ANATOMY. 



of the magnificent Alexandrian library. 

 This king and his predecessor seem to 

 have overcome the religious scruples 

 which forbade the touch of the dead body, 

 and gave up to the physicians the bodies 

 of those who had forfeited their lives to the 

 law. Nay, if the testimony of several au- 

 thors may be believed, Herophilus and 

 Erasistratus dissected several unfortunate 

 criminals alive. There is, however, some- 

 thing in this practice so repuguant to 

 every feeling of humanity, that we ought 

 probably to consider it only as an exagge- 

 rated report of the novel practice of dis- 

 secting the human subject. The writings 

 of these anatomists have not descended to 

 us : our knowledge of their progress in 

 anatomy is derived only from a few ex- 

 tracts and notices which occur in the 

 works of Galen ; but these prove them to 

 have made great advances in the know- 

 ledge of the structure of the human body. 

 The Romans, in prosecuting their 

 schemes of universal conquest and domi- 

 nion, soon became acquainted with the 

 Greeks, and the intercourse of the two na- 

 tions was constantly increasing. Thus the 

 arts, the philosophy, and the manners of 

 the Greeks were introduced into Italy. 

 Military glory and patriotism, which had 

 formerly been the ruling passion of the 

 Roman people, now gave way in some de- 

 gree to the soft arts of peace. The lead- 

 ing men of the Roman rebublic sought the 

 company and conversation of the learned 

 Greeks ; thus literature and philosophy 

 were transported from the Greeks to the 

 Romans, and gave rise to the taste and ele- 

 gance of the Augustan age. In this way 

 did conquered Greece triumph over the 

 unpolished roughness of her conquerors. 



Graecia captaferum victorem cepit, et artes 

 Intulit agresti Latio 



Although Rome produced orators, poets, 

 philosophers, and historians which may be 

 brought into competition with those of the 

 Greeks, to the eternal disgrace of their 

 empire, it must be allowed that their his- 

 tory is hardly embellished with the name 

 of a single Roman who was great in science 

 or art, in painting or sculpture, in physic, 

 or in any branch of natural knowledge. 

 We cannot therefore introduce one Rom- 

 an into the history of anatomy. Pliny and 

 Celsus were mere compilers from the 

 Greeks. We may account for this appa- 

 rent neglect of anatomy among the Ro- 

 mans, as well indeed as for its slow pro- 

 gress among the Greeks, from some of 

 their religious tenets, as well as from the 

 notion already mentioned, of pollution be- 

 ing communicated by touching a dead bo- 



dy. It was believed, that the souls of the mt~ 

 buried were not admitted into the abodes 

 of the dead, or, at least, that they wander- 

 ed for a hundred years along the river 

 Styx, before they were allowed to cross 

 it. Whoever saw a dead body was oblig- 

 ed to throw some earth upon it, and if he 

 neglected to do so, he was obliged to ex- 

 piate his crime by sacrificing to Ceres. 

 It was unlawful for the pontifex maximus 

 not only to touch a dead body, but even 

 to look at it ; and the flamen of Jupiter 

 might not even go where there was a 

 grave. Persons who had attended a fu- 

 neral were purified by a sprinkling of wa- 

 ter from the hands of the priest, and the 

 house was purified in the same manner. 

 If any one (says Euripides, in Iphigenia) 

 pollutes his hands by a murder, by touch- 

 ing a corpse, or a woman who has lain in, 

 the altars of God are interdicted to him. 



There was no anatomist or physiologist, 

 of sufficient reputation to attract our no- 

 tice, from the times of Herophilus and 

 Erasistratus to the age of Galen. This il- 

 lustrious character was born at Pergamus, 

 in Asia Minor, about the 130th year of the 

 Christian aera. No expense was spared in 

 his education ; after the completion of 

 which, he visited all the most famous 

 schools of philosophy which then existed ; 

 and afterwards resided chiefly at Rome, 

 in the service of the emperors of that time. 



To all the knowledge which could be 

 derived from the writings of Hippocrates, 

 and the philosophical schools of the time, 

 Galen added the results of his own labours 

 and observations,and compiled from these 

 sources a voluminous system of medicine. 

 It is generally considered that the subjects 

 of his anatomical labours were chiefly 

 brutes ; and it is manifest from several 

 passages that his descriptions are drawn 

 from monkeys. Indeed, he never expres- 

 ly states that he has dissected the human 

 subject, although he says he has seen hu- 

 man skeletons. He must be accounted 

 the first who placed anatomical science on 

 a respectable footing ; and deserves our 

 gratitude for this, that he was the only 

 source of anatomical knowledge for about 

 ten centuries. The science declined with 

 Galen; his successors were contented with 

 copying him ; and there is no proof of a 

 dissection of any human body from Galen 

 to the emperor Frederick II. We may 

 observe, that when any man arrives at the 

 reputation of having carried his art far be- 

 yond all others, it seems to throw the rest 

 of the world into a kind of despair. Hope- 

 less of being able to improve their art still 

 further, they do nothing. The great man, 

 who was at first only respectable, grows 



