ANATOMY. 



ml animals \vhich they accounted unclean, 

 subjected tlu- person to tin- necessity i" 

 purifications, ts.e. To touch a de:i<l body 

 made a person unclean tor seven days. 

 " Win !i law i;-h IT) 



toucheth the body of any man that is dead 

 and purificth not himself, defiletb the ta- 

 bernacle of the Lord; and that soul shall 

 be cut oH'from Israel." 



In tracing it backwards in its infancy, 

 ,M fartlicr into aniumity than 

 the times of the Grecian philosophers. 

 .rt in MM- stati- of some cultivation, 

 it may be said to have been brought forth 

 and bred up among them, as a branch of 

 knowledge. \Ve discover in the 

 writings of Hato, that lie had paid atten- 

 tion to the organization *nd functions of 

 the human body. 



Hippocrates, who lived about four hun- 

 clml veal's tiefore Christ and was reckon- 

 ed the eighteenth in descent from 

 lupins, v. as the fii-st who separated the 

 -;ons of philosophy and physic, and 

 'I himself exclusively to the latter 

 pursuit. He is generally supposed to be 

 the tii-st u ho wrote u|>on anatomy. After 

 -ration of Greek learning 1 , in the 

 tin, it was so fashionable for 

 two hundred \ ears together, to extol the 

 knou ledge of the ancients in anatomy, as 

 in other things, that anatomists seem to 

 '.ule it a point of emulation, wlio 

 should he most lavish in their praise ; 

 some from a diffidence in themselves ; 

 others thro! I <.,-h the love of detracting- from 

 tin- merit of contempOFBries; many from 

 having laboriously studied ancient learn- 

 ing, and having- become enthusiasts in 

 Greek literature : but more, perha; 

 canst; it was the fashionable turn of the 

 ind was held up as the mark of 

 pood education and fine taste. If. how- 

 vver, we read the \\orksof Hip;,- 

 with impartiality, and apply his accounts 

 of the parts to what we now know of the 

 human body, we mus; allow his descrip- 

 tions tobe imperfect, incorrect, sometimes 

 . and often unintelligible, that 

 of the bone* onl\ 



From Hippocrates to Galen, who flou- 

 rished towards the end of the second cen- 

 tury, in the decline of the Itoman empire, 

 that is, in tl; i\ hundred years, 



anatoiir- [ ; tl;e phi- 



losophers still consideriM.;- it 

 rioiw and in brunch of 



knowledge, and the ph .> prin- 



cipal foundation of thei: 

 in tliat interval of time, contributed daily 

 to the commons' curate 



and extended observations, and by tiic 

 lights of improving philosophy 



Aristotle, a disciple of Plato, and pre- 

 ceptor of Alexander the Gre.. 

 entitled to immortality for his immense 

 labours in natural history and comparative 

 ana'omy. 'lianas the founder of th 

 patetic philosophy, which for two thou- 

 ar.she.ld undisputed sw:i\ over the 

 whole learned wo formed the 



mo->i en .;gii which perhaps was 



uceived by any man ; no less than 

 that of a gem ral and detailed history of 

 all nature, a plan by far too vast for the 

 short life of an individual. The love of 

 science which, distinguished Alexander no 

 less than his ambition Mid thirst for glory, 

 led him to encourage and assist the plans 

 of Aristotle in a manner worthy of so great 

 a prince, of so exalted a genius, and of 

 such magnificent designs. The sum of 

 money which he was thereby enabled to 

 devote to his works on natural history 

 woidd be almost incredible, did we nofe 

 consider the traits of great ness which mark 

 every action of Alexander, and were not 

 the circumstance slated l.y writers of uu- 

 cxccptionable authority. Athenrcus, Pli- 

 ny, and .Klian, concur in representing it 

 at between one and two hundred thoif- 

 sand pounds. 



Shortly after the foundation of Alexan- 

 dria, a Celebrated school was established 

 there, to which the Greeks and other for- 

 eigners resorted for instruction, and wherr 

 physic and every branch of natural know- 

 ledge were taught in the greatest perfec- 

 tion. Herophilus and Erasi strut us, two 

 anatomists of this school, are particular- 

 ly celebrated in the history of anato- 

 my. They seem to be the fii-st who dis- 

 sected the human body. At least in thr 

 time of Asistotle, who preceded these ana- 

 tomists by a very short interval, brutes 

 only had been anatomised. It might hav 

 been expected that the practice of em- 

 balming would afford favourable opportu- 

 nities of anatomical investigation, but the 

 rude manner in which the body wax prepa- 

 red, and the dread of pollution, prevented 

 all instructive examination. The p- 

 of the science required that ana' 

 should have subjects, on which careful and 

 'ii might hi- prosecuted 

 wiihcvi 4 fearof interruption. This benefit 

 was obtained through the taste which the 

 i' for the arts 

 lomies inherited, 

 ir share of the empire of . \lex- 

 . which shone so 

 }'tolt-my 

 .! the 



.se ex- 

 : e foundation of the magntfi* 



