26 BIOLOGY AND ITS MAKERS 
to parrot-like repetition of ancient formulas are so obvious 
that they need not be especially dwelt upon. 
Predecessors of Vesalius.—Italy gave birth to the first 
anatomists who led a revolt against this slavery to authority 
in scientific matters. Of the eminent anatomists who pre- 
ceded Vesalius it will be necessary to mention only three. 
Mundinus, or Mondino, professor at the University of 
Bologna, who, in the early part of the fourteenth century, 
dissected three bodies, published in 1315 a work founded 
upon human dissection. He was a man of originality whose 
work created a sensation in the medical world, but did not 
supersede Galen’s. His influence, although exerted in the 
right direction, was not successful in establishing observation 
as the method of teaching anatomy. His book, however, 
was sometimes used as an introduction to Galen’s writings 
or in conjunction with them. 
The next man who requires notice is Berengarius of Carpi, 
who was a professor in the University of Bologna in the early 
part of the sixteenth century. He is said to have dissected 
not less than one hundred human bodies; and although his 
opportunities for practical study were greater than those of 
Mondino, his attempts to place the science of anatomy upon 
a higher level were also unsuccessful. 
We pass now from Italy to France, where Sylyjus (1478- 
1555), one of the teachers of Vesalius, made his mark. His 
name is preserved to-day in the fissure of Sylvius in the brain, 
but he was not an original investigator, and he succeeded 
only in “making a reputation to which his researches do not 
entitle him.” He was a selfish, avaricious man whose adop- 
tion of anatomy was not due to scientific interest, but to a 
love of gain. At the age of fifty he forsook the teaching of 
the classics for the money to be made by teaching anatomy. 
He was a blind admirer of Galen, and read his works to 
medical students without dissections, except that from time 
