Page:The Hunterian oration, for the year 1819.djvu/19

Rh degrees, other nations acquired “that useful boldness.” The zeal of the great painters, who began to flourish towards the close of the next century, and the patronage afforded to them, greatly contributed to the suppression of the public prejudice against dissection in Italy. Michael Angelo, Raphael, Leonardo da Vinci, and Albert Durer, were all either frequent dissectors, or draftsmen of dissected bodies. It is curious to observe, how speedily in general we reconcile our minds to that which custom has rendered familiar. The dissection of the bodies of persons who die in the hospitals of Paris, produces at present no indignation, no sensation in the public mind. Yet even in the time of Haller, the laws and prejudices against purloining a dead body, were so strong, that he left France with all possible speed, lest the receiver should be considered as bad as the thief.

It was not, however, until the sixteenth century, that anatomy made any considerable advances, when some great anatomists distinguished themselves, particularly Eustachius and Fallopius in Italy, Sylvius and