lOO THE HISTORY OF BIOLOGY 



French grammar. He was nearly fifty years old when he took up medicine, 

 applying himself to the study and exposition of classical medical literature. 

 In lectures, which were brilliant in their formal delivery, he expounded to 

 the students of Paris the theories of Galen, which to his mind were infalli- 

 ble — "divinely inspired" — and could not be improved upon. These lec- 

 tures were really exercises in classical oratory; there was no question of any 

 empirical research. Practical instruction remained in all respects at the point 

 to which the Middle Ages had advanced it. And in this respect the Middle 

 Ages did actually advance beyond antiquity. 



Mediaval dissection 

 As early as the middle of the thirteenth century dissections had to be 

 carried out on human bodies at the Italian universities; the Emperor Fred- 

 erick II, who had no prejudices, made it compulsory for students of medicine 

 and surgery to attend these operations, while later on, the prohibition of 

 the popes was powerless to prevent the development of these practices. At 

 the universities of Salerno, Bologna, and Padua they were officially ordained 

 and had, if possible, to be carried out regularly. As a result of this it should 

 have been possible to leave the work of Galen at its worth, for, as we know, 

 he had never dissected human bodies, and his anatomical dicta were very 

 unreliable and highly misleading. This, however, was not to be; the Middle 

 Ages were far too bound by respect for authority, and in particular the classi- 

 cal authorities. Moreover, the study of anatomy was rendered difficult on 

 account of the antagonism prevailing between the physicians and the sur- 

 geons. Members of the faculty of medicine pursued their studies only on a 

 literary and speculative basis and looked down upon the surgeons as merely 

 a body of artisans. In dissections it was always a surgeon who wielded the 

 knife, while the professor, staff in hand, pointed out and demonstrated what 

 was brought to light. The results of this collaboration were also primitive. 

 The surgeon's instruments and hold were the simplest imaginable; with a 

 knife — the use of a saw and chisel, probe and canula was unknown then — 

 the abdomen and chest cavity were opened and the internal organs laid bare 

 for examination. After this the idea was that muscles, nerves, and blood- 

 vessels should be exposed for study, but this was usually too difficult a task 

 for the operators, nor did it amuse the students, who very soon marched off 

 unless the proceedings ended with one of the professorial discussions that 

 were so popular at that time. The professors of the faculty of philosophy, 

 who were usually invited to attend the proceedings, taking Aristotle as 

 their authority, would attack Galen, who would be courageously defended 

 by all the medical professors present. The differences of opinion between 

 these great authorities of the ancient world could be dragged out into end- 

 less discussions and give rise to the most absurd sophistical arguments. This 

 was the course that anatomical studies were still taking in the sixteenth 



