THE EARLY DAYS OF COMPARATIVE ANATOMY. 159 



But of all the undertakings stimulated by the varied 

 activities of the seventeenth century none discovers our 

 interest more than the Zootomia Democritaea of Severini, 

 published in 1645. As a surgeon he favoured the stern 

 and ruthless school of iron and fire — a school of the 

 blackest mediaeval cast, surrounded by all the terrors of 

 torture and mutilation. We search in vain in his animal 

 anatomy for the strength and boldness which his reputa- 

 tion as a surgeon would lead us to expect. He is crude, 

 diffuse and superficial, his descriptions are often mere 

 catalogues of the coarser anatomical facts, and many of 

 his figures are so original as to be unlike the objects they 

 represent. His work might have been written in the 

 preceding century, before the possibilities of anatomy had 

 been revealed by Yesalius. Not that he is unfamiliar 

 with the works of his predecessors, all of whom are quoted 

 with the surprising and important exception of Ruini. 

 It is at once gratifying to our national pride, and 

 illustrative of the expansive powers of true genius, that 

 Severini should have been an almost exact contemporary 

 of William Harvey. 



Human and comparative anatomy are distinguished 

 by Severini as Andr anatomy and Zootomy. In a long 

 general section, which embraces also the anatomy of 

 plants, he recognises the unity of the Vertebrate animals, 

 including man, and regards divergences from the type 

 as due to disturbances of function. The general 

 similarity he attributes to Divine design. In comparing 

 the anatomy of the ape and man he considers their affinity 

 so patent that the ape should be exploited for medical 

 purposes, and therefore stress is laid only on the points 

 of difference. He is not misled by the specialised 

 character of birds, but here he appears to have been 

 ignorant of the work of Belon. Man is regarded, 



