That so much industry was rewarded by so small an increase in knowledge
may probably be attributed to the method adopted. The so-called
‘anatomies’ were conducted in the most formal manner. Bertuccio, for
example, who succeeded Mondino as professor of Surgery at Bologna, was
accustomed, as we learn from his pupil Guy de Chauliac, to give short
systematic anatomical demonstrations on a fixed and rigid method.[129]
The occupant of the chair at this period was indeed no professor in the
modern sense of the word. To expound the tradition of anatomy as it
had reached him was regarded as the limit of his duty. Of any attempt
to extend the bounds of knowledge, of any systematic endeavour to
correct or improve the anatomical views of his predecessors, we find
little or no trace. Indeed, at Padua it was expressly laid down in the
statutes that the exposition of anatomy should follow the very words of
Mondino.[130]
Early figures portraying the teaching of anatomy (Plate XXVII and
Figs. 1-3, 5) usually show us a medical doctor sitting at a desk, well
removed from the subject of dissection, and reading from his text-book
the description of the part. Meanwhile an assistant, who is usually
also a doctor, performs the actual work of dissection. The professor
of Surgery, to whom the teaching of anatomy was entrusted, stands by
with a pointer to indicate the different organs.
[Illustration: Fig. 2. Title-page of Mellerstadt’s edition of the
_Anatomy_ of Mondino, Leipzig, 1493. The scene is laid in the open
air.[131]]
[Illustration: Fig. 3. A DISSECTION SCENE