Learned with all the learning of the Grecians
and of the Arabians, Vesalius grasped, as no modern before him had done,
the cardinal fact that to know the human machine and its working, it is
necessary first to know its parts--its fabric.
To appreciate the work of this great man we must go back in a brief
review of the growth of the study of anatomy.
Among the Greeks only the Alexandrians knew human anatomy. What their
knowledge was we know at second hand, but the evidence is plain that
they knew a great deal. Galen's anatomy was first-class and was based
on the Alexandrians and on his studies of the ape and the pig. We have
already noted how much superior was his osteology to that of Mundinus.
Between the Alexandrians and the early days of the School of Salernum we
have no record of systematic dissections of the human body. It is even
doubtful if these were permitted at Salernum. Neuburger states that the
instructions of Frederick II as to dissections were merely nominal.
How atrocious was the anatomy of the early Middle Ages may be gathered
from the cuts in the works of Henri de Mondeville. In the Bodleian
Library is a remarkable Latin anatomical treatise of the late thirteenth
century, of English provenance, one illustration from which will suffice
to show the ignorance of the author.
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