1538, were
-made by Jan Stephan van Calcar (+1546), the favorite pupil of Titian.
-Sandrart[23] states that van Calcar made the drawings for the _Fabrica_;
-that he went to Venice in 1536 or 1537; that he studied under Titian;
-and that his paintings were of such merit that they were often mistaken
-for those of Titian, Raphael, and Rubens.
-
-Van Calcar was a Fleming, a native of Kalcker in the Duchy of Cleves.
-The date of his birth is not known. His death occurred at Naples in
-1546. He was highly esteemed by Vesalius who speaks of him as ranking
-“with the divine and happy wits of Italy”. The anatomical plates which
-Vesalius issued in 1538 were made, he states, by van Calcar:—_sumptibus
-Joannis Stephani Calcarensis_. These plates, which appeared in the form
-of pictorial broad sheets, or _Fliegende Blätter_, may be likened to the
-Herald who goes in advance to announce the coming of the King. They were
-engraved on wood, and, like their companion pictures in the _Fabrica_,
-they were unprecedented in magnitude and in minuteness.
-
- [Illustration: SECOND VESALIAN PLATE OF THE MUSCLES
- (From the “Fabrica”, 1543. Reduced one-half)]
-
-The Vesalian plates vary greatly in merit. The most satisfactory ones
-are those depicting the undissected body and the bones and muscles. The
-artist was not at his best in drawing the nervous system, although it is
-claimed that Vesalius had prepared his neurologic specimens with great
-care. For the use of artists, the best plates are the three skeletons
-and the four entire myologic figures in the _Fabrica_. The first
-myologic figure, showing a man who has been divested of all skin, fat,
-and superficial fascia, presents the muscles of the anterior portion of
-the body beautifully delineated. Vesalius took much pride in this plate,
-and directed the attention of artists to it. The second plate, which is
-constructed along similar lines, shows the body in its lateral aspect.
-The head is thrown slightly backward, the right hand pointing to the
-earth and the left raised towards the horizon, and the whole attitude of
-the subject calls to mind the position which an orator would assume when
-addressing an audience. The third myologic plate is similar to the first
-one, but the muscles of the face are exhibited to better advantage and
-the aponeuroses, absent in the first plate, are here present. The fourth
-plate, which is the ninth in Vesalius’s work (_nona musculorum tabula_),
-presents the muscles of the posterior part of the body. The other
-myologic figures show the deeper muscles, layer by layer, and are of
-value to an artist who wishes to study the effect of their action upon
-the superficial parts of the body. Hence many of these figures have been
-reproduced in works on art-anatomy. The artist who studies these plates
-should remember that the figures in question are divested of skin, fat,
-and superficial veins—all of which must be supplied, in order to avoid
-giving too great prominence to the muscles. The two naked figures
-contained in the _Epitome_ are properly clothed in skin and are of great
-artistic merit. They also are to be seen in numerous works on
-art-anatomy. Thus, in one of the earliest books on anatomy for the use
-of artists (_Abrégé d’anatomie accommodé aux arts de peinture et de
-sculpture._ Paris, 1667, 1668), Rogers de Piles and François Tortebat
-have used the three skeletons and seven myologic figures taken from the
-_Fabrica_ and the _Epitome_. In the preface of his book, de Piles says
-that he does not think it is possible to produce better figures than
-those found in the works of Vesalius. That he was not alone in this
-opinion is shown by the fact that many other artists, who have composed
-treatises on art-anatomy, have drawn freely from the Vesalian
-storehouse. An Italian, Giacomo Moro, in his anatomy for the use of
-artists, (_Anatomia ridotta ad uso de’ pittori e scultore._ Venice
-1679), reproduced nineteen of Vesalius’s figures in copperplate.
-
- [Illustration: NINTH VESALIAN PLATE, OF THE MUSCLES
- (From the “Fabrica”, 1543. Reduced one-half)]
-
-The popularity of Vesalius’s anatomical figures among painters was due,
-not only to the intrinsic worth of these illustrations, but also to the
-erroneous belief that the original drawings were the work of Titian.
-This opinion found expression on the title-pages of several works on
-art-anatomy. For example, in 1706, Moschenbauer, of Augsburg, issued a
-folio volume illustrated with Vesalian figures cut in wood, with this
-title:—_Andreae Vesalii, Bruxellensis, des ersten besten Anatomici,
-Zergliederung des menschlichen Körpers auf Mahlerey, and Bildhauer-Kunst
-gerichtet, die Figuren von Titian gezeichnet_. An anonymous book,
-_Notomia di Titanio_, appeared in Italy about the year 1670.
-
-The Vesalian figures of the skeleton were also issued in single sheets
-with moralistic verses appended. Moehsen cites one of these with the
-inscription printed in French:
-
- “De cet objet affreux tu parois rebutté,
- Est c’est ce que dans peu cependant tu dois étre:
- Apprens, mortel, a te connoître
- Ce miroir est le seul, ou tu n’est point flatté”.
-
-Another legend reminds the reader that he is only dust, and to dust he
-must return:—“_Vous estes poudre, & vous retournéres en poudre_”.
-
- [Illustration: A HUMAN SKULL RESTING ON THE SKULL OF A DOG
- (From the “Fabrica”, 1543)]
-
-
-
-
- CHAPTER TENTH
- Publication of the Epitome
-
-
- [Illustration: Illuminated capital]
-
-Upon the thirteenth day of August, 1542, Vesalius finished the _Epitome_
-of his great book. The text and illustrations for it were forwarded to
-Basel by the same merchant who conveyed the manuscript and drawings of
-the _Fabrica_. The title of the lesser work is as follows:—
-
- _Andreae Vesalii Bruxellensis, Scholae medicorum
- Patavinae professoris, suorum de Humani corporis
- fabrica librorum Epitome. Basil., et officina
- Joannis Oporini, Anno, 1543, mense Junio._
-
-This work is extremely rare. It belonged to the class of _Fliegende
-Blätter_ and was issued unbound. Perfect copies of it are rarely found.
-The first twelve sheets are printed on both sides; the two last leaves
-are printed on one side only, in order that they might be cut out and
-pasted together to show two complete figures. Hence these sheets are
-often lacking. The _Epitome_ appeared in the same year and in the same
-month as the _Fabrica_, but the latter work was printed first.
-
-The _Epitome_ is dedicated to Philip, the son of Charles the Fifth, who,
-after his father’s abdication, was known as Philip the Second of Spain.
-The title-page is printed from the same plate as the larger work; and
-Vesalius’s portrait also is present. From the fact that the dedication
-bears the inscription: _Patavii, idibus Augusti 1542_, the erroneous
-opinion arose that this work preceded the _Fabrica_.
-
- [Illustration: TITLE-PAGE OF VESALIUS’S “EPITOME”, 1543]
-
-Among the illustrations found in the _Epitome_ are seven that are not in
-the large book; namely, five myologic plates, and the figure of a naked
-man and one of a woman. The myologic figures in the _Epitome_ differ
-from those in the _Fabrica_ in this respect: the muscles are drawn in
-their natural position, group, and order, so that the surgeon, in
-treating wounds and in performing operations, may have the correct
-relations of the parts in mind. Also, the one side of the figure differs
-from the other: the one showing the superficial muscles, while the other
-exhibits the deeper musculature. The muscles in the _Fabrica_, with the
-exception of four complete myologic figures, are represented as they
-appear in anatomical demonstrations, particular attention being given to
-their origins and insertions. For the purpose of the artist, the best
-figures are the three skeletons and the four complete myologic figures
-which are found in the _Fabrica_.
-
-Two beautiful copies of the _Epitome_, printed on vellum, are in
-existence. One is in the British Museum and is thought to be the copy
-which was owned by the celebrated Dr. Richard Mead; the other one is in
-the possession of the University of Louvain.
-
-Vesalius speaks modestly of the _Epitome_, which he regards as an index
-or appendix of the _Fabrica_, and is for the use of beginners in
-anatomy.
-
- [Illustration: SKELETON BY VESALIUS
- (From the “Fabrica”, 1543. Reduced one-half)]
-
-
-
-
- CHAPTER ELEVENTH
- Contents of the Fabrica
-
-
- [Illustration: Illuminated capital]
-
-The reputation of Vesalius rests securely upon the _Fabrica_. This grand
-book, which is dedicated to Charles the Fifth, consists of six hundred
-and fifty-nine folio pages of text; thirty-four pages of index, disposed
-in three columns to the page; six pages of preface; and two pages of a
-letter which is addressed to “Joannes Oporinus, the renowned professor
-of Greek letters in Basel”. The work is printed in excellent style. The
-printed page measures 8 by 12½ inches, including the marginal notes.
-There are fifty-seven lines to a page, averaging twelve words to a line,
-or approximately seven hundred words to a page. This was written, amid
-many duties and distractions, in the short period of three years. It is
-truly a monument of diligence.
-
-The text of the _Fabrica_ is clear and concise; it describes what has to
-be described and does it well. The errors which Vesalius rectified, and
-the improvements which he made in anatomy, are so numerous that
-references can be made to only a few of them. His anatomical writings
-are of such bulk that they cannot be reviewed adequately within the
-limits of the present chapter. As regards the _Fabrica_, we may say,
-with Richardson, that “The dissections and the plates are the book”.
-
- [Illustration: FIFTH VESALIAN PLATE OF THE MUSCLES
- (From the “Fabrica”, 1543. Reduced one-half)]
-
-The _Fabrica_ contains the rudiments of anthropology as well as the
-first illustrations of comparative anatomy. Vesalius portrays a human
-skull resting upon the skull of a dog. He also shows a simian and a
-canine sacrum and coccyx, to prove his contention that Galen’s anatomy
-was derived from dissection of the lower animals. The _Fabrica_ is more
-than an anatomy. Throughout the work physiology goes hand in hand with
-the anatomical description. The use and function of each part of the
-body is given in short, clear sentences.
-
-The _Fabrica_ is built upon a practical plan. It treats of anatomy in a
-logical manner and is composed of seven books, which deal with the
-following subjects: (1)—Bones and Cartilages; (2)—Ligaments and Muscles;
-(3)—Veins and Arteries; (4)—Nerves; (5)—Organs of Nutrition and
-Generation; (6)—Heart and Lungs; and (7)—Brain and Organs of Sense.
-
-
-The First Book
-
-Vesalius devotes one hundred and sixty-eight pages to the bones and
-cartilages, treating these structures with a thoroughness that amazed
-his contemporaries. He was the first author who correctly described the
-osseous system as a whole. In numerous instances Vesalius places himself
-in direct opposition to the opinions of Galen. He denied the existence
-of the intermaxillary bone in adults, and showed that the inferior
-maxilla does not consist of two pieces, as has been asserted by Galen.
-The seven bones of the sternum were reduced to three by Vesalius. He
-denied Galen’s statement that the bones of the symphysis pubis separate
-during parturition. He was the first anatomist to give an accurate
-description of the sphenoid bone. A small aperture at the root of the
-pterygoid process of the sphenoid bone is called _foramen Vesalii_.
-Vesalius proved the existence of marrow in the bones of the hand, which
-had been denied by Galen. In all respects, he wrote more intelligently
-of the bones than any anatomist who had preceded him.
-
- [Illustration: DEEP MUSCLES OF THE BACK BY VESALIUS
- (From the “Fabrica”, 1543. Reduced one-half)]
-
- [Illustration: PART OF THE FIRST TEXT-PAGE OF THE “FABRICA”]
-
-
-The Second Book
-
-Vesalius devotes one hundred and eighty-eight pages to a description of
-the ligaments and the muscles. This part of his treatise, while it
-contains a few errors and does not reach the high plane of the first
-book, is superior to any work of its kind that had preceded it. Vesalius
-was the first writer to describe the internal pterygoid muscle. He
-denied the existence of a general muscle of the skin, and stated that
-the intercostal muscles merely separate the ribs without expanding or
-contracting the thorax. He held the view that nerves and muscles do not
-stand in any relation of proportionate strength to one another, large
-nerves often being distributed to small muscles. He also held that the
-tendons are similar in structure to the ligaments.
-
- [Illustration: PLATE OF THE ARTERIAL TREE BY VESALIUS
- (From the “Fabrica”, 1543. Reduced one-half)]
-
-Vesalius’s plates of the superficial muscles are among the most
-beautiful that have ever appeared. They have been copied in practically
-all later treatises on anatomy, and have been used extensively by
-art-anatomists. His plates of the deeper muscles, while naturally not so
-pleasing to the eye, are wonderfully near accuracy. The different
-muscles are drawn to show function as well as structure.
-
-
-The Third Book
-
-The third part of the _Fabrica_, comprising sixty pages, is devoted to
-the veins and arteries. Vesalius begins with the definition of a vein,
-and describes the structure of these vessels in general. The term
-“artery” is treated in like manner. He introduces several small
-illustrations which serve to elucidate this part of the text. His first
-large plate in this section is devoted to the venae portae. This is
-followed by a full-page picture of the entire venous system. The
-arterial system is fully described and elaborately illustrated. To these
-is added another plate, in which both arteries and veins are represented
-in their natural order. In other plates he shows the special
-circulations—cerebral, portal, and pulmonary.
-
- [Illustration: DISSECTION OF THE ABDOMEN BY VESALIUS
- (From the “Fabrica”, 1543)]
-
-Vesalius described the valve which guards the foramen ovale in the
-foetus, and also noticed the valve-like fold which guards the entrance
-of each hepatic vein into the inferior vena cava. He also gave an
-admirable description of the vena azygos. Blinded by the ancient theory
-of the movement of the blood—a sort of flux and reflux in the veins, he
-overlooked the function of the venous valves. He described them as
-eminences, or projections, or accidental rugosities, which in no way
-interfere with the flux and reflux of the blood.
-
- [Illustration: DISSECTION OF THE HEART BY VESALIUS
- (From the “Fabrica”, 1543)]
-
-
-The Fourth Book
-
-Vesalius devotes forty pages to the cerebral and spinal nerves. The
-anatomy of the brain is treated in the seventh book. His representations
-of the nerves are very creditable. He mentions eleven pairs of cranial
-nerves: the olfactory, the optic, the motores oculorum, the trifacial,
-the abducens, the portio dura, the portio mollis, the glosso-pharyngeal,
-the pneumogastric, and the spinal accessory.
-
-His account of the brain—contained in the seventh book—is elaborately
-minute considering the time when it was written. His illustrations and
-description of this organ surpass those of scores of later authors.
-Vesalius fully describes the position of the brain; the membranes which
-cover it; the cavities, or ventricles, within it; the divisions of
-cerebrum, cerebellum, and medulla; the anatomy of the base, and the
-origins of the cerebral nerves. These structures are illustrated from
-different points of view.
-
-
-The Fifth Book
-
-The fifth book, comprising more than one hundred pages, is devoted to
-the organs of nutrition. Here we find an admirable account of the
-peritoneum, the mesentery, the omentum, the stomach and intestines, the
-liver, the spleen, and the genito-urinary tract—all of which structures
-are described and fully illustrated. In this book Vesalius also
-describes the foetus in utero.
-
-
-The Sixth Book
-
-In less than fifty pages Vesalius describes the contents of the thorax.
-He writes intelligently of the membrane lining the thorax, and then
-gives an account of the arteria aspera, as the trachea was formerly
-named. Passing on to the lungs, he next takes up the anatomy of the
-heart. He describes its position, form, and structure in better terms
-than had been done by preceding anatomists. The auricles, ventricles,
-and valves are carefully examined. His illustrations of both lungs and
-heart are excellent.
-
-In the 1543 edition of the _Fabrica_, Vesalius adopts the erroneous view
-of Galen that openings exist in the septum of the heart. In the second
-edition of his book, published in 1555, he says that influenced by the
-views of Galen, he believed that the blood passes from the right to the
-left ventricle of the heart, through the septum, by means of the pores.
-Vesalius immediately adds that the septum of the heart is as dense and
-compact as the rest of this organ, and that not the smallest quantity of
-blood passes through the septum.
-
-His account of this subject is best given in his own words:—“In
-recounting as above the structure of the heart, and the use of its
-different parts, I have followed in the main the doctrines of Galen; not
-that I regard them in all particulars as consonant with the truth, but
-because, in attributing new functions and uses to a number of parts, I
-am still distrustful of myself, and not long ago should hardly have
-ventured to differ from that Prince of Physicians by so much as a
-finger’s breadth. As for the dividing wall, or septum, between the
-ventricles forming the right side of the left cavity, the student of
-anatomy should consider carefully that it is equally thick, compact, and
-dense, with all the rest of the cardiac substance enclosing the left
-ventricle. And accordingly, notwithstanding what I have said about the
-pits in this situation, and at the same time not forgetting the
-absorption by the portal vein from the stomach and intestines, I still
-do not see how even the smallest quantity of blood can be transfused,
-through the substance of the septum, from the right ventricle to the
-left”.
-
-Vesalius and other anatomists knew of the hepatic circulation, or at
-least believed in some communication between the portal and hepatic
-veins:—“The branches of this vein”—vena cava—“distributed through the
-body of the liver, come in contact with those of the portal vein; and
-the extreme ramifications of these veins inosculate with each other, and
-in many places appear to unite and be continuous”.
-
-Vesalius knew that in several particulars the accepted physiology of the
-vascular system was wrong. If he could have lived a few years longer, it
-is possible that he might have solved the great problem which was made
-clear by William Harvey. In the light of our present knowledge some of
-Vesalius’s words are suggestive:
-
-“When these matters are taken into account, many things at once present
-themselves in regard to the arterial system, which deserve careful
-consideration; especially the fact that there is hardly a single vein
-going to the stomach, the intestines, or even the spleen, without its
-accompanying artery, and that nearly every member of the portal system
-has a companion artery associated with it in its course. Again, the
-arteries going to the kidneys are of such size that they can by no means
-be affirmed to serve merely for regulating the heat of these organs; and
-still less can we assert that so many arteries are distributed to the
-stomach, intestines and spleen for that purpose alone. And there is,
-furthermore, the fact, which we must for many reasons admit, that there
-is through the arteries and veins a mutual flux and reflux of materials,
-and that within these vessels the weight and gravitation of their
-contents has no effect”.
-
-
-The Seventh Book.
-
-In the seventh book, consisting of less than sixty pages, Vesalius fully
-describes the anatomy of the brain, of the cranial nerves, and of the
-organs of sense. His description of the eye is not as near accuracy as
-might be expected. He places the crystalline lens in the centre of the
-globe. His description of the organ of vision was only slightly better
-than that which was given by Galen. Vesalius showed, however, that the
-optic nerve is not a hollow tube, and that it does not enter the eyeball
-exactly in the antero-posterior axis.
-
-
-Conclusion
-
-Considering the time in which he lived, Vesalius was remarkably free
-from errors. Although to him the arteries were carriers of vital
-spirits, the veins were the true blood vessels, and, according to the
-first edition of his great book, the septum of the heart was filled with
-foramina; yet, we must say with Baas, “these are all mere shadows
-necessary to the brilliancy of the picture”.
-
-Vesalius was more than an anatomist. As a practical physician he had the
-highest reputation among his contemporaries. He was an accomplished
-scholar and was thoroughly conversant with the weaknesses of human
-nature, as is evident from many satirical touches in his writings.
-Although his great work contains many errors that a tyro of the present
-day would laugh at, it laid the foundations of our knowledge. Vesalius
-overthrew the idol of authority in anatomy and taught us to look at
-Nature with our own eyes.
-
-Portal[24] has paid a splendid tribute to Vesalius. “Vesalius”, he says,
-“appears to me one of the greatest men who ever existed. Let the
-astronomers vaunt their Copernicus, the natural philosophers their
-Galileo and Torricelli, the mathematicians their Pascal, the geographers
-their Columbus, I shall always place Vesalius above all their heroes.
-The first study of man is man. Vesalius has this noble object in view,
-and has admirably attained it; he has made on himself and his fellows
-such discoveries as Columbus could make only by travelling to the
-extremity of the world. The discoveries of Vesalius are of direct
-importance to man; by acquiring fresh knowledge of his own structure,
-man seems to enlarge his existence; while discoveries in geography or
-astronomy affect him but in a very indirect manner”.
-
-Like Harvey, Vesalius was obliged to defend his writings from fierce
-attacks. The most desperate of his opponents was his old master, Jacobus
-Sylvius, who was so wedded to the Galenic teachings that he asserted
-that since Galen’s time the thigh bones had changed their shape. He
-spoke of Vesalius as a “madman, Vesanus, whose pestilential breath
-poisons Europe”. Ponderous discussions were carried on between the
-friends and opponents of the great anatomist. The complete overthrow of
-the Galenists resulted.
-
-If Vesalius had remained professor of anatomy in Padua, instead of being
-appointed physician to Charles the Fifth, at Madrid, in 1544, it is
-probable that the circulation of the blood would have been discovered by
-him.
-
-In recent years attempts have been made to show that it was not
-Vesalius, but Leonardo da Vinci, who was the founder of modern anatomy.
-A considerable amount of controversial literature has accumulated on
-this subject. For our purpose it may suffice to quote the conclusions of
-McMurrich[25]:—“Leonardo was the first to create a new anatomy, but he
-created it for himself alone; Vesalius demonstrated a new anatomy to the
-world. It was the publication of Vesalius’s _Fabrica_ that
-revolutionized anatomy, while Leonardo’s drawings were lying
-unpublished, at first the cherished possessions of his favorite pupil
-Melzi, later in the Ambrosian Library in Milan, and still later
-forgotten in the Royal Library at Windsor. We must credit Leonardo as
-being the forerunner of the new anatomy, but Vesalius must be recognized
-as its founder”.
-
- [Illustration: INITIAL LETTER BY VESALIUS
- (From the “Fabrica”, 1543)]
-
-
-
-
- CHAPTER TWELFTH
- Contemporary Anatomists
-
-
- [Illustration: Illuminated capital]
-
-Shortly after the publication of the _Fabrica_, great activity was
-manifested in anatomic research, and numerous opponents and critics of
-Vesalius appeared in the arena of science. The criticism of such men as
-Jacobus Sylvius and John Dryander, while it was of a violent type, was
-of much less importance than was that of Eustachius, Columbus and
-Fallopius. Vesalius was not without his partisans, of whom Ingrassias
-and Cannanus are worthy of mention.
-
-
-Bartholomeus Eustachius
-
-Eustachius was born at San Severino, a small city near Salernum, about
-the year 1520. He studied anatomy in Rome and made remarkable progress
-in this science. In the year 1562, as he informs us in his _Opuscula
-Anatomica_, he was professor of medicine in the Collegio della Sapienza
-at Rome. Like many other men of genius, Eustachius died in poverty. In
-August, 1574, having been called by the illness of Cardinal Rovere to
-Fossombrone, Eustachius died upon the journey.
-
-To Eustachius posterity is indebted for a series of splendid copperplate
-engravings which were designed to illustrate the anatomy of the human
-body. These plates, the handiwork of Eustachius, and the first
-anatomical illustrations wrought in copper, were completed in 1552, only
-nine years after the first impression of the book of Vesalius.
-Unfortunately for himself, and worse for medical science, Eustachius was
-unable to publish them. If this magnificent atlas of anatomy could have
-been published when completed, the anatomical discoveries of the
-eighteenth century would have come two hundred years earlier.
-Unfortunately the entire text of the work is lost. For one hundred and
-thirty-eight years the Eustachian plates remained either in the family
-of Pinus, an intimate friend of the anatomist, or were buried in the
-Papal Library at Rome. When discovered they were presented by Pope
-Clement XI. to his physician, Lancisi, who published them with notes of
-his own, at Rome, in 1714. In 1740 they were issued under the direction
-of Cajetan Petrioli. Four years later the edition by Albinus appeared,
-which was republished in 1761. The anatomical writings of Eustachius
-were published during his lifetime, in 1564. It is upon his _Tabulae
-Anatomicae_ that the fame of this wonderful man is founded. If this work
-had been published in 1552, Eustachius would have divided with Vesalius
-the honor of founding human anatomy. The victim of circumstances, his
-name has been overshadowed by that of Vesalius, to whom in some respects
-he was superior. Deprived during life of his merited honors, Eustachius
-has been awarded a goodly share of posthumous fame.
-
- [Illustration: BRAIN AND NERVES BY EUSTACHIUS
- (Reduced one-half)]
-
- [Illustration: MUSCLES BY EUSTACHIUS
- (Reduced one-half)]
-
-Eustachius was the first anatomist to describe, with any degree of
-accuracy, the tube which bears his name. We can truly say he discovered
-it, since Alcmaeon dissected only the lower animals, and was not an
-accurate observer, as his view that goats breathe through the ears,
-amply testifies. Eustachius discovered the tensor tympani and stapedius
-muscles, the modiolus and membranous cochlea, and the stapes. The honor
-of the discovery of the stapes is claimed for no less than five renowned
-anatomists, namely, Fallopius, Ingrassias, Columbus, Colladus, and
-Eustachius. It is unnecessary to discuss this disputed claim to
-priority. The truth seems to be that the stapes was discovered by both
-Ingrassias and Eustachius, each independently of the other. In 1546
-Ingrassias publicly demonstrated the little bone of the ear in his
-lectures at Naples. Fallopius, after learning from an eyewitness that
-Ingrassias had actually discovered and named the ossicle, relinquished
-his claim to the discovery. Columbus and Colladus filed their
-information at too late a date. Eustachius, as previously stated,
-finished his anatomical plates in 1552. His seventh plate shows, among
-other subjects, the auditory ossicles—malleus, incus and stapes—and
-tensor tympani muscle. These objects are delineated as taken from a
-human subject, and also from a dog.
-
-Eustachius discovered the origin of the optic nerves, and the sixth
-cerebral nerves. He gives excellent pictures of the corpora olivaria and
-corpora pyramidalia; of the stylo-hyoid muscle; of the deep muscles of
-the neck and throat; of the suprarenal capsules, and of the thoracic
-duct. He also described the ciliary muscle. Eustachius was the first
-anatomist who accurately studied the teeth and the phenomena of the
-first and second dentition. In his researches he employed magnifying
-glasses, maceration, exsiccation, and various methods of injection.
-
-
-Realdus Columbus
-
-The first anatomical treatise containing an account of the lesser, or
-pulmonary circulation, was the monumental work, _De Re Anatomica, libri
-xv._, written by Realdus Columbus and sumptuously published at Venice in
-the year 1559. This, however, was not the first printed account of the
-lesser circulation. Six years prior to the publication of the book of
-Columbus, the unfortunate Servetus, in a theological treatise, described
-correctly the course of the blood in its transit through the lungs.
-Tried for heresy, Servetus was burned, together with all obtainable
-copies of his book. Although it had been printed, the work was
-suppressed; hence it follows that Columbus was the first to publish the
-great discovery. Of the life of this anatomist we know but little. Born
-at Cremona, a small Milanese village, the year of his birth is unknown.
-He died in 1559, while his book was being printed. A few copies were
-finished before his demise, since a copy belonging to the late Dr.
-George Jackson Fisher, of Sing Sing, N.Y., contains the author’s own
-dedication to Pope Paul IV., while in other exemplars, the dedication
-has been written by the two sons of Columbus, and is addressed to “_Pio
-IIII., Pont. Max_”. This prelate, on the death of Paul IV., on August
-18, 1559, became the head of the Church.
-
-Some writers have held that the discovery of the lesser circulation was
-not made by Columbus independently of Servetus, but that a copy of the
-book of Servetus had drifted into Italy and had been read by Columbus.
-There is no direct evidence to support this view. When Vesalius was
-called to Madrid as physician to Charles the Fifth, Columbus, in 1544,
-succeeded him in the University of Padua; two years later he filled the
-anatomical chair at Pisa, and in 1546, Pope Paul IV. called him to Rome.
-Here he spent the later years of his life, engaged in teaching anatomy
-and in writing his book. For forty years Columbus pursued his anatomical
-studies, and in that period he dissected an unusually large number of
-bodies. Fourteen subjects passed under his scalpel in a single year.
-
- [Illustration: TITLE-PAGE OF COLUMBUS’S ANATOMY
- (Reduced one-half)]
-
-Columbus frequently made experiments upon living animals. He was the
-first to use dogs for such purposes, preferring them to swine. Book
-XIIII. of the work of Columbus is upon the subject of vivisection, _De
-viva sectione_. In this he tells us how to employ living dogs in
-demonstrating the movements of the heart and brain, the action of the
-lungs, etc. Columbus was the first anatomist who demonstrated
-experimentally that the blood passes from the lungs into the pulmonary
-veins. “When the heart dilates”, says Columbus, “it draws natural blood
-from the vena cava into the right ventricle, and prepared blood from the
-pulmonary vein into the left; the valves being so disposed that they
-collapse and permit its ingress; but when the heart contracts, they
-become tense, and close the apertures, so that nothing can return by the
-way it came. The valves of the aorta and pulmonary artery opening, on
-the contrary, at the same moment, give passage to the spirituous blood
-for distribution to the body at large, and to the natural blood for
-transference to the lungs”.
-
-Like Servetus, Columbus held to the idea of “spiritus”. Harvey was the
-first physiologist who recognized the circulation as purely a movement
-of blood. All before him assumed the existence of a mixture of air and
-blood. Columbus, pupil and prosector of Vesalius, like his great master,
-denied the existence of foramina in the cardiac septum.
-
-
-Gabriel Fallopius
-
- [Illustration: GABRIEL FALLOPIUS]
-
-Gabriel Fallopius (1523-1562), of Modena, was a noted Italian anatomist.
-In his twenty-fifth year he was made professor of anatomy at Pisa.
-Although the span of his life was short, he will be remembered always as
-the discoverer of the tubes which bear his name. According to Fisher,
-Fallopius “described the ear more minutely than had ever before been
-done. He discovered the little canal along which the facial nerve passes
-after leaving the auditory; it is still called the _aquaeductus
-Fallopii_. He demonstrated the fact of the communication of the mastoid
-cells with the cavity of the tympanum; and also described the fenestrae
-rotunda and ovalis. In the treatment of diseases of the ear, he used an
-aural speculum, and employed sulphuric acid for the removal of polypi
-from the meatus. In some of his supposed discoveries he had long been
-anticipated; for example, the tubes which bear his name were known and
-accurately described by Herophilus, over three hundred years before the
-Christian era, and also by Rufus of Ephesus, of whom Galen speaks as the
-best anatomist of the second century. Rufus refers to two varicose and
-tortuous vessels passing from the testes (as the ovaries were called) to
-the cavity of the uterus. Fallopius, however, gave a full account of
-their course, position, size and structure. He cut into them and found
-them hollow, gave them the name of tubae seminales, and posterity
-attached his name to them, and in time came to a better comprehension of
-their true function. This is not the only instance in the history of
-anatomical discovery where the name of a person, not its discoverer, has
-been given to an organ. Allusion has been made to Fallopius as a
-botanist; a genus of plants, _Fallopia_, has been named in honor of
-him”.
-
-Fallopius was appointed professor of anatomy at Pisa, in the year 1548;
-and later, at the instance of the Grand Duke of Tuscany, Cosimo I., he
-received a professorship at Padua, as successor to Vesalius. Besides the
-chair of anatomy and surgery and of botany, he also held the office of
-superintendent of the new botanic garden in that city. Fallopius
-remained in Padua to the day of his death, which occurred in 1562. He
-was very properly succeeded by his favorite pupil, Fabricius ab
-Aquapendente, who had been for some time previously his anatomical
-demonstrator. His collected works, as published in Venice, 1606, embrace
-twenty-four treatises distributed in three folio volumes. Only one of
-his works was published during his lifetime, namely, his _Observationes
-Anatomicae_, Venice, 1561, which is considered one of his most valuable
-books, containing, as it does, most of his discoveries and his
-animadversions on the works of other anatomists.
-
-This was written as a supplement to the anatomy of Vesalius, for it
-follows the same order, passes upon the same subjects, corrects the
-inaccuracies of the Vesalian treatise, and supplies what is wanting.
-Throughout the work Fallopius treats Vesalius with great respect, and
-never mentions him without an honorable title. Vesalius wrote an answer
-to this work, entitled, _Observationum Fallopii examen_, in which he
-acknowledges the courtesy of Fallopius, but, as argument progresses,
-appears to be out of temper.
-
-After the death of Fallopius it was thought that no successor except
-Vesalius could be found competent to fill his place. Accordingly
-Vesalius was chosen. The news of his appointment reached him while he
-was returning from a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. Unfortunately he was
-shipwrecked and perished, otherwise history would have afforded an
-example of the master filling the chair of the pupil.
-
-
-John Philip Ingrassias
-
-Ingrassias, who lived between the years 1510-1580, was a graduate of the
-celebrated Paduan School. He described minutely the anatomy of the ear,
-including the tympanum, fenestrae rotunda and ovalis, the cochlea, the
-semi-circular canals, and the tensor tympani muscle. His admiring pupils
-caused his portrait to be painted and placed in the Neapolitan School,
-with this inscription:—“To Philip Ingrassias, of Sicily, who, by his
-lectures, restored the science of true Medicine and Anatomy in Naples,
-his pupils have suspended this portrait as a mark of grateful
-remembrance”. Ingrassias was a voluminous writer, his chief work being a
-treatise on osteology, which was published twenty-three years after his
-death. When the plague depopulated Palermo, in 1575, his devotion was
-such as to earn for him the title of the Sicilian Hippocrates. Few men
-have been more earnest workers in medical science. If his fame as an
-anatomist has not equalled that of others, the cause is to be sought in
-the multiplicity of competitors, not in lack of zeal and ability.
-
- [Illustration: INGRASSIAS]
-
-
-
-
- CHAPTER THIRTEENTH
- Commentators and Plagiarists
-
-
- [Illustration: Illuminated capital]
-
-Medical history furnishes numerous examples of literary theft. In many
-instances an entire set of anatomical plates has been pirated by
-unscrupulous publishers. In a few cases both text and plates have been
-appropriated by medical authors. The most notorious example of this form
-of theft was furnished by William Cowper (1666-1709), an English surgeon
-and anatomist, who, having secured three hundred copies of Bidloo’s set
-of one hundred and five anatomical plates, in 1697 issued the work[26]
-as his own. Cowper added a few original illustrations to the book.
-
-Vesalius suffered severely at the hands of the plagiarists. Pirated
-editions of the _Tabulae Anatomicae_ were printed in several cities,
-chiefly in Germany. As regards the _Fabrica_, we may say that it has
-been the fountain from which many anatomical writers have derived
-practically all of their illustrations and much of their text.
-
-The fame of the _Fabrica_ soon spread throughout Europe. It was
-published in Germany, in Holland and in England. An epitome of its
-contents was issued in Latin, in 1545, by Thomas Geminus, or Gemini,
-under the title:—_Compendiosa totius Anatomiae delineatio, aere exaratum
-per Thomam. Geminum._ It contained forty of the Vesalian plates, cut in
-copper, and was the first book issued in England in which the roller
-printing process was employed. It was dedicated to Henry the Eighth, and
-was embellished with “one of the earliest and most curious of all extant
-engraved title-pages”.
-
-In 1553, Geminus issued a second edition, in which the text was
-translated into English. This edition was dedicated to Edward the Sixth,
-with a commendatory note, “To the gentill readers and Surgeons of
-Englande”. Six years later the third English edition appeared, which was
-inscribed to Queen Elizabeth. It contains the first published portrait
-of the Queen. She is shown upon the engraved title-page, and, strange to
-say, above her is another queenly figure, with a pen in her right hand,
-a wreath on her left, her foot resting on the globe, and styled
-_Victoria_.
-
-Another English work on anatomy, which is filled with poor imitations of
-Vesalius’s illustrations, is the _Microcosmographia_ of Helkiah Crooke,
-or Crocus, who was “Professor in Anatomy and Chirurgery”. Its chief
-value rests in an elaborately engraved title-page, a part of which shows
-Crooke giving a demonstration in anatomy in the presence of the
-“Worshipfull Company of Barber-Chirurgeons”, in London, early in the
-seventeenth century.
-
-John Banister of Nottingham, in 1578, borrowed a few Vesalian woodcuts
-for use in _The Historie of Man, sucked from the sappe of the most
-approved Anatomists and published for the Utilitie of all Godly
-Chirurgians within this Realme_.
-
-Most of the host of translators, epitomizers, commentators and imitators
-of Vesalius have passed into oblivion. A few of these persons have
-possessed enough of individuality to deserve recognition.
-
-Juan Valverde di Hamusco, a Spaniard who was born about the year 1500,
-studied anatomy at Padua and later at Rome. His book, _Historia de la
-Composicion del Cuerpo Humano_, was published at Rome in 1556. It
-contains forty-two copperplates and an engraved title-page. Although the
-author says he has used only the Vesalian plates, his work contains
-several plates which are not to be found in Vesalius’s writings. For
-example, Valverde shows a _muskelmann_ with his skin held in his right
-hand, the left grasping a dagger which may have been used in the
-skinning process. Other original drawings show the abdomen and
-intestines, a pregnant woman with the abdomen opened, and illustrations
-of the superficial veins.
-
-Valverde was physician to Cardinal Juan de Toledo, Archbishop of
-Santiago, to whom the work is dedicated. The illustrations were drawn by
-Gaspar Becerra and were engraved by Nicholas Beatrizet. Valverde’s book
-went through several editions. It forms a landmark in the medical
-history of Spain—a country which, for many years, was behind other
-states of Europe in matters of science.
-
-To name the list of anatomical writers who have derived their artistic
-inspiration from the _Fabrica_ would require much more space than is at
-our disposal. It must suffice to say, that, for a period of two
-centuries, nearly all treatises on anatomy contained illustrations which
-were taken from the writings of Vesalius. With few exceptions, these
-reproductions were little better than caricatures of the original
-figures.
-
-Of the numerous editions of the _Fabrica_ there are three which are
-highly prized, namely, the first one, 1543; the second, issued in 1555,
-containing eight hundred and twenty-four pages, with many changes in the
-text; and the 1725 edition of the collected writings of Vesalius. The
-last named is a huge volume which was published at Leyden under the
-supervision of Boerhaave and Albinus, with the illustrations cut in
-copper by Jan Wandelaar[27].
-
-It contains the _Fabrica_, the _Epitome_, the _Epistola de Radicis
-Chynae_, various anatomical treatises of a controversial character, and
-the _Chirurgia Magna_ which has been wrongly attributed to Vesalius.
-Morley says of this book:—“After his death a great work on surgery
-appeared, in seven books, signed with his name, and commonly included
-among his writings. There is reason, however, to believe that his name
-was stolen to give value to the book, which was compiled and published
-by a Venetian, Prosper Bogarucci, a literary crow, who fed himself upon
-the dead man’s reputation”.
-
- [Illustration: Ornamental block]
-
-
-
-
- CHAPTER FOURTEENTH
- The Court Physician
-
-
- [Illustration: Illuminated capital]
-
-Vesalius, having finished the _Fabrica_, intended to write a work on the
-practice of medicine which should be based on pathology. He makes
-mention of this in the preface of the _Fabrica_, and in numerous places
-in the body of the book he describes the pathologic appearances which he
-found in dissection.
-
-Returning to Padua after a year’s absence, he found that the University
-for which he had strenuously labored was a very hotbed of opposition.
-His former pupil and friend, Realdus Columbus, who was now lecturing on
-anatomy at Padua, had turned against him. How deeply Vesalius was
-wounded by the man whom he had made, can be appreciated only by those
-who have been placed in similar circumstances. The controversy between
-Columbus and Vesalius was of a bitter and personal character.
-
-On all sides the views of Vesalius were attacked, and the defenders of
-Galen joined hands with men like Columbus in an effort to besmirch the
-great anatomist. Disgusted with such treatment, Vesalius, early in 1544,
-went to Pisa. Here he conducted a course in anatomy. Leaving Pisa, he
-went to Bologna where he made some special dissections upon two bodies.
-About this time he declined a chair in the University of Pisa which was
-tendered to him by direction of Cosimo de’ Medici. Tired of the
-apparently useless effort to make men see the truth, sick of disputes
-and arguments, persecuted by members of his own profession, in a fit of
-passion Vesalius threw his manuscripts into the fire and ended his
-career as a scientist. “Thus”, says Morley, “he destroyed a huge volume
-of annotations upon Galen; a whole book of Medical Formulae; many
-original notes upon drugs; the copy of Galen from which he lectured,
-covered with marginal notes of new observations that had occurred to him
-while demonstrating; and the paraphrase of the books of Rhazes, in which
-the knowledge of the Arabians was collated with that of the Greeks and
-others”.
-
- [Illustration: CHARLES THE FIFTH]
-
-While in this frame of mind it is not surprising that he should have
-accepted the appointment of Archiatrus to Charles the Fifth of Spain.
-
-The great Emperor was now at the zenith of his fame. His kingdom, which
-reached from South America to the Zuyder Zee, was well under control,
-but the monarch already contemplated the abdication of the throne in
-favor of his son Philip, who is known in history as Philip the Second.
-
-Vesalius left Italy and took up his residence at Madrid. He was now in
-his thirtieth year. As Archiatrus he accompanied the Emperor in the
-fourth French war, in which he gained his first experience as a military
-surgeon. He also acted as physician to Charles and to the members of the
-imperial household. The war ended in September 1544. In January, 1545,
-Charles went to Brussels, and remained in the Netherlands for many
-months. Vesalius was now in his native country, and in April, 1546, he
-visited the graves of his ancestors at Nymwegen and Wesel. In the same
-year he published a new edition of his treatise on the China root.
-
-On the twenty-fifth day of October, 1555, amid a scene of pomp and
-splendor, in the presence of the assembled representatives of the
-Netherlands, Charles formally surrendered to his son all his
-territories, jurisdiction and authority in the Low-Countries. This was
-the first of a series of acts by which the Emperor gradually
-relinquished the reins of power, in order to spend his remaining days in
-a cloister. Philip thus became the heir to a vast dominion. Vesalius was
-continued in office as Archiatrus by the new Emperor. From both Charles
-and Philip, Vesalius received many marks of honor. It was he who rescued
-Charles from what was thought to be a mortal disease. At a later date,
-when Philip’s unfortunate son, Don Carlos, received a severe injury to
-the head, and after the treatment of the Spanish physicians had failed,
-it was Vesalius who saved his life by an operation. These cures, and the
-accurate prediction of the death-day of Maximilian d’Egmont, placed the
-fame of Vesalius at high tide.
-
-
-
-
- CHAPTER FIFTEENTH
- Pilgrimage and Death
-
-
- [Illustration: Illuminated capital]
-
-Suddenly, early in the year 1564, for a reason which has never been
-explained satisfactorily, Vesalius left Madrid. Apparently he was at the
-height of success. He was famous as a physician and surgeon; he was a
-favorite at the Spanish court; he had amassed a fortune; and seemingly
-he was destined to pass his remaining days under the most favorable
-surroundings. As occurs to all great men, he had excited the jealous
-animosity of many of the members of his profession. The efforts of the
-Madrid physicians to ignore the talents of one whom they regarded as a
-foreigner, long since had reacted to the advantage of the Archiatrus.
-
- [Illustration: PHILIP THE SECOND]
-
-During the twenty years that he had filled the post of Archiatrus, the
-scalpel of Vesalius was rusting: but the controversy concerning the
-infallibility of Galen was still raging. The violent criticisms of
-Sylvius upon the _Fabrica_ had been silenced by death, but others took
-up the cause of Galen where Sylvius had left it. But the passing years
-had brought a new coterie of professors, who, like Fallopius at Padua;
-Rondelet at Montpellier; Massa at Venice; and Fuchs at Tübingen, were
-boldly teaching many things that were contrary to Galen.
-
-Life at the Spanish court was not favorable to the study of science.
-“The hand of the Church”, says Foster[28], “was heavy on the land; the
-dagger of the Inquisition was stabbing at all mental life, and its torch
-was a sterilizing flame sweeping over all intellectual activity. The
-pursuit of natural knowledge had become a crime, and to search with the
-scalpel into the secrets of the body of man was accounted sacrilege. It
-was for a life in priest-ridden, ignorant, superstitious Madrid that
-Vesalius had forsaken the freedom of the Venetian Republic and the
-bright academic circles of Padua; in Madrid, where, as he himself has
-said, ‘he could not lay his hand on so much as a dried skull, much less
-have the chance of making a dissection’. Moreover, he must have felt the
-loss of Charles, who, whatever his faults, recognized the worth of
-intellectual efforts, and in many ways had shown his sympathy with
-Vesalius’s love of knowledge. Such sympathy could not be looked for in
-the narrow and bigoted Philip”.
-
-About this time Vesalius received a copy of the _Observationes
-Anatomicae_ of his pupil Fallopius, who, having learned all that his
-master had taught of anatomy, continued his studies with great skill and
-industry. Such a book, coming at an opportune time, must have seemed
-like a voice calling the Archiatrus back to the intellectual life,
-bringing to his mind’s eye the recollection of his happy days in Italy.
-
-Vesalius travelled to Venice by way of Perpignan. While in Venice he
-visited the printer, Francesco Sanese, and discussed the publication of
-a new book which should contain his reply to Fallopius. In a short time
-he started for Cyprus in company with Jacobo Malatesta, the commander of
-the Venetian forces in that island. Thence he passed to Jerusalem on a
-pilgrimage to the Holy Land. Vesalius never returned from that journey.
-Information of his death reached Brussels towards the end of that
-year—1564.
-
-What was the reason for this pilgrimage? Various alleged authorities
-have given different versions, many of which are evidently fictitious.
-The most reasonable account, which emanates from Spanish-French sources,
-dates from a letter written January 1, 1565, to the physician Caspar
-Peucer by Hubert Languer, or Hubertus Languetus, the Huguenot friend of
-Philip Sidney, which says:—“They say that Vesalius is dead. Doubtless
-you have heard that he went to Jerusalem. That journey had, as they tell
-us from Spain, an odd reason. Vesalius, believing a young Spanish
-nobleman whom he had attended to be dead, obtained leave of the parents
-to open the body for the sake of inquiring into the cause of the
-illness, which he had not rightly comprehended. This was granted; but he
-had no sooner made an incision into the body than he perceived the
-symptoms of life, and opening the breast, saw the heart beat. The
-parents coming afterwards to the knowledge of this, were not satisfied
-with prosecuting him for murder, but accused him to the Inquisition of
-impiety, in hopes that he would be punished with greater rigor by the
-judges of that tribunal than by those of the common law. But the King of
-Spain interposed, and saved him on condition that by way of atoning for
-the error he should undertake a pilgrimage to the Holy Land”.
-
-The pilgrimage was made, the Holy Sepulcher was visited, and the weary
-wanderer had started for Padua to take the chair which was made vacant
-by the death of Fallopius. A violent storm swept the Ionian Sea.
-Vesalius’s ship was wrecked upon the island of Zakynthos, where, on the
-fifteenth day of October, 1564, the Archiatrus died of exhaustion.
-
-Such was the miserable end of Andreas Vesalius of Brussels, a man, who,
-before he had attained his thirtieth year, had become the greatest
-anatomist that the world has ever seen.
-
- [Illustration: Ornamental block]
-
-
-
-
- FOOTNOTES
-
-
-[1]Théorie de la figure humaine. Paris, 1773.
-
-[2]Moehsen: Verzeichnis einer Sammlung von Bildnissen. Berlin, 1771;
- page 59.
-
-[3]Bell: Observations on Italy. Edinburgh, 1825; page 257.
-
-[4]Galen: De Anatomicis Adininistrationibus. Lib. II.
-
-[5]Celsus: De Medicina. Lib. I.
-
-[6]Fisher: Claudius Galenus. Annals of Anatomy and Surgery, Vol. IV.,
- page 216.
-
-[7]Saint Basil, in his maturer years, deeply regretted that he had
- studied classical literature in his youth. Jerome regarded the
- reading of the writings of antiquity as a terrible crime. Gregory
- the Great declared a knowledge of grammar even for a layman to be
- indelicate.—Fort: Medical Economy during the Middle Ages. N. Y.,
- 1883; pages 102, 103.
-
-[8]Meryon: History of Medicine. London, 1861; vol. I, page 479.
-
-[9]Adam; Vitae Germanorum Medicorum. Haidelbergae, 1620: page 224.
-
-[10]Zwinger: Theatrum Vitae Humanae. Basileae, 1571.
-
-[11]Vesalius: Fabrica, 1543, preface.
-
-[12]Sylvius: Ordo et Ordinis Ratio in Legendis Hippocratis et Galeni
- Libris, 1539.
-
-[13]The Collége Royal de France was founded by Francis the First. This
- enlightened patron of the sciences and arts recognized the merits of
- scientific men and rewarded them with his money and his friendship.
- He established the Collége de France with twelve richly-endowed
- professorships, one of which was devoted to medicine. The lectures
- were free to all who desired to attend. The first incumbent of the
- chair of medicine was Vidus Vidius, Guido Guidi, of Florence, who
- filled this position from 1542 to 1548. Such success followed his
- labors that, on his return to Italy, his experience in Paris was the
- subject of this witticism: _Vidus venit, Vidius vidit, Vidus vicit_.
-
-[14]Northcote: History of Anatomy. London, 1772; page 56.
-
-[15]Portal: Histoire de l’Anatomie et de la Chirurgie. Paris, 1770; vol.
- I, page 365.
-
-[16]Moreau: Vita Sylvii, in Sylvii Opera Medica. Geneva, 1635.
-
-[17]Vesalius: De radice Chinae epistola, 1546; pages 151, 152.
-
-[18]Archives Curieuses de l’Histoire de France.
-
-[19]Guinterius: Anatomicarum Institutionum, 1539.
-
-[20]Paraphrasis in nonum librum Rhazae medici Arabis clariss. ad Regem
- Almansorem, de singularum corporis partium affectuum curatione,
- autore Andrea Wesalio Bruxellensi Medicinae candidato. Lovanii ex
- officina Rutgeri Resii. mense Februar. 1537.
-
-[21]Radicis Chinae usus, Andrea Vesalio autore. Lugd., 1547; page 278.
-
-[22]Moehsen: Verzeichnis einer Sammlung von Bildnissen. Berlin, 1771;
- page 82.
-
-[23]Sandrart: Teutsche Academie. Nürnberg, 1685: vol. II., page 243.
-
-[24]Portal: Histoire de l’anatomie et de la chirurgie. Paris, 1770; vol.
- I., page 399.
-
-[25]McMurrich: Medical Library and Historical Journal, December, 1906.
-
-[26]Cowper: The Anatomy of Human Bodies. Oxford, 1697.
-
-[27]Andreae Vesalii Opera Omnia Anatomica et Chirurgica in duos tomos
- distributa cura Hermanni Boerhaave et Bernhardi Siegfried Albini.
- Lugduni Batavorum, 1725.
-
-[28]Foster: Lectures on the History of Physiology. Cambridge, 1901, page
- 17.
-
-
-
-
- INDEX
-
-
- [Illustration: Ornamental block]
-
-
-
-
- INDEX
-
-
- A
- Abrégé d’anatomie 93
- Achillinus, Alexander 42
- Adam, M. 55
- Adolph of Nassau 11
- Aegina, Paul of 63, 80
- Aesculapius 17
- Aetius 80
- Alberti, Leo Battista 7
- Albertus Magnus 55
- Albius, John Andreas 80
- Albinus, B. S. 46, 115, 129
- Albucasis 30
- Alcmaeon 19, 115
- Aldo 11
- Aldus Manutius 43
- Alexander of Tralles 63
- Alexander the Great 20
- Alexandria 20, 22
- Alexandrian Anatomists 22, 23
- Alexandrian Library 23
- Alexandrian University 22, 29
- Alfonso the Magnificent 5
- Almansor, the 72
- Al-Rasi 31
- Amatus 51
- Ambrosian Library 113
- Anatomy in Ancient Times 17-28
- Anathomia Mundini 11, 35, 48
- Anatomia Corporis Humani 37
- Anatomia ridotta 93
- Anatomia Porci 27
- Anatomical Renaissance 14
- Andernach, John Winter of 61
- Antonius Musa 20
- Antropologium of Magnus Hundt 39
- Apelles 22
- Aphorisms of Hippocrates 53
- Apollo 19
- Apophyses venarum 51
- Aquaeductus Fallopii 122
- Aqueduct of Sylvius 60
- Arabs 27, 30, 56
- Arantius 15, 16
- Archimedes 22
- Archiatrus 131, 132, 135, 136
- Aristophanes 22
- Aristotle 19, 55, 65, 66, 67
- Ars Curativa of Galen 56
- Art-Anatomy 7, 91
- Artery of Sylvius 60
- Asclepiadae 17, 19, 56
- Astruc 57
- Athanasius 22
- Augustus 20
- Aurelius, Marcus 24
- Averröes 4, 56
- Avicenna 15, 31, 56, 80
-
-
- B
- Banister, John 127
- Basel, view of 83
- Beatrizet, Nicholas 128
- Becerra, Caspar 128
- Bell, John 18
- Bembo 12
- Benedictine Monastery 5
- Berengario da Carpi 43-46
- Bertruccius 29
- Boccaccio 4, 5
- Bogarucci, Prosper 129
- Boerhaave 129
- Bologna 6, 15, 27, 29, 30, 37, 43, 130
- Boniface VIII 15
- Bracciolini, Poggio 10
- Brambilla 44
- Brissotus, Petrus 56
- Bruchaeum 21
- Budaeus 56
- Busleiden, Hieronymus 54
-
-
- C
- Caelius Aurelianus 63
- Caesalpinus 16
- Caius 10
- Cajetan Petrioli 115
- Calamus scriptorius 23
- Callimichus 22
- Calcar, Jan Stephan van 9, 74, 82, 83, 89
- Canna coxae 34
- Cannanus 51, 60
- Caraffa 13, 73
- Carbo, Gisbertus 55
- Cardan, Jerome 52
- Cardi, Luigi 9
- Carpi, Seigneur de 43
- Carpus 43-46
- Carolus Stephanus 48
- Caxton 11
- Celsus, Aulus Cornelius 10, 22
- Charles the Fifth 53, 55, 82, 87, 95, 112, 119, 131
- Chauliac, Guy de 29
- China root 73, 87, 132
- Christian III 63
- Cicero 4, 5
- Cimabue 7
- Civitas Hippocratica 27
- Clement VII 12
- Clement XI 115
- Colladus 117, 118
- Collegium trilingue 54
- Collége de Tréguier 58
- Collége de Cornouailles 58
- Collége de France 15, 58, 60
- Columbus 16, 114, 117, 118-121, 130
- Copernicus 2
- Copho 27
- Coriolano, Christoforo 88
- Cortona, Pietro da 9
- Cosimo de’ Medici 5, 131
- Cosimo I 123
- Cowper, William 126
- Crabbe, Isabella 53
- Crooke, Helkiah 127
- Crusaders 15
- Curtius, Matthaeus 79
-
-
- D
- da Carpi, Berengario 43-46, 47
- da Carpi, Hugo 45
- Danoni 84
- Dante, Alighieri 3
- Dark Ages, Anatomy in the 26
- da Vinci, Leonardo 2, 8, 9, 113
- de Ketham, Joannes 32, 33
- Della Torre, Marc Antonio 8
- Descartes 65
- Deventer, the Beggar of 61, 64
- de Zerbi, Gabriel 37, 39
- Donaria of Anatomical Interest 20
- Don Carlos 132
- Dryander, John 46-48, 51, 114
- Dubois, Jacques 57
- Dürer, Albrecht 9
-
-
- E
- Eclectic Philosophy 66
- Egyptian Anatomy 17
- Eichmann 47
- Elizabeth, Queen 127
- Empedocles of Agrigentum 19
- Epidaurus 20
- Epitome, the 84, 91, 93, 95-97, 129
- Erasistratus 22, 23, 24
- Eratosthenes 22
- Estienne, Charles 48-51, 60
- Estienne, Robert 50
- Eucharus 31
- Eucharius Rhodion 16
- Euclid 22
- Eustachius, Bartholomeus 15, 16, 114-118
- Eyck, Hubert and John van 7
-
-
- F
- Fabrica, the 30, 54, 55, 71, 82, 84, 94, 126, 128, 129, 130, 133
- contents of 93-113
- Fabricius ab Aquapendente 16, 51
- Fallopia 123
- Fallopius, Gabriel 16, 114, 117, 118, 121-124, 134, 135
- Ferdinand I 63
- Fernel, Jean 57, 58, 64-67
- Fisher, G. J. 25, 119, 121
- Fliegende Blätter 37, 89, 95
- Foesius, Anutius 10
- Foramen Vesalii 103
- Fort, George F. 27
- Fracastoro 10
- Francis the First 60
- Frederick II 28
- Friesen 40
-
-
- G
- Gabriel de Zerbi 37, 39
- Galen 10, 15, 19, 20, 24-26, 30, 36, 56, 57, 58, 61, 63, 64, 66, 67,
- 68, 79, 80, 101, 103, 109, 111, 112, 123, 130, 131, 133, 134
- Galileo 2, 112
- Geminus, Thomas 126, 127
- Gemma, Regnier 70, 71
- Giacomo Berengario 43-46
- Giacomo Moro 93
- Giotto 7
- Giuseppe Ribera 9
- Glisson 51
- Granvella 55
- Greece, Anatomy in 17, 18, 20
- Gregory the Great 27
- Guido Guidi 60
- Guillemeau, Jacques 16
- Guinterius, Joannes 61-64, 67, 68, 71, 81
-
-
- H
- Hamusco, Juan Valverde di 128
- Harvey, William 16, 110, 112, 121
- Havers, Clopton 50
- Hela, Ricardus 37, 38
- Henry the Second 65
- Hero 22
- Herophilus 22, 23, 122
- Historie of Man 127
- Hippocrates 10, 17, 18, 19, 24, 57, 66, 67, 80, 125
- Holbein, the Elder 41
- Homer 29
- Hubert van Eyck 7
- Hugo da Carpi 45
- Humanists and Humanism 4, 9, 10, 11, 13, 56
- Hundt, Magnus 39-40, 42
-
-
- I
- Ignatius Loyola 73
- Index Expurgatorius 13
- Ingrassias, John Philip 15, 117, 118, 124, 125
- Inquisition 13, 44, 136
- Isagogae Breves 45
- Institutionum Anatomicarum 81
- Italy and the Renaissance 2-14
-
-
- J
- Jan Stephan van Calcar 9, 74, 82, 83, 89
- Jan Wandelaar 86, 129
- Jerome 27
- Jerome Mercurialis 88
- Jesuits 73
- Joannes de Ketham 32, 33
-
-
- K
- Kalcker 89
- Ketham, Joannes de 32, 33
-
-
- L
- Lactantius 11
- Lancisi 115
- Languer, Hubert 135
- Laurentius Phryesen 40, 41
- Leonardo da Vinci 2, 8, 9, 113
- Leonicenus, Nicholas 10, 56
- Linacre, Thomas 10
- Livy 5, 20
- Lorenzo de’ Medici 8
- Louvain, University of 53, 54, 71, 75
- Loyola, Ignatius 73
- Luca Signorelli 8
- Luigi Cardi 9
- Luther 63
- Luzzi, Mondino dei 29
-
-
- M
- Maggiore Consiglio of Venice 28
- Magnus, Albertus 55
- Malatesta, Jacobo 135
- Manetho 22
- Marc Antonio della Torre 8
- Margarita Philosophica 55
- Massa 134
- Maximilian d’Egmont 132
- Mead, Dr. Richard 97
- Medicina Astrologica 28
- Melzi 113
- Mercurialis, Jerome 88
- Meryon, Edward 45
- Michael Angelo 8, 9
- Mirach 34
- Moehsen, J. C. W. 18, 87
- Mondino dei Luzzi 29-36
- Mondino’s Anathomia 11, 35
- Mondino’s Successors 37-51
- Monte Cassino 5
- Moreau 61
- Morley, Henry 70, 129, 131
- Moro, Giacomo 93
- Moschenbauer 93
- Musa, Antonius 20
- Museum, Alexandrian 22
- Myntens, Arnold 9
-
-
- Mc
- McMurrich 113
-
-
- N
- Narcissus of Parthenope 82
- Nicholas V 5, 10
- Northcote, W. 60
-
-
- O
- Oporinus, Joannes 84, 85, 86, 95, 99
- Oribasius 63
- Origen 22
- Osiris 22
-
-
- P
- Padua, University of 15, 74, 75, 76, 79, 80, 81, 112, 123, 136
- Vesalius’s Sojourn in 56-69
- Paedagogium Castri 54
- Paganism 11, 12
- Paraphrase of Rhazes 72, 131
- Paré, Ambroise 16
- Paris, Anatomical teaching at 56, 69
- Parthenope, Narcissus of 82
- Pascal 112
- Paulus Aegineta 10, 63, 80
- Pausanias 18
- Petrarch 3, 4, 5
- Peucer, Caspar 135
- Peyligk, John 39
- Philip the Second 95, 131, 132, 134
- Phryesen, Laurentius 40, 41, 42
- Pierre de la Rameé 65, 66, 67
- Pietro da Cortona 9
- Piles, Rogers de 93
- Pinus 115
- Pion, Albert 43
- Poggio Bracciolini 9
- Pollaiuolo, Antonio 8
- Poliziano 10
- Pontanus 10
- Pope Boniface VIII 15
- Pope Clement VII 12
- Pope Clement XI 115
- Pope Leo X 12
- Pope Nicholas V 10
- Pope Paul III 13
- Pope Paul IV 13, 119
- Pope Pius IIII 119
- Portal 60, 112
- Ptolemies, the 22
-
-
- Q
- Quintilian 5
-
-
- R
- Raffaello Santi 9
- Raimondino 28
- Ramus 65, 66, 67
- Regio Judaeorum 21
- Renaissance, the Anatomical 14-16
- Renaissance, the General 1-14
- Rescius 71
- Rhacotis 21
- Rhazes 31, 53, 72, 73
- Rhodion, Eucharius 16
- Ribera, Giuseppe 9
- Richardson, B. W. 99
- Rogers de Piles 93
- Rome, Anatomy in 19, 20
- Rubens 9
- Rufus of Ephesus 122, 123
-
-
- S
- Saint Basil 27
- Saint Stephen 12
- Salernum 5, 27, 28
- Sandrart 89
- Sannazzaro 10
- Santi, Raffaello 9
- Scotus, Michael 55
- Servetus 64, 68, 118, 119, 121
- Sicilian Hippocrates 125
- Sidney, Philip 135
- Signorelli, Luca 8
- Siphac 34
- Spiegel der Artzny 41
- Stephanas, Carolus 48-51
- Stirling-Maxwell, Sir William 83
- Sturm 71
- Sylvius, Jacobus 57-61, 67, 68, 112, 113
- Symonds, J. A. 3
-
-
- T
- Tabulae Anatomicae 81, 83, 126
- Tagault, Jean 57
- Temples of Aesculapius 18
- Terence 5
- Theatin Monks 73
- Theocritus 22
- Thomas of Sarzana 10
- Titian 87, 88, 89, 93
- Torcular Herophili 23
- Torre, Marc Antonio della 8
- Torricelli 2, 112
- Tortebat, François 93
- Trajectorium 35
- Tralles, Alexander of 63
- Tritonius, Vitus 75, 80
-
-
- V
- Valeriano 12
- Valverde, Juan di Hamusco 128
- van Eyck, Hubert and John 7
- Varolius 15
- Vasari 88
- Velsius 71
- Venice 6, 11, 37, 73, 89, 93, 118, 123, 135
- Venice, Maggiore Consiglio of 28
- Verdunno, Narciso 82
- Vesalius, birth of 52
- death of 136
- education of 53-55, 56, 67, 68
- Vesanus 59, 112
- Vida 10
- Vidius, Vidus 15, 60
- Villanovanus, Michael 68
- Vinci, Leonardo da 2, 8, 9, 113
- Vitruvius 10
- Vitus Tritonius 75, 80
-
-
- W
- Waechtlin 41
- Wandelaar, Jan 86, 129
- Wesalius Family 52, 53
- Wharton 42
- Winter of Andernach 61-64
-
-
- Z
- Zakynthos, island of 136
- Zerbi, Gabriel de 37, 39
- Zyrbi 31
-
- [Illustration: Ornamental block]
-
-
-
-
- Transcriber’s Notes
-
-
-—Silently corrected a few typos.
-
-—Retained publication information from the printed edition: this eBook
- is public-domain in the country of publication.
-
-—In the text versions only, text in italics is delimited by
- _underscores_.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Andreas Vesalius the Reformer of
-Anatomy, by James Moores Ball
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