anatomy and physiology acquired greater freedom of action, and it is fair to assume that this result was largely due to the famous decision to which I have just referred.
Shortly after Vesalius had retired, as stated above, from active participation in anatomical research work, he was called by Charles the Fifth to serve him in the capacity of private physician. During this service, which lasted for several years, he visited, in company with the Emperor, many of the principal cities of Europe; and then, when the latter abdicated the throne of Spain,—for Charles was not only Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire but also King of Spain,—Vesalius became the private physician of Philip the Second, Charles' son and successor on the Spanish throne. This long period is largely a blank in the history of Vesalius. Toward the end he got into trouble with the Inquisition and was obliged, as a means of escaping the punishment of death, to undertake a voyage to the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. While he was in that city he received an official invitation from the Senate at Venice to fill the Chair of Anatomy at Padua. He then at once turned his steps toward Italy, doubtless very happy over the prospect of once more engaging in anatomical work; but he was shipwrecked on the coast of the Island of Zante, October 2, 1564. Thirteen days later, before he had completed his fiftieth year, he died from starvation and exposure. A memorial tablet was placed in one of the neighboring churches on the island, and in 1847 his Belgian compatriots erected a suitable monument to his memory in the city of Brussels.
Admirable as was Vesalius' treatise on human anatomy, it was soon discovered that it was deficient in certain particulars. Not a few of the descriptions, for example, were incomplete, and there were also a number of parts or organs for which no descriptions whatever had been provided. Many of these deficiencies were supplied by contemporary anatomists, nearly all of whom were Italians. First and foremost among this secondary but yet very important group of laborers in the field of original
