26 • BIOLOGY AXD ITS MAKERS 



to parrot-like repetition of ancient formulas are so obvious 

 that they need not be especially dwelt upon. 



Predecessors of Vesalius. — Italy gave birth to the first 

 anatomists who led a revolt against this slavery to authority 

 in scientific matters. Of the eminent anatomists who pre- 

 ceded Vesalius it will be necessary to mention only three. 

 Mundinus, or ^londino, professor at the University of 

 Bologna, who, in the early part of the fourteenth century, 

 dissected three bodies, published in 131 5 a work founded 

 upon human dissection. He was a man of originality whose 

 work created a sensation in the medical world, but did not 

 supersede Galen's. His influence, although exerted in the 

 right direction, was not successful in establishing observation 

 as the method of teaching anatomy. His book, however, 

 was sometimes used as an introduction to Galen's writings 

 or in conjunction with them. 



The next man who requires notice is Berengarius of Carpi, 

 who was a professor in the University of Bologna in the early 

 part of the sixteenth century. He is said to have dissected 

 not less than one hundred hum.an bodies; and although his 

 opportunities for practical study vrere greater than those of 

 Mondino, his attempts to place the science of anatomy upon 

 a higher level were also unsuccessful. 



We pass now from Italy to France, where Sylvius (1478- 

 1555), one of the teachers of Vesalius, made his mark. His 

 name is preserved to-day in the fissure oj Sylvius in the brain, 

 but he was not an original investigator, and he succeeded 

 only in "making a reputation to which his researches do not 

 entitle him." He was a selfish, avaricious man whose adop- 

 tion of anatomy was not due to scientific interest, but to a 

 love of gain. At the age of fifty he forsook the teaching of 

 the classics for the money to be made by teaching anatomy. 

 He was a blind admirer of Galen, and read his works to 

 medical students without dissections, except that from time 



