HISTORY.] ANATOMY
- 3, published at Lcydcu in 1703, this author, after some
preliminary observations on membranes in general and their structure, and an exposition of that of the skin, traces its transition into the mucous membranes and their several divisions. He then explains the distribution of the cellular membrane, the aponeurotic expansions, and the perios teum and perichondrium, by either of which, he shows, every bone of the skeleton is invested and connected. He finally gives a very distinct view of the arrangement of the internal membranes of cavities, those named serous and fibre-serous, and the manner of their distribution over the contained organs. This essay, which is a happy example of generalisation, is remarkable for the interesting general views of the structure of the animal body which it exhibits ; and to Bonn belongs the merit of sketching the first outlines of that system which it was reserved for the genius of Bichat to complete and embellish. Lastly, i7. Bordeu, in an elaborate essay on the mucous tissue, or cellular organ, as he terms it, brought forward some interesting views of the constitution, nature, and extent of the cellular membrane. Though anatomy was hitherto cultivated with, much success as illustrating the natural history and morbid states of the human body, yet little had been done for the elucida tion of local diseases, and the surgical means by which they may be successfully treated. The idea of applying anatomical knowledge directly to this purpose appears to have originated with Bernardin Genga, a Eoman surgeon, who published in 1672, at Rome, a work entitled Surgical Anatomy, or the Anatomical History of the Bones and Muscles of tlie Human Body, with, the Description of the Blood-vessels. This work, which reached a second edition in 1687, is highly creditable to the author, who appears to have studied intimately the mutual relations of different LS-26. parts. It is not improbable that the example of Genga led Palfyn, a surgeon at Ghent, to undertake a similar task about thirty years after. For this, however, he was by no means well qualified; and the work of Palfyn, though bearing the name of Surgical Anatomy, is a miserable compilation, meagre in details, inaccurate in description, and altogether unworthy of the honour of being republished, as it afterwards was by Antony Petit. While these two authors, however, were usefully employed in showing what was wanted for the surgeon, others were occupied in the collection of new and more accurate facts. Albinus, indeed, ever assiduous, had, in his account of the operations of Rau, given some good sketches of the relative anatomy of the bladder and urethra ; and Cheselden had already, in his mode of ciitting into the urinary bladder, shown the necessity of an exact knowledge of the relations of contiguous parts. The first decided application, however, of this species of anatomical research it was reserved for a Dutch anatomist of the 18th century to make. Peter mper. Camper, professor of anatomy at Amsterdam, published in 1760 and 1762 his anatomico-pathological demonstrations of the parts of the human arm and pelvis, of the diseases incident to them, and the mode of relieving them by operation, and explained with great clearness the situation of the blood-vessels, nerves, and important muscles. His remarks on the lateral operation of lithotomy, which contain all that was then known on the subject, are exceed ingly interesting and valuable to the surgeon. It appears, further, that he was the first who examined anatomically the mechanism of ruptures, his delineations of which were published in 1801 by Sommering. Camper also wrote some important memoirs on Comparative Anatomy, and he was the author of a well-known work on the Relations of Anatomy to the Fine Arts. The attention of anatomists was now directed to the elucidation of the most obscure and least explored parts of the human frame the lymphatic vessels and the nerves. Although, since the first discovery of the former by Ascllius, Rudbeck, and Pecquet, much had been done, especially by Ruysch, Nuck, Meckel, and Haller, many points, notwithstanding, relating to their origin and distri bution in particular organs, and in the several classes of animals, were imperfectly ascertained or entirely unknown. William Hunter investigated their arrangement, and pro-.W. and posed the doctrine that they are absorbents ; and John Hunter. Hunter, who undertook to demonstrate the truth of this * *8-o. hypothesis by experiment, discovered, in 1758, lymphatics in the neck in birds. As the doctrine required the existence of this order of vessels, not only in quadrupeds and birds, but in reptiles and fishes, the inquiry attracted attention among the pupils of Hunter ; and William Hewson at Hewson length communicated, in December 1768, to the Royal Society of London, an account of the lacteals and lymphatics in birds, fishes, and reptiles, as he had discovered and demonstrated them. The subject was about the same time investigated by the second Monro, who indeed claimed the merit of discovering these vessels in the classes of animals now mentioned. But whatever researches this anatomist may have instituted, Hcvrson, by communicating his observations to the Royal Society, must be allowed to possess the strongest as well as the clearest claim to discovery. The same author, in 1774, gave the first complete account of the anatomical peculiarities of the lymphatic system in man and other animals, and thereby supplied an important gap in this department. Hewson is the first who distinguishes the lymphatics into two orders the superficial and the deep both in the extremi ties and in the internal organs. He also studied the structure of the intestinal villi, in which he verified the observations of Licberkiihn ; and he made many important observations on the corpuscles of the lymph and blood. He finally applied his anatomical discoveries to explain many of the physiological and pathological phenomena of the animal body. Ten years after, John Sheldon, another pupil of Hunter, gave a second history and description of the lymphatics, which, though divested of the charm of novelty, contains many interesting anatomical facts. He also examined the structure of the villi. Lastly, Cruikshank, in 1786, published a valuable Cruik- history of the anatomy of the lymphatic system, in which shank. he maintains the accuracy of the Hunterian doctrine, that 1 ^ 86 the lymphatics are the only absorbents; gave a more minute account than heretofore of these vessels, of their coats and valves ; and explained the structure of the lymphatic glands. He also injected the villi, and examined them microscopically, verifying most of the observations of Lieberkuhu. The origin of the lymphatics he maintains rather by inference than direct demonstration. To these three works, though in other respects very excellent, it is a considerable objection that the anatomical descriptions are much mixed with hypothetical speculation and reason ings on properties, and that the facts are by no means always distinguished from mere matters of opinion. At tho same time Haase published an account of the lymphatics of the skin and intestines, and the plexiform nets of the pelvis. To complete this sketch of the history of the anatomy of the lymphatic system, it may be added that Mascagni, Mascagt who had been engaged from the year 1777 to 1781 in the same train of investigation, first demonstrated to his pupils several curious facts relating to the anatomy of the lymphatic system. When at Florence in 1782 he made several preparations, at the request of Peter Leopold, Grand Duke of Tuscany; and when the Royal Academy of Sciences at Paris ahnoxmced the anatomy of this system for their prize essay appointed for March 1784, Mascagni
resolved on communicating to the public the results of
