History of Comparative Anatomy 



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of the seventeenth century.) Among the students of Sylvius was a 

 young man, Vesalius (1514-64), who, born in Brussels and having 

 received his early education at the University of Louvain, went to 

 Paris to study medicine. He became professor of anatomy at the 

 University of Padua. 



Fig. 274. Vesalius (1514-64), from the "Fabrica, 

 1543. (Courtesy, Singer: "The Evolution of Anatomy, 

 New York, Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.) 



Vesalius published, in 1543, his "Seven Books" on human anat- 

 omy — "De Humani Corporis Fabrica," a work which stands as a 

 monument marking the end of the old and the beginning of the new 

 in anatomic science. The work is a great monograph of original obser- 

 vation. The author declares his complete emancipation from authority. 

 The numerous illustrations are of such high artistic value as to have 

 led to the belief that they were executed by Titian. Historians refer to 

 Vesalius as "the Reformer of Anatomy." 



