While superintending the printing of the precious work in the winter of 1542-1543 in Basel, Vesalius prepared for the medical school a skeleton from the body of an executed man, which is probably the earliest preparation of the kind in Europe.  How little anatomy had been studied at the period may be judged from that fact that there had been no dissection at Basel since 1531.(22) The specimen is now in the Vesalianum, Basel, of which I show you a picture taken by Dr. Harvey Cushing.  From the typographical standpoint no more superb volume on anatomy has been issued from any press, except indeed the second edition, issued in 1555.  The paper is, as Vesalius directed, strong and good, but it is not, as he asked, always of equal thickness; as a rule it is thick and heavy, but there are copies on a good paper of a much lighter quality.  The illustrations drawn by his friend and fellow countryman, van Calcar, are very much in advance of anything previously seen, except those of Leonardo.  The title-page, one of the most celebrated pictures in the history of medicine, shows Vesalius in a large amphitheatre (an imaginary one of the artist, I am afraid) dissecting a female subject.  He is demonstrating the abdomen to a group of students about the table, but standing in the auditorium are elderly citizens and even women.  One student is reading from an open book.  There is a monkey on one side of the picture and a dog on the other.  Above the picture on a shield are the three weasels, the arms of Vesal.  The reproduction which I show you here is from the “Epitome”—­a smaller work issued before (?) the “Fabrica,” with rather larger plates, two of which represent nude human bodies and are not reproduced in the great work.  The freshest and most beautiful copy is the one on vellum which formerly belonged to Dr. Mead, now in the British Museum, and from it this picture was taken.  One of the most interesting features of the book are the full-page illustrations of the anatomy of the arteries, veins and nerves.  They had not in those days the art of making corrosion preparations, but they could in some way dissect to their finest ramifications the arteries, veins and nerves, which were then spread on boards and dried.  Several such preparations are now at the College of Physicians in London, brought from Padua by Harvey.  The plates of the muscles are remarkably good, more correct, though not better perhaps, on the whole, than some of Leonardo’s.

     (22) The next, in 1559, is recorded by Plater in his
     autobiography, who gave a public dissection during three days in
     the Church of St. Elizabeth.