historical lectures and essays(查尔斯金斯利历史讲座)






luminaries of Montpellier; of whom I spoke in my essay on Rondelet; he 

returned to Paris to study under old Sylvius; whose real name was Jacques 

Dubois; alias Jock o’ the Wood; and to learn lessas he plains himself… 

…in an anatomical theatre than a butcher might learn in his shop。 

     Were it not that the whole question of dissection is one over which it is 

right   to   draw   a   reverent   veil;   as   a  thing   painful;  however  necessary   and 

however   innocent;   it   would   be   easy   to   raise   ghastly   laughter   in   many   a 

reader by the stories which Vesalius himself tells of his struggles to learn 

anatomy。       How old Sylvius tried to demonstrate the human frame from a 

bit   of   a   dog;   fumbling   in   vain   for   muscles   which   he   could   not   find;   or 

which ought to have been there; according to Galen; and were not; while 

young Vesalius; as soon as the old pedant’s back was turned; took his place; 

and; to the delight of the students; found for himprovided it were there 

what he could not find himself;how he went body…snatching and gibbet… 

robbing;   often   at   the   danger   of   his   life;   as   when   he   and   his   friend   were 

nearly   torn   to   pieces   by   the   cannibal   dogs   who   haunted   the   Butte   de 

Montfaucon;   or   place   of   public   execution;how   he   acquired;   by   a   long 

and dangerous process; the only perfect skeleton then in the world; and the 

hideous   story   of   the   robber   to   whom   it   had   belongedall   these   horrors 

those   who   list   may   read   for   themselves   elsewhere。         I   hasten   past   them 

with this remarkthat to have gone through the toils; dangers; and disgusts 

which Vesalius faced; argued in a superstitious and cruel age like his; no 

mon physical and moral courage; and a deep conscience that he was 

doing right; and must do it at all risks in the face of a generation which; 

peculiarly   reckless   of   human   life   and   human   agony;   allowed   that   frame 

which   it   called   the   image   of   God   to   be   tortured;   maimed;   desecrated   in 

every     way     while    alive;    and    yetstraining     at   the   gnat    after   having 

swallowed the camelforbade it to be examined when dead; though for the 

purpose of alleviating the miseries of mankind。 

     The   breaking   out   of   war   between   Francis   I。   and   Charles   V。   drove 

Vesalius back to his native country and Louvain; and in 1535 we hear of 



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him   as    a  surgeon     in  Charles     V。’s  army。    He     saw;   most    probably;     the 

Emperor’s   invasion   of   Provence;   and   the   disastrous   retreat   from   before 

Montmorency’s fortified camp at Avignon; through a country in which that 

crafty general had destroyed every article of human food; except the half… 

ripe grapes。      He saw; perhaps; the Spanish soldiers; poisoned alike by the 

sour fruit and by the blazing sun; falling in hundreds along the white roads 

which led back into Savoy; murdered by the peasantry whose homesteads 

had     been    destroyed;     stifled   by   the   weight     of   their   own    armour;     or 

desperately   putting       themselves;      with   their   own    hands;    out   of  a  world 

which had bee intolerable。               Half the army perished。           Two thousand 

corpses   lay   festering   between Aix   and   Frejus   alone。          If   young   Vesalius 

needed 〃subjects;〃 the   ambition   and   the crime   of   man   found   enough for 

him in those blazing September days。 

     He   went   to   Italy;   probably   with   the   remnants   of   the   army。      Where 

could   he     have   rather   wished     to  find   himself?      He    was    at  last  in  the 

country where the human mind seemed to be growing young once more; 

the   country   of   revived   arts;   revived   sciences;   learning;   languages;   and 

though; alas! only for awhile of revived free thought; such as Europe had 

not   seen   since   the   palmy   days   of   Greece。       Here   at   least   he   would   be 

appreciated; here at least he would be allowed to think and speak:                          and 

he was appreciated。          The Italian cities; who were then; like the Athenians 

of    old;  〃spending      their   time    in  nothing     else   save   to   hear   or  to   tell 

something   new;〃   weled   the   brave   young   Fleming   and   his   novelties。 

Within   two   years   he   was   professor   of   anatomy   at   Padua;   then   the   first 

school in the world; then at Bologna and at Pisa at the same time; last of 

all at Venice; where Titian painted that portrait of him which remains unto 

this day。 

     These   years   were   for      him   a   continual    triumph;   everywhere;   as        he 

demonstrated on   the   human   body;  students   crowded his   theatre; or   hung 

round him as he walked the streets; professors left their own chairstheir 

scholars      having     deserted     them    alreadyto     go    and   listen   humbly      or 

enviously to the man who could give them what all brave souls throughout 



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half   Europe   were   craving   for;   and   craving   in   vainfacts。       And   so;   year 

after    year;    was    realised     that   scene    which      stands    engraved      in   the 

frontispiece   of   his   great   bookwhere;         in   the   little   quaint  Cinquecento 

theatre; saucy scholars; reverend doctors; gay gentlemen; and even cowled 

monks;      are   crowding      the   floor;   peeping     over    each   other’s    shoulders; 

hanging on the balustrades; while in the centre; over his 〃subject〃which 

one     of  those    same    cowled      monks     knew     but   too   wellstands      young 

Vesalius; upright; proud; almost defiant; as one who knows himself safe in 

the impregnable   citadel   of   fact;   and   in   his   hand   the   little   blade   of   steel; 

destinedbecause wielded   in obedience to   the laws   of nature;  which   are 

the   laws   of   Godto   work   more   benefit   for   the   human   race   than   all   the 

swords   which   were drawn   in   those days;  or   perhaps   in   any  other;  at the 

bidding of most Catholic Emperors and most Christian Kings。 

     Those were indeed days of triumph for Vesalius; of triumph deserved; 

because      earned    by   patient    and    accurate    toil  in   a  good    cause:       but 

Vesalius; being but a mortal man; may have contracted in those same days 

a temper of imperiousness and self…conceit; such as he showed afterwards 

when   his   pupil   Fallopius   dared   to   add   fresh   discoveries   to   those   of   his 

master。     And yet; in spite of all Vesalius knew; how little he knew!                    How 

humbling to his pride it would have been had he known thenperhaps he 

does know nowthat he had actually again and again walked; as it were; 

round   and   round   the  true   theory  of   the  circulation   of  the   blood;  and   yet 

never seen it; that that discovery which; once made; is intelligible; as far as 

any   phenomenon   is   intelligible;   to   the   merest   peasant;   was   reserved   for 

another     century;    and    for  one    of  those   Englishmen       on   whom      Vesalius 

would have looked as semi…barbarians。 

     To make a long story short:              three years after the publication of his 

famous      book;    〃De    Corporis     Humani      Fabrica;〃     he   left  Venice    to  cure 

Charles      V。;  at   Regensburg;       and   became      one    of   the  great    Emperor’s 

physicians。 

     This   was   the   crisis   of   Vesalius’s   life。  The   medicine   with   which   he 

had worked the cure was ChinaSarsaparilla; as we call it now brought 



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home from the then newly…discovered banks of the Paraguay and Uruguay; 

where   its   beds   of   tangled   vine;   they   say;   tinge   the   clear   waters   a   dark… 

brown   like   that   of   peat;   and   convert   whole   streams   into   a   healthful   and 

pleasant tonic。       On the virtues of this China (then supposed to be a root) 

Vesalius wrote a famous little book; into which he contrived to interweave 

his opinions on things in general; as good Bishop Berkeley did afterwards 

into    his  essay    on   the   virtues   of  tar…water。     Into    this  book;    however; 

Vesalius introducedas Bishop Berkeley did notmuch; and perhaps too 

much; about himself; and much; though perhaps not too much;