2 PATHFINDERS OP PHYSIOLOGY 



expounded the human subject. Huxley declares that "No one can 

 read Galen's works without being impressed with the marvelous ex- 

 tent and diversity of his knowledge and by his clear grasp of those 

 experimental methods by which alone physiology can be advanced." 

 Romewaathe field of his greatest triumph as physician. So great 

 was ^tSierih influence that for more than a thousand years his works 

 heldSittdieputed sway over anatomigaljteaching until a greater name 

 arose in the person of Vesalius. ('Ves^it^s, born in Brussels the last 

 day of 1514, inherited from an ancestr/'of learned men a keen appe- 

 tite for scientific learning. His wasjbha^nd^ependen^^ 

 niind which has characterized ?ns"countrymehr~beforE~and since his 

 faay. The great importance of his work lies in the fact that he over- 

 \ threw adherence to authority as a means of arriving at truth and 

 \ employed instead, observation and reason. Slavish obedience to author- 

 Sty characterized the thought and methods of the Dark Ages. This 

 was in accord with the ecclesiastical influence dominant during this 

 long period. It was the method of the theologian, which had, un- 

 fortunately, survived almost to our own day. Darwin was perhaps 

 'he most recent object of theological invective. As the Scriptures 

 were an infallable guide to spiritual truth, so the works of Galen were 

 unfailing guides to scientific truth. Vesalius was bitterly 

 opposed not only by the ecclesiastic forces, but by medical men 

 af his time. The theologians opposed him because, among other 

 things, he differed from the widely accepted dogma that man should 

 have one less rib on one side because according to Scripture Eve was 

 formed from one of Adam's ribs. He was also at variance with them 

 on the subject of the Resurrection bone. Vesalius was willing, how- 

 ever, to leave the matter with the theologians, since it did not appear 

 to him to be an anatomical question. Sir Michael Foster writes that 

 Vesalius "Tried to do what others had done before him — he tried to 

 believe Galen rather than his own eyes, but his eyes were too strong 

 for him ; and he cast Galen aside and taught only what he could see 

 and what he could make his students see, too. Thus he brought into 

 anatomy the new spirit of the time, and especially the young men of 

 the time answered with a new voice." It is said that students flocked 

 to his lectures, his audience amounting to some five hundred. The 

 history of anatomy precedes that of physiology as a logical sequence. 

 The work of Vesalius placed the structure of the human body in a 



^new light. 



j William Harvey was the first man to study and proclaim the f unc- 



I tion of structures which Vesalius had in such a masterly manner 



^^demonstrated. 



"The work of Harvey," says Locy, "Was complemental to that of 

 Vesalius and we may safely say that, taken together, the work of 

 these two men laid the foundations of the modern method of inves- 

 tigating nature. * * * in what sense the observations of the two men 

 were complimental will be better understood when we remember that 

 there are two aspects in which living organisms should always be 

 considered in biological studies; the first, the structure, and then 

 the use that the structures subserve." 



The new learning spread over Europe in a westerly and northerly 

 direction. England was the last to partake of its benign blessing. 

 England had but two universities — Oxford and Cambridge; France 



