26 BORDER LINES OF KNOWLEDGE 



observers. It is fair to mention here, that we owe a 

 great deal to the art of minute injection, by which we 

 are enabled to trace the smallest vessels in the midst 

 of the tissues where they are distributed. This is an 

 old artifice of anatomists. The famous Ruysch, who 

 died a hundred and thirty years ago, showed that each 

 of the viscera has its terminal vessels arranged in its 

 own peculiar way ; * the same fact which you may see 

 illustrated in Gerber's figures after the minute injec- 

 tions of Berres.f I hope to show you many specimens 

 of this kind in the microscope, the work of English and 

 American hands. Professor Agassiz allows me also to 

 make use of a very rich collection of injected prepara- 

 tions sent him by Professor Hyrtl, formerly of Prague, 

 now of Vienna, for the proper exhibition of which I 

 had a number of microscopes made expressly, by Mr. 

 Grunow, during the past season. All this illustrates 

 what has been done for the elucidation of the intimate 

 details of formation of the organs. 



But the great triumph of the microscope as applied 

 to anatomy has been in the resolution of the organs 

 and the tissues into their simple constituent anatomical 

 elements. It has taken up general anatomy where 

 Bichat left it. He had succeeded in reducing the 

 structural language of nature to syllables, if you will 

 permit me to use so bold an image. The microscopic 

 observers who have come after him have analyzed these 



• HaUer, BibL Anat., L 533. 



t General and Minute Anatomy, (London, 1842,) Plate XXm. 



