CHAPTER XI 



DESCRIPTIVE AND COMPARATIVE ANATOMY IN THE 

 EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 



THE ANATOMICAL SCIENCE of the eighteenth century appears to be a 

 direct continuation of that of the previous century; no important 

 discoveries of a pioneer character were made, but those fields of 

 research that had been won were well investigated in detail, and this field 

 of inquiry can show names that testify to praiseworthy endeavour, if not 

 so much to brilliant genius. Of these names some of the more representative 

 will be mentioned in the present chapter. 



Bernhard Siegfried Albinus was the son of a German physician of 

 repute who, after having studied at Leyden, held various posts in his native 

 country, but eventually returned to Leyden as a professor. Young Bernhard, 

 who was born at Frankfurt an der Oder in 1697, was consequently brought 

 up at Leyden and spent his life there. At the early age of twenty-four he was 

 made professor of anatomy and surgery, and lectured on these subjects and 

 on physiology until his death, in 1770. He was highly esteemed by his con- 

 temporaries and honours of many kinds were bestowed upon him. He was, 

 in fact, a thoroughly educated scientist and was gifted in many ways. He 

 was interested in the history of science and published critical editions of 

 the works of the leading anatomists — those of Vesalius, Eustacchi, and 

 Harvey were reprinted by him. His own works were extensive and profound. 

 He studied with great care the bone-structure of the human embryo and its 

 development, and even in the full-grown man it was mostly the bone- 

 structure and the musculature that interested him. He compiled a fine set 

 of engravings illustrating these two organic systems — Tabula sceleti et mus- 

 culorum corporis humani — a gigantic work in contents and weight, in which 

 in a series of splendid copperplates, drawn and engraved under his instruc- 

 tions by the famous artist Vandelaar, he reproduces the human bone-structure 

 and musculature in every detail. This work, which cost him a whole fortune, 

 is of its kind still unsurpassed. Besides doing research work Albinus also 

 practised as a doctor, and, thanks to him, Leyden still continued during 

 the eighteenth century to be a centre for anatomical studies. 



One of Albinus's most brilliant pupils was Johann Nathanael Lie- 

 berkuhn. Born in Berlin in 1711, he was destined by his father for the 

 priesthood, and for several years had to study theology against his will. 



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