x Editor's Introduction 



Notwithstanding these curious and erroneous specu- 

 lations there was not wanting exact and wide knowledge 

 of the anatomy of the human body. Indeed, before 

 Harvey was born there had lived and died a most 

 remarkable man known to fame as the "Father of 

 Anatomy." This was Vesalius. Vesalius's knowledge 

 of the human body was so profound that the only 

 wonder is that he did not forestall Harvey in the 

 discovery of the circulation. As the result of dissections 

 of the body at the time when they could be carried out 

 only with great difficulty, and often at the risk of severe 

 penalties, Vesalius published, when only twenty-eight 

 years of age, a treatise on Anatomy l which cannot fail 

 to excite the astonishment and admiration of any 

 modern acquainted with the subject. This work is 

 illustrated with fine engravings made from drawings by 

 John Calcar, a Flemish artist, and pupil of Titian. 2 



The distribution of the bloodvessels in the lungs 

 and many other parts of the body, the general structure 

 of the heart, the valves in the veins, were all known 

 before Harvey arrived on the scene. More than this, 

 the circulation through the lungs, or the Pulmonary 

 Circulation, appears to have been known to one person 

 at least. Michael Servetus, famous for his martyrdom 

 on account of his religious opinions, in one of his 

 theological works 3 does actually describe the blood as 

 passing from the right side of the heart to the left 

 through the lungs, and gives good reasons for his 

 belief. Servetus, in his early days, had been with 

 Vesalius prosector to John Guinterius of Andernach 

 when Professor of Anatomy at Paris. Guinterius 4 

 speaks with admiration of the knowledge and abilities 

 of his two young assistants. Like Vesalius, Servetus 

 was therefore well acquainted with the anatomy of the 

 body ; but more, he was a physiologist ; and no doubt 



1 De humani Corporis fabrica, 1543. 



2 Vasari : " Lives of the Painters," vols. iii. 519, v. 402 (Bohn's ed.). 



3 Restitutio Christianismi, 1553. 



4 Institutiones Anatomici, Epistola Nuncupatoria, 1539. 



