Vesalius devotes forty pages to the cerebral and spinal nerves. The
anatomy of the brain is treated in the seventh book. His representations
of the nerves are very creditable. He mentions eleven pairs of cranial
nerves: the olfactory, the optic, the motores oculorum, the trifacial,
the abducens, the portio dura, the portio mollis, the glosso-pharyngeal,
the pneumogastric, and the spinal accessory.
His account of the brain—contained in the seventh book—is elaborately
minute considering the time when it was written. His illustrations and
description of this organ surpass those of scores of later authors.
Vesalius fully describes the position of the brain; the membranes which
cover it; the cavities, or ventricles, within it; the divisions of
cerebrum, cerebellum, and medulla; the anatomy of the base, and the
origins of the cerebral nerves. These structures are illustrated from
different points of view.