0"T' LAERT> "! - USP

THE PROGRESS OF SCIENCE. " 295
direction of freedom were manifest ip all branches of
medicine, and in some subjects, especially in anatomy,
materia medica, surgery, and midwifery, obtained even in
the 16th century remarkable results.
In anatomy, men ceased to rely upon the infallibility of
GALEN, and began to make independent investigations on
,the dead body. GABRIELE ZERBI, in his anatomical
description of the human body, already treated separately of
bones, muscles, and vessels. He made mention of the oblique
and circular muscular fibres of the stomach, and alluded to
the puncta lachrymalia, the ligamenta uteri, etc.* AL.
ACHILLINI noticed the ductus choledochus opening into the
duodenum, and also the ileocaecal valves.t BERENGAR, of
Carpi, corrected several mistakes of MONDINO, and is
looked upon as the discoverer of the foramina of the
sphenoid bone, and of the vermiform appendix ; moreover
he referred to the fact that the thorax in men and the
pelvis in women are in each case proportionately wider
than in the other sex.J CANANI furnished an excellent
description of the muscles, and was the first "to observe the
valves of veins in the vena azygos.\
All these investigators were surpassed in richness of discovery
by ANDREAS VESALIUS, who may be called the reformer
,of anatomy. He was descended from a German family which
originally bore the name of WlTlNG, and transferred its home
f from Wesel to Brussels. The investigations of VESALIUS
^ embraced all parts of anatomy, and formed the basis for a new
^system of anatomical teaching. || He explained the nutrition
of the bones by means of the vessels of the periosteum and
the vasa nutrientia, and was the first to point out that
nerves penetrate muscles. In the vascular coats he distinguished
two layers, of which the inner one was of firmer
* MEDICI, op. cit. p. 43.
+ BURGGRJEVE op. cit. p. 55.—MEDICI op. cit. p. 51.
X CARPI : Commentaria cum ampl. addition, super Anat. Mundini, Bonon.
IS 21 -
§ AMATUS LUSITANUS: Curat, med. cent., Basil 1556, p. 84.
|| BURGGRJ-EVE op. cit. p. 72 et seq.