SCIENTISTS OF XVTH AND XVlTH CENTURIES. 97 



Servetus, Solomon Albert! (1540 1600), VESALIUS, Fallopius, 

 Eustachius, Arantus, Santorio, and Asellius had been worthy 

 precursors of Harvey, not by their excellent descriptions of 

 the human frame only, but by their physiological discoveries. 

 They had studied the brain, the nerves, the cartilages, and 

 the bones with success ; they had discovered cellular tissue, 

 the lacteal vessels, the choroid plexus, the tube from the 

 throat to the ear-drum, the refluent course of the blood in 

 the veins, the valves in these vessels, the function of the skin, 

 thus laying the foundations of the science, and preparing the 

 way for Harvey. 



And all round we find the same tidal advance : some 

 particular facts threw great light upon the practical and 

 intellectual course men were taking and pursuing. A few 

 typical instances will suffice to show this. A Waltherus, in 

 the XVth century, made use of clocks in his astronomical 

 observations to avoid haphazard conclusions ; a Roman 

 Churchman, Cardinal Cusa (1401 1464), some time before the 

 appearance of Copernicus, believed in the solar system which 

 science has proved to be correct a fact, this, proving 

 that authority was gradually losing its hold upon men, and 

 that observations were becoming the first principle of re- 

 search. Within another hundred years or so, this system was 

 all but universally accepted by sound minds, since we find 

 GIORDANO BRUNO actually daring to ventilate that system at 

 Oxford, one of the strongholds of orthodoxy (1580 1583) 

 a forcible evidence of the rapid progress ideas had been 

 making. Such was the tendency of the times. 



Further examination of the field shows how extensive 

 and varied it was. In the sphere of Observation, Toscanelli 

 and his gnomon^ one hundred and fifty years before Harvey's 

 time, Peurbach and his Ephemerides,Z>/z0 and his reform of the 

 Calendar, Caesalpinus and his double discovery as regards 

 crystallisation and oxidation, Alpinus and his diagnosis, 

 Plater and his classification of disease, Palissy and his dis- 

 covery of the origin of springs, Tycho Brake and his minute 

 description of the "new star" of 1572 74, and Kepler's of 

 the "new star" of 1604, to speak of a few only, stand 

 out in strong relief when opposed to the fanciful records 



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