History and Progress of Coni,p^rativ^ Anatomy. 9QS 



dependence of the Italian States created a love of knowled ge 

 schools and academies rose among them in rapid succession ; 

 and the Arabian teachers and writers, though long after 

 quoted, began gradually to be neglected and forgotten. Among 

 the new European Institutions, that of Bologna, already cele- 

 brated as a school of literature and law, became no less distin- 

 guished in the thirteenth century for its medical teachers. At 

 the commencement of the fourteenth century especially, it was 

 fortunate enough to possess in Mondino de Luzzi a teacher un- 

 der whose auspicious zeal anatomical science was destined to 

 rise from the ashes in which it had been buried. By demon- 

 strating the'parts of the human body in two female subjects in 

 the year 1315, and repeating this course of instruction on the 

 body of a single female in the course of the following year, 

 Mondino^has obtained the distinction of being the founder of 

 true anatomical knowledge in modern times. Though his name 

 is more closely connected with human than with animal anatomy, 

 it is nevertheless important in marking an era in the history of 

 the science. The greatest defect which he shews in common 

 with the writers of these times, is his servile attachment to Ga- 

 len and the Arabians, by whose exotic nomenclature his descrip- 

 tions are defaced. He died, according to Tiraboschi, in 1S25. 

 Mondino divides the body into three cavities (ventres), the 

 upper containing the animal members, as the head ; the lower 

 containing the natural members ; and the middle containing the 

 spiritual members. He first delivers the anatomy of the lower 

 cavity or the abdomen, then proceeds to the middle or thoracic 

 organs, and concludes with the upper, comprising the head, and 

 its contents and appendages. His manner is to notice shortly 

 the situation and shape or distribution of organs, and then to 

 mention the disorders to which they are subject. The perito- 

 neum he describes under the name of siphac, in imitation of the 

 Arabians, the omentum under that of zirbus, and the mesentery 

 or eucharus as distinct from both. In speaking of the intestin^s,^ 

 he treats first of the rectum, then the colon, the left or sigmoid 

 flexure of which, as well as the transverse arch and its connec- 

 tion with the stomach, he particularly remarks ; then the cacum 

 or mmoculus ; after this the small intestines in general, under 

 the heads of ileum and jejunum ; and latterly, the duodenuii^,;. 

 making in all six bowels. The liver and its vessels are minutely, 



