362 Dr Craigie's Observations on the 



cognised the horny structure of the inner membrane of the giz- 

 zard, and the facility with which it is detached from the mus- 

 cular layer, as also the hard and bony structure, with the bifid 

 appearance of the tongue. He remarks the great size of the 

 liver, and ascribes to this circumstance the voracity of the animal. 

 He observes also the great extent of the lungs, and the peculiar 

 arrangement of the trachea, which is capacious and oval above, 

 narrow in the middle, and becomes again more capacious below. 

 Nearly about the same period, John Bittner, a Silesian by 

 birth, investigated, with much care, the structure of the parrot 

 family. In his account of the cranium, he demonstrated the pe- 

 culiar manner in which the upper jaw bone is articulated to the 

 frontal, so as to produce motion of the former on the latter. He 

 seems also to have been well impressed with the peculiar situa- 

 tion and connections of the quadrilateral bone (ps qttadratnm), 

 and the lever effect of its motion ; but it is not to be wondered 

 at that his speculations on this subject are imperfect and unsatis- 

 factory. (Aldrovandi, lib. ix.) 



The most diligent comparative anatomist of this period ap- 

 pears to have been Volcher Coiter or Koyter, who, though a 

 native of Groningen in Friseland, yet, as a pupil of Fallopius 

 at Padua, of Eustachio at Rome, and of Aranzi at Bologna, and 

 afterwards as a coadjutor of the indefatigable Aldrovandus, may 

 be regarded as one of the anatomists of the Italian school. 

 Born in 1534, after studying successively at Paris, Padua, 

 Rome, and Bologna, he taught, in the latter city, the structure of 

 ihe human body, and cultivated the study of animal anatomy with 

 extreme assiduity, in concert witli Ulysses Aldrovandus. From 

 Bologna he proceeded to Montpellier, where he contracted an 

 intimate friendship with Rondelet, and continued to cultivate 

 his favourite pursuit of animal anatomy. After some time spent 

 in this agreeable manner, he obeyed an invitation of the muni- 

 cipal government of Nurnberg, that he would undertake the 

 office of public physician. Here, however, he did not long re- 

 main. Coiter was incapable of living an idle life, and his pas- 

 sion for incessant activity, with his desire of exploring the seats 

 of disease by dissection, found a ready gratification in the office 

 of military physician which the French armies then afforded. 

 Coiter, however, lived not to realize his hopes ; and he died in 

 IGOO, ere he had accomplished his schemes. 



