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102 ANCIENT TIMES.
tains* GALEN'S anatomical statements rest chiefly on
dissections of the bodies of the lower animals. He says
so himself; it is also evident from his descriptions of
particular organs. He represents for instance the hand
and foot not of a man but of a monkey. For his anatomical
studies he made use chiefly of the kinds of
monkeys which resemble man.t He thought that their
bodies were structurally identical with those of men and
thus allowed himself to be led into some mistakes the
correction of which was made only at a much later age.
In addition, he dissected bears, pigs, horses and donkeys,
ruminants, once even an elephant, also various smaller
four-footed beasts, besides birds, fishes and snakes, all with
the view of enlarging his anatomical knowledge.
Anatomical teaching began by the several, parts being
pointed out and explained to the students on the naked
body of a living man, and the organs lying under the skin,
named. To this were added, later, dissections of animals
having forms approaching the human. In this way the
several bones and groups of muscles and the inner parts
of the body were noted and the position and arrangement
of the organs in the body-cavity, studied. " If they do not
resemble the corresponding structures of the human body
in every particular point," writes RUFUS, who employed
this method of teaching, " yet this is the case for the most
part: but no doubt people got a more correct picture in
former times, when they were allowed to make use of
human bodies for such investigations."J GALEN speaks in
a similar way of anatomical teaching. " A man cannot
learn anatomy from books alone," he says, " neither can
he from a superficial observation of the parts of the body."§
He recommends, therefore, an assiduous, searching study
of it, beginning with the bones, and passing on to the
muscles, arteries, veins, nerves, and internal organs.
Not only did dissections of animals subserve the purpose.
* GALEN, ii, 221. f GALEN ii, 223.
X RUFUS d'Ephese op. cit. p. 134. § GALEN ii, 220.