ANATOMY. 



rvi-ry day into higher credit, till at length 

 he is deified, and e\< r\ |ugv ofhisv. ri- 

 tings becomes sacml ;uul infallible. This 

 ually the fortune of Aristotle in 

 philosophy, und of Galen in anatoim, tor 

 Tnany ages; and such respect shewn to 

 any man in any age must always be a mark 

 of declining science. 



Anatomy experienced the same fate as 

 learning in general on the decline And fall 

 of the Roman empire. The moral and 

 intellectual character of the Romans had 

 hi en much debassd in the later ages of 

 the empire. Philosophy and science- u ere 

 manifestly degenerating, and their place 

 was supplied by a debased and corrupted 

 theology. The successive irruptions of 

 the northern barbarians accelerated the 

 approaching ruin. The great inundation 

 of the Goths into Italy, in the fifth centu- 

 ry, extinguished, with the Roman empire, 

 its laws, manners, and learning, and plun- 

 ged the world intothe depths ojfignorance 

 and superstition. The succeeding ten 

 centuries, which tare received the appel- 

 lation of the dark ages of the world, pre- 

 sent a melancholy picture to the philoso- 

 phic observer of human nature ; a barren 

 and dreary waste, not enlivened by a sin- 

 gle trace of cultivation. 



The followers of the Arabian prophet 

 dissipated the little remains of learning 

 that were left in Asia and Kgypt. A con- 

 tempt of all human knowledge, and the 

 religious obligation of extending the Ma- 

 hometan faith by meansof the sword, made 

 th-se ignorantbarbarians the most danger- 

 ous and destructive foes to science and the 

 arts. The city of Alexandria, the school 

 of which had been the resort of the learn- 

 ed for centuries, was taken in ill. 

 640,by Amrou, the general of the Caliph 

 Omar; the celebrated library was buint, 

 with the exception of those hooks which 

 : to medicine, which tin- love of life 

 "induced the Ar.ibians to spare. 



\\ hen the Saracens wen- established in 

 their new conquests they began to dis- 

 cern the utility of learning in the arts and 

 sciences and particularly in ph\sic. Ma- 

 homet had made it death for am Mussul- 

 man to learn the liberal arts : this prohi- 

 bition was gradually neglected, and many 

 of tin 1 caliphs distinguished themselves bj 

 their love- of letters, and the immitin n; 

 institutions which they founded for the 

 j ition oflearning. The Greek au- 

 thors were collected, translated, ft! 

 mentedon; but there was no improve- 

 ment nor extension of science nude. In 

 anatomy, the Arabians went no further 

 than Galen, the perusal of whose works 

 supplied the place of dissection. Theywere 



preventedfromtouchingthe dead by their 

 is and pollu- 

 tion, which they bad derived from tl 



The Arabian empire in the en 

 overturned by tin- 'I inks, v. ho, still more 

 barbarous and illiterate than th> 

 ci us, carried ignorance and oppression 

 \\hercver they directed their too 

 They soon destroyed all the institutions 

 which the Saracens had formed for the 

 propagation of science, and 'Im 

 .ntinople itself, which still r 

 the faint and almost dying embers of 

 Greek knowledge. This city was taken 

 and sacked in the middle of the fifteenth 

 century ; and the learned (ireeks fled for 

 safety to the western nations of Eu- 

 rope, bringing with them the Grecian au- 

 thors on medicine,-and translating them ; 

 which works, the invention of printing, 

 that happened about the same time, 

 greedy contributed to disperse through out 

 Europe. People had now an opportunity 

 lining acquainted with the writings 

 of Galen and the ancients, and, lr 

 iu ans, of arriving at the source of that 

 knowledge which they had hitherto ob- 

 tained only through the chui.nel of the 

 Arabian physicians. The superiority of 

 the former was soon discovered, and the 

 opinions of the Grecian writerswere consi- 

 dered, even in anatomy, as unimpeachable 



For the restoration of anatomy, as well 

 as that of science in general, \v e are in- 

 debted to the Italians. But the first men 

 who signalized themselves in this path 

 partook of that blind reverence for the 

 words of Galen, which had reigned uni- 

 versally in medicine since his death, and 

 which concurred with the universally pre- 

 vailing prejudices of those times, con- 

 cerning the violation of the dead, to ob- 

 struct all advancement of the science. As 

 an instance of the latter circumstance, we 

 may mention a decree of 1'ope Honifacc 

 \ I i I. prohibit ing the boiling and preparing 

 of bones, which put a stop to thr r< 

 Mundinus. 



Among the circumstances which contri- 

 buted to the restoration of anatomy is to 



.oncd, the assistance which 

 veil from the great paii. ,ilploi>. 



of this age. A ki, 



of the \ is es- 



to the ]n i.t these arts. 



.-! men .. 



which 



lie undcrthf skin 



mical drawings made bj Leonardo da Vioci 



at this peiv ', and, with 



subjoin ,'ions, are found in the 



ig. Dr. Hunter bears 



- to the minute and accurate know- 



