separation of the bones of the symphysis; he believed that the inferior maxilla consists of two pieces; he believed the ascending vena cava arose from the liver; Vesalius proved that in each instance Galen was incorrect. Vesalius showed that Galen was wrong when he assumed the existence of a general muscle of the skin, an imputrescible bone of the heart, the os intermaxillare in adults, a decided curvature to the bones of the thigh and the upper arm.

At twenty-five Vesalius decided upon a vast undertaking : he began to write a book on anatomy which he was confident would revolutionize the entire science and supplant every other text-book in existence. It was to consist of seven parts: the first was to deal with bones and cartilages, the second with ligaments and muscles, the third with veins and arteries, the fourth with nerves, the fifth with organs of nutrition and generation, the sixth with heart and lungs, the seventh with the brain and organs of sense.

Vesalius could attend to the text himself, and it seems that he even drew some of the illustrations, but still an artist was needed to make the finest figures that ever adorned a medical work. Vesalius had his troubles, and he often complained that the artists were much more interested in painting Venus than in drawing his dissected carcasses. When we remember that preservative fluids were not used in those days it is not astonishing that the Titians and van Calcars and Coriolanos found less pleasure in foul-smelling viscera than in the lively limbs of a living signorina. Vesalius was certainly exacting; at times the artist grew tired and then curses were handed back and forth. More than once the distracted Vesalius envied the peaceful corpse that was safe from the antics of the artistic temperament. But Vesalius generously scattered money a mystic commodity which inspires even such impractical men as artists and the work advanced.

Such illustrations as Vesalius finally received must have compensated him for his travail. Such fine skulls and fascinating skeletons, such perfect viscera and beautiful muscles,—

strictly correct from both the anatomical and artistic viewpoints were revelations. It is true that the unique Giacomo Berengario of Carpi - the specialist in syphilis who amassed a fortune in Rome by treating rich priests for the French evil - had also done considerable work in the line of artanatomy, but the illustrations of Vesalius were much superior.

During the summer of 1542 a merchant on his way to Basel carried in his train bulky blocks of wood- but they were worth their weight in platinum. On these blocks was built the science of modern anatomy - they were the blocks of Vesalius' book. Vesalius had uneasy nights; he had a presentiment that the trader Danoni would not go straight to the printer Oporinus, but would get drunk on the way and lose his precious blocks; or he would be attacked by rival anatomists and the blocks would be stolen. But Danoni attended to his business and brought the blocks into the shop of Joannes Oporinus, the scholarly printer of Basel. Printing was a new art in those days, and a printer was a man of mark. Vesalius wrote to Oporinus begging him to take extreme care with his work; as Oporinus already possessed a European reputation for fidelity, he must have considered Vesalius' precaution unnecessary, but probably excused it on the ground of vanity of an author. Vesalius was nervous he was sure that the shop of Oporinus would burn down and he came to Basel himself to see that everything was all right.

In 1543 Vesalius' volume- magnificent in appearance, monumental in contents came from the press. With the publication of De Humani Corporis Fabrica the text-books of Galen and Mondino and Guy de Chauliac became antiquated still interesting for the historical student, but unimportant for the scientific worker. Vesalius was twenty-eight — in three years he accomplished what he had set out to do. Vesalius lived in the Golden Age of Anatomy; the greatest anatomists that ever held a scalpel were his contemporaries: Leonardo da Vinci, Cesalpinus, Servetus, Fallopius, Eustachius, Ingrassias, Realdus Columbus. But the crowning masterpiece of