986 WILLIAM A. LOCY 
The survey of these printed sketches of anatomy, covering a 
century-and-a-half before Vesalius, bringsinto noticethe relatively 
slow progress. While we remember that this is the period of 
the awakening of the scientific spirit, still, the drama of intel- 
lectual progress does not unfold as rapidly as we might expect. 
Why, after the revival of dissection under Mundinus, and why, 
especially, after the introduction of printing, was there not more 
rapid progress? Some seek to find an answer in the difficulty 
of getting material for dissection and others in the opposition of 
the church, but the thing that held anatomical science in check, 
was not so much the lack of opportunity to dissect as the mental 
habit of the time. The disposition to dissect was not especially 
strong. That internal hunger for the analysis of nature at first- 
hand was not of dominating insistence. The effects of tradition 
and of education had to be overcome, and the gradual assimila- 
tion of new methods and new ideas was necessarily slow. Those 
who would have done better under gifted and inspired leaders 
were perplexed and too closely bound by the mental habit of the 
time to map out and follow an independent course. Thus, the 
retarding influence was generic rather than specific. Independent 
spirits of great originality were rare then, as now, and it seems 
natural that the habit of imitation should have so long perpetu- 
ated anatomical sketches of poor quality. Da Vinci was the only 
man whose product exhibits great originality and independence. 
His anatomical work was on the plane of that of Vesalius but his 
sketches were not printed until long after. 
The practice of dissection by medical men was not so actively 
opposed by the church as is generally supposed. A superficial 
reading of the bull of Pope Boniface, de Sepultis, issued in 1300, 
has led to the statement that it was directed against the practice 
of dissecting for scientific purposes, but it was, in reality, a pro- 
scription of the practice of dismembering the bodies of dead 
Crusaders, in order that their bones might be more readily trans- 
ported home for burial in consecrated ground. 
The practice of plagiarism was widespread during this period. 
Publishers and authors engaged in it in a wholesale way; both 
sketches and text were commonly copied without credit being 
