70 HUMAN DISSECTION. ITS DRAMA AND STRUGGLE 



period. By A.D. 1800, it had gone through nineteen editions. In 

 the year 1484, Pope Innocent VIII issued a Bull, supported by 

 Maximilian, King of Rome, naming these two men Inquisitors. 

 Almost all mentally sick were soon classified as sorcerers and life 

 was made difficult for them. No man, woman or child was safe. 

 During the reign of Francis I, King of France, severe justice was 

 handed out to 100,000 persons. The last witch to be killed in 

 Germany was Anne Marie Schwagelin, March 30, 1775; she was 

 decapitated. 



At the beginning of the Renaissance, the Black Plague swept 

 Europe and was such that it created a psychological effect on the 

 masses. It made man realize that he was even more frail than the 

 mystics painted him. Social consciousness began to stir and cer- 

 tain individuals began to become puzzled and fascinated with what 

 went on in the mind and what emotions were. 



It wasn't until the 16th Century that things began to change. 

 In this period, the individual was born, but he was "restless, self- 

 assertive, self-contradictory, independent, fearless, quixotic and 

 reckless" (Zilborg and Henry, '41). Many became skeptics and it 

 was they who made valuable contributions to European civiliza- 

 tion. 



What needed to be done, apparently, was to unshackle the 

 mind which had been kidnapped by theologists and philosophers. 

 Although the Renaissance discovered man as a person and was 

 beginning to think of him and nature as one, nevertheless he 

 continued to remain uncertain of himself. This was attested to by 

 the fact that the mentally sick abounded in cities and villages 

 during the early 1600's. They occupied prisons, cellars and wan- 

 dered around the streets and highways either to the amusement 

 or horror of the populace. The medical profession now generally 

 accepted the fact that it was disease of the brain which was re- 

 sponsible for psychiatric conditions. However, Thomas Willis 

 (A.D. 1621-1675), ranked as one of the greatest neuroanatomisis 

 and physicians of his day, believed in devils and in the value ol 

 severe treatment of the psychiatric. He was not averse to em 

 ploying torture and torment as therapeutic methods. By this aj) 

 proach, he believed that the mind could be induced to give u\) 

 its abnormalities, its wild ideas, and become mock and orderly. 



