ANDREAS VESALIUS-A.D. 1514 to 1564 105 



have courage and pluck; these he possessed, in addition to youth, 

 energy, zeal and a great capacity for work. 



Along with these, he was proud, sensitive, impatient of op- 

 position, stormy in temperament, indignant to abuse and at times 

 ungracious with his opponents. He was not averse to making derog- 

 atory remarks about his former teacher at Paris, Sylvius. Like all 

 good anatomists he reacted to the beauty, design and morphology 

 of the human body and he had enough of the artist in him to be 

 able to set high standards for the superb illustrations which were 

 incorporated into the Fabrica. He had to be a genius in assem- 

 bling and coordinating the structures which he saw. This had to 

 be done in order for him to become a pathmaker and a pro- 

 claimer of truth. He was a pioneer in daring to observe. 



Due to a combination of events, Vesalius completed one of 

 the great masterpieces of medicine before he reached the age 

 of thirty years. This was it, his creative contribution to society; 

 nothing more came from his pen. Yet, the Fabrica shattered tra- 

 dition and eventually the centuries of long idol worship of Galen, 

 and brought science back again to rational observation (Doolin 

 '33; Garrison, '15; O'Malley and Saunders, '53; Welch, '15). 



