156 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



cry for what is called " sound learning." Whether standing for 

 Aristotle against Bacon, or for Aquinas against Erasmus, or for 

 Galen against Vesalius, or for making mechanical Greek verses 

 instead of studying the handiwork of the Almighty, the cry is 

 always for " sound learning " : the idea always is that these 

 studies are " safe." 



At twenty-eight years of age Vesalius gave to the world his 

 great work on human anatomy. With it ended the old and began 

 the new : its researches, by their thoroughness, were a triumph of 

 science ; its illustrations, by their fidelity, were a triumph of art. 



To shield himself, as far as possible, in the battle which he 

 foresaw must come, Vesalius dedicated the work to the Emperor 

 Charles V, and in his dedicatory preface he argues for his method, 

 and against the parrot repetitions of the mediaeval text-books ; he 

 also condemns the wretched anatomical preparations and speci- 

 mens made by physicians who utterly refused to advance beyond 

 the ancient master. The parrot-like repeaters of Galen gave bat- 

 tle at once. After the manner of their time their first missiles 

 were epithets ; and, the almost infinite magazine of these having 

 been exhausted, they began to use sharper weapons weapons 

 theologic. 



In this case there were especial reasons why the theological 

 authorities felt called upon to intervene. First, there was the old 

 idea prevailing in the Church, sanctioned by one at least of the 

 popes, that the dissection of the human body is forbidden to 

 Christians : this was used with great force against Vesalius ; but 

 he at first gained a temporary victory ; for a conference of divines 

 having been asked to decide whether dissection of the human 

 body is sacrilege, gave a decision in the negative. 



The reason was simple: the great Emperor Charles V had 

 made Vesalius his physician and could not spare him; but, on 

 the accession of Philip II to the throne of Spain and the Nether- 

 lands, the whole scene changed : the bigots were now sure to have 

 their way. 



Another theological idea barred his path. Throughout the 

 middle ages it was believed that there exists in man a bone im- 

 ponderable, incorruptible, incombustible, the necessary nucleus 

 of the resurrection body. Belief in a resurrection of the physical 

 body, despite St. Paul's Epistle to the Corinthians, had been in- 

 corporated into the formula made many centuries after his time 

 and called the Apostles' Creed, and was held throughout Christen- 

 dom, " always, everywhere, and by all." This hypothetical bone 

 was therefore held in great veneration, and many anatomists 

 sought to discover it ; but Vesalius, revealing so much else, did 

 not find it, and was therefore suspected of a want of proper faith. 

 He contented himself with saying that he left the question re- 



