Page:The growth of medicine from the earliest times to about 1800.djvu/371

 attainment of the latter object, the great explorer failed, but his discovery of a new continent resulted eventually in bringing great wealth to the rulers of Spain, in stimulating maritime commerce, and in broadening men's views with regard to every phase of human activity. The addition of a few new drugs to the pharmacopoeia was a further result of some importance. Luther's efforts to reform the government and doctrines of the Church undoubtedly gave a great impetus to the Renaissance and therefore to the growth of the science of medicine. Men learned to use their reasoning powers with greater freedom, and as a result our knowledge of the structure of the human body (anatomy) and of the working of its complicated machinery, both in health (physiology) and in disease (pathology), made astounding advances. And it is to the consideration of these fundamental branches of medical knowledge that we must now turn our attention.

Early Attempts to Dissect the Human Body.—Already as early as during the first half of the fourteenth century physicians began to appreciate the fact that further progress in the knowledge of medicine was not to be attained otherwise than by a more profound study of human anatomy than had been made up to that time; and they realized that it was only by means of actual dissections that this more profound study might be made. Various influences, however, co-operated to hinder such study. In the first place, the people at large were thoroughly imbued with the idea that dissecting a human corpse was an act of desecration, and consequently it was by no means safe for a physician to do any work of this character except in the most secret manner. Then, in addition, it was commonly believed-and this belief persisted even up to a comparatively recent date—that the bull which Pope Boniface VIII. issued in 1300—and which declared that whoever dared to cut up a human body or to boil it, would fall under the ban of the church—was intended to cover dissections for purposes of anatomical study. The recent investigations of Corradi, however, show (Haeser, p. 736 of the third edition) that this bull was not intended to apply to dissec