Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 1.djvu/851

Rh HISTORY.] ANATOMY 807 to arise from the left ventricle ; but confuses himself with the arteria venalis, the pulmonary vein, and the vena arte- rialis, the pulmonary artery. His account of the brain is better. He gives a minute and clear account of the vent ricles, remarks the corpus striatum, and has the sagacity to perceive that the choroid plexus consists of veins and arteries; he then describes the middle or third ventricle, the infundibulum or lacuna of Mondino, and the pituitary gland ; and lastly, the passage to the fourth ventricle, the conarium or pineal gland, and the fourth or posterior ventricle itself, the relations of which he had studied accurately. He rectifies the mistake of Mondino as to the olfactory or first pair of nerves, gives a good account of the optic and others, and is entitled to the praise of originality in being the first observer who contradicts the fiction of the &quot;wonderful net, and indicates the principal divisions of the carotid arteries. He enumerates the tunics and humours of the eye, and gives an account of the internal ear, in which, he notices the malleus and incus. Italy long retained the distinction of giving birth to the first eminent anatomists in Europe, and the glory she acquired in the names of Mondino, Achillini, Carpi, and Massa, was destined to become more conspicuous in the labours of Columbus, Fallopius, and Eustachius. While Italy, however, was thus advancing the progress of science, the other nations of Europe were either in profound ignorance or in the most supine indifference to the brilliant career of their zealous neighbours. The sixteenth century had commenced before France began to acquire ana tomical distinction in the names of Dubois, Fern el, and Etienne ; and even these celebrated teachers were less solicitous in the personal study of the animal body than in the faithful explanation of the anatomical writings of Galen. The infancy of the French school had to contend with other difficulties. The small portion of knowledge which had been hitherto diffused in the country wag so inadequate to eradicate the prejudices of ignorance, that it was either difficult or absolutely impossible to procure human bodies for the purposes of science ; and wo are assured, on the testimony of Vesalius and other competent authorities, that the practical part of anatomical instruction was obtained entirely from the bodies of the lower animals. The works of the Italian anatomists were unknown ; and it is a proof of the tardy communication of knowledge that, while the structure of the human body had been taught in Italy for more than a century by Mondino and his followers, these anatomists aro never mentioned by Etienne, who flourished long after. Such was the aspect of the times at the appearance of Jacques Dubois, who, under the Romanised name of Jacobus Sylvius, according to the fashion of the day, has been fortunate in acquiring a reputation to which his researches do not entitle him. For the name of Jacques Dubois the history of anatomy, it is said, is indebted to his inordinate love of money. At the instance of his brother Francis, who was professor of eloquence in the college of Tournay at Paris, he devoted himself to the study of the learned languages and mathematics ; but discovering that these elegant accomplishments do not invariably reward their cultivators with the goods of fortune, Dubois betook himself to medicine. After the acquisition of a medical degree in the university of Moiit- pellier, at the ripe age of fifty-one Dubois returned to Paris to resume a course of anatomical instruction. Here he taught anatomy to a numerous audience in the college of Trinquet ; and on the departure of Vidus Vidius for Italy was appointed to succeed that physician as professor of surgery to the Royal College. His character .is easily estimated. With greater coarseness in his manners and language than even the rude state of society in his times can palliate, with much varied learning and considerable eloquence, he was a blind, indiscriminate, and irrational admirer of Galen, and interpreted the anatomical and physiological writings of that author in preference to giving demonstrations from the subject. Without talent for original research or discovery himself, his envy and jealousy made him detest every one who gave proofs of either. We are assured by Vesalius, who was some time his pupil, that his manner of teaching was calculated neither to advance the science nor to rectify the mistakes of his predecessors. A human body was never seen in the theatre of Dubois ; the carcases of dogs and other animals were the materials from which he taught; and so difficult even was it to obtain human bones, that unless Vesalius and his fellow-students had collected assiduously from the Innocents and other cemeteries, they must have committed numerous errors in acquiring the first principles. This assertion, however, is contradicted by Riolan, and after wards by Sprengel and Lauth, the last of whom decidedly censures Vesalius for this ungrateful treatment of his instructor. It is certain that opportunities of inspecting the human body were by no means so frequent as to facilitate the study of the science. Though his mention of injections has led some to suppose him the discoverer of that art, he appears to have made no substantial addition to the information already acquired ; and the first acknow ledged professor of anatomy to the university of Paris appears in history as one who lived without true honour and died without just celebrity. He must not be con founded with Franciscus Sylvius (De le Boe), who is mentioned by Ruysch and Malacarne as the author of a particular method of demonstrating the brain. Almost coeval may be placed Charles Etienne, a younger Etienne. brother of the celebrated printers, and son to Henry, who 1503-64 Hellenised the family name by the classical appellation of Stephen (Sre^avos). It is uncertain whether he taught publicly. But his tranquillity was disturbed, and his pursuits interrupted, by the oppressive persecutions in which their religious opinions involved the family; and Charles Etienne drew the last breath of a miserable life in a dungeon in 1564. Etienne, though sprung of a family whose classical taste has been their principal glory, does not betray the same servile imitation of the Galenian anatomy with which Dubois is charged. He appears to have been the first to detect valves in the orifice of the hepatic veins. He was ignorant, however, of the researches of the Italian anatomists j and his description of the brain is inferior to that given sixty years before by Achillini. His comparison of the cerebral cavities to the human ear has persuaded Portal that he knew the inferior cornua, the hippocampus, and its prolongations ; but this is no reason for giving him that honour to the detriment of the reputation of Achillini, to whom, so far as historical testimony goes, the first knowledge of this fact is due. The researches of Etienne into the structure of tha nervous system are, however, neither useless nor inglorious ; and the circumstance of demonstrating a canal through the entire length of the spinal chord, which had neither been suspected by contem poraries nor noticed by successors till Senac made it known, is sufficient to place him high in tbo rank of anatomical discoverers. The French anatomy of the sixteenth century was distinguished by two circumstances unfavourable to the advancement of the science, extravagant admiration of antiquity, with excessive confidence in the writings of Galen, and the general practice of dissecting principally the bodies of the lower animals. Both these errors were Vesalius much amended, if not entirely removed, by the exer- 1514 tions of a young Fleming, whose appearance forms a con spicuous era in the history of anatomy. Andrew Vesalius,