contents reveals the fact that it contains in addition quite full information regarding physiology and pathological anatomy, as well as many details relating to comparative anatomy. Perhaps the most marvelous thing about this book is the fact that its author completed his work before he had reached his twenty-eighth year. It may also interest the reader to learn that, prior to 1914, the University of Louvain possessed a copy of Vesalius' great work printed on vellum and illustrated with many drawings in colors; but I am unable to say whether this beautiful volume did or did not escape destruction at the hands of the ruthless men who invaded Belgium during the summer of that memorable year.
When the human mind has adjusted itself, in the course of years, to consider certain beliefs and ideas as settled truths, it comes as a painful shock to be told that these beliefs are erroneous and that new ones must take their places. This is precisely what happened when Vesalius' book was first published. From one end of Europe to the other there was a very great stir among the well-educated physicians; the more liberal minded being ready to accept at once the genuineness of the new anatomy, whereas others,—and possibly they represented the larger number,—acting under the influence of personal jealousy or perhaps blinded by the belief that it was impious not to accept without questioning the descriptions made by Galen, were scandalized by the boldness of Vesalius in asserting that many of the statements made by this great medical authority were incorrect. Jacques DuBois, whose name has been mentioned by me on a previous page, was one of the most bitter of Vesalius' assailants. In a pamphlet which he published in Paris in 1551 he even went so far as to speak of his late pupil as "a crazy fool who is poisoning the air of Europe with his vaporings." On account of their former pleasant relations, and also because DuBois was at that time an old man, Vesalius made no reply to these attacks; but when Bartholomaeus Eustachius, Professor of Anatomy at Rome, one of the most celebrated anatomists of that period, and a man of his own age, entered
