ANATOMICAL ILLUSTRATION BEFORE VESALIUS! 
WILLIAM A. LOCY 
From the Department of Zoology, Northwestern University 
TWENTY-THREE FIGURES 
The study of anatomical illustrations before Vesalius is not 
chiefly of antiquarian interest. It brings under consideration 
a momentous period of intellectual development when the scien- 
tific spirit was awakening and struggling for better expression. 
The examination of the human documents containing the early 
attempts at pictorial representation of the results of observation, 
have a peculiar interest for those who are still engaged in observ- 
ing and recording results by the graphic method. Moreover, 
the consideration of these crude sketches reveals to us the con- 
ditions under which scientific men worked, the mental habit 
of the period, the educational practice in science and the degree 
to which accurate observation in anatomy prevailed. Nothing 
else shows more definitely the state of anatomical knowledge 
of the time, that which is covered and rendered ambiguous in 
the text stands exposed in the sketches—these graphic indices 
show the degree of fidelity to nature of the observer and his mental 
bias in the matter of interpretation. 
1The notable interest of Professor Whitman in the historical phases of his 
science makes it appropriate that one of his students should offer in his memory 
a study of anatomical illustration before Vesalius—a study in the awakening of 
the scientific spirit. | 
Doctor Whitman was a pioneer in the United States in inaugurating university 
instruction in the history of comparative anatomy and of generation (see the Clark 
University Register for 1890). It is with pleasurable reminiscences that the 
writer acknowledges the influence of Dr. Whitman in the development of his men- 
tal interests. The friendly as well as the preceptorial relations with this leader 
of biological thought were a source of stimulus, especially as regards the philo- 
sophical outlook on nature, and the growth of a disposition to view current bio- 
logical thought and attainment in the light of its historical development. 
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