68 FATHERS OF BIOLOGY. 



bodies of executed criminals were wont to be exposed. 

 A noted robber had been executed. His body had been 

 chained to a stake and slowly roasted; and the birds 

 had so entirely stripped the bones of every vestige of 

 flesh, that a perfect skeleton, complete and clean, was 

 suspended before the eyes of the anatomist, who had 

 been striving hitherto to piece together such a thing out 

 of the bones of many people, gathered as occasion 

 offered. Mounting upon the shoulder of his friend, 

 Vesalius ascended the charred stake and forcibly tore 

 away the limbs, leaving only the trunk, which was 

 securely bound by iron chains. With these stolen bones 

 under their clothes the two youths returned to Louvain. 

 In the night, however, and alone, the sturdy Vesalius 

 found his way again to the place which to most men, at 

 any rate in those times, would have been associated with 

 unspeakable horrors and there, by sheer force, wrenched 

 away the trunk, and buried it. Then leisurely and care- 

 fully, day after day, he smuggled through the city gates 

 bone after bone. Afterwards, when he had set up the 

 perfect skeleton in his own house, he did not hesitate to 

 demonstrate from it. But such an act of daring plunder 

 could not escape detection, and he was banished from 

 Louvain for the offence. This story is here quoted 

 only to show the extraordinary physical and moral 

 courage which the anatomist possessed; which upheld 

 him through toils, dangers, and disgusts ; and by which 



