INTRODUCTORY LECTURE ON HIPPOS’ATHOLOGY. 759 
century undertook a similar task, and with many was the 
source from which their material was obtained. 
In Carlo Ruini we have perhaps one of the brightest 
ornaments which ever adorned medical science, human or 
veterinary; of noble lineage, and reared amidst the fascinat¬ 
ing surroundings of pomp and authority in the ancient city 
of Bologna, which he was destined to serve and to honour 
as a senator, he seems to have been less influenced by these 
surroundings which usually have charms for men of all 
classes, than by the quiet but purest pursuits of scientific 
research. 
Veterinarians have known far too little of Ruini, and 
have never yet paid the tithe of respect to his memory 
which is most justly due. The more I think of his position, 
his character, and his attainments as a man of science, the 
more do I revere his memory and respect my profession of 
which he was such a noble representative, and for which he 
achieved so much both in science and practice. 
Choosing as his profession the study of medicine, he 
entered upon that study with all the enthusiasm of an 
Italian, and with all the advantages for its successful 
cultivation which in his day Italians pre-eminently pos¬ 
sessed. 
From the days of Galen of Pergamos, in the second cen¬ 
tury, down to the period now under review, anatomy, the 
basis of scientific medicine, had made no advances. But 
with the renewal of intellectual life, men had started in the 
pursuit of truth, physical as well as mental, with an eager¬ 
ness and earnestness hitherto unknown. In every depart¬ 
ment of investigation the human mind was craving for and 
busy with realities, thoroughly occupied with the collection 
of facts rather than enamoured with the construction of 
theories. Vesalius has with his scalpel produced as great a 
revolution in the medical world as immediately antecedent 
had been occasioned by Luther with his pen in the world 
both of religion and of politics. 
At first hooted and despised, he had lived to be admired 
and regarded as an oracle, and so far gained the confidence 
and respect of the great ones of Europe, as to be sent for 
to consult regarding the condition of Don Carlos, son of 
Philip II of Spain, and heir to the mighty Empire of Spain, 
the Netherlands, and all the Indies. 
It was doubtless with much consternation that the whole 
medical world heard the assertion of Vesalius, an assertion 
he was both willing and able to make good, that old Galen, 
their authority upon anatomy, had attempted to describe 
