THE EARLY DAYS OF COMPARATIVE ANATOMY. 151 



elementary manner the anatomy of the month and of the 

 chest and abdomen. He mentions the larger vessels, and 

 demonstrates the alveolar nature of the lungs by inflating 

 them with a quill. 



IV. 



That ill-defined and shifting upheaval which 

 resulted in the revival of learning produced little effect 

 on the biological sciences, which lagged far behind as if 

 dependent on the invention of printing. In comparative 

 anatomy the revival of research may be dated from the 

 memoirs published in 1573 and 1575 by Volcher Coiter, 

 the " excellent friend " of Eustachius, and a product of 

 the school of Padua, one of the first and certainly the 

 greatest of all schools of anatomy. The grip of the 

 middle ages no longer paralyses the energies of the 

 observer, and the works of Coiter challenge the under- 

 standing and accuse the ignorance of his generation. 

 Apart from the inevitable description of the development 

 of the chick, a subject which has excited the curiosity of 

 naturalists from the time of Aristotle, Coiter compares 

 the skeleton of man with that of a higher and lower ape, 

 and again with that of a fox. He is disposed to fasten 

 rather on points of difference than to emphasize 

 homologies. He deals with the skeleton and soft parts 

 of all classes of Vertebrates except Fishes, and his 

 section on the anatomy of Birds is especially admirable. 

 He describes in remarkable detail, and illustrates with 

 well-drawn figures, the complex tongue and hyoid of the 

 woodpecker, the internal organs of Birds, their skeleton 

 and muscles, and he explains how the pectoral muscles 

 are used in flight. He adds to his achievements a scheme 

 in which the classification of Birds is attempted almost 

 for the first time. 



