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296 RECENT TIMES.
consistence than the outer, and composed of muscular fasciculi.
He described the heart fairly accurately, its position,, j
movements, and changes of form, and also the apparatus of
the valves ; yet he was never able completely to get rid of
the old mistake that the blood passes through the septum
of the heart. But whereas in the first issue of his chief
anatomical work in 1543 he expressed as yet ho doubt 1
whatever on the subject, in the second edition of 1555 he,
declared, being perhaps influenced by SERVET, that he
could not understand how it was possible for the blood, even
in very small quantity, to transude from the right to the
left side of the heart through the thick, firm substance of the
septum.* Important progress is shown in his description
of the abdominal walls and of the stomach, the liver, and
the male and female sexual organs. He was acquainted'.
with the corpora cavernosa and the seminal ducts, refers
to the vesiculae seminales, and discussed the changes which.
the uterus undergoes in pregnancy. He devoted great care
to the examination of the brain, drew attention to the
distinction between the gray and white substance, and ,:
noticed the corpus callosum, the septum lucidum, the A
pineal gland, and the corpora quadrigemina.
The discoveries of VESALIUS aroused an unprecedented
amount of attention. Not only in medical circles was
astonishment felt at the boldness with which he pointed out
the erroneousness of what people had hitherto considered to *
be true. Those who revered the ancients, and pinned their
faith upon received authority, persecuted him in the most %;
violent manner, headed by his former teacher SYLVIUS,
who, making a poor enough joke upon his name, called 4
him VESANUS,—a madman, who was contaminating Europe
wdth his poisonous blasts.f The discoveries of VESALIUS , *
were improved upon and extended in many directions by
his contemporaries EUSTACH1US and FALOPPIUS. The
* H. TOLI.IN in the Biolog. Centralblatt 1885, Bd. 5, S. 474 et seq.
t JACOB. SYLVIUS: Vesani cujusdam calumniarum in Hipp, et Galen j
depalsio, Paris 1551.