LIFE OF STENO 177 



permit me to keep silent, I shall tell you the entire affair, as pupil to 

 preceptor, and shall leave the decision to your judgment. . . . 



'It is a year now since I was hospitably received by Blaes. After 

 waiting three weeks for a chance to secure anatomical material, I 

 asked the distinguished man whether I might be permitted to dis- 

 sect with my own hand such material as I could buy for myself. 

 He gave his consent, and fortune so favored me that in the first 

 sheep's head, which I had bought on April 7 and was dissecting 

 alone in my room, I found a duct which, so far as I knew, had been 

 described by no one before. I had removed the skin and was pre- 

 paring to dissect the brain when I decided to examine first the 

 ducts. With this end in view I was exploring the courses of the 

 veins and arteries when I noticed that the point of my knife was no 

 longer closely confined between tissues but moved freely in a large 

 cavity, and presently I heard the teeth themselves resound, as I 

 thrust my knife forward. 



' In amazement at the discovery I called in my host (Blaes) that I 

 might hear his opinion. First he ascribed the sound to the violence 

 of my thrust, then resorted to calling it a freak of Nature, and finally 

 referred to Wharton.^ But inasmuch as that did not help, and the 

 ducts, which had been handled carelessly, allowed no further inves- 

 tigation, I decided to examine them another time more carefully. I 

 succeeded, although not so well, a few days later with a dog's head. 

 Since its affinity to the inferior duct indicated the function of the 

 one I had found, I told Jacob Henry Paulli, my intimate friend, that 

 I had discovered a salivary duct, and I added a description of it. 

 But since I knew that something like it had been discovered before 

 and could not determine whether this identical duct had been ex- 

 amined, I remained silent until I could find opportunity to consult 

 Sylvius about it. After he had heard my account he determined to 

 seek the duct in man, and having found it he demonstrated it to 

 spectators on several occasions.' ^ 



Steno then proceeds to show that Blaes's brother, who was in 

 Amsterdam at the time and was thoroughly conversant with the 

 discovery, had accredited it to Steno in letters to Eysson, Professor 



1 See p. 176, note 5. 



'•^ Maar, op. cit., Vol. I, pp. 3-5- For a convenient description of the duct and the relation 

 of Steno's work to that of Richard Hale see de Angelis, Biographic Universelle (Michaud), 

 Nouvelle Edition, Tome Quarantiime, p. 209. 



