Andreas Vesalius, the Reformer of Anatomy

And. Vesalius
BY JAMES MOORES BALL, M. D.
SAINT LOUIS MEDICAL SCIENCE PRESS MDCCCCX
Copyrighted, 1910 By James Moores Ball All rights reserved
TO THE MEMORY OF THOSE ILLUSTRIOUS MEN WHO OFTEN UNDER ADVERSE CIRCUMSTANCES AND SOMETIMES IN DANGER OF DEATH SUCCEEDED IN UNRAVELLING THE MYSTERIES OF THE STRUCTURE OF THE HUMAN BODY, TO THE FATHERS OF ANATOMY AND TO THE ARTIST-ANATOMISTS THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED
In the annals of the medical profession the name of Andreas Vesalius of Brussels holds a place second to none. Every physician has heard of him, yet few know the details of his life, the circumstances under which his labors were carried out, the extent of those labors, or their far-reaching influence upon the progress of anatomy, physiology and surgery. Comparatively few physicians have seen his works; and fewer still have read them. The reformation which he inaugurated in anatomy, and incidentally in other branches of medical science, has left only a dim impress upon the minds of the busy, science-loving physicians of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. That so little should be known about him is not surprising, since his writings were in Latin and were published prior to the middle of the sixteenth century. His books, which at one time were in the hands of all the scientific physicians of Europe, are now rarely encountered beyond the walls of the great medical libraries of the world. They are among the incunabula of the medical literature. That English-speaking physicians know little of Vesalian literature is due to the fact that no extensive biography of the great anatomist has appeared in our language. Most of the Vesalian literature which has been written by English and American authors has been in the form of brief articles for the medical press; these oftentimes have been incorrect and unillustrated. Perhaps the best example of this class is the article by Mr. Henry Morley which appeared originally in Fraser’s Magazine , in 1853, and later was published in his Clement Marot and Other Studies , in 1871. The chief data for Vesalius’s biography are to be found in his own writings, in the archives of the Universities in which he taught, and in the controversial literature of the period. Extensive as are these sources they leave much to be desired. A vast mass of Vesalian literature was printed, chiefly in the Latin language, during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Much of it is based on insufficient evidence or on national prejudice. The Germans, the French, the Dutch and the Italians have all taken a turn at it. In modern times the monumental work of Roth, Andreas Vesalius Bruxellensis , Berlin, 1892, has served to epitomize this literature and to make clear many points which formerly were not understood. I have taken Roth’s book as a basis for this monograph, without using the voluminous references which are found in the work of this thorough historian.