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TILE AMERICAN NATURALIST [Vol. LI 



part, crudely done and can not be taken as indicating any 

 attempt to illustrate anatomy. Often the internal parts 

 shown bear some resemblance to the human structures. 

 Occasionally the liver of a mammal is incorporated in the 

 same piece with the human heart and lungs. The viscera 

 are very crude and can not be taken as indicating any de- 

 gree of positive knowledge concerning the parts shown. 



None of the Arabians produced original ideas or liter- 

 ature concerning anatomy. Abdollatif (1162-1231) is 

 the only one of the Arabians who departed in the slightest 

 degree from the writings of Galen and Hippocrates. 

 While in Egypt he was studying some human bones in a 

 cemetery when he ascertained that the jaw is formed of 

 one piece; that the sacrum, though sometimes composed 

 of several, is most generally of one. On the basis of these 

 observations he criticized the writings of Galen and thus 

 showed himself to be a man of original ideas. 



Flores^^ in his ''History of Medicine in Mexico" has 

 listed the following teachers of anatomy in the University 

 of Mexico : Febles, Benitez, Garcia, Cheyne, Peiia, Garcia 

 Cabezon, Rendon, Escobedo, Villar, Jecker, M. Andrade, 

 Munoz, Villagran, Duran, F. Ortega, Chacon, Montes de 

 Oca, Velasco, San Juan, and Cordero e Icaza, but, so far 

 as I have been able to ascertain, none of these men have 

 been productive. 



There is no Egyptian literature of anatomy, and ap- 

 parently there was no definite knowledge of anatomical 

 structure. The practise of embalming had attained at 

 one period great perfection in Egj^pt and this may have 

 resulted in a certain degree of anatomical knowledge, but 

 it was so ov(M-('louded by religious fanaticism and super- 

 stition thnt it .•iiiu.mitod t.) little. T]m< McKay^^'' says: 



;nia'toiMx7n' tm-ir Ivli-ion' t^.rha.lc' <!isM'.-ti..n. aiurtho em- 

 l.ahiHM- i.i'..I.al)ly loanit little. After tlie r>ai-a<c]iistes 



