34 



BIOLOGY AXD ITS MAKERS 



The Fahrica of A'csaliiis was a |)iccc of careful, honest 

 work, the moral inlluence of which must not be overlooked. 

 At anv moment in the ^\■orlc^s history, work marked bv 



sincerity exercises a wholesome 

 inlluence, but at this particular 

 stage of intellectual develop- 

 ment such work was an inno- 

 vation, and its significance for 

 progress was wider and deeper 

 than it might have been under 

 different circumstances. 



Opposition to Vesalius. — 

 The beneficent results of his 

 efforts were to unfold after- 

 ward, since, at the time, his 

 utterances were vigorously op- 

 posed from all sides. Not only 

 did the ecclesiastics contend 

 that he was dissemiinating false 

 and harmful doctrine, but the 

 medical men from whom he 

 might have expected sympathy 

 and support violently opposed 



his teachings. 



amusmsf 



arguments 



Fig. 7. — Initial letters from 

 Vesalius 's Fahrica oi 1543. 



Many 



were brought forward to dis- 

 credit Vesalius, and to up- 

 hold the authority of Galen. 

 Vesalius sho^^■ed that in the 

 human body the lower jaw is 

 a sinde bone — that it is not 

 divided as it is in the dog and 

 other lower mammals, and, as 

 Galen had taught, also in the 



