Page:Reflections upon ancient and modern learning (IA b3032449x).pdf/231

 liged (r) to use Apes instead of Men, which sometimes led him into great Mistakes.

It may be said, perhaps, that because there is not an ancient System of Anatomy extant, therefore the Extent of their Knowledge in this particular cannot be known. But the numerous Anatomical Treatises of Galen do abundantly supply that Defect. In his elaborate Work of the Uses of the Parts of Humane Bodies, he gives so full an Idea of ancient Anatomy, that if no other ancient Book of Anatomy were extant, it alone would be sufficient for this purpose. He is very large in all his Writings of this Kind, in taking Notice of the Opinions of the Anatomists that were ancienter than himself, especially when they were mistaken, and had spent much Time and Pains in opening Bodies of Brutes, of which he somewhere promises to write a comparative Anatomy. So that his Books not only acquaint us with his own Opinions, but also with the Reasonings and Discoveries of Hippocrates, Aristotle, Herophilus and Erasistratus, whose Names were justly venerable for their Skill in these things. Besides, he never contradicts any Body without appealing to Experience, wherein though he was now and