Page:The advancement of science by experimental research - the Harveian oration, delivered at the Royal College of Physicians, June 27th, 1883 (IA b24869958).pdf/20

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the arteries was spirituous and adapted for the heat and vital endowment of the body. The former great anatomist, Vesalius, nearly lost his life from the Inquisition, but Philip II., having interposed, he was compelled, in order to escape a cruel death, to make a penance journey to Jeru- salem, and having been shipwrecked on his homeward journey, died at Zante or Crete; the latter philosopher or enthu- siast, Servetus, was in 1553, burnt at the stake by those from whom more charitable measures might have been expected, whatever wild errors and false doctrines were entertained.

Other anatomists followed, and prepared the way for the fuller investigations of Harvey, Columbus Realdus, Eustachius, Faloppius, and Arantius. Fabricius of Aquapendente, was professor of Anatomy at Padua, when Harvey was a student there in 1598. Fabricius had no correct idea of the circulation, although he rediscovered the valves in the veins; Cosalpinus, born in 1519, had been professor at Rome; he died in 1603, and a remarkable circum-