ANATOMY. 



everyday into higher credit, till at length 

 he is deified, and every page of his wri- 

 tings becomes sacred and infallible. This 

 was actually the fortune of Aristotle in 

 philosophy, and of Galen in anatomy, for 

 many ages ; and such respect shewn to 

 any man in any age must always be a mark 

 of declining science. 



Anatomy experienced the same fate as 

 learning in general on the decline and fall 

 of the Roman empire. The moral and 

 intellectual character of the Romans had 

 been much debased in the later ages of 

 the empire. Philosophy and science were 

 manifestly degenerating, and their place 

 was supplied by a debased and corrupted 

 theology. The successive irruptions of 

 the northern barbarians accelerated the 

 approaching ruin. The great inundation 

 of the Goths into Italy, in the fifth centu- 

 ry, extinguished with the Roman empire, 

 its laws, manners, and learning, and plun- 

 ged the world into the depths of ignorance 

 and superstition. The succeeding ten 

 centuries, which have received the appel- 

 lation of the dark ages of the world, pre- 

 sent a melancholy picture to the philoso- 

 phic observer of human nature ; a barren 

 and dreary waste, not enlivened by a sin- 

 gle trace of cultivation. 



The followers of the Arabian prophet 

 dissipated the little remains of learning 

 that were left in Asia and Egypt. A con- 

 tempt of all human knowledge, and the 

 religious obligation of extending the Ma- 

 hometan faith by means of the sword, made 

 these ignorant barbarians the most danger- 

 ous and destructive foes to science and the 

 arts. The city of Alexandria, the school 

 of which had been the resort of the learn- 

 ed for centuries, wns taken in the year 

 640, by Amrou, the general of the Caliph 

 Omar ; the celebrated library was burnt, 

 with the exception of those books which 

 related to medicine, which the love of life 

 induced the Arabians to spare. 



When the Saracens were established in 

 their new conquests, they began to dis- 

 cern the utility of learning in the arts and 

 sciences, and particularly in physic. Ma- 

 homet had made it death for any Mussul- 

 man to learn the liberal arts : this prohi- 

 bition was gradually neglected, and many 

 of the caliphs distinguished themselves by 

 their love of letters, and the munificent 

 institations which they founded for the 

 propagation of learning. The Greek au- 

 thors were collected, translated, and com- 

 mented on ; but there was no improve- 

 ment nor extension of science made. In 

 anatomy, the Arabians went no further 

 than Galen, the perusal of whose works 

 suppliedthe place of dissection. Theywere 



preventedfromtouchingthedeadbytheiiT 

 tenets respecting uncleanness and pollu- 

 tion,which theyhad derived from the Jews. 



The Arabian empire in the east was 

 overturned by the Turks, who, still more 

 barbarous and illiterate than the Sara- 

 cens, carried ignorance and oppression 

 wherever they directed their footsteps. 

 They soon destroyed all the institutions 

 which the Saracens had formed for the 

 propagation of science, and threatened 

 Constantinople itself, which still retained 

 the faint and almost dying embers of 

 Greek knowledge. This city was taken 

 and sacked in the middle of the fifteenth 

 century ; and the learned Greeks fled for 

 safety to the western nations of Eu- 

 rope bringing with them the Grecian au- 

 thors on medicine, and translating them ; 

 which works, the invention of printing, 

 that happened about the same time, 

 greatlycontnbuted to disperse throughout 

 Europe. People had now an opportunity 

 of becoming acquainted with the writings 

 of Galen and the ancients, and, by these 

 means, of arriving at the source of that 

 knowledge which they had hitherto ob- 

 tained only through the channel of the 

 Arabian physicians. The superiority of 

 the former was soon discovered, and the 

 opinions of the Grecian writers were consi- 

 dered even in anatomy, as unimpeachable. 



For the restoration of anatomy, as well 

 as that of science in general, we are in- 

 debted to the Italians. But the first men 

 who signalized themselves in this path 

 partook of that blind reverence for the 

 words of Galen, which had reigned uni- 

 versally in medicine since his death, and 

 which concurred with the universally pre- 

 vailing prejudices of those times, con- 

 cerning the violation of the dead, to ob- 

 struct all advancement of the science. As 

 an instance of the latter circumstance, we 

 may mention a decree of Pope Boniface 

 Vlll.prohibiting the boiling and preparing 

 of bones, which put a stop to the research- 

 es of Mundinus. 



Among the circumstances which contri- 

 buted to the restoration of anatomy is to 

 be reckoned, the assistance which it deri- 

 ved from the great painters and sculptors 

 of this age. A knowledge of the anatomy 

 of the surface of the body, at least, is es- 

 sential to the prosecution of these arts. 

 Michael Angelo dissected men and ani- 

 mals, in order to learn the muscleswhich 

 lie under the skin. A collection of anato- 

 mical drawings made by Leonardo da Vinci 

 at this period, is still extant, and, with 

 subjoined explanations, are found in the 

 library of the king. Dr. Hunter bears 

 witness to the minute and accurate know- 



