iv 



together into a system, based on their physiological relations.' He had 

 already prepared the way for his reform of Pathology by his larger 

 work on General Anatomy, in which he, for the first time, distin- 

 guished the tissues which make up the framework of the body from 

 each other, according to their chemical and anatomical characters, 

 availing himself, as regards the latter, of the new light which the 

 discoveries of Schwann had thrown upon the nature of animal and 

 plant organisation, and of the methods of investigation rendered pos- 

 sible by the sudden advance which had taken place in the construc- 

 tion of the microscope. 



As a pathologist, Henle soon relinquished the lead he had at first 

 taken to Yirchow, who, by his personal work or by that of his 

 pupils, has since retained it. As years went on, Henle became more 

 and more a descriptive anatomist and histologist. The publication of 

 the greatest work of his incredibly laborious life, the " Handbnch der 

 Systematischen Anatomie des Menschen," began in 1855. In it the 

 student was furnished with an anatomical description of the human 

 body, which, at the time, surpassed all others — not even excepting 

 Dr. Sharpey's edition of Quain's Anatomy — in the quantity of infor- 

 mation, new and old, it contained, in the abundance and excellence of 

 the illustrations ; and it was not less remarkable for the clearness of 

 the author's style, and the power which he possessed of so presenting 

 the forms and anatomical relations of the organs or parts described, 

 as to leave behind a vivid picture in the imagination of the reader — 

 for Henle's descriptions are so real and true to nature, that in reading 

 them one seems to have seen what is described. 



Any one of the three great works which have been mentioned wo aid 

 have been sufficient to entitle its author to a permanent position 

 among the founders of modern medical science. Taken together they 

 afford good ground for assigning to Henle a place scarcely inferior to 

 that of his master, Johannes Muller, or of his contemporary, Theodore 

 Schwann. 



Henle began his career as an anatomical investigator by spendiug 

 the year which intervened between his examination for the doctorate 

 and the taking of his degree in the preparation of his thesis on the 

 Anatomy of the Eye, and in other anatomical researches, of which 

 the fruits appeared later, and which he undertook, under the direc- 

 tion and with the co-operation of J. Miiller, who was still at Bonn. 

 When Miiller, a year later, was called to the University of Berlin, 

 Henle became his Prosector. He held this office for six years, during 

 which he was associated with Muller in his multifarious professorial 

 duties ; these comprising, according to the custom of the time, not 

 only the teaching of anatomy and physiology, but also pathology and 

 pathological anatomy. It was for Henle a time of extraordinary 

 activity. During his tenure of this Prosectorship he published three 



