Suggestions in reference to the means of advancing medical science : being the opening address delivered before the members of the Harveian Society, on November 6th, 1856 / by Francis H. Ramsbotham.

  • Francis Henry Ramsbotham
Date:
1856
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Suggestions in reference to the means of advancing medical science : being the opening address delivered before the members of the Harveian Society, on November 6th, 1856 / by Francis H. Ramsbotham. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    study of practical Anatomy as they were inviting to the cul- tivation of Astronomy, Geometry, Poetry, and such like elegant accomplishments. The process of putrefaction runs on so rapidly in those latitudes, that the more early inhabitants must have been as much averse from practical anatomical pursuits, as are their immediate descendants of our own day; and, consequently, we find that neither in the writings of the Jews, Phoenicians, nor any other of the older Eastern nations, is any mention made of the study of Anatomy by dissection being prosecuted among them. In tracing it backwards to its infancy, we cannot go further into antiquity than the times of the Grecian philo- sophers ; and their acquaintance with it was very superficial, since it was only followed as an art, or rather as a branch of natural knowledge, as the phrase then went. Herophilus and Erasistratus, indeed, the founders of the celebrated Medical School at Alexandria, broke through the prejudices of the age, and, supported and encouraged by the first Ptolemy, taught anatomy openly, in the only way in which it can effectually be learned, by actual dissection of the human frame. Herophilus is said by Tertullian to have dissected six hundred bodies. We must of course here make great allowance for exaggeration; yet there is no doubt, that through his whole life he was a zealous cultivator of his favourite science. At this very day we are in the habit of using names, first given by him, as the Torcular Herophili, the Calamus scriptorius, and the duodenum. Unfortunately, the works of both these indefatigable promoters of anatomical study are lost, with the exception of a very inconsiderable portion; but they must have contained much interesting and useful information, as they are quoted by Galen in almost every page. I may be permitted perhaps to indulge in a short digression here, when bringing under your notice the name of Erasis- tratus, because it is upon a subject in which we who assemble under the shade of the name of the great Harvey, must feel more than ordinary interest. I allude to the fact of Erasis- tratus having apparently arrived so near to the discovery of the