The Italian physician Alexander Achillinus (1463-1525), professor of
philosophy and medicine in Bologna, is deserving of mention for his
anatomical knowledge. Zealously devoted to the Arab medical authors,
Achillinus made numerous discoveries which are set forth in his general
anatomy, _De Humani Corporis Anatomica_, Venice, 1516; and in a
commentary upon Mondino’s book, _In Mundini Anatomiam Annotationes_,
Venice, 1522. He discovered the duct of the sublingual gland, usually
credited to Wharton; two of the auditory ossicles, the malleus and
incus; the labyrinth; the vermiform appendix; the caecum and ileo-caecal
valve; and the patheticus nerve. Portal credits him with a better
knowledge of the bones and of the brain than was possessed by his
predecessors.
[Illustration: ALEXANDER ACHILLINUS]