MICHAEL SERVETUS. 519 



specimens of which were handed around the class. The leading 

 books upon the several families of cryptogams were shown, espe- 

 cially those illustrating the subject by means of large plates. 



It was announced in the syllabus that the examination for cer- 

 tificates would be held in the following autumn, and at the close 

 of the last lecture a conference was held with the candidates, 

 about twenty-five, and a short preliminary examination given 

 them upon the matter contained in the syllabus. This portion of 

 the class was instructed to make a careful study of the whole of 

 Gray's Revised Lessons, and encouraged to collect specimens, 

 study and classify them, and make a herbarium of at least fifty 

 species to in part represent the work done in the field. 



Thus in six exercises pupils were more than started in the 

 study of plants, and there is no question that a groundwork was 

 laid for an acquaintance with botany that should be one of con- 

 stantly growing interest as the years succeed each other. 



MICHAEL SERVETUS: REFORMER, PHYSIOLOGIST, 



AND MARTYR. 



By CHAELES McEAE. 



THE sixteenth century produced an unusually large number of 

 famous biologists. To it belonged Andreas Vesalius, the 

 incomparable anatomist, and his teachers, Sylvius and Winter of 

 Andernach ; Columbus of Cremona, to whom the discovery of the 

 pulmonary circulation of the blood was for a century and a half 

 ascribed; and Fallopius, Eustachius, Arantius, Fabricius of 

 Aquapendente, and Csesalpinus men whose names have become 

 familiar to every student of anatomy. Foremost, perhaps, among 

 these illustrious workers stands the name of Michael Serve tus, 

 the physiologist and liberal thinker, who was burned to death as 

 a heretic at Geneva in 1553, and whose life and tragic end have 

 ever since excited the interest and sympathy of mankind. 



Michael Servetus was born in Aragon or in Navarre about the 

 year 1509. At an early age he entered the University of Sara- 

 gossa, from which, in 1528, he was sent as a law student to the 

 University of Toulouse. Here he may have read some of Luther's 

 writings, for several of the latter were translated into Spanish soon 

 after their publication. But whether he saw them or not, after 

 staying two or three years at Toulouse he acquired certain views 

 which were antagonistic to some of the generally received dogmas 

 of the Church, and which influenced the whole of his subse- 

 quent life. 



Quitting the university, he went in what position it is un- 



