Vesalius especially contributed to our knowledge of the circulatory organs; it was he who, by his study of the structure of the heart and the mechanism of its valves, stimulated his pupils and fellow-students to pursue a course of research which ended at last in Harvey’s immortal discovery. Besides these researches on the vascular system, he first accurately described the sphenoid bone and the sternum. He described the omentum, the pylorus, the mediastinum and pleura, and gave the fullest description of the brain which, up to that time, had appeared. Splendid as were his researches, and valuable as were his writings, it was perhaps by the way in which he stimulated inquiry in others that he rendered the greatest services to anatomical science.
Dr. Molony, writing in the British Medical Journal, December 31, 1892, says: “I recently secured possession of his works, entitled Andreæ Vesalii Invictissimi Caroli V. Imperatoris Medici Opera Omnia. It is a curious work in two immense folio volumes, written in fairly good Latin. It has several plates representing the surgical instruments of the period, dissections, and, it must be added, quadrupeds of all sorts tied up evidently awaiting vivisection.
“The preface consists of a lengthy and appreciative life of Vesalius, from which it seems that he was born in 1514, at Brussels, where his father was court physician. As a boy he seems to have shown a taste for comparative anatomy, ‘puer animalium penetralia nudare atque viscera inspicere soleret.’ His anatomical studies were at all times pursued under difficulties. He obtained the bodies of criminals by bribing the judges, ‘corpora nactus eorum, in cubicula vexit, suosque in usus per tres et ultra septimanas asservavit. Horretne legenti animus? O juvenilis ardor, repagula eluctatur ferrea! Tali opus erat ingenio, artibus bis, at nobile conderet opus.’ He does not seem to have been married, if we may judge from the following extract: ‘Aetate vero integra, uxore, liberis, rei familiaris omni cura liber, totum se immersit in anatomicis.’
“Vesalius was an enthusiastic surgeon, and apparently looked down upon the physicians of the period: ‘Jocatus medicos reliquos syrupis præscribendis unice occupari.’ His success aroused the jealousy of his contemporaries. Among others he came into collision with Sylvius of Paris, Eustachius of Rome, and Fallopius of Padua. Mention is also made of ‘Joannis Caji Medici Celebris Britanni.’ It would be interesting to ascertain who this was. [No doubt it was Caius.]
“The end of Vesalius was tragic enough. ‘Hispanum curabat nobilem petiit ab amicis defuncti corpus aperire ut mortis scrutaretur causam. Quo concesso, visum cor in aperto jam pectore adhuc palpitans.’ The punishment ordered for this was a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. On his return voyage he was wrecked on the island of Zacinthus. ‘Inops, in loco solitario, omnique carens subsidio miserabiliter vitam finivit 1564.’”
“Vesalius,” says Portal, “appears to me one of the greatest men who ever existed. Let the astronomers vaunt their Copernicus, the natural philosophers their Galileo and Torricelli, the mathematicians their Pascal, the geographers their Columbus, I shall always place Vesalius above all their heroes. The first study for man is man. Vesalius has this noble object in view, and has admirably attained it; he has made on himself and his fellows such discoveries as Columbus could only make by travelling to the extremity of the world. The discoveries of Vesalius are of direct importance to man; by acquiring fresh knowledge of his own structure, man seems to enlarge his existence; while discoveries in geography or astronomy affect him but in a very indirect manner.”
The zeal of Vesalius and his fellow-students of anatomy often led them to weird adventures. Hallam says:[850] “they prowled by night in charnel-houses, they dug up the dead from the graves, they climbed the gibbet, in fear and silence, to steal the mouldering carcase of the murderer; the risk of ignominious punishment, and the secret stings of superstitious remorse, exalting no doubt the delight of these useful but not very enviable pursuits.” Vesalius, as has been said above, was once absurdly accused of dissecting a Spanish gentleman before he was dead. He only escaped the punishment of death by undertaking a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, during which he was shipwrecked, and died of famine in one of the Greek islands.[851]
Gabriel Fallopius (1523-1562) was a prominent pupil of Vesalius who studied the anastomoses (the blending together) of the blood-vessels. His researches in the anatomy of the bones and the internal ear greatly advanced anatomical knowledge. He discovered the tubes connected with the womb, called after him the “Fallopian tubes.” Fallopius is described as a savant distinguished by his sense of justice, his modesty and gentleness; yet Dr. Baas says,[852] “the fact that even Fallopio did not shrink from accepting the gift of some convicts, and then poisoning them—indeed, when the first experiment proved a failure, he tried it again with better success—is characteristic of the zeal of the age in the investigation of the human body, and of the barbarous idea that might makes right towards those guilty before the law!”
Eustachius was a contemporary of Vesalius. He divides with him the honour of having created the science of human anatomy. His name is perpetuated by the tube in the internal ear, called the “Eustachian tube.” His researches on the anatomy of the internal part of the organ of hearing, his studies in the anatomy of the teeth, in which he was the pioneer, his famous Anatomical Engravings, and his labours in connection with the intimate structure of the organs of the body, taken in connection with their relative anatomy, prove that he laboured for the advancement of the knowledge of the structure of the human frame with the utmost assiduity and success.
J. C. Aranzi (1530-1589), of Bologna, gave the first correct account of the anatomy of the fœtus, and his description of that of the brain is exceedingly minute and lucid. He named the hippocampus, described the choroid plexus, and the fourth ventricle under the name of the cistern of the cerebellum.