262 HUMAN DISSECTION. ITS DRAMA AND STRUGGLE 



After Galen, the practice of dissection appears to have been 

 lost either because of further prejudices against it or the apathy 

 of the physicians. 



During the Middle Ages, A.D. 400-1400, anatomy made little 

 or no progress. This period is characterized by stagnation, de- 

 generation and actual loss of previous anatomical knowledge. The 

 genesis of this status was probably the deterioration and decline 

 of the school of medicine at Alexandria. The prevailing psy- 

 chology of the people characterized by hostility, militated against 

 the advance of the subject. 



.The human body had no standing; rather, it was regarded 

 with contempt and anatomy passed for a pagan science. It was 

 man's soul which ranked high and saving it from hell was the 

 priests' main function. Life was judged to be a transitory way- 

 station between two eternities and all learning was monastic. 

 Magic was accepted by many members of the populace and the 

 "possessed" and ''witches" came in for their share of attention. 

 Punishing them by death became a reality of the times. 



During the latter part of the Middle Ages, it was the Arabians 

 who kept literature and science alive, by translations of older 

 Greek and Roman works. 



Between A.D. 1200 and 1350, fifteen new university centers 

 were established in Italy and it was they who had most to do with 

 the revival of human dissection. Frederick II, Emperor of Ger- 

 many and the two Sicilies paved the way by granting permission 

 to anatomize in A.D. 1240. One human subject was allotted to 

 the University of Salerno every five years. Mondino da Luzzi, 

 A.D. 1276-1326, was the first post- Alexandrian to completely dis- 

 sect a human body, that of an executed criminal, in 1315. He set 

 standards of procedure which prevailed for centuries: a barber 

 performing the dissection, the professor reading from a high chair 

 and a demonstrator pointing out the various structures with a 

 rod. The sole aim was to illustrate Galen to an audience usually 

 made up of high ranking officials and privileged civilians. Rites 

 were performed upon the condemned before execution to atone 

 for the deed about to be done; festivities climaxed the events. 

 Mondino wrote an anatomical text which went through twenty- 



