THE HISTORY OF ANATOMY, FROM HIPPOCRATES, WHO LIVED FOUR HUNDRED YEARS BEFORE CHRIST.
TOGETHER WITH THE DISCOVERIES AND IMPROVEMENTS OF SUCCEEDING ANATOMISTS, IN THE REGULAR SUCCESSION OF TIMES IN WHICH THEY LIVED AND FLOURISHED TO THE PRESENT PERIOD.
BY J. BREVITT, M. D. & [...]. S. [...].
BALTIMORE: Printed by SAMUEL SOWER, in Fayette-Street.
M, DCC, XCIX.
PREFACE.
THE rise, progress, and improvements in anatomy, is an enquiry so highly desirable, and essentially requisite for every student in the science, that the following history, collected from different authorities, will, I presume, sufficiently recommend itself to the anatomist, philosopher, physician, and every person who esteems scientific pursuits deserving a part of their applications.
Young students too frequently labor under innumerable difficulties in their applications to possess the works of the most valuable writers.—To attempt to select these from those of less estimation, would be a task which would not only require the most extensive reading, but the most judicious discernment.
However, I presume to offer an arrangement of authors and professors in the periods in which they lived and flourished, together with their discoveries and improvements, and eulogiums, as given by the most celebrated modern professors.
THE History of Anatomy.
THE first medical man known to have written on Anatomy was Hippocrates, though before his time there is great reason to believe that this subject was in some degree understood. From the natural horror which attends medling with human dead bodies, it is probable that the first enquiries were made on the brute creation.
The descriptions of parts, given by early anatomists, evidently shew this; and when the anatomist had conquered his own prejudices he still would have the prejudices of the people to encounter, which in most countries have been so great as to endanger the life of him who attempts it; this must necessarily impede the progress of the science.
The first knowledge on this subject was probably derived from the religious ceremony of performing sacrifices: in this ceremony particular parts were seperated for particular purposes, by which the sacrificer must have acquired some knowledge of the interior parts of animals.
[Page 4] The superstitious maxim of prognosticating events by the appearances of the viscera, would contribute further to the acquisition of this knowledge.
The method of the Egyptians of embalming bodies, as mentioned by Josephus, must have caused the embalmers to have acquired some knowledge of the human subject.
Some passages in HOMER, who lived one thousand years before Christ▪ serve to shew he had some knowledge of this subject.
Some philosophers, about the time of Hippocrates, appear to have been very much employed in enquiring into the structure of animals as a part of natural Philosophy; of these Democrates was particularly eminent. This philosopher lived at Abdera, four hundred and seventy years before Christ, AEtatis 109. He was supposed by his countrymen to be mad, who desired Hippocrates to visit him that he might be cured.
When Hippocrates first saw him, he was dissecting an animal to di [...] over the seat of the bile, and from the conversation which passed between them, Hippocrates pronounced him to be the wisest man living.
Hippocrates appears to have been the first who seperated medicine from philosophy, and made the practice of it a distinct profession. He has pai [...]d out to posterity the most certain means of practising the art successfully, by acquiring [Page 5] a knowledge of the structure, situation, and also the use of the various parts which compose the human body. The history which he has written proves him to be a man of extraordinary accuracy in his observations. His works have been justly admired in all ages, and according to many of his enthusiastic admirers, they contain all the medical knowledge that has been since published. They also assert that the circulation of the blood, and other discoveries claimed by different anatomists, are to be found in his works—If, however, we impartially examine his opinions on the functions of parts, it must be acknowledged, that he was very erroneous, and that his anatomical descriptions are very defective. To judge the better of this, I will afford a concise view of his opinions on several parts, viz.—
First—That the heart was the origin of the blood and phlegm.
Secondly.—That the urine came from the spleen, and the bile from the liver.
Thirdly.—That the liver was the origin and root of the veins, as the heart is of the arteries.
Fourthly.—That the veins conveyed the blood to the different parts of the body, which motion he compares to the ebbing and flowing of the sea.
Fifthly.—That the arteries were the reservoirs of the spirit, or air, and conformable to this idea he speaks of the trachea as an artery, [Page 6] and accordingly called it Aspera Arteria, a name it still retains.
He applies continually the name of vein to the arteries, and also to the nerves and ureters: the nerves, tendons and ligaments are spoken of as being the same. He supposes the brain to be entirely glandular, and that it imbibed, like a sponge, the superfluous water from the heart. He says that the brain is the seat of prudence and of judgment: the spinal marrow, he observes, is continued from the brain, and that the term is improperly employed, as it is surrounded with membranes which the marrow in other bones is not. He says that the intestines are of a spongy texture where they touch the urinal bladder, through which the urine passes from the one to the other.—He observes that the kidneys ought to be classed with the glands, that they have an attracting power of imbibing a part of the fluids which are drank, and that it is filtered into water, and passe [...] from these into the bladder by veins:—he conceived the ureters to be veins, and from observing that they passed so directly into the bladder, he might suppose that they performed this office. In this works very little is said on the muscles, as he supposed that motion and sensation were performed by the arteries.
It is doubted by many whether he ever dissected a human subject. Haller supposed that he had, from the description he has given of the [Page 7] subclavius muscle; but this evidence is not alone sufficiently convincing as that muscle exists in the ape, an animal which was commonly dissected at that time.
Hippocrates also tells us, as a great and miraculous event, "he once in his life had the opportunity of seeing a human skeleton."
This great man is said to have been a descendant of AEsculapius, he was born in the island of Cos, four hundred and sixty years before Christ, and died at ninety years of age, but according to some, he lived to be one hundred and four.
Plato followed the example of Pythagoras and Democrates, in teaching natural philosophy, by treating of several parts of medicine, particularly the oeconomy of the human body, but on this subject his opinions are very erroneous.
He was born at Athens, four hundred and twenty nine years before Christ.
Aristotle, preceptor of Alexander the Great, wrote a natural history of animals, which, (as Pliny relates) consisted of fifty books, there being now only eleven extant. From the anatomy in that part of his works which remain, it is very evident he never had dissected the human subject.
He thought that the skulls of men were joined by three sutures, and those of women by one only: he counts eight ribs on each side. Galen says he first named the aorta. He believed that the nerves arose from the heart, [Page 8] and that the heart was composed of three cavities, containing three kinds of blood. He was born three hundred and eighty-four years before Christ.
Diocles, a physician of great reputation, who flourished about one hundred and thirty years after Hippocrates, is said by Galen to have written a book of anatomy, in which the order of dissection is described for the purpose of demonstrating the different parts of the body.
Praxagoras of Cos, whose works are also lost, is mentioned by Galen as an excellent anatomist. He first distinguished the arteries from the veins, which he describes as being the beating vessels, and containing only air or spirit; he supposed that the arteries changed into nerves from the diminution of their cavities towards their extremities.
The Alexandrian School, during the reigns of the Ptolemies who succeeded Alexander the Great, we find the study of anatomy flourished in Egypt. The second king of this name founded an academy at Alexandria, in which there was a library said to contain two hundred thousand volumes. Some assert a number equal to double the above. In this school anatomy was particularly encouraged, all the executed criminals being sent there for dissection.
From the time of Hippocrates to the founding of this school, which was more than two hundred years, physicians had made very little [Page 9] progress in anatomy, and it seems very probable that little, if any enquiry had been made, into the structure of the human body, and the brute creation was alone dissected.
Galen has given an account of the Alexandrian anatomists, two of which more particularly deserve our attention, viz. Erasistratus and Herophilus.—
Erasistratus discovered the lacteals in the mesentary of a goat; he explained the principal use of the brain and nerves, and divided the nerves into two kinds, one for the purpose of sensation, and the other motion, and observes that both kinds arose from the brain. He also describes the ventricles of the brain; he was not aware that the arteries and veins carried the same fluid, but supposed that when the lungs were distended with air, it passed from the branches of the bronchia into those of the heart, by which means he supposed the arteries were filled with it.
Herophilus was contemporary with Erasistratus in the Alexandrian school. He discovered the fourth sinus of the brain which still retains his name; he first named the plexus choroides, the tunica arachnoides, the retina and duodenum, he compared the fourth ventricle of the brain in figure to a pen, and called it calamus scriptorius.
Ammiames Marcellinus, who lived about six hundred and fifty years after the establishment [Page 10] of the Alexandrian academy, tells us, "They were so famous in his time, that it was sufficient to secure credit to any physician if he could say he had studied at [...]lexandria."
ROME.
It does not appear that anatomy was cultivated among the Romans before the Christian aera; for though Celsus, in his excellent works, "de Medica," considers anatomy as the foundation of medical knowledge. and usually gives a short, though generally correct, description of the parts before he describes their diseases, yet it appears that these descriptions were almost entirely taken from the great physicians, and there are scarcely any improvements to be met with till near two hundred years after the birth of Christ.
Ruffus wrote a work about one hundred and twelve years after Christ, in which he describes the recurrent nerves, and observes, that if pressure be made on the carotid arteries, the person will lose his voice from these nerves being compressed being situated on the sides of these vessels; he also describes the fallopean tubes, which were parts not known to preceding anatomists.
We now arrive at a period when a very elaborate work was published at Rome by Galen, who is said to have been born at Pergamus, [Page 11] about the year one hundred thirty and one, and flourished about one hundred and seventy.
It is worthy of remark, this celebrated physician and philosopher, though a very great admirer and accurate observer of nature, lived to nearly the meridian of life an atheist, till one day alone in search of natural productions, he found a human skeleton, which lay exposed on the way side—the singularity of the event drew his attention, and in examining the wonderful machinism of his own frame, he was well assured it was of too curious and beautiful a formation to be the production of chance, and that none but a power infinitely superior to man could produce so strangely admirable a phenomenon; he was instantaneously converted to the belief of a Supreme Being, and fell upon his knees and burst forth in loud acclamations and praise—‘My Lord and my God! nothing but a Being Infinitely great as thou art, could ever form such a creature as man is,’ or to this effect.
His works contain all the learning of the foregoing ages, more especially of the Alexandrian school, where he studied. They are also enriched with descriptions drawn from dissections of the organs of animals, which are frequently compared with those of the human body, and in some instances has thrown light on the functions of organs by real experiments, particularly on the motion of the [Page 12] blood and the importance of the pulse. These works, therefore, are studied with entertainment, if not with instruction—however, in general, it must be admitted that his opinions were hypothesis, but they were so plausibly connected into a system, that he was implicitly followed for fourteen centuries. They have now long since been laid aside, as being in general the [...]allies of a luxuriant imagination.
Dr. Motherby, in his Medical Dictionary, has said, "The medicine of Galen had much affinity with that of Hippocrates, with this difference, that Hippocrates's depends on facts o [...] experience, and Galen's on reasoning. The genuine works of Hippocrates stand the test of ages, and improvements are rather additions to, than alterations in him; but this is not the case with respect to Galen."
He divides the body into four parts, viz. The abdomen, thorax, head and extremities.
He has given a good description of the abdominal viscera, the peritonoeum and abdominal muscles; he speaks of the difference of the human and brute liver; he believes it to be the principal organ of sanguiferation, and the origin of the veins. He has also described the course of the venaportae from the intestines to the liver. The spleen, he supposes, draws viscid humours from the liver by a canal leading from the one to the other—he also [Page 13] says it communicates with the liver by a branch of the venaeportae, and with the heart by the arteries. He has given a very good description of the secretion of urine; he says, that the kidneys have the faculty of separating the superfluous water from blood; that it is collected in a membranous cavity in the middle of the kidney, and that from this cavity a canal, to which he gives the name of ureter, passes to the bladder, and enters it obliquely, by which the urine is conveyed. He has given a tolerable description of the parts of generation in both sexes; his description of the gravid uterus is evidently from the [...]u [...]e▪ In speaking of the connection between the soetus and mother, he describes the cotyledons, and the urachus leading from it to the bladder; the sunis, he says, has two arteries and two veins. In describing the thorasic viscera, he speaks of the valves of the heart, and the foramen ova [...]e. He describes the cartilages and muscles of the larynx; of the former he says there are three, viz. The thyroid, c [...]ic [...]i [...]an arytoenoid, which, he observes, is composed of two. The epiglottis he calls the l [...]le tongue, and supposes it to be principally concerned in composing the voice. He describes the ventricles of the brain, and their communications, the c [...]rp [...]ra s [...]iata, the thalami nervorum optic [...] and the tubercull quadragemin—He also, with Herophilus, considers [Page 14] the nerves as arising from the brain, and traces them with tolerable accuracy. His book, "De Motu Musculorum," proves that he was well acquainted with the muscles and their functions. He has also given a good description of the bones, and their articulations.
The next anatomist of any reputation, was Soranus, of Ephesus; he settled last at Rome. Some of his works are contained in Coelius Aurelicanus; he has written an original tract on the female organs of generation, in which (his descriptions being taken from the human subject, are more correct than Galen's) he first described the hymen when he was professor of anatomy at Alexandria.
In the fourth century the Roman empire was over-run with the northern Barbarians, and learning in a great degree extinguished in the western parts; whilst in the Fast the physicians continued to follow Galen, and had little knowledge of anatomy.
We have in this period the works of AEtius, Paulus, AEgineta and Alexander, celebrated physicians.
About the end of the fourth century, Nemesius, bi [...]hop of Emissa, wrote a treatise on the nature of man, in which, it was said, were contained two celebrated modern discoveries, the one on the use of the bile boasted of by Sylvius de la Boe, and the other, the circulation of the blood, claimed very justly by [Page 15] the immortal Harvey. This last, however, is proved by Dr. Friend, in his history of physic, page 229, to be falsely ascribed to this author.
THE DESTRUCTION OF THE ALEXANDRIAN SCHOOL.
In thu sixth century Alexandria was taken by the Saracens, and the academy, which had subsisted near one thousand years, was entirely dispersed, and its celebrated library, the repository of the learning of the eastern parts of the world, was almost consumed. However, when the Saracens were quietly settled in their conquests, they began to examine the remains of the Greek and Roman writers, and by degrees translated them into their own language, and added the history of some new diseases, as the small-pox and measles, with some new remedies, the produce of their own country.
In anatomy they made no improvements; for according to the tracts of their religion, a person after touching a dead body was supposed unclean.
From the superstition which at this time overwhelmed Europe, all the sciences appear to have been at a stand, until the eleventh century, when academies began to be built in Europe, the arabians carrying their knowledge into the western parts.
[Page 16] Academies and universities were instituted in Italy, and at Montpelier, in France.
For several years, however, the professors of anatomy contented themselves with commenting on the writings of the Arabians; so that, from the time of Galen (which was near one thousand years) the study of anatomy, so far from making any improvements, had been gradually losing ground; for the writings of the Greeks and Romans had been almost forgotten, and the original improvements entirely neglected, while the writings of the Arabians, which were very imperfect, had been substituted in their stead.
In the beginning of the fourteenth century an original work was written by Mundinus, in the year 1315, and although his descriptions were extremely superficial and inaccurate, his books were so highly esteemed, that by the order of the senate of Venice, the professors at Padua were obliged to teach that only which occasioned a great number of commentaries upon it. This law was observed for two hundred years
In 1440 the art of printing was discovered, and nearly about the same time Constantinople, the seat of the empire, was taken by the Turks; in consequence of which learning was revived, and diffused over Europe by the learned men, who fled from the slavery of the Turks, and carried the original writings [Page 17] of the Greeks and Romans along with them into the western parts.
The number of books now increased very considerably, and before the end of the century several tolerable books of anatomy were published.
In the following century, the spirit of improvement was continued. The truly celebrated Dr. William Hunter mentions, as the most eminent anatomist of the fifteenth century, Leonardo da Vinci. He first instituted anatomi [...]al drawings, some of which are now in possession in his Britannic majesty's great collection of original drawings, where the doctor was permitted to examine them.* Several discoveries were made by Sylvius, Nicholaus Massa and others; but their merit was greatly eclipsed by their succeeding writers, viz. Vessalius, Fallopius and Eustachius.
Andreas Vessalius was born at Brussels, 1514, and is said to have shewn a very early genius for anatomy; and after the advantage of studying in different universities, he was appointed professor of anatomy at Padua, in the twenty-third year of his age. He first published his compendium of anatomy when only twenty five years of age, and afterwards his great work, in which he clearly describes the various organs of the body, and teaches [Page 18] his readers to follow him, by dissection, explaining his descriptions by tablets, which are at present admired by painters as well as anatomists. which see in two large folio volumes, written in Latin.
This genius raised him above a servile attachment to the antients: he has taken his descriptions from nature, and pointed out the errors of Hippocrates and Galen.
At the end of his work there are many experiments on living animals, in order to determine the use of organs, which merit particular attention, and none more than those on the blood vessels, which, when considered, it appears surprising that he missed the discovery of the circulation of the blood. He made a ligature on an artery, and observed that it pulsated on the side next the heart only; he then cut the artery through, and joined the two extremities with a pipe, when the distant portion of artery pulsated, though not when there was no communication. This experiment proved that their pulsation depended on their being distended, which is an opinion diametrically opposite to that of Galen; he proves that the arteries naturally contained blood, by making two ligatures, and cutting out the piece; he says there is no communication through the septem from one side to the other of the heart.
[Page 19] By opening the chest, he observed that the heart ceased to act, and that the lungs were motionless, by inflating the lungs with a pipe in the trachiae, that the heart again performed its actions; notwithstanding these experiments, he still adhered to the old hypothesis.
This great merit drew upon him the envy of his cotemporaries, who did not fail to load him with calumny; but having truth on his side, they were at length led to imitate him.
This great reputation caused the Emperor Charles the fifth, to make him his physician, by whom he was greatly estemed, and which fixed him at court.
Vessalius's good fortune now met with a very sudden reverse; he having obtained permission to examine the body of a Spanish gentleman, whom he had attended as physician, it was observed where he opened the chest, the heart palpitated. The parents of the deceased hea [...]ing of this sad catastroph, persecuted him as a murderer, and accused him before the inquisition "of impiety." This severe tribunal were going to punish his crime, when Philip the second, of Spain, found means to intercede in his favor, and he was ordered to make a pilgrimage to the Holy Land.
Soon after this, Fallopius died, and he was recalled by the senate of Venice, to succeed him as professor of anatomy at Padua; but [Page 20] in his return he was wrecked on the isle of Zanta, where he died with hunger on the fifteenth of October, 1564, being then fifty years old.
Sylvius attempts to correct and improve on Vessalius, and also Fallopius and Eustachius.
Columbus, Fallopius, Eustachius and Spigelius, improved, in many parts, the descriptions of Vessalius
Of all Vessalius's pupils, there is none which merits our attention so much as Eustachius who has very accurately described the structure of many parts which before had not been well understood The description he has given of the kidneys has scarcely received any addition by succeeding anatomists; he has also explained their functions by experiments, and given a masterly account of their diseases—he made several discoveries on the organs of earing—he was the first who named the vena azagos, and has also clearly described the thorasic duct, its situation and course, in a horse; but from his having supposed it to be a vein, the discovery is not generally given to him.
He composed a system of tablets, which lay hid for more than a century, not being brought to light till the year 1712, and which are at this day admired for their elegance and accuracy.
[Page 21] The great outlines of the body, and its various organs, were now well understood and described, but the oeconomy remained very mysterious.
Learning became now diffused from Italy to the northern parts of Europe, and a system was published at Paris by Riolan, which remained for many years the common standard of anatomy.
Experiments become now very frequent, and were made with infinite accuracy.
Hieronymus Fabricus ab Aquapendente—He was so surnamed from Aquapendente, a town in Tuscany, where he was born; he was professor of anatomy at Padua, from 1569 to 1619, when he died; he was the preceptor of the immortal Harvey— [...]n 1574, he observed and published on the valves of the veins. 'Tis said, father Paul informed him of them, but knew not either their structure or use. He was the first who considered the carnous coat of the bladder as a muscle concerned in the expulsion of the urine.
In 1626, the lacteals were discovered by Ascellius, in opening living dogs.
THE CIRCULATION OF THE BLOOD.
Dr. William Harvey, in 1628, published his works, "De motu Cordis et Sanguinis," in which he proves this great discovery of the [Page 22] circulation, a doctrine he had taught many years before. This doctrine, which at once overturned the theories of the time, as well as every former system, and led the way to the discovery of many important truths▪ did not fail to draw upon its author many adversaries, who first endeavoured to disprove the doctrine; but not being able to invalidate the truth of the system, they endeavored to ascribe it to some other author.
Harvey was born at Folkstone, in Kent, in 1 [...]78: he had the happiness of establishing his theory on the most convincing and solid proofs.
This great man was physician to James the first and Charles the first, the latter of whom gave him the liberty of using all the deer in the royal forest for perfecting his discoveries on the generation of animals. It has been remarked that no physician in Europe, who had reached forty years, ever to the end of his life, adopted Harvey's doctrine of the circulation of the blood, and that his practice in London diminished extremely by the reproach drawn upon him by that great discovery—He died in 1657, aged 7 [...]. Servetus, who lived in the sixteenth century, is the only author who seems to have approached Harvey's doctrine.
Michel Servetus was a native of Arragon, in Spain, who had studied divinity as well as [Page 23] anatomy; published a book, "De Trinitatis," which brought on him the vengeance of the inquisition, from which he escaped into France; but still continuing to publish his religious opinions, he was condemned for heresy, and burnt in 1 [...]53, in the forty-fourth year of his age
In his book of the Trinity he says, "That the blood passes through the pulmonary artery into the pulmonary veins by some unknown communications, and not through the septem of the heart, as was then supposed.
Within thirty years after the discovery of the circulation, the lymphatic system, was described, not only in brutes, but also in the human, Pecquect discovered the thorasic duct, and traced the lacteals to it.
Rudbic and Bartholini completed the system, by the discovery of the lymphatics.
The structure of every part began now to be minutely inquired into by the use of injections. Malpighi, physician to the Pope, and Ruysch, in Holland, were the first who claimed this art in any degree of perfection, and more especially the latter.
Since the discovery of the circulation of the blood, many parts have been discovered, and their functions explained.
Glyson has given a good description of the alimentary canal.
[Page 24] Wharton has written well on the glands, and is supposed to have discovered the submaxillary duct.
Willis on the brain, and [...]ower on the heart, are both better descriptions of these parts than had yet been given.
Anatomy became now generally studied—that well written books on the subject were published in almost every country in Europe; the most eminent of these are De Graaf, L [...]wenhock, Swammerdan, Valsalva, Du Verney, Wins [...]ow, Leutaud, Heis [...]er, Cooper, Albinus, and others.
Haller has written an excellent work on physiology in Latin, and translated into English by the late ingenious Dr. Cullen, of Edinburgh, to which is added a valuable index. In this work he proves the insensibility of tendons, ligaments, perios [...]aeum and bones, by numerous experiments.
Dr. William Hurter has explained the oeconomy of the lymphatics, and Mr. Hewson has traced the absorbent system with wonderful accuracy.
Mr. [...]fe, of Edinburgh, has lately compiled a system of anatomy immediately under the inspection of Dr. Mon [...]o, and published in three octavo volumes by Mr Elliot.
In this work you have the lab [...]rs of the best anatomical writers, selected and arranged into a complete system.
[Page 25] The following extract from Hall's Encyclopaedia. on the late improvements of anatomy, and on the choice of anatomical authors, I presume may also tend further to assist the studies of anatomical pursuits.
The anatomists of this century have improved anatomy, and made the study of it much more easy, by giving us more correct as well as more numerous figures. We have had four large folio books of figures of the bones, viz. Cheselden's, Albinus's, Sue's and Trew's—Of the muscles we have had two, one from Cowper, which is elegant, and one from Albinus, which, from the accuracy and labor of the work, we may suppose will never be outdone. Of the blood vessels we have a large folio from Dr. Haller. We have had one upon the nerves by Dr. Meckel, and another by Dr. Monro, junior. We have had Albinus's, Roederer's, Jenty's and Dr. Hunter's works, upon the gravid uterus; Weitbrecht and Leber on the joints and fresh bones; Soemerring on the brain; Zinn on the eye; Cotunnius, Meckel, junior, &c. on the ear; Wa [...]er on the nerves of the thorax and abdomen; Dr. Monro on bursae mucosoe, &c.
It would be endless to mention the anatomical figures which have been published in this century, of particular and smaller parts of the body, by Morgagni, Ruysch, Valsalva, [Page 26] Sanctorini, Heister, Vater, Cant, Zimmerman, Walterus, and others.
Those elegant plates on the brain, however, just published by M. Vicq d'Azyr, must not pass without notice, especially as they form part of an universal history of anatomy and physiology, both human and comparative, proposed to be published in the same splendid style; upon the brain alone nineteen folio plates are employed, of which several are coloured, The figures are delineated with accuracy and clearness; but the colouring is rather beautiful than correct. Such parts of this work as may be published, cannot fail to be equally acceptable to the anatomist and the philosopher; but the entire design is apparently too extensive to be accomplished within the period of a single life.
To the [...]oreign treatises already mentioned, we may add those recently publissied by Sabbatier and Plenk, on anatomy in general. Among ourselves, the writings of Keil, Douglass, Cheselden the first, Monro, Winslow, &c. are too well known to need description. The last of these used to be recommended as a standard for the students of anatomy; but it has of late given place to a more accurate and comprehensive system, in three volumes, published by Mr Elliot, of Edinburgh, upon [...] plan approved by Dr. Monro, and executed [...]y Mr. Fyfe. Dr. Simmon [...], of London, [Page 27] has also obliged the world with an excellent system of anatomy, and another work, under the title of "Elements of Anatomy, and the animal oeconomy," in which the subjects are treated with uncommon elegance and perspicuity.
In the latter part of last century, anatomy made two great steps, by the invention of injections, and the method of what we commonly call "preparations." These two modern arts have rea [...]ly been of infinite use to anatomy, and besides have introduced an elegance to our administrations which in former times could not have been supposed to be possible.
They arose in Holland under Swammerdam and Ruysch, and afterwards in England under Cowper, St. Andre, and others, where they have been greatly improved.
The anatomists of former ages had no other knowledge of the blood vessels than what they were able to collect from laborious dissections, and from examining the smaller branches of them upon some lucky occasion, when they were found more than commonly distended with red blood. But filling the vascular system with a bright coloured wax, enables us to trace the large vessels with great ease, renders the smaller much more conscpicuous, and makes thousands of the very minute ones visible, which from their delicacy [Page 28] and the transparency of the natural contents, are otherwise imperceptable.
The modern art of corroding the fleshy parts with a menstruum, and leaving the moulded wax entire, is so exceedingly useful, and at the same time so ornamental, that it does great honor to the ingenious inventor, Dr Nicholls.
The wax work art of the moderns might deserve notice in any history of anatomy, if the masters in that way had not been so careless in their imitations. Many of the wax figures are so tawdry, with a show of unnatural colours, and so very incorrect in the circumstances of figure, situation, and the like, that though they strike a vulgar eye with admiration, they must appear ridiculous to an anatomist. But those figures which are cast in wax, plaster or lead, from the real subject, and which of late years have been frequently made here, are of course very correct in all the principal parts, and may be considered as no insignificant acquisition to modern anatomy.
The proper or principal use of this art is to preserve a perfect likeness of such subjects as we can but seldom meet with, or cannot well preserve in a natural state—a subject in pregnancy, for example.
The modern improved method of preserving animal bodies, or parts of them, has been of the greatest servich to anatomy, especially [Page 29] in saving the time and labor of the anatomist in the nicer dissections of the small parts of the body; for now whatever he has prepared with care, he can preserve, and the object is ready to be seen at any time; and in the same manner he can preserve anatomical curiosities of every kind such parts as are uncommonly formed, parts that are diseased, the parts of the pregnant uterus and its contents. Large collections of such curiosities, which modern anatomists are striving almost every where to procure, are of infinite service to the art, especially in the hands of teachers, to give clear ideas of many parts which it is essential to know, and yet which it is impossible that a teacher should be able to show otherwise, were he ever so well supplied with f [...]esh subjects.
A consideralbe list of anatomists, arranged in the order of the times in which they lived and flourished, may be found under the article "Anatomia," in Dr. Motherby's truly valuable medical dictionary.