so satisfactory at Paris as in the Italian universities.
As is the case in our own day and has always been true, universities
were inclined to specialties in the Middle Ages, and the specialty of
Paris was Philosophy and Theology. This was choice, however, not
compulsion, any more than similar conditions in our own time. The
medical school continued to be in spite of this one of the best in the
world, though it was not famous for its original work, except in
surgery, which is, however, the subject most nearly related to anatomy
and the one whose development would seem necessarily to demand
attention to anatomy.

With the Renaissance, which is usually said to begin after the fall of
Constantinople in 1453, and the consequent dispersion of Greek
scholars throughout Italy, a new spirit entered into anatomy as into
every other department of intellectual life at this time. The reason
for it is not easy to explain. Perhaps the spread of Greek texts with
regard to medicine inspired students and teachers to try out their
problems for themselves, and so a new impetus was given to anatomical
investigation. Whatever it was that caused it, the new movement came
unhampered by the Church, and Italy {81} continued to be even to a
greater degree than before the Mecca for medical students who wished
to do original work in anatomy. During the last fifty years of the
fifteenth century anatomy began its modern phase, and original work of
a very high order was accomplished. There are five names that deserve
to be mentioned in this period. They are Gabriele Zerbi, Achillini,
Berengar of Carpi, Matthew of Gradi and Benivieni. Each of these men
did work that was epoch-making in anatomy, and each has a place in the
history of the science that will never be lost.

Zerbi, who did his work at Verona, traced the olfactory nerves and
describes the nerve supply of the special senses more completely than
it had ever been done before. After his time it was only a question of
filling in the details of this subject. Achillini added much to our
knowledge of the anatomy of the head, being the first to describe the
small bones of the ear and also to recognize the orifices of Wharton's
ducts. Besides this, which would have been quite enough to have given
him a place in the history of anatomy, he added important details to
what had been previously known with regard to the intestines, and
described very clearly the ileocecal valve and suggested its function.