i6 KUNTERIAN ORATION. 



Vesalius in France. Vesalius pursued his 

 anatomical enquiries with so much ardor and 

 constancy, that he was able to publish seven 

 large folio volumes on the anatomy of the 

 human body, before he was 29 years of 

 age (1542). These books, which entitle 

 him to the greatest gratitude of posterit}^ 

 were to himself, however, the cause of much 

 vexation and trouble. Even at that time, 

 the authority of Galen was held in such 

 high respect, that when Vesalius showed his 

 errors, and his ignorance of the structure of 

 the human body, the hatred of all was 

 turned against the defamer. People could 

 not bear to be set right by so young a man, 

 and even his preceptor Sylvius denounced 

 perpetual enmity against him. I need not 

 tell my present auditors what scrapes Ve- 

 salius got into, or what injuries he sustained, 

 in consequence of the public prejudice 

 against dissection. 



After human anatomy had become mo- 

 derately well known, the different nations 

 of Europe were involved in war, and the 

 same attention was not paid to the sup- 

 port of academical institutions, for teaching 



