lOl. THE HISTORY OF BIOLOGY 



abdomen and chest of another body, as well as the brain. Vesalius himself 

 used to perform the essential work in dissecting, assisted by students; the 

 surgeons, who elsewhere had such an important part to play, had nothing 

 whatever to do here. A mass of new surgical instruments came into use; the 

 models had been partly invented by Vesalius himself and partly borrowed 

 from among the tools owned by a number of artisans whom he visited in 

 order to initiate himself into their technical ideas. 



Vesalius' s great anatomical ivork 

 In his demonstrations Vesalius was at first a faithful follower of Galen, for 

 whom since his youth he had entertained the greatest respect. It soon became 

 more and more obvious, however, that Galen's observations were incomplete 

 and that his presentation of them was vague and self-contradictory. The 

 more zealously Vesalius anatomized, the more did he realize how necessary 

 it was to reproduce in print all his anatomical observations and, without 

 reference to any authorities, to describe the structure of the human body as 

 it really is. The result was his two literary masterpieces: De humani corf oris 

 jabrica, a large folio volume of over seven hundred pages, and a compendium 

 of the same, Epitome, of thirty-one pages, both containing numerous illus- 

 trations by eminent artists after Vesalius's original preparations. These books 

 were published in 1543 at Basel, where Vesalius spent a whole year's leave 

 of absence superintending the printing. Through these two works Vesalius 

 created the modern science of anatomy. They made an enormous impression 

 on his contemporaries. Galen's followers were furious, particularly Vesalius's 

 old master Sylvius. Many were the polemical treatises written in opposition 

 to the man of dangerous newfangled ideas, and the rage of his opponents can 

 still be perceived from the controversial methods they adopted. They were 

 not content with merely declaring that Vesalius's work was absolutely 

 inferior; the most abominable and absurd accusations were heaped upon his 

 personal character — he was godless, he was sordid; like the ancient Alex- 

 andrian anatomists he had dissected men alive (sentimentality as regards 

 animals was not so deep in those days as to make it worth while quoting 

 the vivisection he actually performed on animals). Even after his death his 

 memory was treated with contumely, especially in France, where the fol- 

 lowers of Galen were to hold unrestricted sway for another hundred years. 

 Vesalius could now no longer hope to enjoy the tranquil conditions under 

 which he had worked in the past. In the year after the publication of his 

 writings we find him relinquishing his professorship and accepting the post 

 of court physician to the Emperor Charles V. What induced him to take this 

 step is not known; it is assumed that after the completion of his anatomical 

 masterpiece he wished to devote himself to practical medicine, but that he 

 might just as well have done in Padua. It is more likely that he hoped that 

 in his appointment at the court of the most powerful monarch in the world 



