Page:History of the Literature of the Scandinavian North.djvu/184

who will be referred to again in that connection, also enjoyed a high reputation as a physician. Kaspar Bartholin (1585-1629), the progenitor of a whole family of scholars, published a series of excellent anatomical, medical and physical works, which also received great recognition abroad. His main activity as a scientific author begins with the year 1611, when he became professor in the university, and ends with the year 1623, when he, after an unexpected recovery from a dangerous malady, in accordance with a vow which he made during his illness, devoted himself to theology and became a theological professor the following year. His son Thomas Bartholin (1616-80) gained a European reputation as an anatomist. Already when he made his great journey through Europe, to the most celebrated universities, during the years 1637-46, his name was so well and favorably known that he was elected prorector and university "syndicus" in Padua, and the Messina academy offered him a professorship. He did not accept the position for the reason that he was unwilling to leave his own country for ever. He made his greatest reputation by his discovery of the lymphatic system,— a discovery which was, however, made about simultaneously by the Swedish scholar Olof Rudbek. Bartholin left numerous works full of important observations in almost every branch of medical science. From 1673 until his death he edited the "Acta medica et philosophica," a collection in five volumes, and he made himself numerous contributions to it. In the "Cista medica" and in various other works he contributed much valuable information in regard to the history of medicine in Denmark. Although he was exceedingly industrious in this field of study he still found time to occupy himself with other branches, such as theology and national history, and to write on these subjects dissertations, the ability of which was generally acknowledged. Thus Bartholin was affected by the mania of polymathy, which in his time had begun to become prevalent, but he must be regarded as a polyhistor in the best sense of the word, for he