be dissected annually. Doubtless autopsies were occasionally held to determine deaths by poisoning, which were not infrequent at this period. At the University of Bologna, Mundinus dissected several bodies publicly, and published, in 1315, an imperfect little handbook based upon Galen and Arabian authors. At Prague dissection was practiced from the very foundation of the University (1348), at Vienna as early as 1404, at Tübingen from 1482, and at London from 1540. At Padua (1490) Benedetti erected an anatomical amphitheatre, and made public demonstrations. Somewhat later Berengarius of Carpi is said to have dissected more than a hundred cadavers. Vidius, from whom the Vidian nerve and Vidian canal are named, professor at Pisa, Guintherius of Andernach (1487-1574), professor at Louvain, and Jacobus Sylvius (1478-1555), professor at Paris, as well as many others, dissected from time to time. There was, however, nothing like a careful and systematic examination of the structure of the body. It was considered sufficient to open the great cavities and display the viscera, which were examined in the most superficial manner. Great reliance was placed upon Galen and Hippocrates, supplemented by their Arabian commentators, and their authority was rarely questioned.
Andreas Vesalius (1514-1364) (q.v.) of Brussels was the first to proclaim openly the new doctrine, that the structure of man should be learned by a thorough inspection of the hu- man body rather than by reference to ancient authorities. He dissected frequently in public at Padua, Pisa, and Verona, and published, in 1543, his great work, De Humani Corporis Fabrica, the first careful and complete description of the body of man based upon actual observa- tion. This work was illustrated by excellent plates made by Stephen von Calcar, a pupil of Titian. Many of Galen's errors were corrected, and the student was urged again and again to verify each statement by reference to the only prime authority, the body of man itself.
A storm of opposition was at once raised. Sylvius, a pronounced Galenist, declared Vesa- lius to be an impious madman, whose breath poisoned Europe, and he strove in every way to discredit his work. Others, more rational in their opposition, pointed out errors in Vesalius's own book. The ardent young Fleming, impa- tient and chagrined at this, resigned his chair at Padua, and retired to the court of Philip II., at Madrid, where he tried to continue his stud- ies. His enemies did not scruple to attempt to rouse the Inquisition against him. Philip interrogated the faculty of the University of Sal- amanca, then the leading theological school in Europe, as to whether dissection was permis- sible. After due deliberation a reply was given, that since a knowledge of anatomy is useful to man, dissection may be allowed (1556).
The atmosphere of the Spanish court was far from congenial to scientific pursuits. Vesalius contemplated a return to Italy; but coming back from Palestine, whither he had gone, as is sup- posed, in fulfillment of some vow, he was ship- wrecked, and died on the island of Zante. He was the founder of modern anatomy in the sense that he broke with tradition and substituted actual investigation for reliance on authority.
The contemporaries and successors of Vesalius aided much in placing Gross Anatomy upon secure and lasting foundations. The most illustrious among these were Eustachio (c. 1520-74) (q.v.), Fallopio (c. 1523-62) (q.v.), and Fabricius (1537-1619).
Eustachio made many corrections of the work of Vesalius, and was besides an original investi- gator of great force. From plates prepared by him (but not published until the eighteenth cen- tury), it appears that he anticipated many dis- coveries ordinarily ascribed to anatomists of a later period; but the Eustachian tube, which he accurately described, is said to have been pre- viously discovered by Alcnneon about 500 B.C.
Fallopio named the Fallopian tubes (previ- ously discovered by Herophilus) and the seminal ducts, and gave a good description of the organ of hearing, discovering in the temporal bone the aqueduct and hiatus that commonly bear his name.
Fabricius of Aquapendente erected at Padua an anatomical amphitheatre. He studied the development of the fcetus and of the embryo chick, described the muscular coat of the alimen- tary canal and of the bladder, and especially the valves of the veins first discovered by Stephanus of Paris in 1545 and in some situations figured by Vesalius in the second edition of his work. Fabricius supposed that they were for the pur- pose of retarding the oscillatory flow of the venous blood.
It fell to a pupil of Fabricius, William Harvey, to explain them more satisfactorily, and to free anatomy from some of the false notions that survived from the Galenical teaching. From about 1615 to 1628 Harvey demonstrated by public lectures and by published experiments the true circulation of the blood. The lesser or pulmonary circulation had been mentioned by Servetus in 1553 in an obscure pamphlet, and by Realdus Columbus in 1559, but was not generally accepted. Cæsalpinus, in some controversial works published in 1571 and 1593, suggested the probability of a systemic as well as of a pulmonary circulation, and was the first to use the term circulatio in this connection. Yet the Galenical theory of the oscillatory movement of the two kinds of blood and the necessary supposition of orifices in the septum between the cavities of the heart were still taught. Vesalius, it is true, had said that he could not find the orifices, and somewhat satirically wondered at the wisdom of the Almighty, who had made them so small that they could not be seen. Harvey, to use his own words, "taught anatomy, not from books, but from dissections; not from the suppositions of philosophers, but from the fabric of Nature," and in a series of most carefully conducted investigations and vivisections succeeded in showing that the blood makes a complete circuit of the body as well as of the lungs. Harvey's work led to a more careful examination of the heart and blood vessels. Stephen Blancaard, in 1675, first effectively demonstrated the finer vessels by injection, a method used by Frederick Ruysch (1638-1731) to show their presence in great numbers in almost every part of the body. The lymphatics, casually seen by several ancient observers, were first carefully studied by Gaspare Aselli in 1622. The thoracic duct, discovered first by Eustachius in the horse, was seen in the dog by Pecquet (1622-74) and traced through the diaphragm to the receptaculum chyli. It was first observed in man by Jan van Horne (1621-70), professor at Leyden.
