556 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



manner of their time, tlieir first missiles were epithets ; ancl, the 

 almost infinite magazine of these having been exhausted, they began 

 to use sharper weapons weapons theologic. 



At first the theologic weapons failecL 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 is simple ; 

 Charles V. had made Vesalius his physician, and could not spare 

 him. But, on the accession of Philip II. of Spain, the whole scene 

 changed. That most bitter of bigots must of course detest the great 

 innovator. 



A new weapon was now forged. Vesalius was charged with dis- 

 secting living men,* and, either from direct persecution, as the great 

 majority of authors assert, or from indirect influences, as the recent 

 apologists for Philip II. allow, Vesalius became a wanderer. On a 

 pilgrimage to the Holy Land to atone for his sin, he was shipwrecked, 

 and in the prime of his life and strength he was lost to this world. 



And yet not lost. In this century he again stands on earth. The 

 painter Ilamann has again given him to us. By the magic of Ha- 

 mann's pencil, we look once moi'e into Vesalius's cell. Its windows 

 and doors, bolted and barred within, betoken the storm of bigotry 

 which rages without ; the crucifix, toward which he turns his eyes, 

 symbolizes the spirit in which he labors. The corpse of the plague- 

 stricken, over which he bends, ceases to be repulsive ; his very soul 

 seems to send forth rays from the canvas which strengthen us for the 

 good fight in this age.^ 



He was hunted to death by men who conscientiously supposed that 

 he was injuring religion. His poor, blind foes destroyed one of re- 

 ligion's greatest apostles. What was his influence on religion ? He 

 substituted for repetition, by rote, of worn-out theories of dead men, 

 conscientious and reverent searching into the works of the living- 

 God. He substituted for representations of the himian structure 

 pitiful and unreal truthful representations, revealing the Creator's 

 power and goodness in every line.^ 



I hasten now to the most singular struggle and victory of medical 

 science between the sixteenth and nineteenth centuries. 



Early in the last century, Boyer presented Inoculation as a pre- 

 ventive of small-pox, in France ; thoughtful j^hysicians in England, 

 led by Lady Montagu and Maitland, follov^'ed his example. 



Theology took fright at once on both sides of the Channel. The 



' For a similar charge against anatomical investigations at a much earlier period, see 

 Littre, " Medecine et Medecins," chapter on anatomy. 



2 The original painting of Vesalius at work in his cell, by Hamann, is now at Cornel} 

 University. 



' For a curious example of weapons drawn from Galen and used against Vesalius, see 

 Lewes, " Life of Goethe," p. 343, note. For proofs that I have not over-estimated Vesa- 

 lius, see Portal, uhi supra. Portal speaks of him as ^^le genie le plus droit qii'eut V Eu- 

 rope" and again, " Vcsale me parait un des plus grands homines qui ait existe." 



