Page:The growth of medicine from the earliest times to about 1800.djvu/372

 *tions for scientific purposes, but simply to put an end to the practice of cutting up human corpses and boiling the separate sections in order to obtain the bony framework in a condition suitable for transportation from Palestine to Europe,—a practice which had grown to be very common among the Crusaders.

Mondinus' "Anatomy," which was published in 1314, reveals the fact that, during the early part of the fourteenth century, several private dissections were made. As might be expected, from the primitive character of the illustrations that accompany the text of Mondinus' work, these dissections were carried out in a very imperfect manner, for—to mention only a single example—this author admits that he made no attempt to investigate the deeper structures of the ear, as such an examination would necessitate the employment of violent measures, "which would be a sinful act."

The archives of the Bolognese School of Medicine contain an item which reveals the active interest taken in anatomy by the students of that day. It reads as follows: "At Bologna, in 1319, several of the Masters stole from a grave the corpse of a woman who had been buried two days before, and then turned it over to Master Albertus to dissect in the presence of a large number of students." At the Medical School of Montpellier, in the south of France, the Faculty obtained permission in 1376 to dissect the corpse of an executed criminal once every year; and the records show that the school actually availed itself of this privilege in the years 1377, 1396 and 1446. Felix Platter, who afterward became one of the most distinguished physicians of Basel, Switzerland, pursued his early medical studies at the latter university during the years 1552-1557; and, in the diary which he faithfully kept during this period, he reveals in an interesting manner what difficulties as well as dangers he experienced, first, in reaching Montpellier from his home in the eastern part of Switzerland, and, second, in obtaining greater opportunities for acquiring a genuine knowledge of anatomy than the school itself afforded in its official course. Although,