slow progress among the Greeks, from some of their religious tenets, as well as from the notion already mentioned, of pollution being communicated by touching a dead body, It was believed, that the souls of the unburied were not admitted into the abodes of the dead, or, at least, that they wandered for a hundred years along the river Styx, before they were allowed to cross it. Who ever saw a dead body was obliged to throw some earth upon it, and if he neglected to do so, he was obliged to expiate his crime by sacrificing to Ceres. It was unlawful for the pontifex maximus not only to touch a dead body, but even to look at it; and the flamen of Jupiter might not even go where there was a grave. Persons who had at tended a funeral were purified by a sprinkling of water from the hands of the priest, and the house was purified in the same manner. If any one (says Euripides, in Iphigenia) pollutes his hands by a murder, by touching a corpse, or a woman who has lain in, the altars of God are interdicted to him.

There was no anatomist or physiologist of sufficient reputation to attract our notice from the times of Herophilus and Erasistratus to the age of Galen. This illustrious character was born at Pergamus, in Asia Minor, about the 130th year of the Christian era. No expense was spared in his education; after the completion of which he visited all the most famous schools of philosophy which then existed; and afterwards resided chiefly at Rome, in the service of the emperors of that time.

To all the knowledge which could be derived from the writing of Hippocrates, and the philosophical schools of the time, Galen added the results of his own labours and observation, and compiled from these sources a voluminous system of medicine. It is generally considered, that the subjects of his anatomical labours were chiefly brutes; and it is manifest from several passages, that his descriptions are drawn from monkeys. Indeed, he never expressly states that he has dissected the human subject, although he says he has seen human skeletons. He must be accounted the first who placed anatomical science on a respectable footing; and deserves our gratitude for this, that he was the only source of anatomical knowledge for about ten centuries. The science declined with Galen; his successors were contented with copying him; and there is no proof of a dissection of any human body from Galen to the Emperor Frederick II. We may

observe, that when any man arrives at the reputation of having carried his art far be yond all others, it seems to throw the rest of the world into a kind of despair. Hopeless of being able to improve their art still further, they do nothing. The great man, who was at first only respectable, grows every day into higher credit, till at length he is deified, and every page of his writings becomes sacred and infallible. actually the fortune of Aristotle in philosophy, and of Galen in anatomy, for many ages; and such respect shewn to any man, in any age, must always be a mark of declining science.

This was

Anatomy experienced the same fate as learning in general on the decline and fall of the Roman empire. The moral and intel. lectual character of the Romans had been much debased in the later ages of the empire. Philosophy and science were manifestly degenerating, and their place was supplied by a debased and corrupted theo-` logy. The successive irruptions of the northern barbarians accelerated the approaching ruin. The great inundation of the Goths into Italy, in the fifth century, extinguished with the Roman empire its laws, manners, and learning, and plunged the world into the depths of ignorance and superstition, The succeeding ten centuries, which have received the appellation of the dark ages of the world, present a melancholy picture to the philosophic observer of human nature: a barren and dreary waste, not enlivened by a single trace of cultivation.

The followers of the Arabian prophet dissipated the little remains of learning that were left in Asia and Egypt. A contempt of all human knowledge, and the religious obligation of extending the Mahometan faith by means of the sword, made these ignorant barbarians the most dangerous and destructive foes to science and the arts. The city of Alexandria, the school of which had been the resort of the learned for centuries, was taken in the year 640 by Amrou, the general of the Caliph Omar; the celebrated library was burned, with the exception of those books which related to medicine, which the love of life induced the Arabians to spare.

When the Saracens were established in their new conquests, they began to discern the utility of learning in the arts and sciences, and particularly in physic. Mahomet had made it death for any Mussulman to learn the liberal arts: this prohibition was gradually neglected; and many of the caliphs distinguished themselves by their love f

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letters, and the munificent institutions which they founded for the propagation of learning. The Greek authors were collected, translated, and commented on; but there was no improvement nor extension of science made. In anatomy the Arabians went no further than Galen, the perusal of whose works supplied the place of dissection. They were prevented from touching the dead by their tenets respecting uncleanness and pollution, which they had derived from the Jews.

The Arabian empire in the east was overturned by the Turks, who, still more barbarous and illiterate than the Saracens, carried ignorance and oppression wherever they directed their footsteps. They soon destroyed all the institutions which the Saracens had formed for the propagation of science, and threatened Constantinople itself, which still retained the faint and almost dying embers of Greek knowledge. This city was taken and sacked in the middle of the fifteenth century; and the learned Greeks fied for safety to the western nations of Europe, bringing with them the Grecian authors on medicine, and translating them; which works the invention of printing, that happened about the same time, greatly contributed to disperse throughout Europe. People had now an opportunity of becoming acquainted with the writings of Galen and the ancients, and, by these means, of arriving at the source of that knowledge which they had hitherto obtained only through the channel of the Arabian physicians. The superiority of the former was soon discovered, and the opinions of the Grecian writers were considered, even in anatomy, as unimpeachable.

For the restoration of anatomy, as well as that of science in general, we are indebted to the Italians. But the first men who signalized themselves in this path partcok of that blind reverence for the works of Galen which had reigned universally in medicine since his death, and which concurred with the universally prevailing prejudices of those times concerning the violation of the dead to obstruct all advancement of the science. As an instance of the latter circumstance, we may mention a decree of Pope Boniface VIII. prohibiting the boiling and preparing of bones, which put a stop to the researches of Mundinus.

Among the circumstances which contributed to the restoration of anatomy is to be reckoned the assistance which it derived from the great painters and sculptors of this age. A knowledge of the anatomy of the surface of the body, at least, is essential to

the prosecution of these arts. Michael Angelo dissected men and animals, in order to learn the muscles which lie under the skin. A collection of anatomical drawings made by Leonardo da Vinci at this period is still extant, and, with subjoined 'explanations, are found in the library of the king. Dr. Hunter bears witness to the minute and accurate knowledge which these sketches discover, and does not hesitate in considering Leonardo as the best anatomist of that time.

About the middle of the sixteenth century the great Vesalius appeared. He was born at Brussels, and studied successively at the different universities of France and Italy. Thus he acquired all the knowledge of antiquity. Not contented with this, he took every opportunity of examining the human body, and followed the army of the Emperor Charles V. into France for that purpose. Vesalius was the first who maintained that dissection was the proper way of learning anatomy, in opposition to the study of the works of Galen. His extensive researches into the structure of man and animals led him to detect the errors of Galen, which he freely exposed, shewing from many parts of his works, that this great man had described the human body from the dissection of brutes. This conduct, which should have excited the admiration and esteem of his contemporaries, served only to rouse in their minds the base and sordid passions of jealousy and envy. Galen had held an undisputed sway over the minds of men for many centuries. His works were regarded as the only source of anatomical knowledge, and his opinion on medical subjects, like that of Aristotle in philosophy, was resorted to in all disputes as final and decisive proof. The first man who penetrated this intellectual mist, and erected the standard of reason and truth, in opposition to that of prejudice and authority, might naturally expect to encounter the opposition of those who had been contented to go on in the beaten track. The anatomists who had always held up Galen in their lectures as the source of all information, were indignant that his faults should be discovered and laid open by so young a man as Vesalius. The controversies which arose from this cause were favourable to the progress of anatomy; as the several disputants were obliged to confirm their own opinions, or invalidate those of their opponents, by arguments drawn from dissection.

Vesalius published, at the age of 25, his

grand work on the structure of the human body, with numerous elegant figures, supposed to have been drawn by the celebrated Titian. This work contains such a mass of new information, that it may justly be considered as forming an æra in the history of anatomy. We cannot help being surprised, that so young a man could have investigated the subject so deeply, at a time when dissection was esteemed sacrilegious, and was therefore carried on secretly with great danger and difficulty. The great reputation of Vesalius procured for him the esteem and confidence of Charles V. who made him his physician, and kept him about his person in all his expeditions. His zeal for science proved the cause of his death: for having opened a person too soon, the heart was seen to palpitate. He was condemned to perform a pilgrimage to Jerusalem; and as he was returning to take the place of anatomical professor at Venice, he was shipwrecked on the island of Zante, and perished of hunger. It would be unjust to pass over unnoticed the names of Fallopius, and of Eustachius, who were contemporary with Vesalius, and contributed greatly to the advancement of anatomy. The anatomical plates drawn and engraved by the latter are executed with an accuracy which cannot fail to excite surprise, even in an anatomist of the present day.

From the time of Vesalius, the study of anatomy gradually diffused itself over Europe; insomuch that for the last hundred and fifty years it has been daily improving by the labour of many professed anatomists in almost every country of Europe.`

In the year 1628, our immortal countryman Harvey published his discovery of the eirculation of the blood. It was by far the most important step that has been made in the knowledge of animal bodies in any age. It not only reflected useful lights upon what had been already found out in anatomy, but also pointed out the means of further investigation, and accordingly we see that, from Harvey to the present time, anatomy has been so much improved, that we may reasonably question if the ancients have been further outdone by the moderns in any other branch of knowledge. From one day to another there has been a constant succession of discoveries, relating either to the structure or functions of our body; and new anatomical processes, both of investigation and demonstration have been daily invented. Many parts of the body, which were not known in Harvey's time, have since then

been brought to light; and of those, which were known, the internal composition and functions remained unexplained; and indeed must have remained inexplicable, without the knowledge of the circulation.

The principal facts relating to this subject were known before the time of Harvey: it remained for him to reject the specious conjectures then maintained concerning the blood's motion, and to examine the truth of those facts, which were then known, and by experiments to discover those which remained to be detected. This he did, and thereby rendered his name immortal.

It seems proper in this place to review the several steps which were made in the investigation of this important subject. Hippocrates believed that all the vessels communicated with each other, and that the blood underwent a kind of flux and reflux from and to the heart, like the ebbing and flowing of the sea. The anatomists at Alexandria adopted a wrong but ingenious opinion; as they found the arteries empty, and the veins containing blood, in their dissections, they imagined that the former were tubes for the distribution of air, and gave them that name, which they have retained ever since; and that the veins were the only channels for the blood. Galen ascertained that the blood flowed both by the arteries and veins, though he knew not then its natural course. On the revival of anatomy in Europe, the pulmonary circulation was known to many eminent men. This was certainly the case with Servetus, who fell a sacrifice, on account of his religious opinions, to the savage bigotry and intolerance of Calvin. Fabricius ab Aquapendente, the preceptor of ous famous Harvey, particularly described the valves of the veins, the mechanism of which would absolutely prevent the blood from flowing in those vessels towards the extremities. When Harvey returned from his studies in Italy, his attention being excited to the subject, he began those experiments, by which he learned and demonstrated the fact of the circulation. Harvey's first proposition of the subject impresses conviction so strongly on the mind, that we are left in perfect astonishment, how a circumstance so luminously evident should have remained so long unobserved. It must be granted, that the heart projects about two ounces of blood into the arteries at every pulse; what then, it may be asked, becomes of this large quantity of blood unless it circulates? It must be granted that the heart receives

that quantity prior to every pulse. From whence is it received, unless the blood circulates? Harvey tied an artery, and the corresponding vein received no blood; he tied a vein, and all its branches, and those of the corresponding artery, were choaked with blood, even to the entire obstruction of circulation and motion. But Harvey was not acquainted with the direct communication that exists between these vessels. He imagined that the blood transuded from the arteries into the veins through a spongy substance. Much yet remained to be as certained by microscopical observations, and subtile anatomical injections and dissections. As opportunities of dissection became more numerous, the defects of the old writers in anatomy were discovered. Ingenious men, having gone through their education, determined to consult nature for themselves. It is not to be wondered at that errors and deficiencies in anatomy were found in every page of the works of Galen, to say nothing of Hippocrates, since the human body, in his time, could not be consulted for information. The authority of the Greek writers on these subjects was quickly demolished, and anatomy began to be taught from the subject itself. We must not omit the influence, which the writings of our immortal countryman Bacon had on the prosecution of natural knowledge, and in every species of reasoning. The philosophy of Aristotle was driven from the pre-eminent station, which it had so long occupied, to make room for the only solid and secure method, of observation, experiment and induction. At this time the Academy del Cimento arose in Italy, the Royal Society in London, and the Real Academy in Paris. From this period, the important doctrine of rejecting all hypothesis, or general knowledge, till a sufficient number of facts shall have been ascertained, by careful observation and judicious experiments, has been every day growing into more credit. The anatomists and physiologists of these times distinguished themselves by a patient observation of nature itself, and an accurate account of the phænomena which they observed.

After the discovery and knowledge of the circulation of the blood, the next question would naturally be about the passage and route of the nutritious part of the food, or chyle, from the bowels to the blood-vessels. The name of Aselli, an Italian physiçian, is rendered illustrious by the discovery of the vessels which carry the chyle from

the intestines. He observed them full of a white liquor on the mesentery of living animals, and from this circumstance called them milky or lacteal vessels. For many years the anatomists in all parts of Europe were daily opening living animals, either to see the lacteals, or to observe the phænomena of the circulation. In making an experiment of this kind, Pecquet in France was fortunate enough to discover the thoracic duct, or common trunk of all the lacteals, which conveys the chyle into the subclavian vein. And now the lacteals having been traced from the intestines to the thoracic duct, and that duct having been traced to its termination in a blood-vessel, the passage of the chyle was completely made out. The discovery of the absorbent vessels in other parts of the body, where they are known by the name of lymphatics, from the transparent colour of their contents, very soon followed that of the lacteals and thoracic duct. Rudbek, a Swede, is generally allowed to have been the first who discovered these vessels; but this honour was disputed with him by Bartholin, a learned Dane. By these vessels the old particles of our bodies, which are no longer fit to remain in it, are removed and conveyed into the blood, to be eliminated by the excretory organs.

Leeuenhoeck took up the subject of anatomical inquiry, where others had left it. He investigated the minute structure of the body by the help of magnifying glasses; and was thereby enabled to demonstrate the circulation of the blood in the pellucid parts of living animals; the red globules of the blood, and the animalcula of the semen were first observed by this anatomist. Malpighi also directed his attention chiefly to the development of minute structure, as that of the glands or secretory organs of the body.

About this time anatomy made two great steps, by the invention of injections, and the method of making anatomical preparations. For these we are indebted to the Dutch, particularly Swammerdam and Ruysch. The anatomists of former ages had no other knowledge of the blood-vessels, than what they could collect from laborious dissections, and from examining the smaller branches of them upon some lucky occasion, when they were found more than commonly loaded with red blood. But filling the vascular system with a bright coloured wax enables us to trace the large vessels with great ease, renders the smaller much more conspicuous,

and makes thousands of the very minute ones visible, which from their delicacy, and the transparency of their natural contents, are otherwise imperceptible. The modern art of corroding the fleshy parts with a menstruum, and of leaving the moulded wax entire, is so exceedingly useful, and at the same time so ornamental, that it does great honour to the ingenious inventor, Dr. Nichols. The method of casting figures in wax, plaister, or lead is also a great acquisition to anatomy, as it enables us to preserve a very perfect likeness of such subjects as we but seldom meet with, or cannot well preserve in a natural state. The modern improved methods of preserving animal bodies, or parts of them, in spirits, has been of the greatest service to anatomy; especially in saving the time and labour of the anatomist, in the nicer dissections of the small parts of the body. For now, whatever he has prepared with care, he can preserve, and the object is ready to be seen at any time. And, in the same manner, he can preserve anatomical curiosities and rarities of every kind; such as parts that are uncommonly formed; parts that are diseased; the parts of the pregnant uterus, and its contents. Large collections of such curiosities, which modern anatomists are striving every where to procure, are of infinite service to the art; especially in the hands of teachers. They give students clear ideas about many things, which it is very essential to know, and yet which it is impossible that a teacher should be able to shew otherwise, were he ever so well supplied with fresh subjects.

When anatomy had thus become a clear and distinct science, it was inculcated and taught, in the different nations of Europe, by numerous professors, with a zeal and industry highly honourable to themselves, and useful to mankind. As the prejudices of mankind respecting dissection have in a great measure subsided, the difficulties which formerly obstructed anatomical researches have mostly disappeared, and a sufficient quantity of subjects for anatomical purposes can generally be procured. In most, perhaps in all, the countries of the continent of Europe, the government has provided for the wants of anatomists in this particular. In England, however, it still remains a matter of considerable difficulty and expense to procure the means of instruction in practical anatomy; and accordingly while foreigners have been enriching science with many splendid works, the name

of one Englishman cannot for many years past be recorded in the annals of anatomy. We wish we could announce to our readers any prospect of a change in this respect; but here literature and science are left to themselves, and must advance unaided by the patronage of government, or not advance at all.

It would occupy us too long to detail the labours and discoveries of all the eminent men, who have immortalized themselves in anatomy during the last century. We may state generally, that every part of the human body has been most thoroughly and minutely examined and described; and accurate and elegant engravings have appeared of every part. So that a student in these days possesses every facility for the prosecution of his anatomical labours. The bones and muscles have been most elegantly represented and described by Albinus, Cheselden, Sue, and Cowper. The vascular system has been illustrated by a splendid work of the immortal Haller. Walker and Meckel of Berlin, and Scarpa at Pavia, have bestowed equal, or even superior diligence in tracing the distribution of the most important nerves, and representing them in faithful engravings. Mr. Cruikshank distinguished himself by an excellent book on the absorbing system; and Mascagni has lately given to the public a most elaborate account of the absorbing vessels, with very splendid plates. Dr. Hunter, to whom anatomy owes more in this country, than to any individual, has published a complete history, with beautiful explanatory engravings, of the growth of the human ovum, and of the changes which the uterus undergoes after the ovum has been received into its cavity. His brother, Mr. John Hunter, also demands mention in this place, as an accurate and minute dissector, and a patient experimentalist. He surveyed in his researches the whole field of animated nature; and greatly promoted the science of physiology. He formed also the grandest and most beautiful anatomical cabinet in Europe; and this precious treasure has now passed into the hands of the Royal College of Surgeons in London. The structure of the brain has been represented with unrivalled elegance by Vicq D'Azyr, a French anatomist, in a folio volume of coloured plates, which we hesitate not to applaud as a chef d'œuvre of anatomical science, and a most splendid monument of the arts. Some parts of this most important organ, have also been illustrated by the la