profitable combination of purely anatomical work of a primitive character and a search for evidences of pathological changes. The clinical history of the individual whose body was undergoing examination does not seem to have played any part in the investigation. Here is De Chauliac's account:—
After placing the dead body on a bench, my master proceeded
with his instructions, devoting thereto four separate sittings.
At the first of these he passed in review those parts or organs
which are concerned in nutrition; his reason for considering them
first being that they are the earliest to undergo decomposition.
At the second sitting he devoted himself to the spiritual organs
of the body; at the third, to the animal parts; and at the fourth,
to the extremities. Following the example furnished by Galen in
his commentary on the book entitled "The Sects," he maintained
that there were nine things which should be taken into consideration
when one examines the different parts of the body, to wit:
their situation; their nature, color, bulk, number, and shape; their
connections or relations; their actions and their utility; and the
diseases which may affect them. Conducted in this manner the
study of anatomy, he maintained, may prove helpful to the physician
in recognizing diseases, in making prognoses, and in selecting
a suitable plan for treatment.
Puschmann, quoting from Hyrtl, says that when Professor
Galeazzo di Santa Sofia, who had been called from
Padua to Vienna to fill the Chair of Anatomy in the
medical school of that city, made his first public dissection
of a human body (1404 A. D.) in the Bürgerspital, the
sittings covered a period of eight days; at the end of which
time he collected as much money as he could from those
who had attended the course, and turned it over to the
treasurer of the Faculty. Then followed a period of twelve
years during which not a single public dissection of a
human body was made in Vienna. In 1440 the Faculty were
greatly rejoiced over the prospect of receiving from the
authorities the body of a criminal who was to be hung on
a certain day; but, when the time arrived and the body had
actually been delivered to them, they were grievously
disappointed by the sudden coming to life of the supposed
