Considering the time in which he lived, Vesalius was remarkably free
from errors. Although to him the arteries were carriers of vital
spirits, the veins were the true blood vessels, and, according to the
first edition of his great book, the septum of the heart was filled with
foramina; yet, we must say with Baas, “these are all mere shadows
necessary to the brilliancy of the picture”.
Vesalius was more than an anatomist. As a practical physician he had the
highest reputation among his contemporaries. He was an accomplished
scholar and was thoroughly conversant with the weaknesses of human
nature, as is evident from many satirical touches in his writings.
Although his great work contains many errors that a tyro of the present
day would laugh at, it laid the foundations of our knowledge. Vesalius
overthrew the idol of authority in anatomy and taught us to look at
Nature with our own eyes.
Portal[24] has paid a splendid tribute to Vesalius. “Vesalius”, he says,
“appears to me one of the greatest men who ever existed. Let the
astronomers vaunt their Copernicus, the natural philosophers their
Galileo and Torricelli, the mathematicians their Pascal, the geographers
their Columbus, I shall always place Vesalius above all their heroes.
The first study of man is man. Vesalius has this noble object in view,
and has admirably attained it; he has made on himself and his fellows
such discoveries as Columbus could make only by travelling to the
extremity of the world. The discoveries of Vesalius are of direct
importance to man; by acquiring fresh knowledge of his own structure,
man seems to enlarge his existence; while discoveries in geography or
astronomy affect him but in a very indirect manner”.
Like Harvey, Vesalius was obliged to defend his writings from fierce
attacks. The most desperate of his opponents was his old master, Jacobus
Sylvius, who was so wedded to the Galenic teachings that he asserted
that since Galen’s time the thigh bones had changed their shape. He
spoke of Vesalius as a “madman, Vesanus, whose pestilential breath
poisons Europe”. Ponderous discussions were carried on between the
friends and opponents of the great anatomist. The complete overthrow of
the Galenists resulted.
If Vesalius had remained professor of anatomy in Padua, instead of being
appointed physician to Charles the Fifth, at Madrid, in 1544, it is
probable that the circulation of the blood would have been discovered by
him.
In recent years attempts have been made to show that it was not
Vesalius, but Leonardo da Vinci, who was the founder of modern anatomy.
A considerable amount of controversial literature has accumulated on
this subject. For our purpose it may suffice to quote the conclusions of
McMurrich[25]:—“Leonardo was the first to create a new anatomy, but he
created it for himself alone; Vesalius demonstrated a new anatomy to the
world. It was the publication of Vesalius’s _Fabrica_ that
revolutionized anatomy, while Leonardo’s drawings were lying
unpublished, at first the cherished possessions of his favorite pupil
Melzi, later in the Ambrosian Library in Milan, and still later
forgotten in the Royal Library at Windsor. We must credit Leonardo as
being the forerunner of the new anatomy, but Vesalius must be recognized
as its founder”.
[Illustration: INITIAL LETTER BY VESALIUS
(From the “Fabrica”, 1543)]
CHAPTER TWELFTH
Contemporary Anatomists
[Illustration: Illuminated capital]
Shortly after the publication of the _Fabrica_, great activity was
manifested in anatomic research, and numerous opponents and critics of
Vesalius appeared in the arena of science. The criticism of such men as
Jacobus Sylvius and John Dryander, while it was of a violent type, was
of much less importance than was that of Eustachius, Columbus and
Fallopius. Vesalius was not without his partisans, of whom Ingrassias
and Cannanus are worthy of mention.