uman female, for she was
pregnant, and contained thirteen pigs.' These happen to be the only
references to specific bodies that he makes in his treatise. But it
is a far cry to wring out of these references the conclusions that
these are the only dissections he made. It is quite true that if we
incline to enshroud his work in a cloud of mystery, and to figure it
as an unprecedented, awe-inspiring feature to break down the
prejudices of the ages, it is easy to think of him as having timidly
profaned the human body in his anatomizing zeal in but one or two
instances. His own language, however, throughout his book is that of
a man who was familiar with the differing conditions of the organs
found in many different bodies--a man who was habitually
dissecting."

{41}

As I think must be clear to any one who knows Mondino's book, no other
conclusion than this suggested by Prof. Pilcher can be drawn. This
opinion has been frankly stated, by every historian of anatomy in
recent years. Puschmann says it very clearly. Von Toeply is evidently
of the same opinion. These are the latest authorities in the history
of anatomy. No other conclusion than this could well be reached by
anyone who has studied the question seriously. Pilcher confirms this
in the article already quoted in the following paragraph:

"Salernum was not alone in its legalization of the dissection of
human bodies before the first public work of Mondino, for, according
to a document of the Maggiore Consiglio of Venice of 1308, it
appears that there was a college of medicine in Venice, which was
even then authorized to dissect a body once every year. Common
experience tells us that the embodiment of such regulations into
formal law would occur only after a considerable preceding period of
discussion, and in this particular field, of clandestine practice.
It is too much to ask us to believe that in all this period, from
the date of the promulgation of Frederick's decree of 1241 to the
first public demonstration by Mondino at Bologna in 1315, the decree
had been a dead letter and no human body had been anatomized. It is
true there is not, as far as I am aware, any record of any such
work, and commentators and historians of a later date have, without
exception, accepted the view that none was done, and thereby
heightened the halo assigned to Mondino as the one who ushered a new
era. Such a view seems to me to