368 HUMAN ANATOMY 



conqueror as for the conquered, accompanied by rapid development 

 in all branches. All these things act as yeast upon the intellectual 

 labors of a people. Can it be a mere coincidence that the first improve- 

 ment of medical knowledge by the Hippocratic school occurred at 

 the time of Pericles, that the Galenical school followed soon after 

 the bloody time of the Roman emperors, that previously the develop- 

 ment of anatomy in a high degree occurred in the short and bloody 

 period of the Ptolemies, or finally, that the almost phenomenal blos- 

 soming of anatomy at the time of Vesalius, Eustachius, and Fallopius 

 followed soon after the beginning of the Renaissance, the invention 

 of printing, and the discovery of America? A wonderful period this 

 was at the beginning of the sixteenth century! 



Philosophy, the mother and starting-point of all sciences, in 

 which they all come together, assisted materially in its develop- 

 ment, not only because it placed new problems before anatomy, 

 but because its recent conceptions and systems have affected the 

 progress of anatomy and that of related sciences, to a degree hardly 

 suspected by those who have accepted its ideas. The philosophy 

 of Cartesius and the application of the inductive method by Francis 

 Bacon, Bacon of Verulam, were, of course, not without an influence 

 upon all natural sciences, as well as on the development of anatomic 

 teaching. 



But we should appear thankless, if we did not mention the valu- 

 able assistance which influential and sagacious men, be they rulers 

 and statesmen, be they wealthy burghers, have given to the cause 

 of anatomy. The Ptolemies, Medicis, many of the popes of the 

 sixteenth century, the Hohenstaufens, Frederick II, and others 

 have assisted by laws and regulations in the development of ana- 

 tomy, at a time which was most difficult and unfavorable for the 

 same. In this country, in which all sciences are advancing with an 

 unexampled energy, a steadily increasing number of large-hearted 

 citizens consider it their greatest honor to use their hard-earned 

 wealth in the service of science. 



Human anatomy has also received valuable aid from the found- 

 ing of universities and other scientific institutions. If the problems 

 may be mentioned which anatomy has still to solve, it will be shown 

 that special grants for the same are among the most worthy objects 

 for wealthy donations. 



Our science, as all others, may hope for considerable advance 

 from the cooperation of the academies and learned societies of the 

 whole world, which has been brought about at the end of the century 

 by the "Association of Academies." The first problem which was 

 taken up by the Academies this year, the advancement of the study 

 of the brain, is in large part anatomic. I cannot neglect referring in 

 this place to the name of William His, who studied this problem 



