Page:The growth of medicine from the earliest times to about 1800.djvu/315

 In one place in his "Anatomy" Mondino states explicitly that he dissected two human cadavers in the month of January, 1315. This statement renders it possible to fix the exact date when the practice of making such dissections—which had been carried on for a considerable period of time about 250 B. C.—was first resumed. If one reflects upon the nature of the obstacles which in 1315 stood in the way of a revival of this practice,—for example, the deep-seated prejudice against it entertained by all classes of the community, and the very strong opposition of the ecclesiastic authorities to what they honestly believed to be a desecration of the human body,—one will readily appreciate how great was the courage displayed by Mondino when he almost openly undertook his first dissection. The subsequent career of this famous teacher of anatomy justifies the belief that his determination to take the course which he did was based upon the profound conviction that the first step toward increasing the scanty stock of knowledge possessed at that time with regard to the structure of the human body in all its parts, must necessarily be one in continuation of that which Erasistratus and his associates had taken centuries earlier, but which had not been succeeded by a sufficient number of other steps in the same direction. The series of discoveries in anatomy, physiology and pathology which resulted from Mondino's courageous and intelligent act, form a part of the history of modern medicine, and do not therefore call for consideration in this place. We may simply add that much information of a very interesting character is furnished by Neuburger (op. cit.) with regard to the manner in which Mondino and his immediate successors carried on their instruction in anatomy from that time forward.

The Medical School at Bologna, as may well be imagined, gained great fame from the possession of such distinguished teachers as those whose careers I have briefly sketched—Hugo and Theodoric of Lucca, William of Saliceto, and Mondino; and it retained a large part of this celebrity throughout the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, despite the appearance on the scene, toward the end of this time,