Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 10.djvu/160

 MEDICINE

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MEDICINE

in 1490 was rebuilt iiiiilcr Alessamlro Benedctti (1400- 1525). Of the aiiutuiiiists who worked outside of Italy we may uieiitioii (iuido (luidi (Nidus \idius) of Florence (d. 15(i!, until l.j.'U i)roli'ssr at Paris; his successor Francois Jacques Dudois (Sylvius, d. 1551), nud Giinther von Andernacli (I4N7-1574), professor at Louvain. The two latter were the teachers of the great reformer of anatomy, Andreas Vesalius (q. v.).

Vesalius (b. 1514), stiidied at Louvain, Montpollier, and Paris, and then became iuijierial ficld-surgeon. His eagerness to learn went so far that he stole corpses from the gallows to work on at iiiglit in his room. He soon became con\'inced of the weakness and falsity of the anatomy of Cialen. His anatomical demonstra- tions on the cadaver, which he performed in several cities and which attracted attention, soon earned him a call to Padua where he had recently graduated and where, with some interruptions, lie tauglit from 1539 to 1540. His chief work, " De corporis humani fabrica libri vii", which appeared at Basle in 154^5, brought liim great fame, but lilcewise aroused violent hostility, especially on the part of his former teacher, Sylvius. The supreme service of A'esalius is that he for the first time, with information derived from the direct study of the tlead body, attacked with l:een criticism the hitherto unassailable Galen, and thus brought a jout his overtiu-ow, for soon after this serious weaknesses in other parts of Galen's medical science were also dis- closed. Vesalius is the founder of scientific anatomy and of the technique of modern dissection. Unfortu- natel.v, he himself destroyed a part of his manuscripts on learning that his enemies intended to submit his work to ecclesiastical censure. While engaged on a pilgrimage, he receivetl word in Jerusalem of hia re- appointment as professor in Padua, but he was ship- wrecked in Zant and died there in great need on 15 October, 1565.

The authority of Galen was, however, still so deep- rooted among physicians that Vesalius found oppo- nents even among his own more intimate pupils. Never- theless, the path which he had pointed out was further explored and anatomy enriched by new discoveries. His immediate successors as teacher in Padua were, in 1546, Realdo Colombo (d. 1569), later professor in Rome, the tliscoverer of the lesser circulation of the blood (pulmonary circulation), d. 1569; from 1551 the versatile Gabriele Fallopio (1523-02), an admirer of Vesalius, who among other things described the organ of hearing; Girolamo Fabrizio of Acquapentlente (Fabr. ab Aquapendente, 1537-1619), who worked in the field of embryogeny and studied carefully the valves in the veins, and finally Giulio Casserio (1501- 1619), who published a series of anatomical charts. A similar undertaking was planned by Bartolommeo Eustacchi at the Sapienza in Rome, but he died before the completion of the work in 1574. Pope Clement XI (1700-21) caused his phy.sician-in-ordinary, Gio- vanni Maria Lancisi, to print the rediscovered copper- plates and to supply them with an explanatory text. Adrian van den Spieghel of Brussels (Spigelius 1578- 1625) worked on the anatomy of the liver antl of the nervous system. In comparison with the excellent productions of Italy, the anatomical activity of Ger- manic countries appears slight. It was considered sufficient at the universities, if a surgeon now and then dissected a corpse, while a physician explained the functions of the different organs. The only laudable exceptions were two physicians who rendered services both to anatomy and botany — Felix Platter (1530- 1014), professor in Basle, and his successor, Kaspar Bauhinus (1560-1624), the discoverer of the valve in the ca'cum named after him (Bauhin's valve).

The Opponents ok Galen and the Arabs. — ^\'^io- lent attacks upon ancient traditions were not confined to the domain of medicine, t)ut also found expression in the general upheaval caused by Humanists, by the discovery of new countries, by the opening up of new

sources of knowledge, by the dissemination of educsi- tion through the invention of printing, and by the schism of the Church l)rought about by Luther. Authority, both ecclesiastical and civil, had been con- siderably weakened. The investigations of Vesalius probably dealt the most serious blow to the teaching of Cialen, but it was neither the finst nor the only one; for even before Vesalius' critics had attacked the theories of Galen and the Arabs, although not quite so energetically as the anatomists attacked them. The chief representatives of these times down to the end of the sixteenth century can be classi'd resin'cti\'ely into anti-Galenists or anti-Arabists and positive Hippo- cratics. The climax of this revolution was reached on the appearance of Theophrastus Paracelsus and his adherents, although the Italian schools remained un- influenced by this. The physician and ]>liilnsiipher, Geronimo Cardano of Milan (1501-70), attackcil prin- cipally Galen's <'xiilanatinn of the origin of catarrhs of the brain, and al^o I hi- \alidity of the therapeutical principle, ('(inlrnriii ciiiilriiriis curanliir. Similar was the tendencv shown by Bernardino Telesio of Piacenza (150S-SS), GioAaniii Argcnterio of Piedmont (1513- ■72), and the cliancoUor of Muntpellier, Laurent Jou- bert (1529-83), while Jean Fernel (1485-1558), made an attempt uO moilernize the system of Galen in accord- ance with the results of anatomical investigation.

A lively exchange of opinions was caused by the controversy on lileeding, which was begun by the Paris physician Pierre Brissot (1478-1522). Brissot assailed the Araljian doctrine that inflammatory dis- eases, especially pleurisy, should be treated by bleed- ing on the side opposite to the seat of inflammation, and favoured the Hippocratie doctrine of bleeding as near as possible to it. The controversy was decided in favour of the Hippocratics, who did not discard the doctrines of Galen as long as they agreed with Hippocratie views, but rejected the principles of Galen as modified by the Arabs. This is clearly shown by the importance attached to the state of the pulse and of the urine, upon which the Arabs laid much more stress than the Greeks. Of the great number of positive Hippocratics let us call attention to the above-mentioned de Monte, who introduced clinical instruction in Padua; to his suc- cessors Vellore Trincavella (1490-1568), Albertino Bottoni (d. about 1596), Marco degli Oddi (d. 1598, Giovarmi Manardo (1462-1526), Prospero Alpino (1533-1617); to the Spaniards, Cristobal de Vega (1510-about 1580), and Luis Mercado (1520-1606); to the Frenchman Guillaume Baillou (Ballonius, 1538- 1016); to the Netherlanders, Peter i'oreest (1522-97) and Jan van Heume (1.543-1601), who will be men- tioned subsequently; Franz Emerich (1496-1560), the organizer of clinical instruction at Vienna; Johann Crato of Crafftheim (1519-85), and Johann Schenck von Grafenberg (1530-98). Epidemiological works were written by Antonio Brassavola (1500-55) on syphilis; Girolamo Fraca-storo (1483-1553) on pete- cnial fever and syphilis; Girolamo Donzellini (d. 1558), and Ales.sandro Massaria (1510-98) on plagues; Jan van den Kasteele (about 1529) on " the English sweat"; and the Viennese physician, Thomas Jor- danus (1540-85), on purple or petechial fever.

Theophrastus P.uiacelsus. His Adherents and Opponents. — Theophrastus Bombast of Hohen- heim (Paracelsus), the son of a physician, was bom near Einsiedeln, Switzerland, in 1493. In 1506 he went to the University of Basle; from Trithemius he learned chemistry and metallurgy in the smelting houses at Schwaz (Tyrol), and he visited the principal universities of Italy and France. In 1520 he became town physician of Basle, and could as such give lec- tures. His first appearance is characteristic of him. He publicly burned the works of Avicenna and (ialen and showed respect only to the " Aphorisms" of Hip- pocrates. He was the first to give lectures in the Ger-