DEVELOPMENT OF BIOLOGY 



451 



of Animals — served to popularize zoology and afforded the neces- 

 sary survey which must precede constructive work. 



Although Gesner (1516-1565) of Switzerland was without 

 doubt the most learned naturalist of the period and probably the 

 best zoologist who had appeared since Aristotle, the direct path to 

 progress was blazed by men whose plans were less ambitious. 

 Contemporaries of Gesner, who confined their treatises to special 

 groups of organisms which they themselves investigated, really 



Fig. 291. - - William Harvey. 



instituted the biological monograph which has proved to be an 

 effective method of scientific publication. 



While the herralists, encyclopaedists, and monographers 

 at work in natural history were making earnest endeavors to 

 develop the powers of independent judgment, long suppressed dur- 

 ing the Middle Ages, the emancipator of biology from the traditions 

 of the past appeared in the Belgian anatomist, Yes alius (1514- 

 1564). Not content with the anatomy of the time, which consisted 

 almost solely in interpreting the works of Galen by reference to 

 crude dissections made by barbers' assistants, Vesalius attempted 

 to place human anatomy on the firm basis of exact observation. 

 The publication of his great work On the Structure of the Human 

 Body made the year 1543 the dividing line between ancient and 

 modern anatomy, and thenceforth anatomical as well as biological 



