176 INTRODUCTION 



Paulli. In all probability he took no degree,^ for the times were 

 troublous, and Steno, like other students, helped defend Copenhagen 

 during its siege by Carl Gustav, king of Sweden. 



In 1660 Steno went to Amsterdam to continue his studies and 

 was warmly received by Gerard Blaes, the anatomist, to whom he 

 had been recommended by Bartholin. His stay of four months in 

 Amsterdam was made memorable by the discovery on April 7, 1660, 

 of the parotid duct, which is still known as the ductus Stenonianus? 

 Blaes, however, claimed the discovery for his own, and a warm con- 

 troversy ensued, in which Steno defended himself with ability and 

 dignity. On April 22, 1661, Steno wrote to Thomas Bartholin 

 from Leyden : ^ 



' Since you urge me in your letter to publish an account of the 

 exterior salivary duct, I am constrained to explain to you briefly the 

 envy which this bit of a discovery {inventiunculd) has won for me, 

 and also the result of this envy; not with the purpose of seeking 

 fame in trifles,* but in order to free myself from the hateful charge 

 of stealing what does not belong to me. For I am sorry that the 

 necessity has been laid upon me of being forced to say much upon a 

 subject of no importance, or else to submit to the base brand of 

 sluame. A due consideration of the matter will show that it is not 

 worth making much ado about. For a similar duct* had been pre- 

 viously discovered, and even the very duct in question had been 

 observed by Casserius^ although he called it a muscle. . . . Since, 

 however, the charge imputed to me by reason of that duct does not 



1 Wichfeld, op. cit., p. 6, says that Steno went to Amsterdam in 1660 as "Dr. physices." 

 He is followed by de Angelis in Biographie Universelle (Michaud ; Nouvelle Edition, Tome 

 Quarantiiine, p. 209), by Chdreau in the Dictionnaire Encyclopidique des Sciences Midicales 

 (p. 689), and by Hughes in Nature (Vol. 25, 1882, p. 484). Plenkers {JViels Stensen, p. 11, 

 note 5) gives good evidence for believing that no degree had been conferred, and Maar {Opera 

 Philosophica, Vol. I, p. ii) implies as much. 



' It appears that the parotid duct was observed independently by Needham in 1655, but 

 his results were not published until 1667 (Maar, op. cit., Vol. I, p. iii). Steno's treatise bears 

 the following title and date : De Glandulis Oris et Novis Inde Prodenntibus Salivae Vasis, 

 Lugd. Batav. Anno 1661. It is printed by Maar, op. cit., Vol. I, pp. 9-51. 



^ De Prima Ductus Salivalis Exterior is Invent ione et Bilsianis Experitnentis, Lugd. Batav. 

 Ao (anno) 1661, 22 ap. (Aprilis). Printed by Maar, op. cit., Vol. I, pp. 1-7. 



* In mustaceo laureolam quaeram means literally ' look for a laurel-wreath in a cake.' 

 Cicero uses the proverb in writing to his friend Atticus, V. 20, 4. 



^ Ductus Whartonianus, for which see Adenographia . . . Auctore Thoma Whartono, Lon- 

 don, 1656, c. XXI, p. 129; Maar, op. cit.. Vol. I, p. 222. 



^ De Vocis Auditusque Organis Historia Anatomica, Ferrara, 1600, tab. V, p. 27, d, ac- 

 cording to Maar, op. cit., Vol. I, p. 222. 



