PATH 
the predilettion for ancient opinions, which made the 
anatomifts of the age lefs anxious to difcover new fatts, 
than to reconcile the appearances which they obferved 
with the dogmas of Galen and Avicenna. An abfurd 
bull of pope Boniface VIII. forbidding the maceration and 
preparation of Ikeletons, alfo concurred to impede the 
progrefs of anatomy; (Blumenbach, Hift. Med. Litterar. 
p. 99.) but from this time forward, the Italian profeffors 
maintained a high repute for anatomical fcience, and 
have ranked among the inoft zealous contributors to our 
knowledge of the human frame. 
Though the crufades had conferred no direct benefits 
on fcience, they had given a new impulfe to the human 
mind, by the fpirit of commerce which they excited. 
They were alfo the occafion of the rapid fpreading of 
leprofy and fome other difeafes in the Weft, and of the 
confequent increafe of inftitutions for the relief of the 
fick, after the example of the Oriental nations. Several 
orders of knighthood, as the Templars, the knights of 
St. John, of St. Lazarus, the Hofpitalarii Santti Spiritus, 
&c. were founded with this charitable view ; the mem¬ 
bers devoting themfeives to the cure of fuch pilgrims as 
were afflitted with difeafe. 
In the fifteenth century feveral new difeafes appear to 
have invaded mankind, or, at leaft, to have attacked 
them with a degree of violence that was before unknown. 
The whooping-cough was epidemic in France in the year 
14.14: and, according to Mezeray, it attacked all defcrip- 
tions of perfons, even, the oldeft men. The fweating 
ficknefs, which broke out firft in the fame country, was 
brought to England by the foldiers of the duke of Rich¬ 
mond (afterwards king Henry VII.) upon his landing 
at Milford-haven in 1485; and fpread itfelf at London 
from the 21ft of September to the end of Ottober. It 
returned there five times, and always in fummer; firft in 
1495, then in 1506, afterwards in 1517, when it was fo 
violent that it killed many in the fpace of three hours, 
fo that numbers of the nobility died, and of the com¬ 
monalty in feveral towns often the one-half perilhed. It 
appeared the fourth time in 1528, and then proved mortal 
in fix hours; many of the courtiers died of it, and Henry 
VIII, himfelf was in danger. In 1529, and only then, 
it infefted the Netherlands and Germany, in which laft 
country it did much mifchief. The laft return of it was 
in 1551 ; and in Weftrninfter it carried off 120 in a day. 
At this time alfo a new difeafe overran the world, and 
threatened greater deftruttion than almoft all the old ones 
put together, both by the violence of its fymptcms,and its 
baffling the moft powerful remedies at that time known. 
This was the venereal difeafe, which is fuppofed to have 
been imported from the Weft Indies by the companions 
of Chriftopher Columbus. Its firft remarkable appear¬ 
ance was at the fiege of Naples in 1494, from whence it 
was foon after propagated through Europe, Afia, and 
Africa. The fymptoms with which it made the attack 
at that time were exceedingly violent, much more fo than 
they are at prefent; and confequently were utterly un¬ 
conquerable by the Galenifts. At this period, as fea- 
voyages of confiderable duration were more frequent, the 
fcurvy became a more common diftemper, and was of 
courfe more accurately defcribed. But probably, from 
1'uppofed analogy to the contagions which at that time 
were new in Europe, very erroneous ideas were enter¬ 
tained with regard to its being of an infettious natures 
and it is not impoflible, that, from* its being attended alfo 
with ulcers, it was on fome occafions confounded with 
fyphilitic complaints. 
Dreadful as the inflittion of thefe maladies muft have 
been on the fuffering world, we have reafon to believe 
that they were not without their ufe in leading to the 
improvement of medicine. The phyficians of the time, 
finding the rules of their favourite authors quite inap¬ 
plicable to the cure of diftempers fo malignant, naturally 
began to obfefve and judge for themfeives. Manardi 
and Leoniceno (fee their refpedlive articles) laboured to 
Vol. XIX. No. 1284. 
O L O G Y. 21 
expofe the errors of the Arabs, and bring back, 
their followers to the ftudy of Nature and Hippocrates. 
In this laudable undertaking they were feconded by the 
German, French, and Englilh, profeffors; and particu¬ 
larly by the labours of Dodoneus, Schenkius, Foreftus, 
and Platerus. 
In the early part of the fixteenth century, Briffot of 
Poitou revived a fubjett which had before engaged phy¬ 
ficians in violent difputes. According to the Hippocratic 
mode of treating inflammation, which was to take* the 
blood from the inflamed part as clofely as poflible, the 
Greek phyficians were wont, in pleurify, to bleed in the 
arm of die fame fide as was affetted with pain. Avicenna 
had objetted to this, and recommended venefettion in 
the oppofite arm. This produced a great deal of alter¬ 
cation ; and in the end a decree of the univerfity of 
Palermo iffued forth which forbade any one to bleed ex¬ 
cept in the contrary arm ; and the profeffors endeavoured 
to perfuade the emperor Charles V. to fecond it by an 
edidt. Briffot met with almoft as much opposition in 
reviving the old method as the Salernitans had done in 
introducing the new one : but at length the difpute was 
fettled in favour of Briffot by the great anatomical dif- 
coverers of that century. 
The fcience of anatomy gradually became imnroved 
in the hands of Zerbi, Winter, Laguna, and Sylvius; 
which laft taught anatomy at Paris in 1532. But it was 
referved for the great and comprehenfive mind of 
Vefalius to throw off the fhackles which had fo long 
fettered the progrefs of anatomy. So far from adopting 
as infallible dogmas the anatomical relations of Galen, 
he attached himfelf particularly to difclofing the errors 
of that author. He firft advifed anatomifts to injett co¬ 
loured fluids into the veffels of the body, in order to fa¬ 
cilitate the labour of minutely tracing them. Wliilft he 
was a young man at college, he purfued anatomical in¬ 
quiries with great ardour and afliduity, and publilhed 
fome of his difcoveries before he was twenty-five years of 
age, and feven books on the anatomy of the human body 
before he was twenty-nine, A. D. 1542. Thefe books 
contain great difcoveries, and, in many circumftances, 
correct the ancients. But, although they have entitled 
their author to the gratitude of pofterity, they procured 
to him fcarcely any thing but animofity from his con¬ 
temporaries. The authority of Galen was ftill held in 
high veneration ; and, when Vefalius expofed his errors, 
the hatred of all feemed turned againft him. People could 
not bear to be fet right by fo young a man; and even 
Sylvius denounced perpetual enmity againft him. But, 
confident in the certainty with which diffettion furninied 
him, he acquired a complete afcendancy over liis adver¬ 
saries : fo much fo, indeed, that his lettures were fome- 
tiines attended by 500 pupils. He preffed Sylvius, his 
mafter, fo hard, in. thefe controverfies, that the latter, 
rather than admit his favourite Galen was wrong, afferted* 
that “ the Jtrudiure of the human body hud become altered in 
fomeparticularsjin.ee the time of Galen,and. that man’s nature 
had degenerated !” Thus, for inftance, the number of the 
pettoral bones occafioneda difpute, which was carried on 
with great acrimony between them. Galen had adopted 
feven in the human ikeleton; but Vefalius proved that 
there were only three, and that his opponent had again 
been milled by the Ikeleton of a monkey. But Sylvius 
objetted to this, “ that men had been larger and 
taller in the time of Galen, and had feven pettoral bones, 
but that, in this dwarfilh century, three only could be 
found.” Vefalius afferted, that the bones of the hand 
are not totally deftitute of medullary fubftance, as Galen 
had maintained; and Sylvius again endeavoured to re¬ 
fute his affertion, by the abfurd argument, “that the 
bones in former times had been firmer and harder, and 
confequently required no fuch fubftance.” Vefalius re¬ 
jetted the large curvature which Galen aferibed to the 
os humeri, and the os ilium; while Sylvius defended 
Galen, by afferting, that the bones had become more 
G ftraight 
