MEDI/EVAL SCIENCE IN THE WEST 



the first of the Western writers to teach that the brain 

 is the source of the nerves, and the heart the source of 

 the vessels. From this it is seen that he was groping 

 in the direction of an explanation of the circulation 

 of the blood, as demonstrated by Harvey three cen- 

 turies later. 



The work of Arnald and Peter of Abano in " reviv- 

 ing" medicine was continued actively by Mondino 

 (1276-1326) of Bologna, the "restorer of anatomy," 

 and by Guy of Chauliac (born about 1300), the " re- 

 storer of surgery." All through the early Middle Ages 

 dissections of human bodies had been forbidden, and 

 even dissection of the lower animals gradually fell into 

 disrepute because physicians detected in such practices 

 were sometimes accused of sorcery. Before the close 

 of the thirteenth century, however, a reaction had be- 

 gun, physicians were protected, and dissections were 

 occasionally sanctioned by the ruling monarch. Thus 

 Emperor Frederick II. (1194-1250 A.D.) whose ser- 

 vices to science we have already had occasion to men- 

 tion ordered that at least one human body should be 

 dissected by physicians in his kingdom every five years. 

 By the time of Mondino dissections were becoming 

 more frequent, and he himself is known to have dis- 

 sected and demonstrated several bodies. His writings 

 on anatomy have been called merely plagiarisms of 

 Galen, but in all probability he made many discoveries 

 independently, and on the whole, his work may be 

 taken as more advanced than Galen's. His descrip- 

 tion of the heart is particularly accurate, and he seems 

 to have come nearer to determining the course of the 

 blood in its circulation than any of his predecessors. 



VOL. II. 4 .3;* 



