John Dryander, a German physician, whose true name was Eichmann, called
himself Dryander in accordance with the custom of adopting names derived
from the Latin or Greek languages. He was born about the year 1500 in
the Wetterau in Hesse. After obtaining proficiency in mathematics and
astronomy, he went to Paris where he studied medicine for several years.
Returning to Germany, he engaged in the study of practical anatomy and
became a professor in Marburg, in which city he died in the year 1560.
He is said to have conducted the first dissections that were made in
Marburg, where he taught anatomy for twenty-four years, or from 1536 to
1560.
[Illustration: DRYANDER]
Dryander, although he was a partisan of Mondino and da Carpi, and was a
fierce and sometimes an unfair opponent of Vesalius, deserves to be
regarded as one of the restorers of anatomy. He made several
observations upon the distinction between the cortical and the medullary
portions of the brain; and was one of the earliest practical anatomists
of the sixteenth century to furnish anatomical illustrations. He made
important astronomical observations and was the inventor of several
useful instruments. He was the author of three medical works of which
two were upon anatomy. His _Anatomia Mundini_, which was published at
Marburg in 1541, contains forty-six plates, many of which have been
copied from Berengario’s work.
[Illustration: ANATOMICAL FIGURE BY ESTIENNE, 1545]