[Illustration: SKELETON BY ESTIENNE, 1545
(Reduced one-half)]
Charles Estienne, better known by the name of _Carolus Stephanus_, was a
French anatomist whose work is worthy of remembrance. Born in the early
part of the sixteenth century, he was given an excellent education. He
belonged to a noted Huguenot family of scholars and printers who have
made the Estienne name famous. Robert Estienne, the brother of Charles,
became the victim of religious persecution; he was obliged to flee to
save his life, and for a time the publishing business was conducted by
Charles Estienne. The latter also suffered for his faith; he was thrown
into a dungeon, where he died in the year 1564. Charles Estienne wrote
numerous books on literature, history, forestry and botany. His
anatomical treatise, _De Dissectione Partium Corporis Humani_, appeared
at Paris in 1545 with sixty-two full page plates which combine
anatomical clearness, beauty of form, and artistic representation. A
French translation of Estienne’s Anatomy was published in 1546. This
work was printed as far as the middle of the third book as early as the
year 1539: some of the plates are dated as early as 1530. The
illustrations have been excellently cut in wood; many of them show the
entire body, with much ornamentation, so that the proper anatomical part
seems small and irrelevant. Some of the plates show the subject in
picturesque and even loathsome attitudes. The text of this work is
especially valuable for the history of anatomical discovery. Although he
was an ardent Galenist, Estienne made numerous original observations in
anatomy. He described the synovial glands, a discovery which has been
credited to Clopton Havers. Estienne was the first anatomist to discover
the canal in the spinal cord; he described the capsule of the liver, a
tissue which bears Glisson’s name; and differentiated the eight pair
from the sympathetic nerves. He was the first anatomist to see and
describe the valves in the veins, which he called _apophyses venarum_—
discovery which has been claimed for Jacobus Sylvius, Cannanus, Amatus
and Fabricius.
The question of priority in the discovery of the valves of the veins
gave rise to much controversy. It is reasonable to assume that these
structures were noticed independently by all of the anatomists whose
names are mentioned above.
[Illustration: SKULL BY DRYANDER, 1541]
CHAPTER FOURTH
Vesalius’s Early Life
[Illustration: Illuminated capital]
Andreas Vesalius, or Wesalius as the family name was inscribed prior to
the year 1537, was born in Brussels on the last day of the year 1514.
From astrological observations made by Jerome Cardan we learn that this
event occurred about six o’clock in the morning, and under favorable
stellar auspices. The placenta and caul, to which popular belief
ascribed remarkable powers, were carefully preserved by the mother.
The Vesalius family originally was named Witing, (_Witting_, _Wytinck_,
_Wytings_, according to various authorities) and adopted the name
Wesalius from the town of Wesel, (_Wesele_, _Vesel_), in the Duchy of
Cleves, which the family claimed as their native place. The three
weasels (_Flemish_—“Wesel”), found in the Vesalian coat of arms, testify
to this origin.
It may be said with truth that medical learning ran in the blood of the
Vesalius family. Andreas’s great-great-grandfather, Peter Wesalius,
wrote a treatise on some of the works of Avicenna and at great cost
restored the manuscripts of several medical authors. Peter’s son, John
Wesalius, held the responsible position of physician to Mary of
Burgundy, the first wife of Maximilian the First; in his old age John
taught medicine in the University of Louvain. From that time the
Vesalius family was closely associated with the Austro-Burgundian
dynasty. Eberhard, son of John Wesalius, served as physician to Mary of
Burgundy; he died before attaining his thirty-sixth year, and was long
survived by his father. Eberhard, who was the grandfather of Andreas,
wrote commentaries upon the books of Rhazes and on the _Aphorisms_ of
Hippocrates. He was also noted as a mathematician. Eberhard’s son
Andreas, the father of the anatomist, was apothecary to Charles the
Fifth and to Margaret of Austria. He accompanied the great Emperor upon
his numerous journeys and military expeditions. In 1538 he presented
Andreas’s first anatomical plates to the Emperor, and thus opened the
way to the court to his son. The father remained in the imperial service
until the day of his death, which occurred in 1546. Andreas’s mother,
Isabella Crabbe, exercised a great influence upon the youth whom she
believed to be destined to accomplish great things. She it was who
preserved the manuscripts and books of the Vesalian ancestors. Isabella
happily lived long enough to see the _Fabrica_, to witness the
intellectual triumph of her son, and to know of his activity at the
Spanish court.
[Illustration: THE OLD UNIVERSITY OF LOUVAIN
(Erected early in the Fourteenth Century. The New Building dates
from 1680)]
Little is known of the youth of Vesalius. The traditions of his
ancestors, their accomplishments in the field of letters and in
medicine, and their loyalty to their sovereigns, were themes which his
mother must have recounted with pleasure. At an early age Andreas was
sent to the neighboring city of Louvain, whose University, founded in
the year 1424, in the early part of the sixteenth century eclipsed many
institutions of greater age, and in the number of its students ranked
second only to the University of Paris. The theologians of Louvain were
noted for their orthodox Catholicism; from the very first days of
religious controversy they had battled strongly against the rising tide
of the Reformation. Her professors of jurisprudence and of philosophy
were men of eminent talents. Within the University were four literary
schools which were named _Paedagogium Castri_, _Porci_, _Lilii_, and
_Falconis_, from their insignia:—a fort, a pig, a lily, and a falcon.
Here also was the _Collegium trilingue Buslidianum_, which was founded
by Hieronymus Busleiden (+1517) for teaching the Greek, Hebrew and Latin
languages. Vesalius selected the _Paedagogium Castri_ which he fondly
mentions in laudatory terms in his _Fabrica_. Here, and in the
Busleidinian College, he obtained that thorough knowledge of ancient
languages which, in later years, astonished his hearers and served him
well in numerous literary controversies. The names of Vesalius’s
teachers are unknown, although Adam[9] states that John Winter of
Andernach was his professor of Greek. Vesalius speaks scornfully of one
of his teachers, a theologian, who, in trying to explain Aristotle’s _De
Anima_, used a picture of the _Margarita Philosophica_ to show the
structure of the brain. Among Vesalius’s school companions were
Gisbertus Carbo, to whom the anatomist presented the first skeleton
which he articulated (_Fabrica_, 1543, page 162); and the younger
Granvella, who later was Chancellor to Charles the Fifth.
At an early age Vesalius possessed a desire to study the structure of
the human body. His powers of observation were precociously developed.
When a boy, learning to swim by the aid of bladders filled with air, he
noted the elasticity of these organs, and he referred to the incident in
his _Fabrica_ (1543, page 518). When little more than a child, he tired
of dialectics and tried to learn anatomy from the scholastic writings of
Albertus Magnus and of Michael Scotus. He soon discovered that the true
road to anatomical science led, not through books but through the actual
handling of the dead tissues. He began the practical study of anatomy by
dissecting the bodies of mice, moles, rats, dogs and cats.[10]
CHAPTER FIFTH
Sojourn in Paris
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One thought was uppermost in the mind of Vesalius, and that was to
follow the profession of his ancestors, just as in ancient Greece the
sons of the Asclepiadae naturally adopted the vocation of their fathers.
Andreas possessed an excellent preliminary education and was especially
proficient in the Greek and Latin languages; he also knew something of
Hebrew and much of Arabic. It was in the year 1533 that the young
Belgian travelled to Paris for the purpose of obtaining a medical
education. At that time the French capital was the Mecca of the medical
world—Paris, that city where classical medicine first secured support
(_ubi primum medicinam prospere renasci vidimus_)[11]. In Paris, under
the leadership of Budaeus, Humanism had enjoyed a rapid growth; and here
Petrus Brissotus, after gaining the doctor’s cap in the year 1514,
produced a revolution by delivering his lectures from the books of Galen
in place of the treatises of Averröes and of Avicenna. At his own
expense Brissotus published Leonicenus’s translation of Galen’s _Ars
Curativa_, in order that his pupils might not be misled by the incorrect
text of the Arab authors. It will be recalled that, long before this
time, classical Greek and Latin medical literature had passed through
the distorting crucible of Saracenic translations. At this period
medical science, purified from Arabic dross, was taught in a splendid
manner in Paris by such eminent professors as Jacobus Sylvius, Jean
Fernel, and Winter of Andernach. At their feet sat young men from the
remotest parts of Europe.
The most popular of the Paris teachers was Jacobus Sylvius, or Jacques
Dubois, whose Latinized name is perpetuated in anatomical nomenclature.
He was born at Louville, near Amiens, in 1478. In his early years he was
noted for his scholarly attainments in the Greek, Latin and Hebrew
languages and was the author of a French grammar. His anatomical
knowledge was gained under Jean Tagault, a famous Parisian practitioner
and surgical author.
[Illustration: SYLVIUS]
Sylvius was noted for his industry, for his eloquence, and above all for
his avarice. It was the inordinate desire for money which led him to
abandon philology for medicine. While studying under Tagault he began a
course of medical lectures, explanatory of the works of Hippocrates and
Galen, with such success that the Faculty of the University of Paris
protested on the score that Sylvius was not a graduate. He then went to
Montpellier, whose medical professors had long held a high position,
where, according to Astruc, he received the doctor’s cap at the end of
November, 1529. He was then above fifty years of age. Armed with this
degree, he returned to Paris and immediately entered the lists as an
independent medical teacher, but was again halted by the Faculty who
ruled that he must first receive the Bachelor’s degree. This he gained
on June 28, 1531. Sylvius then resumed his lectures with such success
that his classes in the Collége de Tréguier numbered from four to five
hundred, while Fernel, who was a professor in the Collége de
Cornouailles, lectured to almost empty benches. In 1550, Henry the
Second named Sylvius Professor of Medicine, as the successor of Vidus
Vidius, in the recently established Collége de France. Sylvius died
January 13, 1555, and was interred in the paupers’ cemetery as he had
wished.
Sylvius was not only an eloquent lecturer but he was also a
demonstrative teacher. He was the first professor in France who taught
anatomy from the human cadaver. In his lectures on botany he used a
collection of plants to elucidate the subject. His chief fault was a
blind reverence for ancient authors. He regarded Galen’s writings as
gospel; if the cadaver presented structures unlike Galen’s description,
the fault was not in the book but in the dead body, or, perchance, human
structure had changed since Galen’s time! In one of his early books[12],
Sylvius declared that Galen’s anatomy was infallible; that Galen’s
treatise, _De Usu Partium_, was divine; and that further progress was
impossible!
The character of Sylvius was contemptible. He was a man of vast learning
and at the same time was rough, coarse and brutal. His avarice led him
to endure the cold winters of Paris without the benefit of a fire; in
severe weather he would play at football, or engage in other violent
exercise in his room, to save the cost of fuel. Once, and once only, did
his friends find him hilarious; they wondered and asked the cause.
Sylvius said he was happy because he had dismissed his “three beasts,
his mule, his cat and his maid”. He was notoriously rigid in exacting
his fees from students, and on one occasion he threatened to stop his
lectures until two delinquents should pay their dues. Although he was
supposed to have amassed great wealth, little of it was found after his
death, and these sums were secreted in secluded places. In 1616, when
his former residence in the _rue Saint-Jacques_ was demolished, numerous
gold pieces were found. His reputation for miserliness followed him
beyond the grave, as witness his epitaph:
_Sylbius hic situs est, gratis qui nil dedit unquàm,_
_Mortuus et gratis quod legis ista dolet._
“Sylvius lies here, who never gave anything for nothing:
Being dead, he even grieves that you read these lines for nothing.”
In controversies he was violent and vindictive—a pastmaster in the use
of bitter language. Jealous of the fame of other anatomists, he was
particularly enraged when, in later years, he was opposed by Vesalius.
Sylvius spoke of him not as Vesalius, but as _Vesanus_, a madman, who
poisoned Europe by his impiety and clouded knowledge by his blunders.
Such was the man who, in the mid-part of the sixteenth century, filled
the position of highest honor in the Medical Faculty of the Collége de
France[13].
Sylvius rendered valuable service in naming the muscles which, prior to
his time, were designated by numbers. These, says Northcote[14] “were
differently applied by almost every author; so that it was the
description, and not the name, that must lead one to know what part was
meant by such authors; and this required a previous thorough knowledge
of anatomy”. He is the first writer who mentions colored injections and
is supposed to have discovered this useful adjunct of anatomical study.
He was the first anatomist who published satisfactory descriptions of
the pterygoid and clinoid processes of the sphenoid bone, and of the os
unguis. He gave a good account of the sphenoidal sinus in the adult but
denied its existence in the child, as had been affirmed by
Fallopius[15]. Sylvius also wrote intelligently concerning the vertebrae
but incorrectly described the sternum. His observation concerning the
valves in the veins gave rise to much discussion; the honor of priority
in the discovery, however, belongs to other anatomists—Estienne and
Cannanus. His discoveries in cerebral anatomy have caused his name to be
attached to the _aqueduct_, the _fissure_ and the _artery of Sylvius_.
The manner in which Sylvius conducted his anatomical course is known to
us by his own writings, by the testimony of Moreau[16], and by that of
Vesalius[17]. Thus the course for the year 1535 began with the reading,
by Sylvius, of Galen’s treatise _De Usu Partium_. When the middle of the
first book was reached, Sylvius remarked that the subject was too
difficult for his students to understand and that he would not plague
his class with it. He then jumped to the fourth book, read all to the
tenth book, discussed a part of the tenth and omitting the eleventh,
twelfth and thirteenth, he took up the fourteenth and the remaining
three books. Thus he omitted all that Galen had said concerning the
extremities. A second Galenic work which Sylvius used was the
anatomico-physiologic treatise, _De Musculorum Motu_. Not infrequently
the professor was unable to demonstrate in dissection the parts on which
he had lectured. Thus, on one occasion, the students succeeded in
finding the pulmonary and aortic valves which Sylvius had failed to find
on the preceding day.