Andreas Vesalius, The Reformer of Anatomy — Mondino's Successors

[Illustration: Illuminated capital] For two hundred years anatomists used Mondino’s book as a text for their lectures and for the same period anatomical writers did little more than comment upon this treatise.

The new art of wood engraving was turned to anatomical use and crude illustrations of the various parts of the body were put into circulation.

Some of these pictures were in the form of _Fliegende Blätter_, or flying leaves.

A set of anatomical plates of this type was issued by a certain Ricardus Hela, a physician of Paris, as early as the year 1493. They were printed at Nuremberg.

Their character may be judged by the accompanying illustration of the osseous system.

Gabriel de Zerbi One of Mondino’s commentators was Gabriel de Zerbi (1468-1505), of Verona, who taught medicine, logic and philosophy in the Universities of Padua, Bologna and Rome.

His book, _Anatomia Corporis Humani_, appeared at Venice in 1502. Zerbi imitated Mondino in style, abbreviations and language.

The work, however, contains some original observations regarding the Fallopian tubes, the puncta lachrymalia and the lachrymal gland.

From the fact that Zerbi describes two lachrymal glands in each orbit, it is known that many of his dissections were made upon brutes.

[Illustration: ANATOMICAL PLATE BY RICARDUS HELA, 1493] Zerbi’s reputation, which extended to all parts of Europe, was the cause of his death.

The Venetians received from Constantinople the request for a skillful physician who should treat one of the principal Seigniors of Turkey.

The Republic turned its eyes to Zerbi who went to Constantinople, apparently cured the Seignior, and, loaded with presents, started on the return voyage for Venice, Unfortunately the patient suddenly died after a debauch.

The infuriated Turks overtook the ship on which Zerbi and his son were passengers and carried them back to Constantinople, where both the anatomist and his son were quartered alive.

[Illustration: PEYLIGK’S DIAGRAM OF THE HEART, 1499] John Peyligk Among the German anatomists of this period was John Peyligk, a Leipsic jurist, whose _Philosophiae Naturalis Compendium_, printed at Leipsic in 1499, contains crude anatomical illustrations.

Magnus Hundt Far more important was the _Antropologium_ of Magnus Hundt (1449-1519), of Magdeburg, which appeared at Leipsic in 1501. It contains four large and several small woodcuts which are among the earliest of anatomical illustrations.

One of these shows the trachea on the right side of the neck, passing downward to the lungs; on the left side the oesophagus is represented.

In the thorax are seen the lungs and the heart, the latter resembling the figure of this organ as presented on old playing cards.

The pericardium has been opened, and the stomach and intestines are crudely figured.

The diaphragm is absent.

[Illustration: ANATOMICAL FIGURE FROM MAGNUS HUNDT, 1501] Laurentius Phryesen Early in the sixteenth century a Holland physician, Laurentius Phryesen (_Phries_, _Friesen_), residing in the German city of Colmar and later at Metz, wrote a popular book on medicine, _Spiegel der Artzny_, which was published at Strassburg in 1518. It contains two anatomical illustrations cut in wood, dated 1517, and supposedly made after the drawings of Waechtlin, a pupil of the Elder Holbein.

These pictures tell their own story; they show a marked improvement over the figures which Hundt published in 1501. The other anatomical plate in Phryesen’s book is devoted to the skeleton.

[Illustration: ANATOMICAL FIGURE FROM LAURENTIUS PHRYESEN, 1518] Alexander Achillinus The Italian physician Alexander Achillinus (1463-1525), professor of philosophy and medicine in Bologna, is deserving of mention for his anatomical knowledge.

Zealously devoted to the Arab medical authors, Achillinus made numerous discoveries which are set forth in his general anatomy, _De Humani Corporis Anatomica_, Venice, 1516; and in a commentary upon Mondino’s book, _In Mundini Anatomiam Annotationes_, Venice, 1522. He discovered the duct of the sublingual gland, usually credited to Wharton; two of the auditory ossicles, the malleus and incus; the labyrinth; the vermiform appendix; the caecum and ileo-caecal valve; and the patheticus nerve.

Portal credits him with a better knowledge of the bones and of the brain than was possessed by his predecessors.

[Illustration: ALEXANDER ACHILLINUS] Berengario da Carpi [Illustration: DISSECTION BY BERENGARIO, 1535] Giacomo Berengario, Jacobus Berengarius Carpensis, also known as Carpus, was born in the small town of Carpi, in the Duchy of Modena, in the year 1470. His father, who was a surgeon, directed his studies, and for a time he was placed under the instruction of the learned Aldus Manutius.

Graduating in medicine from the University of Bologna, Berengario became noted for his skill in surgery and anatomy.

He taught these branches in Pavia, and was a member of the Bologna faculty from 1502 to 1527. Then he practiced for a time in Rome, where he amassed a fortune by the treatment of the victims of syphilis.

The last twenty years of his life were spent in Ferrara, where he died in 1550. Berengario was one of the restorers of anatomy.

His first dissection is said to have been made in the house of Albert Pion, Seigneur de Carpi.

This demonstration was given publicly upon the body of a pig.

Soon the anatomist turned his attention to human subjects, of which it is said that more than a hundred passed beneath his scalpel.

Berengario’s later years are said by Brambilla to have been made miserable by the machinations of the agents of the Inquisition, who objected to some of his opinions regarding the organs of generation.

He was unjustly accused of dissecting living men—an accusation which arose from his statement that the surgeon should observe the anatomy of the living body whenever it was opened by wounds or accidents.

[Illustration: SKELETON BY BERENGARIO, 1523] Berengario determined to improve Mondino’s book by making corrections in the text, and by adding suitable illustrations.

No illustrations were to be found in the early editions of Mondino, and those which were added by later editors of the work were untrue to nature.

To Berengario must be given the credit of furnishing some of the first anatomical illustrations that were published, and that were made from actual human dissections.

These appeared in his “Commentaries of Carpus upon the Anatomy of Mundinus”, (_Carpi Commentaria super_ _Anatomia Mundini_), which was published at Bologna in 1521. The volume contains twenty-one plates which were cut in wood.

They have been credited to the celebrated artist, Hugo da Carpi.

While the drawing is somewhat coarse, the illustrations are true to nature and show a distinct advance over preceding pictures of this class.

Berengario states that his plates will be of value not only to physicians and surgeons but also to artists (_et istae figurae etiam juvant pictores in lineandis membris_).

Some of his figures are schematic; for example, those showing the abdominal muscles.

So much better are his illustrations than those of his predecessors that it may fairly be claimed that Berengario was the first author to produce an illustrated anatomy.

[Illustration: MUSCLES BY BERENGARIO, 1521] Berengario also wrote a “Short Introduction to the Anatomy of the Human Body”, _Isagogae Breves in Anatomiam Humani Corporis_; and a work on Fracture of the Skull.

He was the first anatomist who described the basilar part of the occipital bone, the sphenoidal sinus and the tympanic membrane.

Meryon[8] credits him with the “first correct description of the great omentum (gastrocolic) and transverse mesocolon; of the caecal appendix vermiformis, of the valvulae conniventes of the intestines; of the relative proportions of the thorax and pelvis in man and woman; of the flexor-brevis-pollicis; of the vesiculae seminales; of the separate cartilages of the larynx; of the membranous pellicle in front of the retina (attributed to Albinus); of the tricuspid valve, between the right auricle and ventricle of the heart; of the semilunar valves at the commencement of the pulmonary artery; of the inosculation between the epigastric and mammary arteries, and an imperfect account of the cochlea of the ear”.

He was the first of the mediaeval anatomists to deviate from the Galenic teaching in regard to the structure of the heart.

He diplomatically states that in the human subject the foramina in the cardiac septum are seen only with great difficulty (_sed in homine cum maxima difficultate videnter_).

[Illustration: MUSCLES BY BERENGARIO, 1521] John Dryander John Dryander, a German physician, whose true name was Eichmann, called himself Dryander in accordance with the custom of adopting names derived from the Latin or Greek languages.

He was born about the year 1500 in the Wetterau in Hesse.

After obtaining proficiency in mathematics and astronomy, he went to Paris where he studied medicine for several years.

Returning to Germany, he engaged in the study of practical anatomy and became a professor in Marburg, in which city he died in the year 1560. He is said to have conducted the first dissections that were made in Marburg, where he taught anatomy for twenty-four years, or from 1536 to 1560. [Illustration: DRYANDER] Dryander, although he was a partisan of Mondino and da Carpi, and was a fierce and sometimes an unfair opponent of Vesalius, deserves to be regarded as one of the restorers of anatomy.

He made several observations upon the distinction between the cortical and the medullary portions of the brain; and was one of the earliest practical anatomists of the sixteenth century to furnish anatomical illustrations.

He made important astronomical observations and was the inventor of several useful instruments.

He was the author of three medical works of which two were upon anatomy.

His _Anatomia Mundini_, which was published at Marburg in 1541, contains forty-six plates, many of which have been copied from Berengario’s work.

[Illustration: ANATOMICAL FIGURE BY ESTIENNE, 1545] Charles Estienne [Illustration: SKELETON BY ESTIENNE, 1545 (Reduced one-half)] Charles Estienne, better known by the name of _Carolus Stephanus_, was a French anatomist whose work is worthy of remembrance.

Born in the early part of the sixteenth century, he was given an excellent education.

He belonged to a noted Huguenot family of scholars and printers who have made the Estienne name famous.

Robert Estienne, the brother of Charles, became the victim of religious persecution; he was obliged to flee to save his life, and for a time the publishing business was conducted by Charles Estienne.

The latter also suffered for his faith; he was thrown into a dungeon, where he died in the year 1564. Charles Estienne wrote numerous books on literature, history, forestry and botany.

His anatomical treatise, _De Dissectione Partium Corporis Humani_, appeared at Paris in 1545 with sixty-two full page plates which combine anatomical clearness, beauty of form, and artistic representation.

A

French translation of Estienne’s Anatomy was published in 1546. This work was printed as far as the middle of the third book as early as the year 1539: some of the plates are dated as early as 1530. The illustrations have been excellently cut in wood; many of them show the entire body, with much ornamentation, so that the proper anatomical part seems small and irrelevant.

Some of the plates show the subject in picturesque and even loathsome attitudes.

The text of this work is especially valuable for the history of anatomical discovery.

Although he was an ardent Galenist, Estienne made numerous original observations in anatomy.

He described the synovial glands, a discovery which has been credited to Clopton Havers.

Estienne was the first anatomist to discover the canal in the spinal cord; he described the capsule of the liver, a tissue which bears Glisson’s name; and differentiated the eight pair from the sympathetic nerves.

He was the first anatomist to see and describe the valves in the veins, which he called _apophyses venarum_— discovery which has been claimed for Jacobus Sylvius, Cannanus, Amatus and Fabricius.

The question of priority in the discovery of the valves of the veins gave rise to much controversy.

It is reasonable to assume that these structures were noticed independently by all of the anatomists whose names are mentioned above.

[Illustration: SKULL BY DRYANDER, 1541] CHAPTER FOURTH

Vesalius’s Early Life