Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 1.djvu/516

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460

ANATOMY 460 ANATOMY be mentioned briefly here. Besides the new infor- mation he conveyed there was a still more important feature of Vesaliiis's work. His methods definitely did away with the old dependence on authority in anatomy which hail for so long made men cling to Galen, and prevented progress. After the prelimi- nary opposition on the part of the over-conservative, his discoveries proved an incentive to many younger men who proceeded to carry liis methods into the investigation of every part of the body. The story often repeated that he was hampered in his researches by the Inquisition and by the ecclesiastical authori- ties has no foundation in fact. Contemporary with him were Eustachius, whose memory is perpetuated in the name of the Eustachian tube which he first described in detail, Fallopius, who corrected certain minor mistakes of Vesalius with regard to the bones and the muscles, but who will be kno-mi for his discovery of the uterine appendage which bears liis name, and finally Columbus, who succeeded Vesahus and corrected certain details of his description of the heart and its appendages, tracing the course of the blood from the right to the left side of the heart, so that he has often been claimed as the original discoverer of the circulation of the blood. Columbus was afterwards called to Rome to be the professor of anatomy in the Papal Uni- versity. Eustachius was for some years before this physician to the Pope and also a professor in this University. Italy continued to be for centuries the most fruitful field of anatomical investigation. Fal- lopius was succeeded by Fabricius who is perhaps best known as the professor under whom Harvey, the English discoverer of the circulation of the blood, made liis anatomical studies in Italy. Har- vey's discovery was not published until 1628, though he had known it for nearly ten years before that. In the meantime ,selli at Pa-ia, in 1622, had described the lacteal vessels in the mesentery. Outside of Italy the distinguished anatomists are rare. Servetus who was burnt by Calvin, in 1553, for his errors with regard to the Trinity in his book on that subject, gave an astonishingly clear descrip- tion of the lesser or pulmonic circulation. This was published nearly a century before Harvey's work on the circulation. The most important work done outside of Italy was accomplished by Steno, or Stensen, who demonstrated the duct of the parotid gland, described the lachrymal glands, and gave clear notions as to the ovaries. Besides this he demonstrated that the heart was a muscle and not the seat of the emotions that it had hitherto been considered. He became a convert to CathoUcity, and eventually a Catholic bisliop. Though he was a Dane his work was done in the Netherlands, the second centre of the anatomical interest in Europe. Here during the first half of the seventeenth century Bartholin, Swammerdam, and Bla?s made important discoveries. Bartholin's name is perpetuated in the glands described by him; while the latter two called attention to the existence of valves in the veins. In llie second half of the century Ruysch, in Amster- dam, first employed injections for anatomical study, while Brunner and Peyer described their glands in the small intestine. Some important work was done in England in the second half of the seventeenth century. Wharton studied the glands of the mouth; Glis-son studied the liver and especially the capsule which has since borne his name, and Willis, after whom the arterial circle at the base of the brain is named, made successful investigations of the brain and nerve. The main current of advance in anatomy, however, still remained in Italy. Malpighi's work is the greatest of the centurj', with the possible ex- ception of Harvey's discovery. Malpighi described the movements of the blood corpuscles, the structure of bone and of the teeth, the Mulpighian layer in the skin, and the Malpighian bodies in the spleen and kid- ney. He also did work in botany, in which the Englishman, Grew, was his rival. A great con- temporary in microscopic work was Leeuwenhoeck, who discovered the corpuscles in milk and in blood, and also had some idea of the cellular nature of the skin. The eighteenth century saw the rise of another great series of Italian anatomists. Four names are especially distinguished. Those of Lancisi, who combined clinical and anatomical knowledge; Xal- salva, famous for liis work on the ear; Santorini, who added much to our knowledge of the face and its appendages, and Morgagni whose main work was concerned with morbid anatomy, but who also added to knowledge in normal anatomy. In France, Winslow hke Steno, a Dane, and hke liim, also, a convert to Catholicism, wrote the first treatise of descriptive anatomy foimded on observation alone, and began the series of text-books which made this century famous. Haller, the first great German anatomist, flourished about the middle of this cen- tury. His contributions to anatomy, with wonderful engravings, represent a distinct addnce in the methods of studying and teaching anatomy. Two distinguished contemporaries in Germany were Meckel who discovered the diverticulum and Lieber- ktihn after whom the glands are named. In Great Britain, the Hunters, William and John, did excellent work in this century, and Hewson contributed not a little to comparative anatomy. At the beginning of the nineteenth century the most important name is that of Bichat, who unfortu- nately was cut off at the beginning of his thirties when giving promise of being the greatest anatomical genius that ever lived. In England, the Monros at Edinburgh, and Sir Charles Sell, famous for his differentiation of the nerves of motion and sensation, did excellent work. The important advances in anatomy, however, in this century were destined to be made with the microscope. Schwann discovered that all animal tissues were made of cells and thus opened up a new outlook in anatomy. Not long after. Max Schultze demonstrated that all cellular material, plant or animal, was composed of proto- plasm. Following these up, Virchow, studying morbid anatomy rather than normal tissues, still did much to advance anatomical knowledge. The teacher of Schwann and Virchow, Johann Miiller, though not as illustrious as either of his great dis- ciples, is the man to whom Germany owes the in- troduction of methods of investigation that were to be so fruitful for the medical sciences during the next half century. Miiller and Schwann were both Catholics, and Schwann continued his work in the Cathohc Universities of Louvain and Li^ge creating special interest in anatomical studies in these places. At Louvain the biological journal of the University, La Cellule, has proved the medium for the publication of many important anatomical advances, especially, towards the end of the century, of some of the work of Ramon-y-Cajal who added so much to the knowl- edge of brain anatomy. There are many other names that deserve mention in the nineteenth cen- tury. Such men as KoUiker, Retzius, Henle, Corty, Deiters, Richard Owen, Goodsir, Huxley, Billroth, and Waldeycr cannot be omitted from any aiiequate account of this period. An.vtomy in .mehic.. — The first courses in human anatomy in .Vmerica were offered in New York City by Drs. John Bard and Peter Middleton, about 1750, and at nearly the same time by Dr. Thomas Cadwal- lader in Phil.idelphia. In 1762 Dr. Shippen gave anatomical lectures in Philadelphia, ami in 1765, with Dr. Jolm Morgan, lie organized a school of medicine as a department of what is now the Univer- sity of Pennsylvania. Medical schools were founded