LINKAGE WITH THE MODERN TIME 



they left untouched much that was best in the 

 Greek medical legacy. 



At a later time, say in the sixteenth century, 

 the spirit of scientific observation was stirring 

 more actively, and the epoch-making people 

 of the age worked somewhat in the old Greek 

 way, making ready a period of palpable scien- 

 tific progress. Such men were fitted to receive 

 the best that the great and ancient past con- 

 tained, which it now seemed to offer these 

 brighter minds as with a new disclosure. 



But in respect to medicine and anatomy 

 there were obstacles to any such acceptance. 

 The men given to actual observation were im- 

 patient of the past's authority; they chose to 

 see for themselves. Vesalius was not like those 

 who in his own and prior generations could 

 see in the actual human body what Mundinus 

 or Galen said was there. He was looking for 

 himself, and was vehemently moved at the dis- 

 crepancy between Galen and the human fact. 

 For him, Galen had ceased to reign. 



Thus from the times of Paracelsus, Vesalius 

 and Pare, and then of Harvey, two general 

 factors tended to end the reign of the once 

 dominant Galen. The one was the active 

 scientific spirit — quite like the Greek — im- 



[ 127] 



