The title-page, one of the most
celebrated pictures in the history of medicine, shows Vesalius in
a large amphitheatre (an imaginary one of the artist, I am afraid)
dissecting a female subject. He is demonstrating the abdomen to a group
of students about the table, but standing in the auditorium are elderly
citizens and even women. One student is reading from an open book. There
is a monkey on one side of the picture and a dog on the other. Above
the picture on a shield are the three weasels, the arms of Vesal. The
reproduction which I show you here is from the "Epitome"--a smaller work
issued before (?) the "Fabrica," with rather larger plates, two of which
represent nude human bodies and are not reproduced in the great work.
The freshest and most beautiful copy is the one on vellum which formerly
belonged to Dr. Mead, now in the British Museum, and from it this
picture was taken. One of the most interesting features of the book are
the full-page illustrations of the anatomy of the arteries, veins
and nerves. They had not in those days the art of making corrosion
preparations, but they could in some way dissect to their finest
ramifications the arteries, veins and nerves, which were then spread on
boards and dried.
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