AT THE UNIVERSITY 55 



an entirely new theoretical basis from Wiirtzburg 

 — a basis that was calculated to attract a young 

 inquirer, who brought much more of the general 

 Faust-spirit to his work than aspiration to the 

 profession and the doctor's cap, or the practical 

 side. 



Let us recall for a moment how medicine had 

 gradually reached the position of an independent 

 science. Medicine was the outcome of a remote 

 mythical epoch. It was content with the effect 

 of certain venerable traditional medicaments on 

 the living body, but knew little or nothing of 

 the inner structure of the body on which it tried 

 its drugs. The dissection and examination of 

 even a corpse was regarded as a deadly sin, and 

 was visited with secular punishment. Scientific 

 medicine did not exist until this prohibition was 

 removed; its first and most necessary foundation 

 was anatomy, the science of the bodily structure 

 and its organs. The art of '* cutting up " bodies 

 had seemed too revolting. Moreover, no sooner 

 had the science of anatomy been founded than 

 the range of the human eye itself was considerably 

 enlarged. The microscope was invented. A new 

 world came to light in the dissection of the body. 

 Beyond their external appearance it revealed the 

 internal composition of the various organs. The 

 eye sees a shred of skin, a piece of intestine, or 

 a section of the liver. The microscope fastens on 

 a tiny particle of this portion of the body, and 

 reveals in it a deeper layer of unsuspected 

 structures. It is well known in the history of 



