The task Vesalius set himself to accomplish was to give an accurate description of all the parts of the human body, with proper illustrations.  He must have had abundant material, more, probably, than any teacher before him had ever had at his disposal.  We do not know where he conducted his dissections, as the old amphitheatre has disappeared, but it must have been very different from the tiny one put up by his successor, Fabricius, in 1594.  Possibly it was only a temporary building, for he says in the second edition of the “Fabrica” that he had a splendid lecture theatre which accommodated more than five hundred spectators (p. 681).

With Vesalius disappeared the old didactic method of teaching anatomy.  He did his own dissections, made his own preparations, and, when human subjects were scarce, employed dogs, pigs or cats, and occasionally a monkey.  For five years he taught and worked at Padua.  He is known to have given public demonstrations in Bologna and elsewhere.  In the “China-root” he remarks that he once taught in three universities in one year.  The first fruit of his work is of great importance in connection with the evolution of his knowledge.  In 1538, he published six anatomical tables issued apparently in single leaves.  Of the famous “Tabulae Anatomicae” only two copies are known, one in the San Marco Library, Venice, and the other in the possession of Sir John Stirling-Maxwell, whose father had it reproduced in facsimile (thirty copies only) in 1874.  Some of the figures were drawn by Vesalius himself, and some are from the pencil of his friend and countryman, Stephan van Calcar.  Those plates were extensively pirated.  About this time he also edited for the Giunti some of the anatomical works of Galen.(21)

     (21) De anatomicis administrationibus, De venarum arterinrumque
     dissectione, included in the various Juntine editions of Galen.

We know very little of his private life at Padua.  His most important colleague in the faculty was the famous Montanus, professor of medicine.  Among his students and associates was the Englishman Caius, who lived in the same house with him.  When the output is considered, he cannot have had much spare time at Padua.

He did not create human anatomy—­that had been done by the Alexandrians—­but he studied it in so orderly and thorough a manner that for the first time in history it could be presented in a way that explained the entire structure of the human body.  Early in 1542 the Ms. was ready; the drawings had been made with infinite care, the blocks for the figures had been cut, and in September, he wrote to Oporinus urging that the greatest pains should be taken with the book, that the paper should be strong and of equal thickness, the workmen chosen for their skill, and that every detail of the pictures must be distinctly visible.  He writes with the confidence of a man who realized the significance of the work he had done.  It is difficult to speak in terms