I04 THE HISTORY OF BIOLOGY 



not confined to this. In almost every sphere of human anatomy he made im- 

 portant discoveries in matters of detail and, still more, corrected old fallacies. 

 To enumerate all that he did in this respect would be impossible here; but he 

 who cares to do so can compare, for instance, a picture of a skeleton made by 

 any one of his predecessors with one of his. If we add to this his masterly 

 and at the same time exact and highly imaginative descriptive method, with 

 its splendid simplicity of arrangement in the midst of a wealth of detail, 

 every impartial judge must admit that he was, in spite of his lack of original 

 ideas, one of the greatest biologists that have ever lived. 



Vesalius's influence on the development of anatomy was primarily of 

 benefit to Italy. In France the disciples of Galen still upheld the authority 

 of their master; in Germany the interest in the study of nature was being 

 gradually suppressed by interminable religious strife. Italy, on the other 

 hand, thanks to the impetus given by Vesalius's practice of anatomy in 

 Padua, became throughout the succeeding century the centre of anatomical 

 study. Vesalius's pupils followed in their master's footsteps and carried on 

 his work by widening the field of detailed research. His prosector and suc- 

 cessor in Padua, Realdo Columbus (date of birth unknown, died 1559}, made 

 a special study of the organs of hearing and the blood-vessels in the lungs. 

 He published the results of his experiments in a work entitled De re anafomica, 

 in which he shows himself a well-informed anatomist, but a not very sym- 

 pathetic personality, self-opinionated and overbearing, not least towards 

 his old master. He was soon called away, however, to carry on other activi- 

 ties elsewhere and was succeeded in Padua by a man of far higher qualities, 

 Gabriele Fallopio. Born in 152.3, Fallopio spent his youth in poverty, was 

 for a time in the service of the Church, but afterwards had an opportunity 

 of studying anatomy in Padua, probably during the very last years of Vesa- 

 lius's professorship. His career was as rapid as the latter's; at the age of 

 twenty-four he was a professor in Ferrara, whence he was summoned to 

 Padua, where the Government maintained him in every way. He carried on 

 the Vesalian traditions with honour, attracting to his lectures a large 

 audience and at the same time working at an extensive medical practice. 

 Unfortunately his life was short; he died in his fortieth year. During his 

 lifetime he published only one, rather small, but useful, work entitled 

 Observationes anatomka. In its introduction he speaks most highly of his mas- 

 ter, Vesalius, and with the greatest modesty of his own observations. These 

 are, however, in certain respects of fundamental importance. In particular, 

 he increased the knowledge of the sexual organs — in this field the Fallopian 

 tube bears his name — while his contribution to the knowledge of the 

 structure of bone and of the organ of hearing was of considerable value. 

 But he also made important discoveries in most other fields of human 

 anatomy. Besides this his activities extended to other spheres of medical 



