Volume 2

A system of human anatomy / translated from the fourth edition of the French of H. Cloquet ... With notes and a corrected nomenclature, by Robert Knox.

  • Cloquet, H. (Hippolyte), 1787-1840. Traité d'anatomie descriptive. English
Date:
1828
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A system of human anatomy / translated from the fourth edition of the French of H. Cloquet ... With notes and a corrected nomenclature, by Robert Knox. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    cise, yet minute description of all the parts of the human body, with brief allusions only to the uses of the parts, and with none of those alarming digressions, interlarding and disfiguring the works of English anatomists. At eae indeed be a subject curious in itself and well meriting inquiry, to search into the causes of difference in the character of the British and Continental anatomical writers, and why the former should adhere so generally to the diffuse but original style of Galen, Vesalius, and some others of the older anatomical writers, whilst the latter, rigid copyists of Winslow, should have done nothing but reproduce that great anatomist’s works, in style and mat- ter, as if the character of the whole anatomical writers of the nation (as really seems to be se Ke, had been ‘formed on one model. ty And yet with all the ‘contempt one naturally fl for ‘mere copyists, it must be admitted that the model follow- ‘ed by the Continental anatomist is, in many respects, better than our own, and that the diffuse wandering style of Galen and Vesalius, with their monstrously aust theories and endless repetitions, will not stand a compa- rison with the concise and energetic manner of Winslow, his mechanical accuracy, and his brief yet perspicuous ‘manner. The actual matter contained in the seven fo- lio volumes of Galen might with ease, and with great advantage, figure in a single modern quarto; and the ponderous folio of Vesalius, if re-written by Winslow, or even by its immortal author, had he lived in modern times, would scarcely fill a single close printed octavo. | In making the remarks I have done on those founders of anatomy and physiology, I hope I shall not be sup: posed animated with that spirit of hasty and uncandid criticism which is the prevailing fashion. Who would believe that so cautious a ‘writer as Cuvier should have criticised Vesalius erroneously, should have represented him as saying that which he never said, and founded
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