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He did put " his own hand to the business," and thus became the 

 Founder of Modern Anatomy. 



The war between Francois I. and Charles V. compelled him to 

 quit Paris and return to Louvain. He served as a surgeon with the 

 Imperial troops in Flanders from 1535 to 1537. In 1537 he set out 

 for Italy, and lectured at Pisa, Bologna, and elsewhere. The fame of 

 his prelections— for before this time he had published little besides 

 a translation of Rhazes— led to his appointment by the Republic of 

 Venice to conduct the public dissections, and to the Professorship of 

 Surgery in the University of Padua, which belonged to Venice. Under 

 the powerful influence of the Senate of the Republic, Vesalius was 

 able to obtain in Italy a more liberal supply of " material " for his 

 life-work than was possible, perhaps, in any other part of Europe. 

 Appointed to these high offices when he was about three-and-twenty 

 years of age, he served the Republic for nearly seven years. The 

 work he did must have been enormous, for in 1542 he dedicated 

 his famous work De Humani Corporis Fabrica to Charles V. This 

 great work On the Structure of the Human Body, a folio of 659 pages 

 with illustrations by John Calcar, and not by Titian, was published 

 in 1543 at the printing press of J. Oporinus (or Herbst) in Basel. 

 The manuscript was completed in 1542, when Vesalius was aet. 28, 

 as shown in the famous portrait of him here reproduced by photo- 

 gravure. Notice that it bears a quaint form — " ocyus ivcvnde et 

 tvto" — of the old motto. 



The publication of his great work — which marks at once the 

 beginning of modern anatomy and laid the basis for the study of 

 physiology — brought to Vesalius the uncompromising hostility of the 

 Galenists of his day. The book recorded the results of Vesalius' own 

 labour, his direct appeal to nature — to what he calls the only true 

 bible. His master Sylvius, his pupil Columbus, his successor 

 Falloppius (1523-1563), and others wrote against his teaching. He 

 seems to have been discouraged thereby. There were probably 

 other reasons which led him to quit Padua, on whose University he 

 had conferred immortal fame, and in which he had acquired for 

 himself lasting renown. It is stated that about this time an offer 

 came from Charles V. inviting Vesalius to become his Court Physician. 

 He accepted the offer and left Padua in 1544. Here ended the 

 scientific career of Vesalius. Doubtless he witnessed that memorable 

 scene on October 25th, 1559, at Brussels, when Charles with all 

 suitable pomp, ceremony, and solemnity "surrendered to his son, 

 Philip (II.) all his territories, jurisdiction, and authority in the Low 

 Countries." Charles, " unable to stand without support," leaning on 

 the shoulder of the Prince of Orange, spoke of himself as " a 

 sovereign worn out with diseases, and scarcely half alive" (Prescott). 

 A few weeks later he resigned to his son the Kingdom of Spain. 



