Anatomy in Long Clothes: An Essay on Andreas Vesalius

Henry Morley

Privately printed, 1915 - Anatomy - 68 pages

Popular passages

Page 29 - And every shepherd tells his tale Under the hawthorn in the dale. Straight mine eye hath caught new pleasures, Whilst the landscape round it measures ; Russet lawns, and fallows gray, Where the nibbling flocks do stray ; Mountains, on whose barren breast The labouring clouds do often rest ; Meadows trim, with daisies pied ; Shallow brooks, and rivers wide ; Towers and battlements it sees Bosomed high in tufted trees, Where perhaps some beauty lies, The cynosure of neighbouring eyes.‎

Page 24 - Rhases to the Emir Almansor. From Louvain the youth was sent to Paris, where he studied physic under a most eminent physician, Jacobus Sylvius, otherwise Jacques de la Boe. Sylvius found his new pupil disagreeably acute. It was the practice of that illustrious professor to read to his class Galen "On the Use of Parts." He began fairly, and when he had reached the middle of the first book, at the point where the anatomy commences, he said, "Gentlemen, we now come to a part too difficult for the comprehension...‎

Page 64 - Vesalius, believing a young Spanish nobleman, whom he had attended, to be dead, obtained leave of his parents to open him, for the sake of inquiring into the real cause of his illness, which he had not rightly comprehended. This was granted ; but he had no sooner made an incision, into the body, than he perceived the symptoms of life, and, opening the breast, saw the heart beat.‎

Page 50 - ... that is really found in man and the description of it found in Galen. He shows, finally, by cumulative proof, that Galen taught from a knowledge, not of men, but of brutes. Because, in showing this, Vesalius proved errors not only of Galen, but of the whole mass of his brethren, — who had gone to Galen only for their information, and whom he would compel to sit at his own feet for better knowledge, — he knew well that he was provoking all the brotherhood to war. He therefore made his onslaught...‎

Page 60 - In those, days of astrology and superstition the habit of desiring and hazarding predictions was extremely common. Vesalius had seldom risked his reputation by the use of them, but this one (as we hope he did not feel that it would do) brought its own fulfilment. The dread anticipation occupied the Count's mind. On the appointed day he called his relatives and friends together to a feast, distributed gifts, declared his last wishes, took formal leave of all, waited with strong suppressed emotion...‎

Page 16 - If we turn over a leaf, we find his portrait in another sketch, rough, bold, and masterly. It portrays spirit and flesh of a young man who has the marks of a hardworking brain upon his forehead, and of a firm will upon his face. He looks like a man born to do work for the world, and not unwilling at the same time to take ease in it. He evidently can enjoy as well as think, and will, and do. His beard is very trim, his senses look acute, his rather handsome features express much refinement, aptness...‎

Page 29 - Vesalius twenty and he twenty-six. By accident their ramble brought them to the Tyburn of Louvain, the spot on which it was usual not only to execute criminals, but also to expose their bodies. It was a place of human bones, and of men's corpses in all stages of corruption. To such a spot the friends came very naturally, led to it no doubt by a familiar path, for where else was there a retired nook to be found of which the scenery was more completely in accordance with the taste of an anatomist?...‎

Page 42 - Of the anatomy of the ancients, however, nothing has been transmitted except what has come down to us in the extant works of Galen. Galen, it has been shown, dissected lower animals and monkeys — rarely man. When contact with a corpse made expiations and ablutions necessary, it was not an easy thing to be an accurate anatomist. After the death of Galen that chief still continued to hold sway for centuries over the world of medicine. The Arabians put implicit faith in him, and copied all his errors,...‎

Page 65 - This was granted ; but he had no sooner made an incision, into the body, than he perceived the symptoms of life, and, opening the breast, saw the heart beat. The parents, coming afterwards to the knowledge of this, were not satisfied with prosecuting him for murder, but accused him of impiety to the inquisition, in...‎

Page 61 - Vesalius with which that professor was continually worrying his classes. He heard also that many sound and mature men disapproved of what, to his fresh heart, appeared very much like the bitterness of bigotry. Fuchs at Tubingen, Massa at Venice, and Rondolet at Montpellier, first-rate authorities, taught already without scruple many things that contradicted Galen. Henerus, finding this to be the case, determined on his own part to speak out on behalf of the too-much abused reformer.‎

Bibliographic information

• Title: Anatomy in Long Clothes: An Essay on Andreas Vesalius
• Author: Henry Morley
• Edition: reprint
• Publisher: Privately printed, 1915
• Original from: Harvard University
• Digitized: Dec 5, 2007
• Length: 68 pages